This is new kind of share (and update for some of you) about a most timely and beautiful opportunity I had this summer. I'm always going on about 'the journey' and usually a very internal and personal one at that - with the occassional dash of work/professional news. But as these two aspects of our lives are intrinsically tied - I must share this recent and particularly meaningful connection.
I have been excavating a whole heap of stuff over the past couple of years, and one aspect of my past has been left unexplored: acting. It's kinda ironic, but not entirely uncommon, to find myself on a professional journey that has little to do with my course of study in college: Theater Arts. I have certainly created real connections between this and photography, in so far as how I develop my work, and how I attempt to go about the business of creating it. The principles of collaboration that I seek always to work by, come directly from the culture of the theater world. But acting - well, this I have not done for some years now. As I often would put it when it came up: I haven't spoken text on stage/on camera for.... As I've been on my other artistic explorations, I've missed acting, not sharply mind you, but rather, I've been aware of its absence as a form of expression.
My friend Danae Grandison, another soul-searcher/explorer and accomplished graphic designer, decided to switch gears and explore the artform of film making. Her first film, Unconditional Love, is a work straight from the highway of personal explorations, directly from the heart, a beautiful distillation of what it means to come out on the other end of a growth passage emotionally in tact, and in fact, to find yourself utterly in love with life and all the vicissitudes therein; to arrive at acceptance, wonderment, and open curiosity to what comes next. We can only be in such a place when we are willing to release the past, and thus the expectations it invariably breeds for the future.
I auditioned at precisely the right time for the part in this 2 minute short - when I could understand the meaning of such a personal evolution. It was also therefore, the right project to bring me back to this art form. Oh the connectivity!
Danae's work premiered at SVA (School of Visual Arts) at the end of her film course this past August, and she received the Audience Award for her work. I was so chuffed too of course - haha!
Here's our Labour of Love - which was shot in the New York City heat wave of 115ºF! Not easy, but totally cathartic. Thank you for this journey Danae!
Why is it that a Black Man can create a tiny piece called a filament (electric light - Lewis Latimer) that allows people to see in the dark?
But can't be seen fit to lead a country to the true light.
Why is it that a Black Man can create an instrument (clock - Benjamin Banneker) that all people use to tell time?
But people don't think it is time for him to run a country.
Why is it that a Black Man can design a place for the high authorities to meet in and a place for the president to live in (The Capital and the White House Phillip Reid (a slave) and Pierre L'Enfant)?
But not good enough to lead these meetings or live in himself.
Why is it that a Black Man was brilliant enough to do the first open heart surgery (Dr. Dan iel Hale Williams) and show the world how to get and preserve plasma (Dr. Charles Drew)?
But not good enough to put a program in place where everyone can afford this surgery.
Why is it that a Black Man was creative enough to design an instrument (traffic light - Garrett Morgan) to bring multiple people (traffic) to a halt?
But not seen creative enough to design a plan to bring all this unnecessary and worthless fighting between countries, to an end.
Why is it that a Black Man could create the soles (shoes - Jan Matzeliger) that people walk on every day?
But not seen good enough to fill the shoes of a bad president.
Why is it that a Black Man was smart enough and brave enough to teach himself (Fredrick Douglas and Thomas Fuller - both slaves) and others how to read, write and/or calculate math?
But not seen smart enough and bold enough to calculate a platform to be President to a country that sure needs another first by us.
So you see my Brothers and Sisters, what I am saying is, let us not forgot our past which led us to our present and can definitely be the backbone to our future. We were good enough, smart enough, creative enough, and bold enough then, so let us all give Obama the chance to show that we are still these things and more. We all are as strong as our weakest link, so do not be that weak link that denies our people that chance to show we still can OVERCOME AND BE THE FIRST!
THE PRESIDENT OF THESE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA !
LET US ALL CONTINUE PRAYING THAT THIS PRESIDENT WILL ADHERE TO AND BE LED BY FAITH. PASS THIS ON! =
I don't know if I would go so far as to say Nacho Duato is my favourite choreographer...ever...but, he's so very close to being so.
His movement and interpretation of music is so specific yet loose, so perfect yet such a celebration of emotional erratic flaws of the soul. The shapes from the relationships he creates with dancers is a rare beauty to behold; it's heart-stopping; it's heartbreaking.
