Art:Life:Art

Today is a bit of reminiscing

One of my old roomates was the very talented

Stacia Svedi who was in the B.F.A. for Painting at BYU.

She had an assignment to recreate one of the

works of the masters in a new way.

She chose Jan Johan Vermeer's

"The Milkmaid."

I only have the picture she based her painting on but

I wanted to share because I really enjoyed the

commentary on society she was making.

In Vermeer's painting the lighting is soft and delicate

falling on the milkmaid as she pours the milk 

with an almost reverence. 

He has made the task and the setting a kind

of glorification of the everyday simplicity.

There is no clutter to be found in this scene.

Contrast this with the below, the cupboard is open to display

all the appliances that can be used to "save" time when

cooking and baking. On the counter is the bread machine,

and on the table the mixer and then she chose 

to have me opening a loaf of store bought bread. 

(Kind of love the irony that I posed for this, 

considering I haven't bought store bread

in 3 & 1/2 years now, mine tastes better:)

The scene is cluttered on purpose.

I just love the questions and thoughts she was trying to provoke.

I'm definitely not a "Tech" hater, quite the opposite

but I do think it is very easy to fill my life with clutter

and to forget to enjoy the small and simple things.

Sometimes, I just feel so overwhelmed with

how many people I love and want to

make sure they know that I love them.

In fact, I do wish sometimes I didn't work

so much so I could just spend time with all of them.

I treasure all the friendships I have,

even ones where we may not see each other

more than twice a year but it's as if only days have passed.

My friends and family ( I have to quote my sister Bridget here,

"we are sisters which automatically makes us best friends" )

and the relationships I have with them are

the joy of my life. It's not what activity I'm doing

it who I am doing it with.

Here is one memory of why it's who and not what. Stacia is the bomb dot com!

A few summers ago she and I decided to bike

 from our apartment to Vivian Park.

We set out on our bikes wearing helmets and

casual clothes. Pretty soon the sky started to

cloud over and immediately proceeded to pretend

that Utah has a Monsoon season.

There was inches of water on the road and the bike path.

What follows is just one reason why I love Stacia,

soon we were giggling

and laughing hysterically as we pedalled through the

deepest puddles and became thoroughly soaked.

I'm certain many a motorist thought we were insane but

it was one of the greatest times of my life.

It was slightly cold but we just didn't care

because we were too busy pretending to be jet skis on wheels.

We had gone on and would go on other bike rides

that Summer but this ride, where the weather

wasn't perfect, is the one I loved the most.

Reading is believing, or rather the first step.

In Relief Society on Sunday, our instructor asked us to name our favorite book.
I don't have a favorite book but I definitely have a few comfort ones.

The first is Antoine de Saint-Éxupery's "Le Petit Prince"
a wonderful philosophical book hidden within a children's tale.
Someone named that book as their favorite before I had a chance and 
so upon reflection I thought of this other book, 
"And There Was Light." by Jacques Lusseyran

It is an incredible tale of hope, perseverance and what it 

really means to see. The man who wrote it became blind at the age of 7

and continued to make a great difference in the world

almost because of his blindness and how it let him see.

He worked for the underground during WWII
and made a huge impact for the resistance.

I would dare this book has directly influenced parts of my life,

 most especially in the way I dance and my decision to become a dancer. 

 The way he describes seeing is touching and enlightening, truly.

Here is an excerpt,

"The seeing commit a strange error. 

They believe that we know the world only through our eyes. 

For my part, I discovered that the universe consists of pressure, 

that every object and every living being reveals itself to us

 at first by a kind of quiet yet unmistakable pressure 

that indicates its intention and its form. 

I even experienced the following wonderful fact: 

A voice, the voice of a person, permits him to appear in a picture. 

When the voice of a man reaches me, 

I immediately perceive his figure, his rhythm, and most of his intentions.

 Even stones are capable of weighing on us from a distance.

 So are the outlines of distant mountains, 

and the sudden depression of a lake at the bottom of a valley."

Peinture and News

For today I have a batik self portrait and two word designs that I made in photoshop. One of which cracks me up and the other describes how I feel as a super passionate person, (haha, I can't even just say passionate, I have to be super passionate.. oh dear).

Subsequently is one of my favorite words to say aloud.

It just feels eloquent and sounds smooth as glass.