Art exhibitions

Hilma af Klint, Tree of life n°5 (c) The Hilma af Klint Foundation

This week I have had the chance to discover two wonderful exhibitions.

One was centered around Hilma af Klint. Considered to be one of the first abstract painters, she painted classical landscapes and portraits for a living, but secretly painted abstracts, under the inspiration of Spirits. Her abstract paintings were revealed to the public 40 years after her death in 1986. She uses a lot of colours and geometrical figures, circles, spirals, triangles... More here.

Peter Doig, Milky Way, (c) courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro Gallery

The other was about Peter Doig. A contemporary artist, he paints a lot of strange landscapes. Watching his work, I had the impression of seing spiritual messages everywhere, as if the landscapes and figures were distorted because seen through the eyes of the soul rather than the physical eyes. I fell in love with "Milky Way" (above) and "Grand Riviere" in which there is a white horse and... ravens ?

More on the artist here (Tate Britain).

Two new Spirit Dolls

This is "Dream Girl", she was inspired to me by recent discussions with friends still looking for their soul mate. She is not the Goddess of Love, but she is a Spirit that will help us going through the jungle and dirt of our hearts so that we can face our inner truths, and find happiness.

She is made from a child's sari (which I bought in Pondichery), because often the wounds of our childhood prevent us making healthy choices even though we want to. Her hair is untidy, because she is a wild and free Spirit, or maybe the Lady is a tramp who just doesn't care about social conventions and lies. She is generous (she has "her heart on her hand" as we say in French). She is a filmbuff ; she has a rosebud from Citizen Kane - we all have our secrets - and seashells from Identification of a Woman - I never really understood what that film is about but there are great moments in it. She knows her Shakespeare : "If music be the food of love, play on". She wears flowers because I think she likes to visit Tahiti as often as she can. And she has a rose quartz chip for emotional balance.

I'm quite proud because I've succeeded in doing a picot edging for the first time.

A now for something completely different, "Arghhh - Working on frustration", which is still in progress :o)

Lazy Sunday

Crédits : 1. La maison rose de la Butte Montmartre, 2. Feuilles, 3. café crème

It has been a very lazy Sunday for me, although I managed to finish a spirit doll called Dream Girl but can't show her off because my camera is travelling around Germany this week.

I have been looking for bead inspiration on the web and found Svetlana's wonderful blog which in turn lead me to this : Tatiana Ekimova's incredible collection for the 2007 Odessa Fashion Show ! Correction on the previous meme ; if I had a lot of money, I'd definitely buy this dress ! And I'd wear it.

Just for fun : my Flickr using French words :o)

Photograph credits :
1. Hélène Nana, 2. Morning baguettes, 3. series # 1 - brick wall, 4. rose, 5. Gabriel Byrne, 6. vintage tea set with cupcake, 7. Top of the mountain!, 8. Revisiting the Idea of a Fraisier — Idée de fraisier revisité, 9. pancarte paumée, 10. 06-2007 - DSC09966 - Détails carrés de nappe !, 11. PhotonQ-Woman 's Thoughts aKa Complex Memetics, 12. mademoiselle h

It seems I'm more romantic when I talk French :o)
However I keep wondering why I can't find a French celebrity crush...

How switching language can change your personality

I have recently read in the Press a news that delighted me because it proves what I have known for a long time ; a bi-cultural person reacts differentely to a situation depending on the language he/she is using.

I have always suspected that I was a happier person when I spoke English. In the days when I was badly depressed, I resorted to reading English speaking self help books and it did wonders for me.

New release here.

The Flickr Game

I am following Tally's suggestion to play the Flickr Game

Here are the rules:
Go to flickr.com
Type into the search the answer to the following questions.
Choose a picture only from the first page that opens.
Copy the url of the picture and
paste it into the mosaic maker.
You than can upload your mosaic to flickr and/or whatever you got.

Here are the questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

I have been quite surprised by the results that came up for my answers, there was a certain truth and synchronicities in these. For example, I kept getting images relating to India, and the same funny little dog appeared 3 or 4 times (I am from the Dog sign in the Chinese astrology). We did this for my boyfriend, and guess what... half-naked women kept popping up grrr...

However when I typed the name of my highschool "Lycée François Premier", I was appalled, for what came up were the images of a recent riot in a highschool visited by our current prime minister François Fillon. France is in a really bad shape at the moment. Look here.

And here are the credits for the pictures :

1. vernissage exposition helene schmitz, 2. paal-payasam-1, 3. L'Elephant sur l'Ile phénoménale, 4. Bosque by Twilight Star Trails, 5. ShahRukh Khan, 6. Tea Corner..., 7. What does the future hold?, 8. Sticky date toffee pudding..., 9. dandy drop, 10. 25 of April Bridge, 11. abandonview.lab.studio.clusterfuck, 12. Beija-flor Tesoura (Eupetomena macroura) - Swallow-tailed Hummingbird 8 479 - 10