What a beautiful place! From rq, click for full size.
© rq, all rights reserved.
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
What a beautiful place! From rq, click for full size.
© rq, all rights reserved.
Am I Paris ? from Redha Medjellekh on Vimeo.
Oh, I could just watch this over and over again. Yeah, I’m going to do just that. Absolutely grand!
Warms the heart, it does. You can see and read much more here.
Selected character studies, oil on board, dimesions variable. All images courtesy the artist and Paul Kassman Gallery. (Click for full size!)
In a performance at the Metropolitan Opera and a parallel gallery exhibit, artist Mark Ryden imbibes his sugary design aesthetic through costume and fashion prints. In his latest venture, the Portland-based artist creates classic, painterly pastel works with a childlike fantasy.
The art show, The Art of Whipped Cream, opening in May at Paul Kasmin Gallery in NYC, features the final realizations of each costume from the opera, Whipped Cream, a graceful choreographed feat by Alexei Ratmanksy. His illustrations encompass the bedtime dreams of prima ballerinas, pink, and lots of candy and pastries. Ryden’s merry band of misfits includes a smiling half-dragon, half-muppet creature, and tiny humans masquerading as multilayered cakes. The two-dimensional drawings at Paul Kasmin are rendered in oil on board and graphite on paper.
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Mark Ryden’s solo art exhibit, The Art of Whipped Cream, shows at Paul Kassman, May 20–July 21, 2017. Find more information about the show, here. Purchase tickets for the ballet, Whipped Cream, taking place at the Metropolitan Opera House, here.
A ballet about the plight of refugees, commissioned for the Royal Opera House, has been showered with five star reviews and described with words like potent and sombre. It’s the work of the Canadian Crystal Pite who has built a reputation as one of the most respected choreographers of her generation – and who is the first woman to have created a new work for the Royal Ballet in almost two decades. It’s titled ‘Flight Pattern’ and Kirsty Wark went to speak to her about using dance to engage in a difficult harrowing subject.
Beautiful and so very poignant. I wish I could see this in person.
Antoine Hunter is the director and founder of the Urban Jazz Dance Company. There are a couple of great articles about Mr. Hunter, one, two.
You can read about all this music, and more, at ICMN.
Oren Lyons is a faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, Onondaga Council of Chiefs, Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy) and a longtime international indigenous rights and sovereignty activist.
Accompanying article at ICTMN.
We’ll start with Joy, a photo from Giliell, Weihnachtsfeier (Christmas Party). Such a wonderful moment, and shows what concern, care, and inclusion can mean to refugees, who are in serious need of all those things, from everyone. Many hugs to Giliell and all her colleagues, who make life better for people. Looking at this photo, I put on A Tribe Called Red and a host of wačipi music, and started dancing.
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
Next up, we move to Poland, and this lovely, poignant ad, which addresses the fact that so very many families are now separated and very far away from one another:
There’s an article about it here.
From there, we go to London, where the owners of a restaurant decided no one should be alone on Christmas day, and they shouldn’t have to pay for a meal, either.
Restaurant manager Irsan Can Genc told CNN that the idea for the free Christmas meal came after a local elderly woman walked into the restaurant in early November asking whether anyone could help her close a window.
The staff obliged, and the woman mentioned afterward while thanking them that she would be alone for Christmas.
For Shish owner Serdar Kigili, the woman reminded him of his mother in Turkey, whom he had not seen in five years, according to the news network.
The staff began planning what they could do for people in similar situations.
“It’s not about religion, language or culture,” Genc told CNN. “It’s about community.”
You can read the full story here.
And we end with the Lonely Night Christmas ad:
You can read about this one here.
Here’s hoping we all find the time to notice those around us, and reach out, not just in Solstice spirit, but in a newfound commitment to community.
Bibi Mildred Karaira Gandia thanks her 8-year-old great niece and PDJ runner Gabby, with a necklace during the ceremony. Amy Morris.
Every four years since 1992, indigenous communities have been spiritually reuniting the Western hemisphere by participating in The Peace and Dignity Journeys. This massive undertaking is a chain of spiritual runs that cross the continents and connect the regions of North, Central, South America and the Caribbean. The endeavor is an effort to fulfill the ancient reunion prophecy of the Eagle and Condor.
As explained in the short film Shift of the Ages, the Eagle represents the Northern hemisphere, a masculine energy, and the Condor represents the Southern hemisphere, a feminine energy. The harmony between indigenous cultures across both continents, the union of North and South, was shattered by the arrival of Europeans, who brought genocide and a decimation of the traditional ways.
Peace and Dignity runner from Kingston Jamaica, Kalaan Robert Nibonrix (Taino), formally greeting elder Chumsey Harjo (Muscogee Creek Nation) during the closing ceremony of the Eastern Red Tail Hawk route July 23, 2016. (Amy Morris)
One interpretation of the prophecy from the Peruvian shaman Lauro Hinostroza states that for 500 years, beginning around the 16th century, the Eagle would dominate. This timeframe coincides with the onset of colonization and the profound shift in the way indigenous cultures functioned between the continents and among their own communities.
The prediction says that at the end of the 500 year cycle, an opportunity would come forth for Eagle and Condor to unite again and begin to restore balance to the world.
NY Indigenous Peoples Celebration, October 10 – www.redhawkcouncil.org
On October 10th 2016, 9 Indigenous organizations in New York City will again unify to bring awareness of Indigenous Peoples Day, traditionally celebrated on Columbus Day. The groups involved are the American Indian Community House, Redhawk Native American Arts Council, United Federation of Taino People, Kechiwa Nation, Halawai, Naoiwi, East Coast Two Spirit Society and Safe Harbors Indigenous Collective.
“These organizations hope to help New York City follow in the footsteps of Multnomah County, Oregon, St. Paul, Minnesota; Olympia, Washington; Traverse City, Michigan, Albuquerque and Sandoval County, and New Mexico who have all replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day,” said organizer Cliff Matias.
“These cities and the Indigenous populations of United States are banding together to call on Americans to re-thinking who and what Columbus Day symbolizes to Indigenous people to the Americas.”
“For 2016 we once again will be rethinking Columbus Day with a focus on Indigenous people, their beautiful cultures and traditions. This free day will begin at Monday Morning with a 7am sunrise ceremony honoring the Native people around the world who have endured and survived. Leaders, elders and medicine people from across North America, the Caribbean, Polynesian Islands and South America will sing, pray, and share their cultural traditions with guests overlooking the East River in Harlem New York. “
“The day will continue with a celebration of spoken word, music, traditional performing artists, guest speakers and contemporary performances. Where there will also be artists sharing and selling traditional works, crafts and jewelry.”
Full story here.
Click for full size.
© C. Ford, all rights reserved.