Antique Moss Green
Ordinary, exterior wall paint (yellow in green) drying out in a paper dish, on a sheet of newspaper. The result of a demonstration that wall paint doesn’t blend like artists’ colours.
Tag: photography
GUEST POST
Reflection and photos by Machine.Gun.Meow (mGm)
Facebook: Machine Gun Meow Twitter: @MachineGunMeow
Instagram: @machingunmeow
Growing up in Nairobi, as a girl of Indian heritage, diversity has shaped my worldview. I have been in a nostalgic mood of late and, given recent tragic events, SB asked me to share my morning reflection with you.
While watching The Revenant last night, I noticed the treatment of the Native Americans in the film. I said to Mr. Meow that it is unfathomable that we, as a human race, seek to hate others based on differences.
We could go to land’s end and the hate would find us because there is always something that distinguishes one person from the other. What is more unbelievable is that the situation has changed little in the two hundred years since the film’s setting. Simply put, the hate stems from a sense of righteousness or superiority, whether you blame it on religion, ‘science’, politics or custom. I feel we must find a higher order of being instead of looking for problems where none exist.
At the moment, I am writing a fantasy fiction novel. In it, I explore the idea of diversity. The questions I contemplate are, “What is the alternative to diversity? Is it uniformity or conformity?” I wonder, is that the kind of world we want? Are we better off being cookie-cutter images of each other? Is that what would encourage acceptance?
If the defilers of diversity were confronted with the alternatives, would they reconsider their position? This is wishful. I concede I have no solutions.
Can I have a witness? Two hours after swearing on a stack of fifty imaginary Bibles that I would never, ever, ever publish anything from my archives, I found myself wedged in a situation.
Summer, 2009 – A friend and I thought, “Let’s, like, totally deface a mannequin as an homage to Alexander McQueen (memba that headdress?) and Junya Watanabe (Comme des Garçons).” Yeah, sure, she had some at home, so we borrowed one. Ow!
Instead of using plastic to wrap the soda cans, as in the McQueen Horn of Plenty Autumn 2009 show, we used 110 denier tights, glue and wire. Nail polish went on the lips, can motifs and Hangul lettering. The barcode was inked with permanent marker.
My friend was really into Korean pop music and the Hangul script was hers. I have removed the forks because I don’t remember why we added them.
They are tucked away in a basket on a nearby shelf. But please don’t get any ideas. I’m not giving away any of my forks.
Thank you for viewing. xo
Categories
Buccaneer
These photographs were taken on Thursday and Friday (May 19/20), in a small port town, where I attended an art conference. May is the month in which I return home to do laundry and repack my luggage. I hope it’s been a good month for you.
Captured in a forest reserve. The torches below were for our evening bonfire. The chopped wood for the bonfire is shown in the second to last photo.
In other news, I managed to make curry, over a coal fire, for ten hungry colleagues. No idea what I was doing and there was lots of improvising. So, it felt like an episode of MacGyver. The ingredients (curry powder, streaky bacon, potatoes, carrots and onions) were already prepped by the research facility that hosted us. Everyone was nervous about the potatoes but I Gordon Ramsayed them and they came out just right.
Thank you for viewing.
Categories
Tea + Poetry
Notes had been sent asking after my whereabouts. I hadn’t indulged in my favoured Earl Grey, tiramisu and panna cotta combo for months. This is my day off, so I presented myself at my friends’ patisserie just after 11.00 (dessert before breakfast, people) and got to work. Eating, that is.
As for play time, this is what I got up to. Special thanks go to Egbert Starr for permission to work on this composition using excerpts from his brilliant prose poem, The Gallows’ Horse. Please visit his blog to read the full version.
Featured magazine – Numéro, Tokyo, April, 2016. Vol 95: Perfume ads; “Dark Romanticism” and “Pretty Killer” editorials by Ellen Von Unwerth with art direction by Yuni Yoshida.