At last it feels right No more struggle or fight Evolving into me Expanding beyond the deep
The meditation for the past few months, or years, well, my lifetime, is to actualize 'self', which creates such fulfilling connections with others, to keep opening and expanding the heart so as to lead the body with love.
It is so important to learn how to be ourselves, and not a premeditated, planned out version of this...; and in being who we really are - being the beautiful imperfect beings that we are in every moment of 'now', will inevitably lead to the perfect expression of our essential selves, our inner most beauty, the core light that shines unobstructed and thus brighter from this 'letting'.
It has taken (and is taking) a lot of time, focus, daring, and fight, ...constant conscious pushing... to grow into me, to grow into myself, to grow into my skin; to stop struggling with the fit as if it belonged to someone else or should belong to someone else, to evolve beyond an old idea that the fit was wrong or would never be a good enough, or worse - that it sometimes felt so itchy that I wanted to rip it off and cast it away. But alas, it is the perfect fit. We settle down don't we (?), and then every crevasse fills in snugly.
Sweet exhale: Growing into self. Growing into me.
Mind the Gap note for today and always... Be Yourself. Everyone else is taken. ~Oscar Wilde
It would simply be a shame to let too much time pass without sharing this news guys. Last week was full of fortune and surprises that all occurred rather closely together.
Last Sunday I found out that my work (shown below) was awarded at the JCDC/National Gallery of Jamaica Competition and exhibition with a Bronze medal for Visual Arts and the sectional trophy and cash award for Adult Photography. Wow. That's the 2nd year that's happened. And here I was feeling all itchy about having not produced enough new work in the last months, fretting that my incubation period would adversely affect the reception of my work. The Universe really reinforced my dreams and vigor to keep going.
Coronation Market Lady 2011 JCDC/Nat'l Gallery JA Award Winner
Then 2 days later, (and actually a few minutes after I had shared the former news on Facebook) I got a random, really random email from the CEO of MyArtSpace, Catherine McCormick-Skiba (a site that I have a membership page on but, embarrassingly, I rarely use due to overwhelm) congratulating me on being featured on their front page media windows!!! As in the front page of their website! A site that according to some articles out there gets more hits than Saatchi Gallery! Hello! What? I totally freaked. Who knew anyone was watching? Especially a sloth-like network member like me? And it was for my (not-so) new series, still in progress, BRANDED, that I'd just uploaded over the weekend*. Please visit and check it out! I could never pay for such exposure - really. Of course I took a screen capture of it to share here - see below.
*view images samples of the project, featuring music mix by Sawandi.
click for larger view - or footer tab to share!
I wrote her back after two days (it took me a minute to digest this stuff) and thanked her quite enthusiastically; I did not make any effort to hide my shock and befuddlement - trust me. Haha. And she wrote back the most complimentary and encouraging email about how she felt about my work - with adjectives like "emotionally impactful" and "poignant". I still CANNOT believe it. So - the dare is on people...Mind the Gap...EVEN more. Hahaha! You know - in this life, you really NEVER know who's watching. Funny thing is, I kinda put that project to bed, or on a long pause shall we say, but now I aim to finish this thing and get it submitted, once and for all dammit. Special shout out to Sean John (Spur Tree Lounge, NYC) for pushing me to finish this. Love ya buddy! And, and - while I'm there - congrats to him for the recent feature on his restaurant in Maxim Magazine - #2 in top 5 dinner line up in America! AND to my god brother, Akindele Hickling (who my father named by the way - heehee) for his JCDC visual arts awarded paintings as well. He's SUCH an amazing talent as you can see below for yourself. YeehAW!
The Trials of Elegba by Akindele Hickling
Okay so lots of glee here, but I have to reveal something, and I'm sure some of you will concur, that the reality of life as an artist is indeed cathartic, exciting, and purifying, but, it's utterly terrifying sometimes. Especially when it comes to sharing this kind of news, or appealing for support. Overcoming fear to create work is somehow easier than writing this blog post right now...which is why I'm forcing myself to do it. It is important for me to share with you, that of all the little adventures I gleefully, and sometimes (maybe most times) naively charge into - this is always the biggest dare of all. So thank you for hugging me along the way - you'll never know how encouraging it is, how much it means to me.
~
Sooooo...(eye dab, sniffle), on that note; here I go leaping across the gap again to plead for your support on a couple other ventures.
