Click on the image to link through to the film.
The photo was created by an unnamed photographer,
the original image is to be found here.
(please ignore the advert and click the "Skip the Ad" link)
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Excellence and beauty combined
Two of the most talented girls of the country gave a demonstration recently, to the amazement and delight of the audience...
Click on the image to link through to the film.
The photo was created by an unnamed photographer,
the original image is to be found here.
Click on the image to link through to the film.
The photo was created by an unnamed photographer,
the original image is to be found here.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Ground Zero (yet again)
Life has ground to a halt recently, and for the time being it's almost as if I'm marking time, being unable to break free from the stasis I've been trying to avoid most of my life. There's such a horrible tiredness in my body at this very moment, I can't break free of the lethargy and perhaps I should be sleeping, but the built-up tensions of daily life need a way of escape and transformation in the same way I perhaps need to escape and feel transformed too...
I have failed, and my faults are so excruciatingly abundant that they move me, upset me, disturb me... and yet I know that I'm not the only one wandering this planet alone, along the lonely paths of silent introspection, trying to find meaning at whatever point it may become apparent...
Yes, I have my faults, I'm as human and as fallible as the rest of humanity... I am human and need to be recognised, in the same way you need to be recognised yourself... I am human, we are human and each and every one of us need to be able to feel validated in the personal worth of our own existence, just for the sake of it's being so... no more, no less...
I am not a saint, I've never wanted to become or claimed to have been such... I'm just as much a sinner as each and every one of us ultimately might be, for in whatever we might try we have been found lacking, our actions are weighed and we are judged accordingly...
There are no exceptions, only differences which need to be examined, heeded and loved for their own worth... we're all different, we're all unique and look toward the world and our lives in our own ways... the way forward is to examine and appreciate the differences, trying to put the points of contention back into perspective for the benefit of others...
I'm sad, a little distraught and not altogether cogent I suspect... I sincerely hope my little message of encouragement could help, in the same way I appreciate the comments, helpful messages and signs from outside my own daily world...
Keep well, sleep well and be good...
Bart
I have failed, and my faults are so excruciatingly abundant that they move me, upset me, disturb me... and yet I know that I'm not the only one wandering this planet alone, along the lonely paths of silent introspection, trying to find meaning at whatever point it may become apparent...
Yes, I have my faults, I'm as human and as fallible as the rest of humanity... I am human and need to be recognised, in the same way you need to be recognised yourself... I am human, we are human and each and every one of us need to be able to feel validated in the personal worth of our own existence, just for the sake of it's being so... no more, no less...
I am not a saint, I've never wanted to become or claimed to have been such... I'm just as much a sinner as each and every one of us ultimately might be, for in whatever we might try we have been found lacking, our actions are weighed and we are judged accordingly...
There are no exceptions, only differences which need to be examined, heeded and loved for their own worth... we're all different, we're all unique and look toward the world and our lives in our own ways... the way forward is to examine and appreciate the differences, trying to put the points of contention back into perspective for the benefit of others...
I'm sad, a little distraught and not altogether cogent I suspect... I sincerely hope my little message of encouragement could help, in the same way I appreciate the comments, helpful messages and signs from outside my own daily world...
Keep well, sleep well and be good...
Bart
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Open Helderse Kampioenschappen 2006
What do you do, when the words fail?
When life becomes so hectically, hysterically complicated and aesthetically compromised by everyday doings in ways you'd rather do without...?
Sometimes I resort to pictures, images which resurrect a fragment of the world I've imagined or have seen for fleeting moments somewhere, somehow, some time...
Too much nonsense is going on around me, I'm unable to concentrate but still trying to find some sort of truth in the images of reality I see around me every day...
Katie participated in a championship this last weekend, one in which I was so very proud of her, she did her best despite all her own initial misgivings, and she excelled :D
So many other young people there did the same, transcended themselves and let the world see the unity of form, content, colour and motion in a blaze of triumph and recognition...
Take a look at the photo's I've made... some surprised me, some were a wonderful record of personal achievement whilst others were forays into my own compositional, emotional experiments...
Keep well, stay focussed, be yourself...
When life becomes so hectically, hysterically complicated and aesthetically compromised by everyday doings in ways you'd rather do without...?
Sometimes I resort to pictures, images which resurrect a fragment of the world I've imagined or have seen for fleeting moments somewhere, somehow, some time...
Too much nonsense is going on around me, I'm unable to concentrate but still trying to find some sort of truth in the images of reality I see around me every day...
Katie participated in a championship this last weekend, one in which I was so very proud of her, she did her best despite all her own initial misgivings, and she excelled :D
So many other young people there did the same, transcended themselves and let the world see the unity of form, content, colour and motion in a blaze of triumph and recognition...
Take a look at the photo's I've made... some surprised me, some were a wonderful record of personal achievement whilst others were forays into my own compositional, emotional experiments...
Keep well, stay focussed, be yourself...
Friday, June 16, 2006
Back to basics
One of my sisters-in-law is a gifted artist and is holding an exhibition this weekend, together with a number of her fellow painters from this region...
