gravity defying plants in Paris

This living façade was intended to be temporary, but everyone liked it so much that they kept it.


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Standing in front of it, I was astonished at how it made me feel. Then my analytical brain kicked in and wanted to pin the logistics, the how of the whole thing. I have two plausible theories for anyone interested. No one? Right.
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However it was done, it's just wonderful.




















,

stone

The whole time I was in France, I was entranced by the long human relationship with stone. Who, I mean, really, who among us was the first one to look at a jagged piece of rock and think...I could take a year or two of my life, find some tools, chip away at it and turn it into something like these:

(as always, high-res pics, click to really see the sculpture)

It's an astonishing leap, isn't it? A leap of imagination, of mind, of concept, of art, of madness.

By the way,
French and Italian food IS better. Fresher, realer, riper, yummier...

Angela Cerrito ,whose lovely blog has the same color scheme as mine, tagged me. Tagged? Well, yes. Me and four other lucky souls. Here is the task I have been assigned:

The rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book.

2. Open to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the next three sentences.

5. Tag five people and post a comment to Bish's blog once you've posted your three sentences.

So...Nearest Book: Sue Munk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees:

That night, when the darkness was weighed down with singing crickets and Rosaleen was snoring right along with them, I had myself a good cry. I couldn't even say why. Just everything, I guess.

It's a great book. I recommend it.

And now, to tag five others...mmmmm...off to facebook, I think, to victimize the kind people who have friended me there...

wonders of the world

The Eiffel Tower is a landmark of my childhood. Maybe yours, too? I remember staring at pictures of it in the third grade back-of-the-classroom library in my little Colorado town. The same book had the pyramids, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Majal...and it was proof that the world was big and mysterious. I loved knowing that. I still love knowing that.

Paris

I expected the Paris/Bologna trip to feed the plot and the atmosphere of the current project--Sacred Scars. It's set in a city with a long, murky history, knotted and curled so tightly that no one can unravel it. What I didn't expect was how easily and perfectly what I saw (smelled, tasted, touched) would fit into the book.
.....
This is a wash basin in a restaurant bathroom. On a busy corner with both tourists and locals at the tables, this is where you wash your hands. It's a high-res picture. Click on it. Please. Next time I wonder where artistic inspiration comes from, someone remind me, please: Simple things. Like bathrooms in Paris.

More later--it was a wonderful trip....
k