Prose poetry excerpted from “The Gallows’ Horse” by Egbert Starr.
Upper:
I said to the wise man I met, “Love.” And I said to the crone the same. To children, I said to them, “Love one another.” To kings, philosophers, chemists, scientists of every kind, my message was exactly so.
Lower:
I remembered from the land above the flower of my treachery. I remembered my rage and anger and my fulsome seductions of a thousand Persephones. How pleased I was! How capable! How incisive and cross-quotable my demonic possibilities. I was in the world of common men without compare!
Epic prose poetry, and it tasted fantastic. My friends and I chatted while I worked, so they were my guest editors. Thank you for reading, too. Enjoy a sip of all right until we meet again. SB
Categories
Omelette Pizza – Easy cheesy breakfast
Hello and best wishes for the month of May. This is my brunch. I used one egg for this omelette because (excuse me) I needed room for the cocktail.
Easy cheesy, omelette pizza:
- Sautée plum tomatoes with sausages and garlic.
- Cook an omelette on one side, flip it.
- Top the cooked side with the tomatoes and sausage.
- Top that with shredded Gouda cheese.
- Reduce heat and cover skillet until the cheese melts.
- Photograph right away.
- Eat omelette while it is hot.
The cooking time is short. If you’ve made an omelette pizza before, I’d love to hear from you.
What’s in this?
One egg; sausages – diced; plum tomatoes – halved (green, orange, purple); black olives – sliced; finely shredded Gouda cheese; garlic – grated; rock salt (a little); butter/sesame seed oil.
My dessert of choice is Greek yogurt and raspberry sauce, which mGm will appreciate. The May Day cocktail, fresh cut strawberries in blood orange juice and sparkling wine, is for Work in Progress.
Thank you for viewing.
Categories
Floral Wilt
[i] Delilah
Floral sculpture, wilting
Warm wishes for a peaceful and safe Easter weekend. To my Hindu friends, I hope your Holi was full of love and joy.
[ii] Pink this, Fuchsia
For this project, I tried to create a sculpture with wilting flowers. I rearranged them a few times and photographed each version until I found a good balance.
[iii] Carmine phase
I used wilting petals to bring emotional texture to the composition. I hope you like them, too. Thank you for viewing.
Categories
Goneril
Washed in oils of honeysuckle and thyme, the crypt ushered her in with antiseptic strength. She asked after the King’s body. None of the responses congealed in her hearing. Phrases like, “legal property of Vojda Research Laboratories,” “insurers,” “exclusive” and “living will,” went over Goneril’s head as she faded to the floor.
She was shaking. “Hold me. To hell with protocol! I need to be held.” A minder enfolded her in his arms. From there, her eyes rested on the brushed silver canister that cradled her husband’s remains. His ashes muffled her distress.
“You mean,” she said, breaking through somehow, “my father is alive because he got better life insurance coverage?”
“Yes, Ma’am,” the Prime Minister said, “and until he has officially recovered, you are Queen, regnant.”
⚜
Goneril
Photo credit: Schloss Belvedere, Wien/ Belvedere Castle, Vienna, courtesy Dominik Bartsch via Flickr. I was fortunate to find the amazing photography of Dominik Bartsch on Flickr. It is difficult to find images that bring the right ambience to a story. But I found everything I needed in one place.
Notes: This is a teaser for two short stories based on Shakespeare’s King Lear. They are here: Lear and Long Live the King!
You know those days when you go all Cypress Hill and say, “Who you trying to get crazy with ese, don’t you know I’m loco (loco, loco)?”
Four and a half private rants in, I remembered my own advice as well as the wise words of the uber talented writer/director/producer Dagmar Baumunk of Tomorrow Definitely. She said…
I put my hands on my ears and go:
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah 🙂
She’s adorable. Of course, I did exactly that.
While my voice reverberated in my skull, I had a brilliant idea.
