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animals
March 30, 2012
We all deal with different kind of animals in our lifetime. Some of them are extremely familiar to us and ... -
The Travelling Artist – Why Become One?
January 25, 2012
A lot of artists have a habit of travelling and using their memories and changing environment to inspire ... -
istanbul triptych
January 23, 2012
I recently paid a visit to Istanbul. It was my first time and I must say that Iistanbul ... -
family memories
September 28, 2011
My parents, a couple of true sea lovers never owned their own boat, yet they often arranged our ... -
underwater landscapes
September 20, 2011
Kaş, once an unspoiled fishing village, is now a relatively unspoiled tourist town on the southern bulge of Turkey's ... -
Lanzarote
September 13, 2011
A friend of mine lives in Las Palmas, Canary Islands. He recently wrote me about Lanzarote, an island of ... -
boundaries
September 10, 2011
Most of us live their lives within a consolidated routine, whose boundaries completely depend by our will. In other ... -
last minute!
September 8, 2011
Yes, I am quite an organized fellow when it comes to plan my trips. Since I'm going to be ... -
Harry Morgan
September 4, 2011
I've not been yet in the U.S. These days however, a good reason to drive me there would be ... -
stereotypes
August 27, 2011
Plenty of cheap flights to India in Bangkok! I had bought one, a night flight to Delhi. I had ...
still life with rice cakes
Posted on May 27, 2006 @ 3:45 pm by massimo | Filed under: another green world,architecture,art,blog,cheap,food,fun,holidays,illustration,indonesia,island,news,travel,wordpress
This illustration comes from a sketch I took at the dim light of a kerosene lamp. I had left Singapore in the afternoon, giving up some intricate architectural works, and travelling alone I had got after sunset the Indonesian Island of Bintang, in the Riau Archipelago. It was my first time there; I felt tired and hungry and, longing for a decent accommodation, I found myself finally lodged -as a shipwrecked sailor- in one of those basic A-frame huts which I invariably experience.
There’s nothing in a A-frame but a thin mattress on the wooden floor, the outer -very narrow- balcony, no toilette, no electricity. It was a boring wet season night; I had really nothing to do but wait for falling asleep. Yet I was starving! I took off my bag pack some of my properties, sorted them out on the balcony floor and by the kerosene lamp. Among them a couple of ghostly-white rice cakes that I bought at the pier and forgot, shined somehow and quickly ended up into my belly. Such a lucky man, you see! And such a mighty sweetie food made my brains and intestine restlessly at work for long, so I considered the possibility of sketching something, killing the time. I contemplated for a while the dimly lit, odd set in front of me, did my brilliant sketch and, finally, went to sleep…
Illustration Friday‘s topic is cake
wayang kulit
Posted on May 14, 2006 @ 2:33 pm by massimo | Filed under: art,blog,fashion,fun,illustration,indonesia,island,music,mythology,news,package tour,travel,wordpress
Wayang kulit (shadow puppets) symbolise the triumph of good over evil. They are prevalent in Java and Bali and are without a doubt, the best known of the Indonesian wayang (theatre). Kulit means skin and refers to the leather construction of the puppets that are supported with buffalo horn handles and control rods. The stories are usually drawn from the Ramayana: Rama goes into exile in the forest with his brother Laxman and his wife Sita. When Sita is abducted by the evil Ravana, Rama and his allies head out to rescue his wife and to destroy the ten-headed Ravana. My illustration refers to this show as seen by the audience, at least as it happened to me in Ubud, Bali -1990. A few viewers jammed in room and sitting on the floor. The visual portion of the performance consisted of shadows cast on a cotton screen by an oil lamp. I also remember clearly the peculiar voice of the Dalang introducing the principal characters and suggesting the beginning of the plot.
I was so impressed by the force of this theatrical tradition in signifying the idea of struggle between the forces of good and evil and took a great interest in it, that I couldn’t miss William Kentridge’s Black Box show last winter in Berlin. Kentridge has crafted a complex, multimedia performance combining puppets and animation, employing objects and their cast shadows to develop a fascinating multilayered work.
