Pakistan ...

Well, I promised more Pakistan photos, so here goes! The only problem is that I am scanning prints and that is not working very well. The prints of these actually came out beautifully and they are pretty vivid with blues and turquoise but the saturation here is all blending together. Anyway, they were taken with my favorite camera, an old manual 1970s 35mm Minolta. The other Pakistan photos are all taken with the same camera as well.

These were taken after leaving Islamabad, heading Northeast to Kaghan (in the previous post.) I will ask my Dad if he knows exactly where. This kid was adorable and happy to be photographed, as I recall. We saw this place and had to pull off the road. (That happened a lot.)

Pakistan 1997

The earth has disappeared beneath my feet,

Illusion fled from all my ecstasy.

Now like a radiant sky creature

God keeps opening.

God keeps opening

Inside of Me.

~Hafiz

Stay close to any sounds that make you glad you are alive.

~Hafiz

I found this (below) on Youtube.

One of the voices is Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn, the world renowned Pakistani Musician,

who mostly sang Sufi devotional music. He had a six octave range and was

considered one of the greatest singers ever recorded.

He is also on one of my all time favorite soundtracks,

Passion: Music for The Last Temptation of Christ with Peter Gabriel.

He passed away in 1997.

Have a fabulous week!! I will be studying for my Italian oral exam, writing a paper on the film Malena and of course catching up on my art history. We are now in the "Enlightenment" (though it doesn't feel like it!)

Blessings and light!

Hotel Posa Posa ~ Positano

This is Hotel Posa Posa in Positano. I guess the photos sort of speak for themselves. The view is obviously amazing but so are the people who work there, as well as the food in the restaurant! I will never forget this place, plus it's also the only place I've stayed in Italy where I had a breakfast where my blood sugar didn't take a nose dive by 10:30. Don't get me wrong, I still had my cappuccino and ate from the table of 20 pastries but this girl needs protein! (Thanks for the wonderful omlettes Stefano!)

When we arrived and I saw the view from the hotel room for the first time, my jaw dropped. Stunning. Quite possibly the best view ever! That night we had a beautiful dinner there (at the hotel) of sauteed fresh fish with tomatoes and olives, a beautiful vino rosso and of course topped off with limoncello. (The beginning of my love affair with limoncello!) I think I was too blissed out that first night to take any pictures. Apologies!

The sun never says to the earth

'You owe me.'

Look what happens with a love like that.

It lights up the whole sky.

~Hafiz

View from the room ...

From the street below the hotel ...

Hope you are having a creative and joyful week!

More Positano and Amalfi to come!

Drawings again ...

Finally posting some drawings again. This is Maude.  She's French. What you can't see in these  pictures is that women the world over have surgeries to look like Maude ... her figure is like something that you would see carved in marble.

Maybe in my next life.  

October 2009

October 2009

Time to share more work of the Sufi poet Hafiz... this is just an excerpt.

All the Hemispheres

Leave the familiar a while.

Let your senses and body stretch out ...

Change rooms in your mind for a day.

All the hemispheres in existence 

Lie beside an equator

In your heart ...

from The Subject Tonight is Love:

60 Wild and Sweet Poems of Hafiz

Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

For more Hafiz Poetry... go HERE

Blue Figures

After a trip to a drawing exhibit at The Getty Center last year I went through my blue period.  I'd seen a few drawings on gorgeous blue paper and immediately I had to run over to Blick and go through all the blues before my next drawing session. My favorite was a piece from the Getty's permanent collection by by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, Study of a Female Nude from about 1800.  She is unbelievably lovely! 

Anyway, you can see I found my blue paper. As I recall the model actually passed out in this pose!

This place where you are right now,

God circled on a map for you.

~Hafiz

Figures

This was a photo request from my sister Penny of Hercules and I at The Metropolitan Museum of Art when they opened the new antiquities wing. It is from April of two years ago. I miss New York! I am ready for trip East ...

from The Subject Tonight is Love

60 Wild and Sweet Poems

of

HAFIZ

We are the guardians of His Beauty.

We are the protectors

Of the Sun.

There is only one reason

We have followed God into this world:

To encourage laughter, freedom, dance

And love....

...Every man, plant and creature in Existence,

Every woman, child, vein and note

Is a servant of our Beloved~

A harbinger of joy,

The harbinger of

Light.

I have been working so much in sepia tones I thought it was time to break out. I am loving purple and what it represents spiritually and historically. I also did a series of blue pieces which aren't "pretty" but they feel very emotional to me. Those will be up soon!