I have 4 photos in a shoot out contest called "Beginnings" on the JPG website. Eeek! No awards there, but a cash prize is up for grabs, and I need to hear chi-CHING soon! Please check it out if you have a spare minute. I've linked each entry below. Just click the photos to Visit, View, and Vote:
Secondly, the JCDC/National Gallery Visual Arts Competition has a Viewers Vote section - which I'm now in the running for (like last year some of you might recall...). It would be awesome (and financially useful) to win this - hello - funding to continue my work!!! This is for those of you in Jamaica specifically, as it involves text voting with local cell phone providers. I will be blogging the details on how to vote in my next post. Stay tuned!
In the meantime - make sure to visit the National Gallery and check out the show - it's going on now until Aug 20th! Lemme know how it is since I can't be there. :( :)
Have a SUPER productive, creative, and fun week people!!
Incredible. First there's talk of the EPA being dismantled (cuz who the hell needs clean air and water anyway?!!). Then Pawlenty suggests dismantling Amtrak since it isn't profitable. And now Romney releases a few unfortunate quips on privatizing FEMA. I can't decide if these people are just plain dumb, crazy, or pure evil. Sure boys, while we're at it - let's skip the gradual 'screw the world initiative', and high tale it to privatizing the government (especially considering the now apparent prerequisite for Republican leadership: IRRESPONSIBLE & RICH).
Why pretend to believe there should be a body of individuals assigned to protect and serve its country and people? Just tell the millions who'll disappear into nonexistence that it's just better for business. Oh wait, we could just feed them the newly developed (and sustainable) shit burgers. I wonder if in his free time, Weiner is following or tweeting any of this from his sex rehab quarters. WTF is going on???!!!!!!
Not simply drinking,
This important peaty work
Watering the muse
Haiku by Mystic Urchin
APRIL 2010
Way back in February (I can't believe it's June already!!) I was taken on an incredible drive up to the Blue Mountains and I'm only now posting my notes about it. Still, I can't gush enough about the renewing effect of that fresh clean air high above the heat and smog of Kingston, with breathtaking views of nearly untouched land. It was quite heavenly, and I absolutely aim to do this again when I return to Jamaica.
It's simply a place of modest communities (Irish Town, Hardware Gap, Greenwich...) scattered with beautiful bed and breakfast cabins, private homes, and quaint cafes, all hugged in a cozy blanket of fog and lush flora.
There were breathtaking views of tree fern covered valleys, bright green moss wrapped trees, and quite a bit of non-tropical botanical varieties to my surprise, with pine covered mountainsides, and flower gardens much like you would find in Oxford, England! And that said, there is quite a significant community of British expatriates living up there.
A week after my trip I stumbled upon a Kuya Magazine issue with an article about Greenwich, and a cover photo of the same house I captured here, beautifully shot on a sunny day by Franz Marzouca. It was still on the shelves when I left in May, so grab it if you can find it - the full photo spread is quite magnificent.
click for larger view
Here is a mini list of what I found (and aim to check out when I return):
FLORA: Tree ferns, pines, orchids, sunflowers, ginger lilies, bright green moss (I think it was spanish moss - but don't quote me on on that...), and quite a bit more - the names of which escape me now.
BIRDS: wood pecker, hummingbirds
CAFES/EATERIES:
Gap Cafe - where I ate coconut creamy rice and peas, with 3 pepper spiced yellow curry steamed fish, and a thick slice of homemade carrot cake. and yes, the blue mountain coffee was stella!
Others I hear worth checking out are Cafe Blu, IMZ Cafe, and Mount Edge (thanks Steve!)
INDUSTRY: Catherine's Peak water, Jamaica Coffee Board (Blue Mountain Coffee), Craighton Coffee Estate (tours available), Strawberry Hill Hotel and Spa, and private rental homes and cabins are available - like the one pictured above.
-The Mountain Peak Trail (starting at Abbey Green) I HAVE to do a hike one day...
-Holywell Nature Reserve
-Old Tavern Coffee Estate
Nabes with cabin homes and B+Bs for getaway rentals:
Irish Town
Hardware Gap
Holywell
Greenwich Whitefield Hall
If you have a free weekend and sometime to research a tailor made trip for yourself, do it! It's the rejuvenating gift that keeps on giving. And please let me know what you find - so I can make a list for my next trip!
For way more additional info - check out: -YardEdge and read up on their tale of hiking to the top.