Illustration Friday‘s topic is angels & devils
barefoot
Posted on March 18, 2006 @ 7:16 pm by massimo | Filed under: africa,ancona,another green world,beach,blog,fashion,fun,holidays,illustration,indonesia,island,kenya,lamu,mediterranean,people,philippines,thailand,travel,wordpress
In his essay “art in landscape” Stephen Bann writes about Wordsworth’s prowess as a walker. Bann calculates that the great Romantic poet “must have traversed a distance of 175,000 to 180,000 English miles”.
I doubt whe ther the tropical-post-freak-beachcombing-wasting time generation whose I happily belong to, can be qualified as Romantic. Most of all I doubt whether this generation gained the same reputation for inveterate walking! Personally, as an incorrigible Italian romantic, I was characteristically associated with walking barefoot; an habit which used to be quite fashionable among fellow travellers despite the fact that there is a very good chance of coming across leeches and other adorable creature, if you do some walking along grass lawns and the like. Even walking barefoot along the beach turned out to be not always safe for me when – romantically distracted by the beatiful setting or contemplating the sequel of my footmarks on the sand – I painfully stumbled upon the small and sharp coral stones scattered around…Anyway, talking about footprints, don’t miss World’s most famous and ascend to Adam’s Peak. It is a difficult and long climb: there is some kind of metal stair of 4000 steps leading to the place of Adam’s foot, but not all the steps are secure. The holy foot (mark) is in a stone…
Illustration Friday‘s topic is feet
sand flies
Posted on March 4, 2006 @ 6:34 pm by massimo | Filed under: animals,bargain,beach,blog,boracay,cheap,fear,fun,holidays,illustration,indonesia,island,news,philippines,travel,wordpress
Insects are familiar to long term travellers. These sort of folks usually travel on a shoestring and never care too much of comforts, since their only goal is keep on moving. No matter where once sleeps or eats: …
surfing…
Posted on December 4, 2005 @ 11:06 pm by massimo | Filed under: another green world,beach,blog,fashion,fun,illustration,indonesia,island,news,people,swimming,travel,wordpress
In march 1990 the small cargo ship I was aboard as a passenger, broke out and died in Nias harbour.
I knew nothing of Nias but that it was a pleasant island, very …
clownfish
Posted on November 26, 2005 @ 6:50 pm by massimo | Filed under: animals,blog,boracay,diving,fun,holidays,illustration,indonesia,kenya,package tour,philippines,swimming,travel,wordpress
“Small is beatiful” was a popular adage in Italy and it can be taken for the colourful, cute clownfish. Clownfish are relatively small organisms; fish in the …
ballet
Posted on November 23, 2005 @ 10:06 am by massimo | Filed under: art,blog,fashion,fun,illustration,indonesia,island,music,mythology,news,people,philippines,thailand,travel,wordpress
The Ramayana is an epic Hindu poem telling the story of the good Prince Rama’s crusade to rescue his bride (Sinta) from the evil king (Rahwana). The classical, enjoyable Javanese dance-drama performs the Ramayana throughout by …
broken sleep
Posted on October 29, 2005 @ 10:30 pm by massimo | Filed under: animals,bargain,blog,cheap,food,fun,illustration,indonesia,news,people,philippines,travel,wordpress
I experienced sea-voyages in Indonesia (an archipelago of fourteen thousand islands) and the Philippines (seven thousand islands). In these countries people basically must move by ship and the fares are cheap. Passages are sometimes unforgettable especially when …
neptune
Posted on October 22, 2005 @ 2:14 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog,fashion,fun,illustration,india,indonesia,island,kenya,mediterranean,mythology,news,philippines,travel,wordpress
This week Illustration Friday topic is “remote” .
So here is Neptune, a character I first sketched in a remote corner of a remote island, during a remote time of my life: let’s say around twelve years …
habagat
Posted on September 25, 2005 @ 12:31 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog,books,china,fear,illustration,india,indonesia,japan,news,philippines,thailand,travel,wordpress
Wet Monsoon blows in the Indian Ocean from South West, from April to October. The rainy season which comes with it, turns out to be a bit oppressive. Further East, in Hong Kong, Taiwan …