creative

Snow in Wellington New Zealand

By Chip Cain | Published August 20, 2011

Apparently it almost never snows in Wellington and someone had the foresight to capture the moment by focusing on the people’s faces as they took in this special event. For those of us who see snow more often, like myself, it helps to reignite the wonder of seeing snow for the first time. Thank you Roy Tierny!

 

Yes, Spring Is Here

By Chip Cain | Published April 7, 2011

I know for many of us spring feels so far away. The gardens are still brown and the although the air is not biting it certainly is not warm. Not even warm enough to feel like stepping outside to work in the gardens. No, Spring doesn’t feel  like it’s here. But feelings are subjective. We all know Spring, according to the passing pages in our calender, is here. Last Sunday a friend of mine gave me a bag full of hellebores to plant. For a week they say in the back since every time I thought about going outside I would get the shivers. Well today, a day colder than yesterday when I should have gone out, I mustered up the courage to go outside and plant these wonderful plants.

If you don’t know, they stay green all year, even through Pennsylvania winters which is where I live. I had a few already planted. also given to me by my friend, that were an encouragement to me as they reach up beyond the snow letting me know not everything is dead or in hibernation. Well back to my going outside when I thought it was too cold to go outside. First I found the fresh air invigorating, then the work of digging the needed holes, warming, and the completion of the job satisfying to no end. It was like getting the jump on spring. so I also planted onions, which should have been done a couple of weeks ago. And that felt good too. Now I am looking around for the next thing. I have a lot of next things and they may finaly get done.

The main point of all this is for me to encourage you to go outside. Take a walk if you have no gardens to work in or donated plants to plant. but by all means go out!

And As If The Rain

By Chip Cain | Published November 6, 2010

Occasionally I rummage around my favorites saved in my browser: today was one of those times. Rummage might not be exactly the case since I was specifically clicking on links to people I know. This is a video I hadn’t yet seen from a friend who’s presence and influence in the church we shared I miss. At the same time I am sure his presence and influence are greatly enjoyed where he fellowships now. I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I do.

What’s Your Body Image

By Chip Cain | Published August 7, 2010

We want many things for ourselves, new music, new cars and new houses, but  often we also wish for new bodies; or at the very least changed bodies. Recently I came across some videos related to this issue. They appeared reminiscent of the 50 People One Question videos; some of which I have posted here previously. It didn’t take  long to find that they are indeed from the Crush + Lovely crew. I am posting three videos related to The Body Image Project. The first one introduces the project and is followed by two I found particularly interesting. There are more, and you may want to find your own favorites. If there is one you like better feel free to let us know by leaving your comments and a link. If you’re comfortable enough feel free to share with us your own thoughts on body image.

Personally,I wonder what the percentage of people who are comfortable with their bodies versus those who are not: I suspect it’s low. If you believe we are created by God does that make a difference in how you view yourself? I would love to hear your thoughts on this.








Something Deeply Spiritual

By Chip Cain | Published March 5, 2010

There is something deeply spiritual about this video. Please watch the video before reading further.

There is something deeply spiritual about the feeling I get when watching this video, but that being said, I am not prepared to provide an explanation of what I am feeling. Mostly because I have no words that will describe either the feeling or why I believe it’s a spiritual feeling. What I can say is that “ it’s very cool!” Or I could use words like “Awesome” or “Spectacular” but if i did you wouldn’t understand the haunting I feel when it ends. Or the consideration that the drummer boy could be Jesus. Is that going too far? I think there are many many images within this video as to  why it’s possible it is an allegory of the Christian story. Now if you’re not confused already or perhaps you just disagree let me add that the lead singer and leader of the band Sigur Rós is openly gay. To some that won’t mean a thing, but to others like myself it challenges the thought that this video is a Christian allegory. But even so I do. Perhaps “out of the mouth of babes . . . .” Or maybe, what was meant for evil (which I don’t believe) is used for good.