A persistent belief of mine, even in the most trying of times is that unexpected beauty in life shatters our monument to suffering. When we experience an unlikely turn of events in the last minute of fitful desperation, or witness a just reward for sacrificial work of an underdog, we cannot help but be inspired; yet to hold on to this inspiration requires a williingness to release the often irresistable need to hold blame.
While I've been busy in my little cocoon these past months, trying to figure out which way to turn next and how to get there with confidence and gratitude as my companions (because it's been a bit challenging to hold the road with them lately...) I have been slapped back to reality with three most inspiring and ironic things over the past days.
As we see a historic end to the Oprah Winfrey Show today (so many of us grew up with this woman-with-a-message, whether we watched all along or not), I tuned into one of her farewell shows last week, and she did me in AGAIN!! It was a rainy, gloomy day and I was feeling particularly sapped of motivation - and boy did her show bring me to my senses. She highlighted the lives of two incredibly 'unlikely' beacons of hope and true purpose (Oprah being one too, if we recall this billionaire's beginnings):
Mattie J. T. Stepanek - Thirteen years young and centuries old in wisdom, this wheel chair bound prophet spent his very short life from the age of three, spreading messages of love, peace, joy, and delight with life. A boy who had every reason to sing only woes of his very trying physical existence with muscular dystrophy, but chose (or was chosen) instead to guide his experience here on earth as one of consistent and constant gratitude and wonderment with life. He shared this message with millions through his writings, and by the end of his life, Mattie had 6 New York Times bestsellers of his poems and one of his essays. He is currently being considered for sainthood!
Your heartsong is your inner beauty. It's the song in your heart that wants you to help make yourself a better person, and to help other people do the same. Everybody has one.
Dr. Tererai Trent, Ph.D. - From a poor rural farming village in Zimbabwe and denied an education simply because she was girl, set her dreams of earning the highest academic credentials in the unimaginably distant United States of America. She wrote these dreams on a piece of paper and buried them under a rock. Then proceeded to be challenged at every step - sold into marriage at 11 years old, mothering 4 children by the age of 20, being severely abused by a husband who refused her any space to learn anything let alone go to school. But she persevered against these impossible odds to see the suffix 'Ph.D.' follow her name.
I remember very well my father pointing to my brothers and the other boys in the village and saying: 'These are the breadwinners of tomorrow. We need to educate them. We need to send them to school. The girls will get married.'
Then, just yesterday we were given near unimaginable video footage to add to the unfolding shift in inspiring relationships in our world today, when Michelle and Barack Obama were greeted MOST ceremoniously by the Queen of England, complete with a 41 gun salute from antique muskets and canons by the Scottish Guard on the Buckingham Palace grounds. I needn't wax on about the historical complexity of this image except to express my exact thoughts upon watching the footage - that seated at the 'highest' table were the most elite lineage of our collective ancestors of slaves and slave masters toasting each other and their 'special' relationship in basically ruling the world. I felt so awed, inspired, utterly amazed and filled by the meaning of this. It's no small matter, and irrespective of how we may or may not feel about these people as individuals, this was a sight to behold and one that I know our parents and elders (regardless of race, culture, or social standing) would never have imagined, and unfortunately that my father, one of the first black Queens Counsel attorneys in England, never lived to see. And it got me thinking...
When people can no longer be blamed, or historical atrocities, past indiscretions, or other external circumstances can no longer utilized as reasons for the real or perceived inadequacies of our lives, it simply means we must now take real responsibility for what we dream of, where we invest our energies, and how we work to fulfill our purpose - our 'heartsong'. This is the paradoxical manifestation of desires fulfilled - individually AND collectively; as the old adage cautions, "Be careful what you wish for..."
One personal example of a wish, and embarrassing gripe: I keep wishing for money to purchase new camera so I can get on with my work. But I already have a camera - it may be old, but it still works beautifully, so what do I think will change in my creative process by getting a new one?? It cannot be denied - I AM, we ARE starting at the same line of possibility each day we awake, and the attitude and energy we bring to it will determine how the race is run. Funny how nothing could be more terrifying, or more exciting. And how beautifully ironic.
footage updates (may 26th) - Obama becomes the first US President to address the UK Parliament in Westminster, and was introduced most admiringly with the famous quote, so apt for this post and all the people spoken of here:
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~Abraham Lincoln
comment from youtube:
"Great Speech. I am an American who lives in the UK and it feels so good not to have to apologize for my president anymore. President Obama has returned dignity, thoughtfulness and intelligence to his office."
