A PORTRAIT A WEEK 17/52

A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013

Moments of leisure on the grass, just before going to the cinema with mama. Taking good pictures of little E is getting more and more difficult as -most of the times- he is not in the mood for Ms Canon recently. I need to get clever and very very fast!

{ Joining in with Jodi's 52project }

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A PORTRAIT A WEEK 16/52

A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013

Dad's side of the bed is a very special place for E, and the same goes for dad's bedside table drawers, especially when he's not at home.
This morning it was vintage calculator discovery time. Such a symbol of high school times for myself became suddenly an exciting toy. Which of my parent's everyday object was my exciting toy when I was 4? And what will E's child play with, in the future?
Funny how objects do change value and meaning in time.

{ Joining in with Jodi's 52project }

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A PORTRAIT A WEEK 15/52

A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013

Extremely busy times for little E. Lots of joy and new experiences. Sleeping to gain back new energy for the coming week.

{ Joining in with Jodi's 52project }

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DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

Imagine seeing polka dots on everything around you. Imagine how this would influence and shape you as a human being. This is what happens to Japanese artist and writer Yayoi Kusama, for since childhood, Kusama has had a rare condition that makes her see colorful spots on everything she looks at. Her vision, both literally and creatively, is thus naturally surreal, nearly hallucinogenic.

This extraordinary artist, who works in different media including painting, collage, sculpture, performance art and environmental installations, has recently illustrated one of most beloved children's story Alice in Wonderland. Kusama is famous for her use of psychedelic colors, repetition and pattern with nearly obsessive use of dots.
It seems to me that the legendary Lewis Carroll's classic is given by her work an extremely visually captivating imaginary. I also like the use of twisted typography in this work.
Needless to say, this illustrated book is already on my wish list. I just share now a few pictures found on the net but I will wait to have the real book in my hands to discover more, as I hope you might like to do yourself.

Here above [and in picture 3] the artist at work. After living and working in New York between 1957 and 1973 where she became associated with the pop art movement, Yayoi Kusama currently lives in Japan in a hospital where she admitted herself voluntarily in 1977 after experiencing psychiatric problems. Since then she lives there, and from the hospital she continues to produce a variety of works as well as launching her literal career by publishing novels, poems and an autobiography.

Find out more about this extraordinary woman on her site.

{ pictures credits 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 }

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A PORTRAIT A WEEK 14/52

A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013

E looking out for his friends approaching, on a lovely Sunday ride with his tiny bike.

{ Joining in with Jodi's 52project }

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CHERRIES TO BE

As I promised, here are pictures of the cherry-tree fields near my home. Next to a red house, there's this little field that I drive by every day, going from home to wherever I need to be. In summer the people living in the red house will sell cherries and apricots along the road, as the wooden board sign says.

I feel no Italian cherry-tree in blossom looks like a Japanese tree. It might be just my personal blind passion for Japan that makes me say so, but I can honestly say you seldom see very old cherry trees here, or so tenderly taken care of like they do over there. Have a look here if you missed my previous post about sakura (cherry blossoms).

Anyway, flowers made their appearance suddenly around here. Lots of blossomed pruned branches were abandoned on the ground under the trees. I will try to take a few tomorrow, hopefully the blossoms will be still intact. Wish me luck :-)

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SAKURA

Driving my little one to kindergarten today, I noticed the cherry trees on the hills near home are suddently blooming. Spring is finally forcing itself through grey skies and rain.
This made my memory go back in time in 2008, in Japan, at this time of the year. Mr T and I were lucky to visit Japan and to see some wonderful sakura around the country. Mostly in the mountains or in Kyoto as in Tokyo it had just gone. The tree you see in pictures 5, 6 and 7 we were told to be probably the oldest cherry tree in Japan. I will never forget the emotion of standing underneath it and look up towards hundreds and hundreds of tiny light pink flowers against the blue sky.

Sakura means 'cherry blossom'. When cherry trees are in full blossom, the Japanese love to picnic in their shadow. Parks get full of people sitting on colorful blankets to enjoy those precious moments that usually do not last long. It is absolutely magic.

If a little sun will pop out, I hope to take some pictures around here too. In the meantime you can dream a little with me looking at these. You can also see what is happening right now in Tokyo in Ebony's and Hiki's blogs here, here, here and here.

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FEATHERS AND RABBITS

Our weekend started with a lovely breakfast. I was very much looking forward setting the table with the hand embroidered tablecloth from Theo's aunt Riet, spread with colored feathers and decorated eggs. The past week was very hard on us with little E having a terrible stomach flu which made impossible to paint eggs together, or doing anything at all really. After his troubled week, it was pure joy to see him totally recovered. Here's a picture of him happy in front of a huge chocolate egg. 

After breakfast we went out for the traditional Easter family lunch. Today we are relaxing{ and cleaning } at home. Just the 3 of us, trying to make the best out of a little bit of shy sun who made its appearance in between rain showers.

Hope you are having lovely and peaceful Easter days.

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