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Archive for the ‘Inspiration’ Category
a little book of food
Posted in Books I Love, Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, tagged beauty, books, colors, food, food photography, Inspiration, photo books, Photography, Yozo Hamaguchi on December 14, 2015| 6 Comments »
assembly
Posted in Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, tagged colors, food, food photography, healthy eating, Inspiration, Photography, salads, vegetables on December 13, 2015| 1 Comment »
It was a salad made to let loose the day, of rising from my desk and moving about the kitchen, assembling different colors and textures into something aesthetic and theoretically healthy. In the end, it looked good. And, drizzled with some oil and vinegar, it all tasted pretty good too. 😉
the art of asia in boston: introducing nancy li of tao select
Posted in Books I Love, Inspiration, tagged art, art history, Asian art, beauty, creativity, design, Edmund de Waal, family, fashion, Inspiration, interview, jewelry, Nancy Li, Photography, porcelain, TAO Select, The White Road on December 13, 2015| 1 Comment »
Nancy Li of TAO Selection
Image courtesy of artist.
Believe it or not, porcelain had been on my mind just before my chance encounter with Nancy Li of TAO Selection. I had come across a review of Edmund de Waal’s new book, The White Road. A noted potter, the book chronicles de Waal’s “journey into an obsession” to learn more about the origins and reinvention of porcelain. The prologue opens with de Waal in China: “I’m trying to cross a road in Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province, the city of porcelain, the fabled Ur where it all starts …” Nancy Li is quick to tell you, and rightfully so, her family is from this region of China and that she is a third generation designer of porcelain.
Image courtesy of artist.
As I later told her, what I most admired about our first brief encounter outside of a church gift shop was her determination to find venues to market her jewelry, and also to share the story of her family and cultural heritage of working with porcelain. In his book de Waal writes of working with porcelain clay to make a jar. Though his studio is in South London, he writes, “… as I make this jar I’m in China. Porcelain is China. Porcelain is the journey to China.” During an interview, Nancy Li made a similar statement.
Image courtesy of artist.
We met briefly in Cambridge during her lunch break. Again, with great passion, she began sharing the story of her family especially of her grandfather, a porcelain master. For three generations the family and 15-20 employees have been working with clay using a proprietary process, molding it in forms from pendants to bowls to large statuary, hand-glazing and then firing the pieces in her family’s kiln. I’ve always thought of porcelain as fragile but porcelain can be strong as Nancy demonstrated by dropping a lovely blue and white bracelet on the floor. It made a beautiful ringing sound and remained unbroken.
On her website, Nancy describes attending the top fashion school in China, Donghua University. In talking with her I learned that six years ago she moved to the U.S. where she also received a Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from Boston University and a Management Degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management, part of her dual efforts to better understand the science behind porcelain and to raise awareness globally about the family business and the high-quality of the artwork produced.
Image courtesy of artist.
On top of her full-time job as a Systems Engineer, Nancy makes time to interact with people around Boston, educating them about porcelain and obtaining feedback about peoples’ fashion interests. She shares the feedback with her family, including producing sketches for alterations and new designs, inspired by what she hears and by her own artistic background.
She describes wanting to help people understand that high-quality porcelain is not only for the wealthy. It is not only something from the past to be found in antique stores. It is contemporary and it is art, an art that represents a culture. “Each piece of art has a story behind it,” she says at one point, holding a necklace in her hand. “It is art that inspires, that’s meant to be shown and shared. I think Americans have a wrong impression that everything made in China is cheap quality. What my family does in its local community, what it has been doing for so long, is of the highest quality and I want to share that work, our work, and help it evolve.”
Following are links to learn more about and connect with designer Nancy Li and to view more of her wearable porcelain art.
Following are links to learn more about artist and writer Edmund de Waal and his passion for porcelain.
the art of asia in prague
Posted in Inspiration, On the Road, tagged art, Asian art, beauty, czech republic, Inspiration, Photography, porcelain, pottery, prague, travel on December 10, 2015| 2 Comments »
An unexpected treat as I meandered about the streets of Prague was to visit the National Gallery and view a small selection of its Asian and African art collection. There’s an excellent description of the collection’s origin and growth on the gallery website. When I visited, I was one of only a few people. In the silence and near solitude, it became almost a meditative space. You can learn more in the link below.
Additional Reading
another angel found
Posted in Inspiration, On the Road, tagged angel, art, beauty, churches, colors, czech republic, Inspiration, Photography, prague, travel on December 10, 2015| 2 Comments »
A “found image” on my camera. Detail from a ceiling mural inside a church in Prague.
a raspberry morning
Posted in Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, tagged colors, food, food photography, fruit, fun, Inspiration, Photography, rasberries on December 9, 2015| 2 Comments »
I was having trouble getting myself going this morning so I sought some inspiration by playing with my food. 😉
if I could paint …
Posted in Inspiration, Music, tagged beauty, creativity, Herbert Howells, Inspiration, music, musings, organs, random, Rhapsody No. 1 in D Flat, storytelling on December 7, 2015| 2 Comments »
… I would paint what I hear in this piece of music, Rhapsody No. 1 in D Flat Major by Herbert Howells. The entire piece is only five minutes and 35 seconds long, but it is the segment between 1:30 and 3:00 that moves me most. I first heard it being played a few weeks ago at Trinity Church in Copley Square. The organist, Colin Lynch, was rehearsing for Sunday services. I appreciated the beauty of his playing but at first the music itself did nothing for me … and then something happened. I was hooked. And then released. As he kept rehearsing the piece, I wanted to dash into the church and stop him to ask what in the world was he playing but that seemed inappropriate. I thought I’d catch him at the end of his rehearsal but I missed him.