It’s possible I am rambling but that’s the kind of thoughts my mind races to whenever i watch this video, and I have watched it several times. And will several more times. I hope you will leave your own thoughts (if you can articulate them) in the comment section. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sometimes we have to pause . . .

By Chip Cain | Published February 13, 2010

When you look at an abstract piece of art, what do you see? Perhaps seeing is the wrong approach and you think your feelings might be a better set of eyes. But I would suggest that your head and heart together would be a perfectly tuned set of eyes. Do not let the head think it has value alone and do not let your heart rule without consulting the head. Yes I realize this is not said in the video but the truth is there within it.

Do not discard art too quickly. Or each other.

Wave Photography

By Chip Cain | Published February 11, 2010

Don’t try this unless you have a waterproof camera. Wave photography at it’s coolest.

Michael Nicholas and Full Disclosure

By Chip Cain | Published February 2, 2010

Each day I visit one or two of my favorite blogs, usually art or photography related, just to see what’s happening in the world my interests float around in. This morning I revisited Photocrati a blog that always piques my interest. It is run by a diverse group of photographers which keeps it fresh and always filled with useful perspective and valuable gear reviews. Photocrati is also where I purchased my blog  theme, which is one of four separate blog themes they sell to photographers. But that is not the point of my latest blog and in the interest of full disclosure I recieve nothing for mentioning them nor do i get any commissions if you choose to buy one of their photography themes.

Now on to the point of this blog. Michael Nichols, Editor at Large for photography at National Geographic magazine was a guest blogger on Photocrati recently where he discussed the reasons for Full Disclosure of the photographic process. Please take the time to read his comments about one photographer’s ethical lapse and how it damages the image of photographers everywhere. It’s noteworthy to mention that his last two sentences are worth meditating on.

Happy Birthday Robert Burns

By Chip Cain | Published January 25, 2010

Scotland’s, favorite son, poet and songwriter is turning 251 today. Robert Burns is most remembered for the song Auld Lang Syne but has had over 368 of his poems recorded in song. Almost all of his works were written in the Scottish dialect of his day and have been translated into English for our benefit. He’s not my favorite poet, but is an influential one and as such I couldn’t pass up sharing his birthday with you. If you wish to read a sampling of his poems they can be found at the Poets website.

The Webb Sisters —- Words That Mobilize

By Chip Cain | Published January 18, 2010

Recently I was searching through the many videos of Leonard Cohen found on YouTube and came across the following video by the Webb Sisters.

You might be asking, “What’s the connection with Leonard Cohen?” Well, The Webb Sisters, Charley and Hattie, recently completed a tour with Leonard. One of my favorite Cohen songs is ‘If It Be Your Will’ and the Webb Sisters, with help from the man himself, has made it one of their own in this second video:

And now that I have brought up the topic of favorite Leonard Cohen songs why don’t you let us know what your favorite Leonard Cohen song is by  leaving a comment with the song title and feel free to post a link where we all can watch it being performed.


<span style=”display: block; margin: 0px auto; width: 425px;”> <object classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000″ width=”425″ height=”350″ codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0″><param name=”flashvars” value=”&amp;rel=0&amp;border=0&amp;” /><param name=”src” value=”http://widgets.vodpod.com/w/video_embed/Groupvideo.4505695″ /><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent” /><embed type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”425″ height=”350″ src=”http://widgets.vodpod.com/w/video_embed/Groupvideo.4505695″ wmode=”transparent” flashvars=”&amp;rel=0&amp;border=0&amp;”></embed></object></span>
<div style=”font-size: 10px;”>more about “<a href=”http://vodpod.com/watch/2889376-the-webb-sisters-if-it-be-your-will-rah-nov-17-2008?pod=chipcain”>The Webb Sisters: If It Be Your Will …</a>”, posted with <a href=”http://vodpod.com?r=wp”>vodpod</a></div>

Square Halo – Hearts and Minds

By Chip Cain | Published December 24, 2009

SqLogoJust in case you missed the exhibition I mentioned in my last post, I promised that I would provide a link to a book that will in some way replicate the exhibition. Well here is that link: two links in fact.

