Patrick Demarchelier invigorates and inspires

I was just browsing around some of the sites I've collected lately, 

just quietly in the late afternoon, suffering a little from what I call 

'late-afternoon-lag' (not unlike jet lag, only there's no excuse), 

when I came across these beautiful pictures of Patrick Demarchelier's, 

from his site. I felt like I'd drunk a strong espresso laced with theta frequencies

 and the delights of an image which just gets everything right in the fashion

 and photography stakes. And that's not even talking about the movement/dance 

Spiritual and physical expression!

underwater dancer

I'm not sure where this mysteriously beautiful photo comes from..

I find it particularly evocative.It reminds me of a dream or a scene from another era

 or dimension, it takes me back to my childhood when I longed to be a classical 

ballet dancer (oh but I'm so glad I didn't go in that direction now!).

I just grew too tall and big boned to be a classical ballet dancer. Anyway, 

here she is, and her height and weight don't matter in the slightest. 

The metaphor is for 'freedom', the freedom to 

do whatever you want, and be whoever you want to be..I love it.

an ode to Matisse's dance

I first saw this painting 'in-the-flesh', when I visited MOMA in NYC in 1999. I didn't expect to be quite so profoundly thrown and moved...It was a painting I had often soaked in from reproductions in books and on posters. It is so very famous. When I was a child, I thought it might be some kind of tarot card, its magical impact on my psyche had already begun by the time I was about eleven, when I saw a book my aunt, the Dutch sculptor, Katinka van Rood-Bruin, had in her Amsterdam studio.  

Her brother, my father had died just months before, and that day my heart was aching and heavy with grief.  So when I stood in front of this work, the tears flooded and I had to take deep breaths so that I didn't wail with passion and emotion. I was in front of it for about half an hour. All the wonderful works in that Museum were calling me, their voice faint and easily put on hold while Matisse's dance and I communed. 

I felt so deeply held and healed by the Spirit of this extraordinarily rhythmic and beautiful work.

Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky was born in Moskow in 1866. He is credited with being the first abstract painter. He was an intellectual and art theorist as well as obviously being an extraordinary painter. I've always loved his work. I can see Sergi Diaghilev must surely have known about these paintings, or maybe they knew each other, the whole influence they must have had on each other is one of those wondrous synchronicities, which goes on influencing and inspiring others. From dance, costume, poetry, literature, music (Stravinsky)...these people have been giants in the world of art.

Degas and the light

I am currently doing Geoffrey Dupree's 'From Drawing to Painting' course. For the last three days we have focused pretty solidly on tone, and how it indicates space. Most of us look at colour and shape all the time. I found that I rarely look at tone. And then I thought about the painting of Degas' that I saw at the French masters recently. It's just a small painting which is probably the first painting you look at when you enter the exhibition. I stood in front of it for a long time, just absorbing the light and the space he created with light, and the absence of light. And then ofcourse there's his flawless draughtsmanship. Need I say more. But with very little colour, he allows you to enter into his illuminated world of light and space. Magic.

awakening through dance

I just googled 'dancer' and got many images, but this one expressed my excitement about going to the Studio Maui 'Spirit Body' retreat which I'm for the last week of January. I know just how much one can engage with one's own Spirit when one loses ones mind to pure ecstatic dance! And I've always wanted to go to Maui, I have only ever stopped off in Honolulu on my way to the States, but could 'sniff' something in the air (yes, even through the pollution!), that I wanted to return to, and nourish my Soul with. I'm very lucky...

the window dance

The seemingly topsy turvy figurines which sit in one of my windows, were against a grey water filled sky at the time of this shot. I like the rhythms here, and the strangeness.

Bangarra - 'Fire'

Last night we saw Bangarra Dance Theatre at the Playhouse here in Melbourne. They were just as extraordinary as ever. They dance to the bones, pushing the deepest of emotion out to each cellular limit. I am so inspired by the depth and passion, today I feel nourished and refreshed again by the Spirit of this wondrous place I live in, this huge old dry continent, with all our various stories and lives it holds. The dance last night was a manifestation of one of the better outcomes of how we can create together, maybe bringing resonance and compassion to all our communities.

Shadow dancer

Rory, my partner took this image yesterday afternoon, when the sun happened to be just in the right spot, behind the Lorenzl bronze dancer I have in the window. When he showed it to me I didn't recognize her at first, it looked like a dream of her, a journey she was making in the ethers, a lone path into the light...

'beside myself...'

This is a photo I found at JPEG. (click on the image to get more details). It just expresses how I feel a little today. The dance between the Self and the self-image, or the ego and the heart, or oneself and others..etc etc.
I like the playful black and white pattern here, and the movement and relationships between the person and the shadow.

star burst

I found this gorgeous photo in JPG magazine, an online mag dedicated to 'brave new photography'. I find this evokes some sense of still and magic in my mind, I'm sure I've seen scenes such as this, and stood their soaking up the quite dark, and sparkling lights as they dance on the rippling surface of the water. A bit like how inspiration comes..just lightly touching the tip of your consciousness, and if you even move sometimes, it evaporates into the humdrum ho hum of everyday happenings...

'Intimacy in Motion'

Yesterday I did the wonderful workshop: 'Intimacy in Motion', a 5 Rhythms (c) run by my beloved friend Madhuma Thompson. Apart from taking my body and emotions out for 'a run', I found great depths of understanding and intimacy in my self, the Self and all that is. Today I feel open and so much more available to life, and my creativity.

Tibetan dancers in Dharamsala

I look at this picture a lot. I took it in Dharamsala when I was there a few years ago. Somehow the colours remind me of the people I saw in the Andes when I was growing up in Columbia in South America. Only here are Tibetans in India! I love the echos of these saturated colours...