On Aesthetics, Ants, Adoption and Cadavers.

Time for some brain food. To battle the vacivity* of mind. And I bet you are just itching to find out what aesthetics, ants, adoption and cadavers have to do with one another.

Not much, actually. Except that they are subjects of different articles/books I have been reading over the last couple of weeks.

• Which "aesthetics" do you mean? Ten definitions - I recently purchased this book by Leonard Koren (author of wabi-sabi). It is a short treatise, consisting of 10 different definitions for the term "aeshetics" (i.t.o. appearance, style, taste, as a philosophy of art, a thesis or exegesis, a synonym for artistic, beauty, beautification, a cognitive mode, and a language.)
• Are ants industrious little workers, teachers to us all, benificent saints, or teeny, tiny Nazis? I found this article about the entemologist  E.O. Wilson illuminating, and frankly, a little scary. I may want to read his novel, Anthill, now.
• An article about working with cadavers - about time that they are treated with a little respect, I would say ...
• And finally, a fun site. Yes, you can adopt too! (*this one is mine)

A Change.

From this ...

(ugly still-unpainted wall and yucky torn plastic)

to this ...

(Anairam's version of pojagi - made from an old sample book of discontinued curtain fabrics and a few other bits and pieces.)

Inspired by annekata's post on pojagi here.

I just love annekata's projects and informative posts - she has awakened in me an interest in sewing by hand. It is incredibly meditative. So much so that at times I even forget about The Neighbour's Horrible House.

Land art.

Last week I spent a day doing a land art workshop with artist Andree Bonthuys at Die Kelders and Platbos.

"simple creative acts of walking and marking 
about place, locality, time, distance and measurement"      (Richard Long on land art)

Hand-sewn Nest (probably about my recent obsession with hand-sewing) - I left a treasure inside the nest for someone to find.

Target = Red (definitely about my obsession with collecting, sorting, categorizing)

Magic Ladder (hmmmm, about filling in spaces, a habit of mine?)

Other land artists I admire: Andy Goldsworthy,   Strijdom van der Merwe,    Robert Smithson

Sticks and Stones.

Can you guess what I did this Thursday?

The figures in the Mirror - part II

(For part I - see here). The story continues and takes an unexpected twist ...

New Acquisitions #18 (or Tiny Things with Wings).

(Figures in the Mirror will continue on Monday. The story has taken quite a disturbing and shocking turn! I am doing four or five pages at a time, with no preconceived story line whatsoever, and I am really not sure how it will all turn out ...)
For now, a confession: I have been a bad, bad girl and have acquired many new things. I will post three of them today and the rest later. I purchased these three items at the local Methodist church bazaar. Don't you just love a church bazaar? They seem such happy places. I don't find churches themselves very happy places, but maybe that's just me. But oh, a bazaar! Women tossing pancakes, the smell of boerewors rolls, weird crafty things like pot holders and toilet roll covers, tombola tables. Old ladies selling raffle tickets. And cupcakes. What's not to love? I found these in the 50c bin:

A tiny plastic bird. It is currently positioned on the frame of my limited edition William Kentridge lithograph. It is a comment on the relative value of things. If you knew what my WK is worth now, you will know what I mean.



















A tiny porcelain bird. It is perched on the post of my dressing table. At night it flutters off and brings back interesting dreams for me to dream. Nifty, hey? You should get one.

A tiny porcelain angel. She is praying, as you can see. I didn't really want her, but she looked so sad and lonely left in that 50c box with several pink plastic pigs and an odd assortment of Lego; I swear I could see the little tears trickling down her cheeks. So she came home with me. Unfortunately I dropped her as I picked her up to photograph her, and oh dear, her neck broke. Clean off. Which just goes to show that praying may not be all it is cut out to be. Luckily, unlike those incompetent king's horses and men, L'Usband managed to put her together again. She is now ensconced safely in my display cabinet, where she shares a shelf with three pigs. At least they are not plastic.

The Figures in the Mirror.

Remember my mini magazine journals?
I am busy making a new one - and a story seems to be emerging ...

Who knows how it will end?
I'll keep you updated.