Square Halo is the publisher of the book Rouault-Fujimura: Soliloquies by Thomas S. Hibbs. And you may purchase the book online from Hearts and Minds. In fact Hearts and Minds may be the only source for this book. I receive nothing from them for this or my last post but even so I recommend you visit both. I’m sure both websites will be enlightening.

We don’t care what you do in NY

By Chip Cain | Published December 19, 2009

Recently I ran across two juxtaposed thoughts related to NY city; although they relate to a much larger picture. Peggy Noonan wrote an opinion piece for the online version of the Wall Street Journal today titled The Adam Lambert problem.  She says “America is good at making practical compromises, and one of the compromises we’ve made in the area of arts and entertainment is captured in the words “We don’t care what you do in New York.” That was said to me years ago by a social conservative who was explaining that he and his friends don’t wish to impose their cultural sensibilities on a city that is uninterested in them, and that the city, in turn, shouldn’t impose its cultural sensibilities on them. He was speaking metaphorically; “New York” meant “wherever the cultural left happily lives.” I believe many across the US think this way; that NY is out of touch with me. But this would be wrong on may levels.

I told you there was a juxtaposition of thoughts, well the other thought isn’t really a thought but actually an art exhibition.

Rouault-Fujimura

You may have heard of French painter Georges Rouault (1871-1958) but what about New York artist Makato Fujimura? The Dillon Gallery in NY (remember that city we don’t care about) has put together an art exhibit that puts these two artist together. And by putting their work together the Dillon Gallery has put together a meeting of two artists with very different styles but similar spiritual perspectives. You can find representations of redemption in their work and thereby not only redeeming the viewer they also redeem NY city. Since this exhibition ends on Dec 24th it’s probably too late to make plans to go see it but in a couple of days I’ll post the second best thing to being there.

What would you like to have happen by the end of the day?

By Chip Cain | Published December 4, 2009

I continue to be fascinated with these short 1 question 50 people videos: this one is no exception. Here is another one for your enjoyment and please leave your answer to the question by posting a comment to this post.

The Portraits: Wild Africa

By Chip Cain | Published May 10, 2009

Recently I found a photographer who’s photos of African animasl are more like portraits than the usual pictures you see. The photographer is Nick Brandt and he says of his “. . . images are unashamedly idyllic and romantic, a kind of enchanted Africa. You can see a very nice collection of his photos at Pascal Young’s Gallery.

Fifty People, One Question

By Chip Cain | Published April 19, 2009

It’s a simple question in London…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQk30nYUOAw

It’s a simple question in Brooklyn…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJAUGg4081Q

It’s a simple, but different question in New York…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e53VeQ-pmc

Now go ahead and ask your self these same questions: they’re not always so simple…

Share your answers by leaving your answers in the comments.

Forgetfulness – Billy Collins Animated Poetry

By Chip Cain | Published April 5, 2009

Poetry  has always had an oral side to it’s history, now with video added we have a third way of receiving poetry.This poem by Billy Collins incorporates the written text, the spoken word and the visual images for a different way to take in poetry. Billy Collins, former US Poet Laureate and one of America’s best-selling poets, reads his poem “Forgetfulness” with animation by Julian Grey.

Prayer On Leaving The Body

By Chip Cain | Published April 3, 2009

by James Deahl

O taste and see that the Lord is good. –Psalm 34: 8

These feet that have carried me
over switchback trails in Appalachian darkness
I give up; they are left in tall grass
by the Baltimore and Ohio right of way
where steel rails cut close to the orange creek.

And these legs, so useful when climbing trees,
I relinquish to a boyhood now faded
to mere memory, perhaps belonging
to someone else who lived when I did,
climbed the very trees I now think I conquered.

