Winter Afternoon

      I took my camera on an afternoon walk in the neighborhood and shot at random and then played with the results as the serendipity moved me. 

      Not a bad way to chase away cabin fever. 

Bright Valley

Russet Ridge

Golden Valley

Plastic Narcissus

Bamboo Wall

Street

Snow Bank Coming

This is the one I want.

The Dark Side

The Deplorables

The Pot and the Kettle 

race for the White House

    One of these “deplorables” could be the next POTUS; 

IMAGINE!

old friends who seem to know each other only too well

Peopled Spaces (1)

         In the previous post I linked an article discussing how people react psychologically to visual spaces. Although the article title is  ”Why Do We Love Images Of Emptiness?”, the author, Katharine Schwab, points out that if there are people in the picture, the human eye automatically zeroes in on the people while the rest of the image may be overlooked. So I purposefully posted only images of “Empty Spaces”, landscapes and seascapes, in that post.

     

        I do, however, also like to take pictures of people, especially ones that are not posed. To contrast my “Empty Spaces” I have posted here only images with people in them. You can test Ms. Schwab’s hypothesis by monitoring your own reaction to the peopled images by following the movements of your own eyes. 

traffic jam in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

good way to retain a straight posture,
Ubud, Bali

roasting Kopi Luwak by hand

sunset glow, Tanah Lot, Bali

two Balinese dancers, Ubud, Bali

man selling coconut milk in the
Tagalalang rice terraces, Bali

Hindu temple festival, Lake Bratan, Bali

threshing rice grains by hand in the traditional way -
Ubud countryside, Bali

morning offerings of flowers and food just
about everywhere - a blessing, Ubud, Bali

restaurant owning couple relaxing
before dinner opening, Ubud, Bali

couple silhouetted at sunset, Candidasa, Bali

future traditional Balinese music musicians

it's not easy being green

    Thanks to global warming? 

      It isn't even summer yet and we're already living with a green invasion as the jungle seems to overtake the neighborhood. 

lush green of deciduous trees - used to be a lot of pine trees on the slopes and distant mountains

tree knocked down (green on green circle)
recently in a high wind had
to be chopped up with a chain saw 

      There used to be a lot of pine trees in the surrounding mountains but for the past 20 some odd years we have watched as the pine trees turned brown, withered and died year after year, a brown blight on the landscape, until now there are nothing but broad-leaf trees of endless varieties and new species of creeping vines and weeds in wild profusion. 

green bamboo does well in a semi-tropical climate

our house almost lost in the green jungle jumble

      A recent half hour walk yielded in intense profusion of green punctuated with here and there splashes of color. 

purple pre-leaf flowers seem to mimic the surrounding greenery

with a tinge of green - roses crawling along a wooden fence

lavender green
if I were a king
you'd be my queen

three pink roses on a green bed 

Wayang Puppet in the green rain

Anticipation

Rama, Sita and Plum

     This Ikebana arrangement utilizes very early Plum branches and a wood sculpture of the Hindu deities Rama and Sita created in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. 

s-p-l-a-t

Happy Holidays

R U talkin' 2 me?

Venezia - Santa Maria della Salute e gondole

Double Exposure

Capricorn

Arte Ocupa in Okayama

Photo by Suisse-Marocain

the Fuyori school

interior stairway of  the Fuyori school

     Okayama Prefecture sponsors an “Art Bridge” project designed to try and revitalize a depopulating countryside. This year they invited and sponsored artists from Japan and abroad to come and set up an artists-in-residence program in a very rural mountain town in central Okayama Prefecture for about a month. They chose an old school building in Fuyori, Okayama, no longer in use, as an atelier (studio/workshop) where the artists were free to work on their own projects.

59 rue de Rivoli, Paris

       “Arte Ocupa” is a movement, as far as I can tell, that encourages the use of “squats” where artists can live and work free of rent. Squats are abandoned buildings that would otherwise become dilapidated and decay from disuse if they were not razed or occupied. We visited one such squat last summer while in Paris on rue de Rivoli in the Marais area not far from the Place de la Bastille on the recommendation of a friend who had squatted there some ten years ago and is now living in Okayama.

"For Me, squatting is a different way of living! - not a big deal!"
banner hanging on the outside of the school

       Some of the artists associated with the Arte Ocupa movement from Paris and other countries were invited to join the Art Bridge project here in Okayama. We visited the old school last weekend. Quite a variety of work was on display from painting to sculpture, some of it a bit iconoclastic. Here, in no special order, are a few photos of my impressions. 

scarecrow?

portraits of some of the artists in residence  

painted red jacket by Suisse Marocain - modeled by me

the sculptor from Brazil

corrugated cardboard sculpture 

wood sculpture on marble base -
same Brazilian artist

Winter in Japan - by Suisse Marocain

large banner by Radek

computer animated projection  - I call it "Reading"

reminds me of the old Edo Period area of Kurashiki City where I used to live

silk screen