Entries in art (212)
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Twins
Namaste,
In the street life of Bhaktapur is Pottery Square. 250 people from immediate families make clay, create pots, piggy banks, animals, bowls, living art, dolls, bells, oil lamp bases, and cooking containers. They dry them in the sun. They slow fire them using straw fuel in large kilns.
"We live here as a family," said a girl, 12 with her twin sister. "My father makes piggy banks. My mother moves them into the sunlight." A potter uses a heavy staff to get his wheel turning, rotating faster and faster until it is a blur. He shapes a pot.
Finished products are sold locally, throughout the Kathmandu valley and exported faster than light.
Metta.
Six images, 2010
Greetings,
He's been in Cambodia for a year. One year seems like a day. Here are six random images.
Many thanks for your support and kindness.
May your new year be filled with joy.
Metta.
Handicap International in Siem Reap. They provide rehabilitation and prosthetic devices to land mine victims.
Inee, a weaver in a Kampot training center for disadvantaged women.
Angkor Wat
Blacksmith
Clean water
Bubble Life
Greetings from a sleepy little town down south along the mighty Mekong,
After finding a pillow and delicious local cold java swimming in a glass you get a hair cut and your ears cleaned.
It's essential, as we've said previously, from China, Vietnam, Cambodia and now Laos to relax.
Sit back close your eyes hearing the whirling overhead fan rotating like helicopter rotor blades over rapid cobalt rivers inside deep forested green jungles, skimming granite mountains, swooping toward rice valleys allowing a thin man with shiny silver tools to clean, vibrate, scrape, identify, probe, assess, magnify, illustrate and remove old historical debris, leaves, brooms, the click-clack of shuttles, blue and yellow butterflies, children's laughter, language acquisition cycles, tonal frequencies, vibrational shifts and so forth.
A new marveLaos gallery is live.
http://tmleonard.squarespace.com/marvelaos/
It contains clouds, art, design, black & white, wats, paper making, rice threshing, weavers, kids and big serious humans.
The Luang Prabang airport has one simple concrete runway. The control tower needs a coat of paint.
There are two gates. A French tourist is worried because their boarding pass has a big number approaching infinity. "We only have two gates," said the serene and helpful girl behind a desk.
"Oh, my goodness," said the tourist holding a can of white paint and a brown sable hair brush. "I was so worried I wouldn't get home for Christmas. I mean I was feeling so anxious and neurotic and lost and dazed and confused and sullen and tired and suddenly I felt comfortable in a calm way knowing I will realize my vacation dream and paint a control tower at a small airport in Asia."
"Be a work of art or wear a work of art," said the smiling girl, or, as Picasso asked, "what is color?"
Metta.
Paper is an essential part of Lao life. The art of paper is in the making, using, honoring paper in the community and burning paper to honor ancestors. Artists use white fibers from plant stems to make paper. To soften it they mix it with ash and soak it in wood fired 55 gallon drums. They pound it to a pulp. The woman spreads fibers over a screen. It is dried in the sun and used to create tactile textured paper books, umbrellas, bags, cards, lanterns, envelopes and airport control towers.
Cloe and Younn
Greetings,
I'm sitting in the market drawling in my Moleskine. Three travelers sit and sketch their environment. They use pencil, ink, watercolor pens and cool tools. They are excellent. Many Khmer people, as is all too common, just sit and stare. A few curious ones wander over to see the creativity.
The next day I am drawing and Cloe, one of the French artists stops by for a chat. She and Younn, her boyfriend artist left France for year of total land travel.
"We went south to the Balkans, Greece, Turkey, Iran and across Central Asia to China, Mongolia, back to China, bought bikes and rode to Laos, now Cambodia then we go to Thailand and south to Malaysia, then eventually to Australia."
How was Iran? "It was great. We hardly ever stayed in a hostel. The people invited us into their homes. The culture and art and history is amazing. Everyone was friendly and kind and helpful. They talked about everything. They were totally connected and engaged with the world. We felt really safe and secure."
We exchanged links. You can read their French blog and see Younn and Cloe's amazing art from their travels.
Metta.