I also cast off this intricate machinery
that gave me such ecstasy
and three miraculous daughters;
it floats mindlessly out to sea
where the currents are blue houses of desire.

My lungs I abandon to the early morning wind
that sung so well in them I thought
its music could never end;
an opera filling a concert hall
with a new day, with light.

And, yes, I even close forever these blue eyes
that just the other day watched astonished
while a plummeting hawk took a sparrow in mid-air
beside the frozen river
so quickly it seemed but a dream.

And in my dream I reluctantly
pass my hands to my children;
good hands, sturdy, comfortable
in their domesticity — kneading bread,
slicing garlic for the evening soup.

Arms, heart, that worn, battered spine;
I leave it all behind. Nothing but bones,
flesh, and the tired circulation of fluids;
things of this world. A sunrise, a sunset,
the longing in the heart to taste and see . . .

Like the Irish magus I too
pray for an old man’s frenzy,
though I would turn his word to fury
and seek the goodness in creation,
not its night.

Jennifer Maestre's Pencil Sculptures

By Chip Cain | Published April 3, 2009

It is not hard to see that I am always interested in art created using the expected things; those things we expect to see or use everyday, used unexpectedly.  Jennifer Maestre’s sculptures fall into this category.

I use pencils everyday, yes even in this day and age of keyboards, but never have I done anything beyond their intended use except to chew on them. Here is a use for pencils that goes beyond using their graphite filled centers for scribbling numbers or as adult pacifiers.

National Poetry Month 2009

By Chip Cain | Published April 1, 2009

April 1st begins this blogs most active time of the year. April is National Poetry Month and as always it’s my excuse to encourage the reading of poetry by the masses. This is my chance to prove that poetry isn’t as painful as what your teachers made it out to be.

Here is a very small sample:

The Coming of Light
by Mark Strand

Even this late it happens:
the coming of love, the coming of light.
You wake and the candles are lit as if by themselves,
stars gather, dreams pour into your pillows,
sending up warm bouquets of air.
Even this late the bones of the body shine
and tomorrow’s dust flares into breath.

White As Diamonds

By Chip Cain | Published January 19, 2009

Alela Diane is a home brewed artist and by that I mean that she is not derivative of any other artist: at least none I know. Her music is Folk/Americana and often reflects the mood of homespun cloth and lonesome wolves at night. I realize that is a strange description for someone’s music so let me say it another way. Her music can remind you of early Appalachia with solitude woven through,  yet, like a meal that has an herb you can’t quite place Alela’s music has something modern that I can’t quite describe. Anyway I suggest you listen for yourself.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-_-l_NaDcw&hl=en&fs=1]

The release date for Alela Diane’s new album To Be Still is February 17th 2009.

The Gift of The Unknown

By Chip Cain | Published January 12, 2009

As our culture changes, Walter Brueggemann has observed, we must restate eternal truths in order for them to remain truthful. For the faithful, the artistic imagination can safeguard the strangeness and newness of the gospel, preserving it from domestication by our ideologies and culture. This year, the Trinity Arts Conference theme urges us to curiosity and courage as we approach the changes essential to vibrant art.

Each year the Trinity Arts Conference draws filmmakers, journalists, actors, writers, poets, composers, visual artists, dancers, and musicians for three days of workshops, seminars, lectures, readings, exhibitions, and performances. We’ll meet in the congenial and relaxed atmosphere of the University of Dallas, a wooded cloister of studios, classrooms, auditoriums, and galleries.

The above was taken from their brochure

Interested? Here’s the link –> Trinity Arts Conference

Te Deum

By Chip Cain | Published December 31, 2008

Not because of victories

I sing,

having none,

but for the common sunshine,

the breeze,

the largess of the spring.

