Work in Progress II

   

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Thinking Deconstructivism in a Canyon

” In recent years , the modern understanding of social responsibility as functional program has been superseded by a concern for context. But contextualism has been used as an excuse for mediocrity, for a dumb servility within the familiar. Since deconstructivist architecture seeks the unfamiliar within the familiar, it displaces the context rather than acquiesce [...]

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The Rose of Versailles

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Love and the Sea

“Inside a lover’s heart there’s another world, and yet another.”         Love         rests on no foundation.         It is an endless ocean,         with no beginning or end.         Imagine,         a suspended ocean,         riding on a cushion of            ancient secrets.         All souls have drowned in it,        and now dwell [...]

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Ballerina

Nets To Rietta Wallenda Tightrope acrobats dance above safety nets (or not) Nerves taut like violin chords Pulsing on neck, tendons stiff. / The fisherman spreads his father’s nets Repaired a thousand times, damaged again He sews his wounds on the beach Fastens the corks The old man with the young eyes who listens to [...]

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Tales of Salt Cities

“Here is a splendid volume from the Terry Gillam school of fictional photography… The book comes in a sturdy slipcase and features complex landscapes, painstakingly created, and digitally peopled by actors playing out scenes which conjure up a mystical Middle Eastern civilisation. Enigmatic, but beautiful.” AG Magazine “This is a beautifully structured text with an [...]

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Rain of Frogs [fragments, poems, movie lines]

    The Pretty Parking Lot   I have dreamt of perfect poems faded like dewdrops upon awakening   About mice and buildings built by men   Cities are sentences that haunt me   Book thieves, foreign movies… the line is thin between memories and reverie   The fog has lifted the rain felt soft [...]

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Drawn Resolutions (and calling for mandatory poetry)

  As designers, architects, artists, we use the ability to first visualize then communicate  a desired outcome. Implementation means having the courage, discipline and perseverance  to  bring that vision into the physical realm. I love to write, and to write lists, but this year I am doing something different with my 2011 resolutions. I am drawing them. It [...]

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Love Quatraine

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Hybrid Notes : Bjarke Ingels. San Diego. 02.25.2011

Bjarke Ingels came to speak to our school Friday night. The venue was the Museum of Natural History in scenic Balboa Park. I am still blown away by the lecture and, more importantly, the message. It was truly (r)evolutionary.  The fact that BIG’s insanely brilliant concepts not only get built but a) give back to [...]

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The Flâneur: A Radical-Chic Icon

” There was the pedestrian who wedged himself into the crowd, but there was also the flâneur who demanded elbow room and was unwilling to forego the life of the gentleman of leisure. His leisurely appearance as a personality is his protest against the division of labour which makes people into specialists. It was also [...]

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Dispatches from Milano: Sketching and Card Making

 In the monastery adjacent this church, just a few minutes’ stroll from my house, one can find Leonardo Da Vinci’s ’Last Supper’. The apse (widely attributed to Donato Bramante, and dated around 1490) is significant as it signals a crucial transition from the Late Gothic style of the nave to a splendid Northern Italian Renaissance in the [...]

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Welcome to my Piazza, my outdoor living room.

This is my piazza, do you want to join me? We can walk inside the Battistero and talk about Islamic influences in the architecture of the Rinascimento in Firenze…or maybe just stroll about like tourists. Let’s take that via,the one on the left, do you want to come with me? Every time I consider  imaginary [...]

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Fragments of Dreams

This has started to be a weekly blog, and I am not too happy about it. This Quarter has been so intense in a stupendous way: I am involved in a myriad of exciting projects at the school and became involved in new committees – and that has meant less free time, but an overall [...]

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XRay of my Brain II

My second board for the faculty display wall. I now have a list of new art to add to my portfolio tabs, as this was a great opportunity to curate my artwork. It feels great to be done (for now). Happy Halloween!

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Steven Holl: Sketches, Watercolors, Collages

All images are from a research project completed by my student, Mariam Thomas, on Architects as Artists and their rendering/design techniques. The relationship between architecture and art, and the study of practitioners who are also artists (with the mindframe of artists), whose design process transcends design practices and pragmatism to include enlightment, discoveries and art- wonderings [...]

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Chiaroscuro Truths (Occhi Blu Capelli Neri)

  The measure of a good book is its ability to haunt us. I have been delinquent; the past few days’ in-between moments, usually dedicated to art and this blog, stolen away by a classic charmer of a book, Jane Eyre. Yet I have been thinking, almost pining, for another book –and the time and the place [...]

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Imaginaire : an evening with Magritte (and colors)

After some meetings today I stopped by the library, Futo coffee in hand, and indulged in my favorite Architecture periodicals: Domus, Architectural Review and Harvard Design Magazine. An article on Surrealist Houses launched an expansive search on the Architecture of René Magritte; will share some of the findings here. I am also thinking about watercolor [...]

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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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Commissioned Painting | Graphic Composition

My client gave me this card and asked me to create a composition based on the flower/butterfly graphics. I first mixed in the colors for the purple background my client wanted, then drew the graphic motifs with black grease pencil, went over with white pastels, only to realize that the black was not going to [...]

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Jealousy Ouvertures

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Waiting for Godot

What have you been doing? I’ve been reading about Utopian Architecture and speaking Art with my wonderful students. I’ve been breaking LCD monitors and buying inferior ones on Craigslist (which does not have a return policy). I have decluttered my place, simplified my life (hello facebook/Big Brother withdrawals), embraced yoga and precariousness. I have been [...]

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The Day of Love

Happy San Valentino! Here are some card designs I have been playing with, let me know if you would like a hi-res version, and  which one I should put in my future etsy print shop. Finally, I have been listening to my Buddha Bar CD’s today, and in Buddha Bar II there is a Rumi [...]

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Imagine…

I have been observing and pondering the gossamer pieces, and more and more forms appear to be floating, swaying as if under water. A benign medusa of sort. I would like to try my hand at creating a video with this images, and simulate motion. The only videos I’ve done are 3D animations, so working [...]

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Color Varietals and Applied Arts

  Influenced by my new find, Applied Arts – Canada’s Visual Communication Magazine I wanted to try my hand at product placing, color iterations and offsetting, a great Photoshop tool that I am sure all of you in Graphic and Interior Design know and love, but that is seldom used in Architecture applications (we specialize [...]

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Digital ReadyMades

I hope everyone was able to enjoy domesticity during the just past holiday. I indulged my inner  domestic goddess by cooking a pretty good ‘Pasta al Forno’, which actually gets better two days after baking, keeps well in the fridge and will feed you for half a week! I have also been surfing the web [...]

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Persimmons and Patterns

    I have been involved in few art and architecture related events lately , among them a wonderful sunday visit to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles- of which more next.  Meanwhile, Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos came and went, and the persimmon tree in the yard has been heavy with wonderful, golden [...]

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Of Fragments, inspiration, and being remarkable.

F R A G M E N T S is a series that I am starting to ‘salvage’ pieces of artworks in my digital trunk. I sometimes find old artwork that, while it may not work perfectly on the whole, still contains interesting textures or details. The image above is part of a larger digital [...]

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Digital Coffee with Mussolini

Terragni, Casa Del Fascio, Como, 1932 As part of the exploration in coloring with coffee, I wanted to experiment with overlaying digital sepia tones to previously drawn sketches.  The building above is Terragni’s Casa Del Fascio. Terragni is often overlooked as one of the pre-eminent modern architects in Italy, mainly because it has been hard [...]

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