I do not purport to be a spoofer, satirist, graphic designer, or anything of the like - but I just can't get over the slick timing of the events in the news over the past 2 weeks.
From all that nonsense with the presidential hopeful Donald Trump, and his rude, baseless, and thoughtless time wasting insistence on getting proof of Barack Obama's birth place; to the disappointing concession of said proof. And then, the hysterical and painful slamming of Trump with college haze-like 'you-think-you-can-handle-this-town?' jokes from both Seth Meyers(SNL Head Writer and Cast Member) and Obama at the Whitehouse Correspondence Dinner (PLEASE watch if you somehow missed that...nonstop hilarity); and finally the ultimate, can I say, 'trump card' issuance less that than 48 hours later - the Obama got Osama/You Can't Touch This bitch slap.
I don't think I've ever seen someone punked to this level ever, with absolutely no chance of a comeback. I mean - wow. It's possibly the funniest and sexiest thing I've ever seen a current president do - to sweep aside a spoiled, rich and bossy hopeful with absolutely no real political agenda, and just a self centered schtick.
So a friend of mine (thanks for the 'aha' Mark!) mentioned Wag the Dog when we were going over the whole thing, and that got me all tickled about making a spoof poster of the film. Of course so much has happened (and is happening) since then, but I had to put this up here for posterity, joining CNN, BBC, ABC, et al in going on and on and on about this... (Click the image to see details in bigger copy)
In case you missed it by some unfortunate mishap - the jokes:
How do I know what I think until I see what I write. ~Unknown
Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up. James Baldwin
For an idea that does not at first seem insane; there is no hope.
Einstein
no one ever really criticizes those who live out their dreams. but some will curse the courage it displays that they have yet to adopt. share not only your dreams but your daring to realize them. go forth and inspire. build together.
~Scoop i•ma•gine | e•volve
People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.
~James Baldwin~
The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating -- in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life.'
~ Anne Morriss
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
~Albert Einstein
When you stay awake, you see the sun. Anywhere you are, you have to make it your paradise.
~Joseph Buchanan
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
~Albert Einstein
Tomorrow will bring different questions and answers. OWN NOW.
~Scoop
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
~ George Bernard Shaw
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
~Martin Luther King, Jr.~
Live with your toes digging into the earth, with your eyes open wide, and your heart warm. This way you won't miss a thing little one. :)
~Scoop
The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.
~Daniel J. Boorstin
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
~Steve Jobs
Art is a microscope which the artist fixes on the secrets of his soul, and shows to people these secrets which are common to all.
~Leo Tolstoy
I'd rather be busy than bored; I'd rather burn out than rust out.
Whatever you ardently desire, Sincerely believe in, Vividly imagine, and Enthusiastically act upon, Must inevitably come to pass.
- Sybil Leek, Diary of a Witch
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
~Oscar Wilde
For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.
Ivan Panin
Remember to play after every storm.
~Mattie Stepanek~
The most original thing you've ever come across is actually yourself.
~Saul Williams~
Why fight it? Be seduced by your purpose.
~Scoop~
The light at the end of the tunnel is not an illusion. The tunnel is.
~unknown~
Fear is just another word for ignorance ... Freedom is something that dies unless it's used
~Hunter S. Thompson~
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
~Marcel Proust~
Unexpected beauty in life shatters our monument to suffering.
~Scoop 2001~
Once you label me, you negate me.
~Kierkegard~
The worst realities of our age are manufactured realities. It is therefore our task, as creative participants in the universe, to re dream our world. The fact of possessing imagination means that everything can be re dreamed. Each reality can have it.
~Ben Okri~
Cautionary actions to prevent future pain or loss may also function as obstacles to any happiness you could have presently.
~Berette Macaulay~
Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections.
~unknown~
We shall not cease from exploration, but at the end of all of our exploring will be to return to the place from which we originated and to know it for the first time.
~T.S. Elliot~
Isn't it funny how the word 'politics' is made up of the words 'poli' meaning 'many' in Latin, and 'tics' as in 'bloodsucking creatures’?
~Anonymous~
"You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he, "it makes you quite invaluable as a companion."