Not for victory

but for the day’s work done

as well as I was able;

not for a seat upon the dais

but at the common table.

by Charles Reznikof

Silent World

By Chip Cain | Published December 29, 2008

Hi folks, I know it’s been a while since posting here; the site is not forgotten but I find myself focused on more than I have time for.  I wish I could resolve to post here daily, or weekly at least, but that would be to set myself up for failure.

As I said this site is not forgotten and so here is most likely my last post for 2008.


Michael Kenna’s B & W photographs are often spare in their context and stark in their contrast. His often etheriel style leaves the viewer wanting to visit the place seen on paper. This in itself is not altogether unique to Kenna’s pictures but his pictures can leave you with a longing in your sould to be in such private and empty places.

While looking for more examples of his work other than what can be found on his website I found a page of his photos that provides excelent examples of his silent world.

After seeing his pictures let everyone know what you thought of them by posting a comment here.

WineKing Galleries

By Chip Cain | Published November 3, 2008

Not long ago I had the pleasure of meeting two artists, Jess Lopez-King and An Wine. The pleasure was unexpected since we met at a cemetery just before the service to bury my brother-in-law John.  Unexpected to be sure but very appropriate since John & I shared an interest in art and time together at the William Penn museum in Harrisburg. But that museum trip will be for another time.

Jess is a photographer and An is a mixed media artist: together they share their work at WineKing Galleries. This is a new venture for them and and so I am hoping this small blurb will point your interest in the arts their way.  I want to be clear here I am not mentioning them and pointing to their work just because I like them as people, but also as I am prone to do on this blog, I mention them because I really like their work.

Please take a moment to follow the link to their website; if you like what you see then tell them. Then if you have some time tell me you liked their work as well.

In A Word "Wordle"

By Chip Cain | Published September 1, 2008

Something random and something fun from Wordle. Provide Wordle a URL and it will do the rest. Or simply cut and paste some text and it will create a Wordle picture. Art? probably not, but it’s cool! And a lot of fun.

Give Wordle your favorite blog or even your own blog address just as I did. Don’t like the results then hit the “randomize” button.

Why? For no other reason than fun.

Everything is borrowed

By Chip Cain | Published August 31, 2008

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8BHL5SWX0Q&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1]

Just something I came across, while surfing, from The Streets.

Paperclay

By Chip Cain | Published August 29, 2008

Part paper, part clay and very cool! It’s fired just as you would any clay but let Angela Mellor show you what skill & inspiration can do with this medium. Her work is airy, colorful and inspired by an organic interest in this earth we live on.

After visiting her works come back and let everyone know what you think by posting your thoughts.

A line of peace . . .

By Chip Cain | Published August 17, 2008

A line of peace might appear
if we restructure the sentence our lives are making,
revoked it’s reaffermation of profit and power,
questioned our needs, allowed
long pauses . . .

Denise Levertov

Typolution

By Chip Cain | Published August 17, 2008

Minimalist art from a typewriter or so it would seem. All the images are built using the type found on a typewriter. Simple, graceful, and full of Story!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVPfTlpCKaw&hl=en&fs=1]

Worth the 3:11 minutes of your time

Vladimir Tatlin

By Chip Cain | Published August 10, 2008

Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who designed the huge Monument to the Third International, also known as Tatlin’s Tower. Planned in 1920, the monument, was to be a tall tower in iron, glass and steel which would have dwarfed the Eiffel Tower in Paris (the Monument to the Third International was a third taller at 1,300 feet high). Inside the iron-and-steel structure of twin spirals, the design envisaged three building blocks, covered with glass windows, which would rotate at different speeds (the first one, a cube, once a year; the second one, a pyramid, once a month; the third one, a cylinder, once a day). High prices prevented Tatlin from executing the plan, and no building such as this was erected in his day.

The picture is a model of what would have been an amazing structure. Maybe someday someone will build it.

Here is a short animated video by David Cox while as a student at Swineburne University in 1990. It is very creative and seems to fit with the picture above.