I decided to OD on TLC with the choco. My feeling was, “I could talk about you, or I could choose to act like a queen.”
Bandaids don’t fix bullet holes (thanks Christopher) but I heard that plugging them with cocoa butter and sugar works like magic.
Ooops. My eyes are rolling over in my head and I forgot to offer y’all some.
Hey!
Note: Heavy on the musical references to “Insane in the Brain” by Cypress Hill and “Bad Blood” with Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar.
[i] Angel Kiss Dahlia
Gouache on linen canvas
I absent mindedly brought a palette knife to a paintbrush party and here is the result.
[ii] Glamorous Dahlia
Muscle memory gets me every time. Thank you for viewing.
Where blended charcoal
yields
Passion’s Stone
and zealous labour horizons hold
up silent towers tall and bright
we rise, undaunted,
through the night
₍՞◌′ᵕ‵◌₎♡
Flight | SB
..
[i] Modern
(((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o)))
Text on glossy magazine pages
This is a feedback friendly post, so thank you for your comments.
“Verily I testify, thy violent and wonky misdeed didst wend its way across my tablet. It popped in as I got dressed (as Keith Richards) for the All Hallows’ Eve feast at Hampton Court. The quote you’re after is, “Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs. Yet fools will rush to her door like flies.”
Last month, I was surprised to see the painting below. That’s because a year ago, I’d printed out public domain images of an original Shakespeare manuscript to create guest book pages.
“Illustrated Macbeth” by Hideshi Koshisawa
Visitors to an art exhibition experienced an interactive meta installation by writing comments and notes over the text. It was an experiment, so the pages were destroyed when the exhibition ended.
I think Koshisawa was brave to paint on the pages of an early edition French literature text. (I don’t remember the title but you can ask him). I would ruin a whole book before getting anything done.
With this collage, I wanted a feel for Koshisawa’s process, in reverse. The fictional note was printed on three glossy magazine pages. To create the overlay, I trimmed the images with scissors, cut out and glued image over image, text over text.
[ii] Old timey matte
The lower section was filled in with tape and parts of pages. These lifted the dark tones and highlighted the red building in the background. Finally, I photographed the collage, and processed the image with filters and frames. All done.
Thank you for weighing in. Have a great Wednesday. xo
Categories
One Bright Day, at the Office
[Romance in the stone]
Hello and welcome. We are in the private office of a friend. She is out of town all week so make as much noise as you want. I borrowed the key because she said I could capture a few of her office mates for this story.
[Looking out]
[Flower bear]
Her office decor resembles a zoo in a botanical garden. In winter, the humidifier stays on at full blast and it gets foggy in here. There are creatures of all sizes waiting to meet you. Please watch your step.
[Going somewhere, ladies?]
[Sapphire cat]
[Auditors]
[Open heart]
[“That’s not mine!”]
[Sleeping]
[Office mates]
That’s all for the tour, my friends. I hope you’re not too exhausted from running around in here. Thank you for visiting and have a great week.
(i) Tower
(ii) Descent
(iii) Ascent
＿|￣|○ Requiem for a Throne ＿|￣|○
When Mercy trumpets her light
to anoint our mortal flesh,
shall we drink the last
red drops from this
holiest of Holy Grails?
When the wisest flake of snow
floats down upon the Lord,
astound me with the hope
we will rule all men as one
May Perpetua guide you, Love,
to sit on this gilded Throne
May she raise her sacred hand
and bless us all the World
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･*:*
[ – Requiem for a Tower -]
Escala, from the album Escala
Author’s notes: The recommended soundtrack is Escala’s “Requiem for a Tower”, which is a reorchestrated version of “Lux Aeterna” from the film, Requiem for a Dream. This poem, Requiem for a Throne, draws from the Requiem Mass. I took the photos in a glass tower on October 14. Thank you for visiting.
Saint Joan (Creative Studio) 
You must be logged in to post a comment.