Community Murals

"Muralfarm.org is an interactive database showcasing the thousands of community murals produced by the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. We welcome you to search and explore the murals that make up the largest outdoor art gallery in the world, and have transformed Philadelphia into "The City of Murals.""

http://www.muralfarm.org/Muralfarm/Home.aspx

http://www.muralarts.org/whatwedo/community/

"I've seen murals bring people together. They don't solve all of a neighborhood's problems, but they can bring new life and energy to the people who live there. They can be a catalyst for change."

—Donald Gensler, Muralist

A Good Girl

There was a woman who had a very clear memory of being two or three years old.

She remembered that one morning she had a thought that THIS  his was a moment in her life when she had not yet done anything that hurt anyone else.

"If only I could stay this way for the rest of my life," she said. "Maybe I can figure out a way to stay 'good.'"

Was it all downhill from there? Who can judge.

That woman does not know right from wrong these days.

She spends her days trying to find the truth of the matter.

I wish her good fortune in her pursuit, because I have great compassion for her dilemma, as well as amazement at the clarity of her memory.

"The Brothers Bloom"

I loved the movie, "Brick," which made me interested to see what the next movie Rian Johnson directed might be like.

Looks like an amusing romp - much lighter than its younger brother; we shall see.

There is a larger, high-res version of the first 7 minutes of the film (with voice-over narration in part) and this same trailer here too, should you be interested:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/dor/objects/859379/brothers_bloom/videos/brothersbloom_2_051109.html

Ron Mueck's Sculpture in Brooklyn

A friend sent me these photographs from an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum.

I'm not sure exactly when the exhibit took place

Here is the information about the artist, Ron Mueck:

"Ron Mueck is a London-based photo-realist artist. Born in Melbourne , Australia, to parents who were toy makers, he labored on children's television shows for 15 years before working in special effects for such films as Labyrinth, a 1986 fantasy epic starring David Bowie.
 
Eventually Mueck concluded that photography pretty much destroys the physical presence of the original object, and so he turned to fine art and sculpture. In the early 1990's, still in his advertising days, Mueck was commissioned to make something highly realistic, and was wondering what material would do the trick. Latex was the usual, but he wanted something harder, more precise. Luckily, he saw a little architectural decor on the wall of a boutique and inquired as to the nice, pink stuff's nature. Fiberglass resin was the answer, and Mueck has made it his bronze and marble ever since.
 
His work is lifelike but not life size, and being face to face with the tiny, gossiping Two Women (2005) or the monumental woman In Bed (2005) is an unforgettable experience."

Is there anybody.... out there? (Pink Floyd, "The Wall")

...from the album, "Relics" - 1971

I went to see "The Wall' performed in NYC.
The band came out after the stage-constructed earthquake
Tore down the wall
All in white, playing flutes. In a single line of linen.
After all that darkness, bitterness, and self-loathing,
Lightness and sweet tones.

I had an argument with an old friend after seeing the movie a couple of years afterward.
This was when it first came out, almost 30 years ago.
She said it was not worth seeing things that dark.
I said you had to recognize where things really were in order to move forward.
I feel bad that we argued, still to this day.
And don't know whether either was right, if any.
Still.

Thirty years, but maybe it's just not knowing today.
I've crossed into a different state with this flu.
Its borders have walls.
And I can't see beyond, but try to look up.

The sky is open, and continues...
We can take this lesson and go whichever way
We want.

Migration


"Migration" by Phillipe Bourguignon

What calls us home?
What route do we travel?
How do we find the way?
Like butterflies, birds, whales, and others....
There is something in us - a compass.
Traveling with the seasons.
Salmon go back to the beginning;
Many die along the way.
I think we will all make it
One day.

Looking Up Toward the Water's Surface

"Flowers Floating on Surface of Sea with Tropical Fish Swimming Below" by Aflo


http://www.ascensiongateway.com/quotes/subject/consciousness/index.htm

-From the living fountain of instinct flows everything that is creative; hence the unconscious is not merely conditioned by history, but is the very source of the creative impulse. It is like Nature herself - prodigiously conservative, and yet transcending her own historical conditions in her acts of creation...     ~Carl Jung

-The unconscious has no time. There is not trouble about time in the unconscious. Part of our psyche is not in time and not in space. They are only an illusion, time and space, and so in a certain part of our psyche time does not exist at all.   ~Carl Jung

-I think that we are starting to get much more conscious about, you know, the importance of the spiritual path, and we are fulfilling it by paying attention to ourselves.   ~Paulo Coelho

... and... flip side or all the same:

-This much is certain: when a man is happy, happy to the core and root of beatitude, he is no longer conscious of himself or anything else.      ~Meister Eckhart

Earlier Than I Think


"The Conscious Existence"

I'm so used to automatically thinking of lateness;
That it's late by condition;
Too late to do anything, change anything, make things better.
Now I see that I have this minute of Worry to use.
It's earlier than I think.
By comparison.
I wonder what I will do with it?
There's so much to look forward to in this moment.
Worry is a cruel taskmaster.
You sign its dotted line on imaginary paper,
and you follow the shadow.
It sucks up your life's force
But the sun is always out, above the cloud.
The shadow is a mirage.
Life is good.
I am life looking at itself in wonder.

Makes Sense to Me, Given the Story...

" ... the beautifully written roll containing the second book of the Iliad
that archeologists discovered placed under the head of the mummy of a
woman."
                                                                  —LIONEL CASSON