Olga's Gallery

By Chip Cain | Published August 2, 2008

The above is a sampling of the quality of paintings to be viewed online at Olga’s Gallery. From the painter Fra Angelico (c1395-1455) to Edvard Munch (c1863-1944) the works are all stunning and many in number. There are over 10,000 works of art to view; assuming you had the time. They don’t pay me to say this but go visit their sight anyway.

The Color Keeper

By Chip Cain | Published July 17, 2008

Here is something I stumbled across (isn’t that how we find everything?). I knew I had to share it here even though it is a small work as art goes, but with a big heart. The background music is by J Tillman from his “Minor Works”

The Color Keeper from Grandchildren on Vimeo.

Natural Sculpture

By Chip Cain | Published July 10, 2008
bonnieferrillroman

Sanctuary Drawings

Bonnie Ferrill Roman has developed a style of sculpting that is organic, often fluid in appearence and always a surprise to see. She begins her Artist’s Statement with “I believe that the transcendent experience of beauty is vital to the life of the soul, and this precept has always been at the core of why I make art. ” and ends it with “The work communicates at the deeper level of kinesthetic and perceptual experience, which always seems to lose something vital when translated into the structures and limitations of language.”

Isn’t that the problem we all have when trying to describe art ” . . . the structures and limitations of language.” ultimately leave us without the language  to create sight enough for someone to see without seeng the art. So please visit Bonnie Ferrill Roman’s website; it in itself is very creative and fluid.

Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes

By Chip Cain | Published April 30, 2008

The Day Is Gone, And All Its Sweets Are Gone

The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!
Sweet voice, sweet lips, soft hand, and softer breast,
Warm breath, light whisper, tender semitone,
Bright eyes, accomplished shape, and lang’rous waist!
Faded the flower and all its budded charms,
Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes,
Faded the shape of beauty from my arms,
Faded the voice, warmth, whiteness, paradise—
Vanished unseasonably at shut of eve,
When the dusk holiday—or holinight
Of fragrant-curtained love begins to weave
The woof of darkness thick, for hid delight;
But, as I’ve read love’s missal through today,
He’ll let me sleep, seeing I fast and pray.

by John Keats

Why, then, do I reject the bliss

By Chip Cain | Published April 29, 2008

On Preparing to Open the Bible

Why must I measure my accomplishments
against sick
and dying, the saint, the confessor, Mary
mourning the passage of a son
so superior to ordinary man
the He, according to our Lord, could die for one
and all. I live, and do the best I can.
And yet I worry over this
strange and lasting story
told by a bunch of martyrs. Will I miss
the opportunities of heavenly glory
if I get drunk, and fall asleep tonight
on the couch, stinking like a goat?
I guess I hope
my incontinence and flight
will be construed as human in the end.
I wish to be forgiven. Don’t we all?
Today I heard a friend,
a little boy, got picked up at a mall
and was abruptly sodomized
by some dumb bastard professing love to him.
Tomorrow I must look him in the eyes
and tell him to begin
by going back to life
and the fullness thereof. It makes me sick.
God won’t set things right.
Does He think. “You are much too quick
to judge My ways
when you should suffer like the rest
the mysteriousness of all your days
and nights. Read Me. I know what’s best.”
And so I meditate,
looking out the window into fields,
and wait
to read of Him who healed
the dying, who comforted the sick.
I’d like to think that I’m too smart for this.
But I am lying.
Why, then, do I reject the bliss
of giving in to Him, whom I like nonetheless?
In fact, I am like all the rest,
bewildered, odd – the earth is not enough
for those who wonder what they’re doing here.
I blow my nose,
supposing I have nothing more to fear,
then close
the book which I had flung
back in a rage
to think of that vastly superior age
when Christ came down from the clouds
to drink, and speak, blessing the human figure.
It is not the same.
The butcher, the baker, the unbeliever
hold fast to the things that make them glad
again and again. I am one of them.

by Dennis Sampson