San Giovanni Battista by Mario Botta

I am really moved to go here:

Switzerland : Ticino Mogno village church San Giovanni Battista designed by Mario Botta

more great images here

and the architect Mario Botta's other funky work

including this: 

WELLNESS CENTRE “BERGOASE”, AROSA, SWITZERLAND 2003-2006

see some of his sketches here

I've also been dying to go to Lausanne. This is what the journey looks like by bicycle:

Kim Holtermand

Sunset Over River Niger

listening to a BBC global newscast, the correspondent in Mali was taking a moment to witness the sunset over the river Niger citing it as one of the most beautiful sights he's seen. I was curious to see the effect of this particular couché du soleil. Here are some of the images. I would love to see this. And perhaps bring some tourism back to the area that has been abandoned by international visitors due to the  unrest in the country.

festival

I love these that show the silhouette of the Fishermen, which is the prominent economy of the river.

last hours

The river Niger has its source in Guinea and runs North through the Sahara (Mali, Niger, the border of Benin) before roaming back down to the Atlantic in Nigeria

labrador

for some reason this lovely wood grain makes me think of labrador retriever..

birds of a feather

More Research in color, mood and form

So much Research!

...Just the beginning, as one good image always leads to several more- and some images, even if they are good, are just not quite right. So refining the idea through images is a extensive project. but one of the best parts of the creative process!

Great Big Blue

The Great Big blueness
around the little brown boat
was a carpet of ripples and waves and foam
concealing the world beneath

The wake of the little brown boat
left open a smooth passageway
into the great deep blue that expanded out below

The Great Big blue sky
reflected onto the ripples and waves and foam
the ocean disguised to resemble the
great big expanse of the open air above

the sky which is never ending and infinite
while the depth of the oceans are tangible
and defined by the earth's core

its shores are navigable and discovered
while the sky's beginning is as illusive as the horizon
and its territory is the final frontier

In the morning, it was a bright and quiet time.
With no others, but, a splash in the pond.
"Hello friend," came a call. "Are the fish biting
this fine morning?"
"Come have a seat and we can answer together."
They sat peacefully and kept their senses all
in the tips of their fingers.

"Good morning, sirs," accompanied the
soft sound of grass underneath advancing feet.
"Fine fishermen, may I share the shade
of this noble tree with you?"
"Gladly. Please, sit. But we must insist
that you keep still as a the trunk of that tree
so as not to scare the fish away."

Some time of silence and quiet passed
without the sound of any man
not even the companions along the water's edge.

"I sense your effort, kind sirs, to send your senses
to the tips of your fingers so as not to miss
the slightest nibble from your aquatic prey.
But I must insist that in your patience, you
leave just enough sense up here
to enjoy this magnificent day."

Vanitas

 utilitarian, fragile, manual, natural, organic, manufactured, sheer, dense...

photographic Still Life images that I am strongly drawn to. see more in the still life section on his website:

Dan Mosher Long

Liam Stevens

These great landscape drawings invite you to imagine the narrative unfolding inside.
See more of Liam Stevens' work on his website

Akseli Gallen-Kallela

this amazing artwork by Askeli Gallen-Kallela, all done around the end of the 19th century, are unlike anything I've seen as a body of work. And I'm always thrilled to discover a new artist who was not covered in any of many art history classes. While it is a current exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay that brought him under my radar, I have not yet gone to see the pieces in person.

The settings, the subject matter, the compositions, all are unique and show a distinctive way the artist saw the world. It is the part of art that cannot be taught, but is instinctive. I am grateful for a new source of inspiration in mood, color, and atmosphere. I hope you enjoy.

Badlands

The badlands

Into the badlands the bad man ran

Hiding out from the hero’s of the lawless land

Canyon roads deep and narrow

Here the hawks eat the sparrow

Diving down to the depths of the ravines

Like the veins of his body

Pumping blood quickly, hotly

the system of trails branched away.

Deeper in he goes, more hidden, he knows

To evade capture and get away clean.

