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sister moon

Posted on July 28, 2007 @ 2:26 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog,japan,ukiyo-e,wordpress

kaizan zen aynaku illustration travel

“both deluded beings
and buddahs gaze at
the same moon”
This is by Kaizan  (1769 -1846)   a Zen monk, a master of calligraphy and ink painting…

Illustration Friday‘s topic is: moon

Here are three good links on last week topic: Three ravens press ; Wolfgang Kolar ; Franci .

 

the palm leaf alphabet

Posted on July 21, 2007 @ 5:11 pm by massimo | Filed under: another green world,blog,fun,indonesia,travel,wordpress

poem.jpg

According to Hugo Ball, inventor of Dadaist phonetic poetry and co-founder of the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich, 1916, the ultimate meaning of a poem however resides in its meaninglessness, by allegedly choosing the word at random and because of their sound…
In Bali I was waiting for the night bus to Lombok, I had bought my ticket already and had nothing to do in the shady and large waiting room…there were just a few chairs and a table, and not even a human being to talk to. Upon the table was a sort of guest book. I kept on turning over the pages vaguely, until I came across a strange set of signs tagged as the old Indonesian ka-ga-nga alphabet, traditionally written on bamboo or palm leaves.
The unexpected discovery struck me greatly: I spent more than a couple of hours copying the mysterious signs in my notepad and arranging readings of purely phonetic tropical nonsense.
Nga ba ma nya ja sa ha ra,
la wa sa da na ca nya…
…Then the big red bus came…

Illustration Friday‘s topic is: poem

discovery

Posted on July 15, 2007 @ 10:35 am by massimo | Filed under: blog,china,travel,wordpress

Liulichang beijing aynaku illustration travel

Modern Beijing possesses a certain grandeur from its colourful past. There are a many places in the city were a visit is a must, and among them Liulichang Street, in the central Xuanwu District.
Liulichang Street was carefully restored to its original shape from the Ming Dynasty recently, and it is a good place to find a wide selection of antiques. On the contrary some ten years ago, most of the shops were rather run down and the whole area looked truly picturesque. Living in Beijing for a while, as a “hard working and creative young architect” (according to my boss…),   I had a very little spare time, but always a few money in my pockets, which I used to spend in jade objects, scrolls, opium pipes, snuff bottles, ceramics…And one Sunday morning in a dark, cave-like shop in Liulichnag, among hundreds of scattered objects I found a nice black-lacquered wooden box, with carved ivory insertions, a true wreck which I had for a fewyuan. After being restored in Italy the box looks really beautiful!

Illustration Friday’s topic is: discovery

some interesting links on last week topic as usual:  sketchbook ; teako ; point illustrated 

abbey

Posted on July 1, 2007 @ 9:29 am by massimo | Filed under: blog,travel,wordpress

Sometimes a wonderful, enchanting place is just behind the corner and once doesn’t really need to travel so far away. Accidentally a few months ago, it happened to me to come across the beautiful Sassovivo Abbey. The abbey, located in Italy’ central county of Umbria, is just …