Do you see what I see?

Spring flowers

A bouquet of these flowers has been sitting on my bedside table for the last week. Every morning I smell them and they remind me that it is finally spring. I have fallen in love with these flowers as they start to wither away I thought I would preserve them in this picture and this text. After a little research I found the Greek mythology that the name Narcissus was derived from.

"It all flows from the famous Greek myth about Narcissus, the handsome youth who was granted his great good looks by the Gods. But as in most myths, there was a catch. His beauty was permanent and he was immortal, as long as he never viewed his own reflection. Once, while Narcissus was hunting in the woods, a nubile wood nymph named Echo saw him from her hiding place behind a tree. He was so handsome, she fell desperately in love, but Narcissus spurned her. She was so devastated by his rejection that she wept and wailed, and was ultimately consumed by her love. She pined so that soon all that was left of her was her voice. The prophecy of her name had come true. But the Gods were not pleased. The goddess, Nemesis, heard about poor Echo, and lured Narcissus to a shimmering lake. There in his vain state, he was unable to resist gazing at his own reflection, and fell in love with himself! As he gazed, the divine penalty took effect, and he simply faded away. In his place sprang up the golden flower that bears his name today. Now you know how Daffodils came to be, and also why psychologists warn vain patients about the 'Narcissus complex.' "


ALSO, the first few pages of the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho has a nice little twist to this story and it is on my post-final exam reading list.

\m/


Source

Bring on the sun

It is incredibly inconvenient that the sun comes out here in Michigan at this time of the year. Just when school picks up again for a final surge the flowers start blooming and the roads clear of the white fluffy. I start biking the longer routes and more people start smiling as we cross paths. So I apologize for not updating lately. Talking about bikes, my friend Kevin recently bought a beautiful Bianchi Pista of ebay. I was on the phone with him for most of the last hour of bidding. I have never bought anything from ebay but I had no idea it could be so exciting. There seems to be a lot of technique behind bidding. Some people don't visit the site of the listed item, so that the site meter doesn't run up and draw attention. While others pay for online services that bid for you in the last moments of the alloted bidding time. How ever you go about buying something that site, that moment of surprise and sense of accomplishment is worth the wait.

peace and love

mini canvas

Detroit, MI

Parking structure East Lansing, MI

Graffiti New York

Morill Hall East Lansing, MI


I was at an art gallery this past summer and I was listening to an artist talk about how she looks at paintings on a wall. She usually rushes up to the painting / drawing as close as possible and takes a very macroscopic view on what one part of the art piece looks like. After that she would step back slowly to see how it comes together as a whole.
There are a list of photoblogs that I visit pretty frequently to look for inspiration and also to have goals to work towards. It seems people enjoy macro photography because it is so oten that we just walk by things with out walking up to them. Especially, here at Michigan State Univ. we are surrounded by red brick buildings. It seemed appropriate to examine these mini canvases

Heidleberg

The Heidelber Project

"Graffiti is not vandalism but a beautiful crime"

PHOTO: A stencil I recently made


PHOTO: Light post in New York


PHOTO: Also New York

Thinking back about two summers ago I remember walking around campus late at night black converses and all and spray painting stencils at the most clever places. It was untill one day when I thought that what we did was more along the lines of vandalism than a "beautiful crime". Since then, I haven't thougth of cutting out a stencil, but just recently the idea got sparked up again.

Since then I have been able to look at street art in a different light since my last stencil adventures. Stencil graffiti is categorized under Street Art and according to some people places like Brazil are "problem areas" as far as graffiti is concerned. Of course, when done without the property owner's concent stenciling constitutes as vandalism but most graffiti is on abandoned building reguvinating an area long forgotten.

Book: Graffiti Brazil
-This book was sitting on my friends dresser and I couldn't put it down

Video: Radiohead + Graffiti = LOVE
-Via Libby



heidelberg project SAVED for next post.