Time passed, lots of traveling took place but I could still hear that music. I tried to describe the piece to other musicians and people who knew classical music far better than I. Keep in mind I have no language for music (which is why I want to paint what I’m hearing). I kept saying, “It’s the kind of music that, you know, leads you someplace,” and other not especially helpful phrases. I was about to give up my search when I did chance upon the organist. This time I stopped him in his tracks and asked, “Hey, Colin, what was that piece of music you were playing two weeks ago?”
He lifted an eyebrow but he indulged me. He helped me find the language to describe what I’d heard. And as we narrowed down the possibilities of what he may have been playing, he finally asked, “Was it loud? Did it get really loud?” “Yes!” I said, and so he nodded and then wrote down the possibilities.
It was Herbert Howell’s Rhapsody No. 1 in D Flat. Imagine my pleasure when I found this Youtube recording by Nigel Potts. Listen at your leisure. And that’s my random story this bright Monday morning. Have a good day, folks. 😉
just one more week
Posted in Inspiration, tagged art, colors, fine art, illustration, Inspiration, John La Farge, McMullen Museum of Art, Photography, stained glass, Tiffany on December 7, 2015| Leave a Comment »
watercolor study for purity, a stained glass window at trinity church in copley square
John La Farge and the Recovery of the Sacred is an exhibit at the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College. This free exhibit concludes December 13, 2015. I am most familiar with La Farge’s murals and stained glass windows at Trinity Church in Copley Square. Complex is a term often used to describe La Farge’s work, and I have a better understanding why after seeing this exhibit.
study for presentation of the virgin, a stained glass window at trinity church in copley square
It was a treat to see the range of his artistic talent expressed in pen and ink sketches, watercolors, oil paintings, wood block prints and of course in stained glass.
watercolor study by John La Farge
watercolor study for bishop hatto and the rats illustration
He may have been horrible at self-promotion, unlike his contemporary and supposedly one-time friend Louis Tiffany, but La Farge was certainly visionary when it came to manipulating light, colors and texture to capture particular moments, such as from his travels in Japan and the South Seas, and to tell stories both spiritual and secular.
tromple l’oeil curtain stained glass window by john la farge
Well worth a trip if you’re in the area. Further details can be found on the museum website: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/artmuseum/visitor-information/index.html
Additional links
John La Farge and the Recovery of the Sacred Exhibit
still collecting burne-jones angels
Posted in Inspiration, tagged architecture, art, beauty, churches, colors, design, Edward Burne-Jones, Inspiration, Photography, stained glass windows, Trinity Church, William Morris on December 4, 2015| 4 Comments »
You can read more about this personal project here: https://wordsandimagesbycynthia.com/2015/11/02/as-for-those-angels/
and then the rain, a book review
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged book review, books, cynthia barnett, environmental history, nature, nature writing, rain, water on December 3, 2015| 5 Comments »
Aside from those times when I’m waiting at the bus station for what seems like hours and the winds are blowing so hard that an umbrella is useless, I love the rain. The sound of rain on rooftops. The scent of rain. The sight of rain striking windows or dripping from leaves. Peter Gabriel’s Red Rain is one of my favorite songs. All the different renditions of I Can’t Stand the Rain … just love it. Living in the northeastern part of the U.S.,I’ve rarely had to think about rain. There’s no real lack of it. I’ve just accepted it when it falls but Cynthia Barnett’s book, Rain, truly gave me a new appreciation for rain’s influence in shaping human society and culture both in the past and in the present.
Over the past two months, I’ve carried the book across two continents. Just under 300 pages in length, it’s not that long but the writing is dense and detailed. There’s no one narrative thread leading you someplace. Each chapter is like an umbrella and beneath that umbrella there’s a beautifully complicated web of stories all united by rain. One moment you’re reading about the origin and evolution of the Mackintosh raincoat by 18th century Scottish inventor Charles Macintosh and next you’re reading about Mary Anderson, a Birmingham, Alabama socialite who devised the first windshield wiper.
The Scent of Rain is a particularly fascinating chapter where she explains how rain “picks up odors from the molecules it meets. So its essence can come off as differently as all the flowers on all the continents — rose-obvious, barely there like a carnation, fleeting as a whiff of orange blossom as your car speeds past the grove. It depends on the type of the storm, the part of the world where it falls, and the subjective memory of the nose behind the whiff.” Barnett takes the reader on a journey from a village in Uttar Pradesh where fragrances have been distilled for generations, including the scents of rain, using compounds found in nature to the labs of super-smellers and scent scientists working to synthetically develop the rain scents found in perfumes, detergents, soaps and air fresheners.
In the chapter Writers on the Storm, readers learn how rain in all its guises has influenced musicians from Chopin to Morrissey and the works of directors Robert Capra, Akira Kurosawa and Woody Allen. The book is a treasure trove of interesting stories, and well-researched facts, about how people and nature interact in the presence of rain. If there is one suggestion I’d have for future editions it is to include maps. Barnett’s prose takes readers around the world and back again and maps illustrating that journey would be a boon.
Please note that I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. Additional links are below with information about the author and the book.
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/228186/rain-by-cynthia-barnett/
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/177450/cynthia-barnett/
