Someone shared a link to an ebook called Archewallogy by Tarek Chemally. Being a book lover and someone who just can’t pass the idea of Free and Book together in the same sentence I downloaded it. And offffffffff offff offfff I loved it! It is a collection of photographs of walls all over Beirut. Alot of these images are of things that no longer exist. Chemaly then collaborated with Ashekman a group of graffiti artists/rappers and came up with both a video called “El hitan am tehkini” (The walls are talking to me) and the book. I loved the video clip too, it’s like an urban/retro mix that is interesting with even more interesting lyrics. This would make a really interesting coffee table book.
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From my inbox: Ele ba3 el tram. Seriously one of the funniest con jobs in Egypt. The article is dated 3-1-1948. A young man sold...
Actually I don’t know what it’s called but I passed by Bait Lothan today to check out the arts courses and was met by a pleasant surprise. They had a hand made fair with lots of super cute items like jewelry, home accessories and Mexican hand embroidered dresses. I would have loved to take pictures but I was carrying little Lulu because I was too lazy to use the stroller thinking I would only be in and out in a couple of minutes. I loved the paintings and the Mexican dresses they were all so beautiful. The fair is still open tommorrow and after so if you’re in the neighborhood pop in and check it out.
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Useless education
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Wordle is an interesting site that creates word tags for blog or just plain text. Of course I had check out my blog’s wordle first, then I thought they looked kinda cool so I started playing around with it. Then realized they would make awesome framed prints in the nursery if I used Mother Goose’s rhymes. You really should play around with the fonts, colors and the word placement.
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This morning I went to the Tareq Rajab Museum of Islamic Calligraphy. I’ve been meaning to go all week and I finally managed to get there today (after getting lost a couple of times). The museum has a beautiful collection of calligraphic art and artifacts. Hand written Qurans from Turkey, Iran and Indonesia. The Indonesian one was written on palm wood strips using hot nails, I have never seen something so simple yet so beautiful. Just strips of wood, sanded and bound together with string.
Last year I read “My name is Red” which takes place in Turkey in the Ottoman times about minaturists ( the art of embellishing books) and I managed to see some examples of such art.
The Islamic Arabic Chinese calligraphy was probably one of the most interesting collections at the museum. Chinese calligraphy on its own is amazing and astounding but seeing it done in Arabic lettering was totally new. The beauty of simple ink on paper is awe inspiring. The fusion of two very different cultures bound by religion, penmanship and the love of beautiful writing was incredible.
Other interesting things were pieces of the keswa of the Ka3ba from the 19th century, a Mamluki
I think if you are in Kuwait you really must visit this musem.
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I love these prints by Mikiep on Etsy. They are part of the Superheros series. They’re amazing, cute and very affordable. I would love to get these for my daughter’s room (which is currently still a miltipurpose room) when I decorate it as a little girl’s room some day.
Superboy can fly
Supergirl!
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This is an amazing work of art. A chandelier made totally out of paper. It looks so pretty, I can even imagine it made in different colors, definitely a pretty addition to any room.
Mandala loosely translated means the “essence” or “circle” and is an Indian Sanskrit word. It conveys the idea of wholeness and our connection with the cosmos. It is related to Buddhism and meditation.
In common use, mandala has become a generic term for any plan, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically, a microcosm of the Universe from the human perspective.[From WikiPedia]
Describing both material and non-material realities, the mandala appears in all aspects of life: the celestial circles we call earth, sun, and moon, as well as conceptual circles of friends, family, and community.[from MandalaProject.org]
It is said by Tibetan Buddhists that a mandala consists of five “excellencies”:
The teacher
The Message
The audience
The site
The time
An audience or “viewer” is necessary to create a mandala. Where there is no you, there is no mandala.(from: You Are the Eyes of the World, by Longchenpa, translated by Lipman and Peterson).[from MandalaProject.org]
My mother was the one who told me about them maybe a year ago, she thought I might enjoy making them and coloring them, she has always thought of Art as a good way to relax and pass time. I had seen a documentary on a sand mandala being constructed for peace by the UN and children but I didn’t quite recall it when she told me about them. A couple of days ago I came across the Essence of rabbit and thought it was the cutest mandala I had ever seen, made by rabbit characters from many sources.