~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle~
Magic becomes art when it has nothing to hide.
~Ben Okri~
[I am] not so interested in the length of the road so much as the width.
~A. Regsmith~
Losers fold; winners take hits.
Forget the odds; draw, raise, bluff, call, stand.
~unknown~
Great ideas are no different from useless thoughts until they are put to use.
~Kynan Cooke, 1994~
In life you don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.
~anonymous~
It takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before, to test your limits, to break through barriers. And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
~Anais Nin~
Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. …the willfully unimaginative see more monsters, they are often more afraid.
~JK Rowling~
Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people.
~Marcus Garvey~
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. ~Elbert Hubbard~
a simple guide: no NOW...no JOY...no LIFE.
~Robert Holden~
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
~Bertrand Russell~
Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.
~John Lennon~
Being proactive instead of reactive always lessens the pressures of adversity.
~Kevin C. Robinson~
There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation. It's a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die.
~Hunter S. Thompson, 1988~
The minute you try to prove yourself is the moment you've lost the point. 'Doing it' moves you forward, 'proving it' takes you back.
~Berette Macaulay~
I want death to find me planting my cabbages.
~Michel de Montaigne~
I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by.
~Douglas Adams~
In my sex fantasy, nobody ever loves me for my mind.
~Norah Ephron~
Every time you don't follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness.
~Shakti Gawain~
Can you get over Something you truly enjoy And if indeed, why?
~Mystic Urchin~
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
~William Shakespeare, "Hamlet"~
There are indeed a thousand ways of acquiring an opinion that have nothing to do with rational thinking.
~R.J. Hollingdale~
There is need to sway Naked Rhythm summons blues Wind and Whispers dance.
~Mystic Urchin~
Chill out somewhere for a minute. Things get clearer when you get quiet.
~Scoop~
Love is rarer than genius itself. And friendship is rarer than love.
~Charles Peguy~
We are so accustomed to disguising ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.
~Francois de La Rochefoucauld~
A man is not an orange. You can't eat the fruit and throw the peel away.
~Arthur Miller~
There is no truth; everything is permitted.
~William S. Burroughs~
Nothing is true or false but thinking makes it so. You believe you have appeased the thunder and lightening and the ground that grows your grain; you believe it, you have. ~Shakespeare~
Knowing how to see is much more important than what kind of camera or lights you have.
~ David Harry Stuart~
Every work comes into being in the same way as the cosmos – by means of catastrophes…
~Wassily Kandinsky~
Every man takes The limits of his Own field of vision For the limits of the world.
~Arthure Schopenhauer~ 1788-1860, Studies in Pessimism
Pick a theme and work it to exhaustion... the subject must be something you truly love or truly hate.
~Dorothea Lange~
Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind.
Catherine Drinker Bowen
Nature Will Hold You Live within Integrity Sweet Dew Forever
~Ku by Scoop~
No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master. ~Hunter S. Thompson~
I refuse to lose my mind to the sadness locked in the illusion of my finitude.
~Chuma and Fiswe~
fear of mediocrity creates it by narrowing your vision of yourself. get as far away from fear as you can by daring your ass to face it everyday.
~Berette Macaulay~
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming -WOO HOO what a ride! ~JAH – E~
Kill the arrogance. It will never serve you in the long run - as ultimately it acts as an inhibitor.
~Berette Macaulay~
Desire is a magnificent nomadic energy.
~Scoop, inspired by Nietzche~
Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.
~Lou Holtz~
There’s no great genius without some touch of madness.
~Seneca~
Live for the truth or lie What are the consequences? RECIPROCITY
~Ku by Scoop~
The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.
~Hunter S. Thompson~
Water marks the way, We wander thru wet slipways, Happy to be damp.
~ Ku by Steve Wilson, nee Mystic Urchin ~
“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”
MIND THE GAP
The delights of self-discovery are always available.
-Gail Sheehy
"Watch Your Thoughts, They Become Your Words,Watch Your Words, They Become Your Actions, Watch Your Actions, They Become Your Habits, Watch Your Habits, They Become Your Character, Watch Your Character For It Becomes Your Destiny"
One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind.
-Dorothea Lange-
“Fear is temporary. Regret lasts a lifetime.”
“Caution is the death of Creativity”
Let your deeds themselves praise you, for here I leave them in all their glory, lacking words to extol them.
