The Spoiled

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Sketching at Bassam II {and two poems}

I want to share these two poems by Ilyas Abu Shabaku, which were given to me as a gift. Poetry is a candle in a dark room: our job in this life may just be to burn as bright as torches, as bright and as alive and loud as we can, for each glorious day we have [...]

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Dispatches from Vladivostok: Architecture, Poetry, the Oneiric, the Grotesque

  John Hejduk has been called one of the most influential architects and educators of our time.. He was also a poet, an artist and the Dean of the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of the uber-prestigious Cooper Union in New York. I am reviewing couple of his books, Vladivostok and The Mask of [...]

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A Time to Write

It is November, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and  National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). The goal of the first is to write a novel of 50,000 words in the next 30 days, by sticking to a schedule of 1667 words per day. If you have been thinking about writing for a while, and completing that [...]

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Les Mots Et L’Amour {Words and Love}

From St Loup’s secrets & lies: All you have to do is take these lies and make them true… …manier les mots, les soupeser, en explorer le sens, es une manière de faire l’amour, surtout lorsque ce qu’on écrit est inspiré par quelqu’un, ou promis à quelqu’un. Marguerite Yourcenar Quoi? L’Éternité, Paris, Gallimard, 1988, p. [...]

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Queen Califia’s Magical Garden {Continued}

Lately, I’ve favored the watercolor and pencil technique, but want to get back to working with markers. I found these two great tutorials on marker renderings from my blog friend and Urban Sketcher extraordinaire Suzanne Cabrera at An [Open] Sketchbook: can’t wait to share them with my students! { Tutorial 1: Furniture/Fabric } { Tutorial [...]

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Working with Color

Do you remember Niki St. Phalle’s ‘Queen Califia’s Magical Garden’? Well, I went back with my students for some loose watercolor and pencil renderings.

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Magritte and Surrealist Architecture

In my search, I stumbled upon Myriam Mahiques, who shares some thoughts on Magritte, and Immateriality in Painting and Architecture. Instances of Surrealist Architecture and Urban Design: Click on the images for more details and to see source. Book : Surrealism and Architecture edited by Thomas Mical

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Pens and (needful) Things

So you already know I heart Japanese Stationery stores. Here are more lovely pens and things from Jetpens. Some of these, like rubber stamps – or writing letters sealed with rubber stamps- don’t exactly fit my life right now, but isn’t it fun to imagine such settings? Thanks go to my (enabling)  friend Andy who [...]

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Défaillance, or August Blues

We interrupt this broadcast due to a bout of homesickness and wanderlust. The Pacific is, to paraphrase Coleridge, ‘ Water, water everywhere (and not a drop to swim in)’.

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Rear Facing Window

From Rear Facing Window Alfred Hitchcock Lisa: I wish I were creative. Jeff: You are. You’re great at creating difficult situations.

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Beginnings…and quotes for beginnings

Here are some quotes that are inspiring me these days: “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Le Petit Prince From Becoming Minimalist { thankyou Andy} “What we think or [...]

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SoCal – E>< : Exploratory Design Workshop

Something eye-opening occurred at my school yesterday. I attended the exhibit for SoCal -Ex : Exploratory Design Workshop, completed by Professor Hector Perez and his students. Here are the specific of the Workshop: 6 Explorers Andrea Benavides/Alfredo Melly/Henry Palomino/Charles Santamaria/Nancy Tariga 25 Days July 12-August 5 10 Field Trips San Diego/La Jolla/Del Mar/San Juan Capistrano/Los Angeles/Santa [...]

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Chairs, Chairs, Chairs (on Coffee)

Another exercise with  ‘Drawing on the Righ Side of the Brain’.  By drawing the space, not the chair, the proportions were incredibly accurate in all drawings.  The drawings can be read as Nolli Maps of imaginary cities, we can see piazzas, palazzi…we can see perspective, spatial configurations/plans, abstract paintings… I love the ambivalent water medium, [...]

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Archeological Find

The Sun By Mary Oliver Have you ever seen anything in your life more wonderful than the way the sun, every evening, relaxed and easy, floats toward the horizon and into the clouds or the hills, or the rumpled sea, and is gone– and how it slides again out of the blackness, every morning, on [...]

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Ode to Pens

The Man with Many Pens by Jonathan Wells With one he wrote a number so beautiful it lasted forever in the legends of numbers. With another he described the martyrs’ feet as they marched past the weeping stones and cypresses, watched by their fathers. He used one as a silver wand to lift a trout [...]

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Right Brain Drawing and Learning to See

I hope everyone’s having a fabulous beginning of August. I am really trying. I plan to go to some movie under the stars, or at the park, or on a roof, like Cinema Paradiso. A good black and white movie, preferably a noir Hitchcock, would be the cat’s meow. I am officially suffering from wanderlust.  [...]

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The Anti-Mall

Happy August! Ever the optimist, here is the first post of the month. I’m giving a shot at posting daily (again), we’ll see how it goes. Here is the happy Nablopomo August Badge. The theme of this month is ‘Green’.  For me, it will mean renewal more than sustainability (a sort of spa for the [...]

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Summertime [the living is easy] :Yosemite, Plen Air Sketching and Reckless Reading

Hello Hello! Two weeks zipped by since my last  from San Francisco and I have been reveling in summer outdoor activities, traveling,  and getting ready for the new summer quarter.  California blooms in this season, and the living is easy. Days with art-dates, writing, and regularly producing and  posting new work, though, always make me [...]

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Yoga and Pablo Neruda

Yoga is moving meditation. Feel your body melt on the ground. Feel your muscles, your bones dissolving into the ground. Be thankful for this time. The gratitude you feel spreads from your heart to your entire being, and radiates towards everyone around you. Mercedes, Yoga instructor and, apparently, Rockstar in a band- I attended her [...]

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Desk Crit [The Importance of Sketching II]

Drawing is thinking. Hand-eye coordination is essential not only to accurately render what you see, but to bring forth and execute what you see in your mind’s eye, i.e designing. I read once that we should use the word ‘draw’ as in ‘drawing information’, as from a well. To draw a building  or space is [...]

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Mango (della gelosia)

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Sections of the Brokenhearted [Find another Sun]

Soundtrack of  ‘Apart’ Soundtrack of  ‘The Center cannot hold’ Soundtrack of ‘Spooning (one. is broken)’ More on Gordon Matta-Clark

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In Studio at 12 AM

NaBloPoMo writing prompt of today: What is your favorite poem? #1 By the Ionian sea You pick fresh fruit and seeds From orchard and underwood nearby I fetch seashells Starshaped For you I build a nest of leaves– We spend warm nights with street artists Flame-eaters and sages Fall asleep with fire Yours and mine [...]

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It’s June. It’s Good. NaBloPoMo.

Happy June! I hope the long weekend was restful and re-newing for all. I was fortunate enough to enjoy the beautiful weather in San Diego, and explore the Torrey Pines coast and beaches, and hike a cliff (!) For someone like me , a city creature, who believes in the great indoors, this is no [...]

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