Magic in 5 steps

"Painting must be poetry and that poetry must evoke mystery"

First step: Looking for magic
Second step: Feeling the magic, but skeptical still
Third step: Reading a story on a magic ring, but thinking still
Fourth step: Playing piano, magic indeed
Fifth step: Looking at a René Magritte painting: La main heureuse

The Moon

In the dark

In the cold

In the sky

I can fly

I am old

But I can see

For miles

And miles

I am silver

I am gold

I am white

I am blue

I am rock

I am chaste
I am time

I am truth

When twilight falls

among the stars

I sit and tinker

with your moods

I hear your thoughts

I move the tides

I am your God

I am your Muse

I can be fire

I can be war

I am the daughter of Zeus

But tonight

there won't be light

'cause I can't shine

without you

Patricia Barber, Mythologies

Umut: "Hope" is the thing with feathers

Thanks to Ali for the beautiful photograph.

"Hope" is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without words -
And never stops -at all-

And sweetest -in the Gale-is heard
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird -

That kept so many warm -

I've heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of Me.

Emily Dickinson, 1891

şefkat: joan armatrading - in these times

Intikam

A Poison Tree, by William Blake

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I water'd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine.

And into my garden stole,
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

Today, the weather is dreamy.

Piyale Madra, Adams and Eves

Yi-Ching: The Inevitability of Change

易 經
Yi: To Change
Ching: Persistence as in the Divine Way

the most ancient Chinese classical text dated back to 2953-2838 B.C. the philosophy assigns meaning to seemingly chance events by using a series of symbols that correspond to a chart of 64 hexagrams. the central message involves balancing opposites and the inevitability of change.

red dot: best of the best for Yin Yang chaise longue by Dedon

The graphic representation of Yin and Yang in the form of the Chinese Taiji symbol illustrates the dual principle of the Asian philosophy, according to which balance can only be obtained as harmony of opposing forces. The design of the Yin Yang chaise longue created by the Swiss designer Nicolas Thomkins draws on this philosophy and for that received a distinction.

Four kilometres of woven Dedon fibre—a real challenge for the weaving artists of the Dedon manufactory—cover the chaise longue; incorporated sitting depressions offer space for one person each. The Swiss-born Nicolas Thomkins, whose Yin Yang is his second Dedon collection, calls Yin Yang the climax of his design career: “With Yin Yang we have created something completely new. This is pure emotion for a designer.” For more

Happy/Sad

Today I saw Peter Hristoff’s exhibition at Yapi Kredi Art Gallery. The exhibition titled “Happy/Sad” included the artist’s paintings, prints and rugs. The rugs decorated with the painter’s works were very interesting to see, but my favorite was the pieces of “Ego Series”.

“The rich originality of his work is born of a fertile mix: an ancestry rooted in the early 20th century Bulgarian traumas in the Balkans, an artistic family base in Turkey and a top-flight education in the US. His latest exhibition is "Happy/Sad," well worth visiting at Yapı Kredi Bank's Kazım Taşkent gallery on İstiklal St. until June 30.” For more

The Story, Untold

Beauty is nothing more than the promise of happiness. Stendhal

Marimekko Prints: Teresa Moorhouse's I've left half read books all over the world. On top of picnic tables, in airplane pockets, at coffee shops, and in trains. Stories remain to be finished, characters trapped inside my head along with the real life memory. I thought of this today, all those untouched pages, and it made me think of life. And how much we are still in the middle of the story. What will we leave behind, who will pick it up, and what comes next?

Sweet Endings

Ras Malai
2 lbs ricotta cheese
1/2 cup sugar
32 oz half & half milk
A pinch of saffron
1/4 tsp crushed cardamom seeds
1/2 cup blanched almonds
Crushed pistachios for sprinkling on top


Mix cheese with sugar and cardamom powder and spread out on a baking tray. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. It should not get brown. Remove, cool at room temperature, then cut into squares. Mix other ingredients (except pistachios) and pour over individual servings. Decorate with pistachios, chill for 2-3 hours and serve. Yum!

Philosophy of Friendship

"The friendship would not have been so valuable if most people had not been so disappointing"
Alain de Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy, Penguin Books

Just as we find rhythm in words and cadence in our speech, life cycles in its own tempo, balancing tragedy with hope. We are not meant to understand, but to simply accept.

Picture: Newborn in India, November 2006

Poem: Funeral Blues, W. H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.