Kicks the sides of his horse

Thick skin but it hurts

The dust kicks up horseshoes a’ clicking

Seeing clouds up ahead

Through the rocks of dusty red

The sheriff looked up just in time.

Badge glints in the sun

Grit inscribed on his gun

His hat casting shadow o’er his eyes

He closed in on his man

Knowing time’s no one’s friend

with a rope wrangled him to the ground

one more vanquished bad man

in the long list of them

grit prevails with the sheriff around

Wintertime on A lake in Norway

four times per year

the provisions are delivered

four times a year 

once in dead cold

the roads are closed

and a boat's not an option

the lake is now ice

with a coating of snow

travel 'cross ice 

leaving tracks not to follow

they are a caution 

someone's passed here before

 

the sack on a sled

efficient and agile

at the start you say

I could have taken more

In the refuge oasis

 the island of tress

you can't stay too long

you feel safe, you won't leave

the wind may be biting

advance past the tree line

just think of arriving

on the far side

it seems too distant

with your heavy load

but you've done it before

knowing that's all you need

take the first step

where the ice isn't worn down

across to the clearing

with the old crooked tree

 

deliver the wares

warm up your feet

start plans for next time

prepare once again to leave 

Spring 2013...research begins

 coruscation...

Stream of consciousness expanding on the visuals supplied, and try to verbalize the images in my mind. 

The wings, blues, greys, wind, lightness, silhouettes, ovals, owls, wind, raincoat, umbrella, water drops, ocean, stormy grey water, rough seas, sea/horizon/sky/clouds=tulle/silk/lace/water resistant, Swarovski, wind, feathers, sparkle, glint, two of a feather, crane, slender, elongate, luster, flutter...coruscation

 

in preparation for the Spring 2013 collection, here is the first set of research images

hidden in the landscape...

...the house smelled earthy and moist. From the inside you could see out over the lake, vast and open to the unbounded sky, almost forgetting the confinement of your vantage point, embedded into the hillside. Protected by the stones and reinforced wood panels lining the walls. The front and back door led out to two different worlds. One to the enclosed garden and the vista of green grass and wildflowers beyond the cultivated patch, and the other towards the misty lake giving access to the lands beyond via the canoe that was kept down by the wooden dock. It was the most lush season of the year, which meant many days of cloud cover and rain. And the wait for the flowers to bloom from the bright, yellow-green sprouts that emerged boldly from the protection of their own earthy enclose...

you know what you need to do next...

...the man said.

but the world is too big, she thought to herself, lying on her back looking up at a sky that seemed either right in front of her face, about to crush her into the field in which she lay, or it was so far away that the illusion of it's mass was only a fabrication of her imagination, which, as it happens, fabricated a lot of things. I know what I need to do next, she thought to herself. And the sky diffused into an innumerable number of little invisible particles that she breathed in deep so she had a part of the big limitless sky inside herself. I know what I need to do next. The thought repeated over again in her head. After I'm done laying here with the sky . . .

journey to the lava-fall

 

...from where she stood the terrain looked lush and green, but she knew the perils of the journey. To make it back safely, she would have to take the short cut under the waterfall. Her only chance would be just as the sun set, when its rays turned the water hot orange, like lava spilling over the edge of the towering wall of rock, and the passageway opened. She saw the fading light of the sun behind the cloud cover. it was quickly approaching the line of the mountain tops on its way past the horizon into night. It was time to hurry...

Tom Thomson

TOM THOMSON OF THE CANADIAN GROUP OF SEVEN-
LOVE THIS WORK AND THE REST OF THE GROUP TO BE FEATURED LATER

Ernst Haeckel

Mixing art and Science can be a beautiful thing:
From Art Forms of Nature  by Ernst Haeekel released at the turn of the 20th century- These illustrations are based off of Haeckel's notes and sketches, and hugely influenced the science of documenting species, and also the artists of the era- namely the art nouveau movement. Nature is capable of the most simple, and the most complex of phenomenons- and all art can do is try to recreate the same kind of harmony that nature produces by instinct and grand design.
see the whole work here (in German)
Images via Wikipedia