An award for silence

I have been given a peer-award for my blog. Linda, over at The task at hand found me a deserving recipient for the Arte Y Pico award. I am of course honoured. That someone reads what I write is flabbergasting; an award is mystifying.

Do I still have it?

As exam dates starts to show up on the best-before-dates on the perishables, the educational pressure cooker is heating up. Some are dropping out of some courses, some hang in there by the skin of their teeth, some stay under the comfy duvet. The wheat from the chaff, possibly, or maybe just bad judgement under strain. Doing things in media courses can be pretty stressful – there is a lot of lugging heavy equipment around, and with no hierarchy democracy is prevalent in every bit of production. Design by committee. And we all know that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. Useful for certain places and certain tasks, but not a versatile, esthetically pleasing object.

pottery. art, craft and atomic weight

I used to do pottery.
In fact, I used to be a potter. A full year full time course in Derry, learning from the eminent renaissance man, Brian McGee, and I worked for a while as a production thrower. We build and fired electric, gas, raku and wood kilns, nearly blew up the building, made a mess of glazes; getting our heads around molecular calculations, triaxial blends and the fundamentals: the periodic table and the building-blocks of the planet. Everything under your feet.

Large things, close up –

I like textures. I like odd angles. Beautiful concrete, several hundred year old wood, steel beams. Physical, almost abstract. Everywhere. Character. Decay. Details containing the whole. Childish attention to details.

bucket

Back to the grind – higher education, year 2

This blog was initially ment as a school related project, but I am a fickle person, it seems. There are so many other things that interests me, and expanding connections, ideas and thoughts simply seems more fitting to the blog format instead of a record of day-to-day minutiae.
Besides, I also use it as an experiment in how the Great Web works.

Six faces of the moon – partial lunar eclipse

The moon was beautiful tonight, and playing with my new camera is a delight. It turns out it was a partial lunar eclipse that I was totally unaware of. It makes it so much more delightful to be suprised by things like that. Reading everything in newspapers is overrated. Being prepared is overrated..

Creativity and alphabet love

‘…qualities like quiveriness and vulnerability come to mind when I think of creativity… creativity requires a sense of smell, a palate to taste the scents that make brilliance. All life feeds upon the random. Creativity is the haute cuisine.’

-Douglas Hofstadter-

Crop circles, math and outer space

I know a lot of strange people. Some of them are the kind you might think the most ordinary figures, until.. something seeps out.

I know a guy who believes crop circles are made by creatures from outer space, the «wee folk» or «unidentified streams of energy». That is pretty off, but extraordinary coming from him. He is a great fan of science, in practicality.