She's been painting for some 20 years, drawing her inspiration from the countryside of North Holland, her own garden and the tulip fields which come into bloom each spring, with startling results and occasionally a spontaneous mandala to brighten up the world around us.
It's a style of painting I've had some difficulty with, but as I grow older I've learnt to appreciate the more natural approaches, looking back into the world around myself for inspiration and quietness so one can develop properly.
Forms and colours can heal, when used appropriately...
Keep well...
She's been painting for some 20 years, drawing her inspiration from the countryside of North Holland, her own garden and the tulip fields which come into bloom each spring, with startling results and occasionally a spontaneous mandala to brighten up the world around us.
It's a style of painting I've had some difficulty with, but as I grow older I've learnt to appreciate the more natural approaches, looking back into the world around myself for inspiration and quietness so one can develop properly.
Forms and colours can heal, when used appropriately...
Keep well...
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Waking up, growing up
Even though I'm an adult, I still need to grow up once in a while. There are moments I suddenly realise that things aren't what they seem at all, nor are they what I'd hoped they would be either. Realignment, reassessment and the shedding of illusions is the name of the game... over and over and over again...
In all honesty, it's no fun... but nobody said it would be, I suppose. In the same way a child can hurt so badly with physical growing pains (I should know, they were the scourge of my childhood) an adult can be brought to his or her knees by events and adversities totally beyond their own comprehension or abilities to cope with day to day realities...
Life is about change, life is about adjusting, life is about getting hurt by things you don't understand but need to accept. Life is about learning to go with the flow, despite all wishes to maintain the familiar and accepted modes of existence. Life is about letting go of preconceptions and mind-sets which bind and eventually maim when one tries to cling too hard.
Life hurts, but can be outrageously funny when viewed from the outside... the objective versus the subjective, the personal versus the political, the social versus the individual... the tensions generating a unity and humour that can be liberating when pondered upon...
I just need to find it, that's all. The theory's wonderful... putting an intuitively accepted given into practice is a totally new ball game...
Keep well, and have fun... ;-)
In all honesty, it's no fun... but nobody said it would be, I suppose. In the same way a child can hurt so badly with physical growing pains (I should know, they were the scourge of my childhood) an adult can be brought to his or her knees by events and adversities totally beyond their own comprehension or abilities to cope with day to day realities...
Life is about change, life is about adjusting, life is about getting hurt by things you don't understand but need to accept. Life is about learning to go with the flow, despite all wishes to maintain the familiar and accepted modes of existence. Life is about letting go of preconceptions and mind-sets which bind and eventually maim when one tries to cling too hard.
Life hurts, but can be outrageously funny when viewed from the outside... the objective versus the subjective, the personal versus the political, the social versus the individual... the tensions generating a unity and humour that can be liberating when pondered upon...
I just need to find it, that's all. The theory's wonderful... putting an intuitively accepted given into practice is a totally new ball game...
Keep well, and have fun... ;-)
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Trusting, hoping and whatever follows...
Most of the time I tend to trust my intuition, reacting on impulse to feelings and sensations not based on anything I can explain or justify at that moment. Occasionally, I choose to ignore the signals, wave away any lingering and half-felt objections because I have other goals and/or needs in mind at that moment.
More fool me... much of what's happening right now is the direct result of myself not being able to accept the validity of what I already half-knew, but was unwilling to accept at that moment.
Twenty-five years later... after the good years in which I gave what I could and tried even better because I sincerely wanted to make life better for both of us, after the indifference that followed when I knew that I'd failed miserably but kept on trying anyway in the hope that I could resurrect something of worth, and finally running through the storms of acrimony and bitterness when trying to find some space for myself to recover from the disappointment and blame for having disturbed more lives than should have been the case in the first place.
In 1981 I already knew what was going to happen, but this optimistic sod/SOB plodded on in the knowledge and the conviction that the world was as changeable as was necessary and that if I tried hard enough, it would work eventually. I'm not the easiest of persons to have to live with, but I was convinced enough that if we both tried to the best of our abilities, our relationship would be a success...
I'd sincerely like to thank each and everybody who read and commented recently, who managed to keep me afloat at a moment that I almost subsided... if anything, I need you all to let me remember to learn, to look and to listen, even more than I've been doing... to look and listen into my own life and into the lives and experiences of others, to relate and connect and so doing become myself once again...
Keep well, please...
More fool me... much of what's happening right now is the direct result of myself not being able to accept the validity of what I already half-knew, but was unwilling to accept at that moment.
Twenty-five years later... after the good years in which I gave what I could and tried even better because I sincerely wanted to make life better for both of us, after the indifference that followed when I knew that I'd failed miserably but kept on trying anyway in the hope that I could resurrect something of worth, and finally running through the storms of acrimony and bitterness when trying to find some space for myself to recover from the disappointment and blame for having disturbed more lives than should have been the case in the first place.
In 1981 I already knew what was going to happen, but this optimistic sod/SOB plodded on in the knowledge and the conviction that the world was as changeable as was necessary and that if I tried hard enough, it would work eventually. I'm not the easiest of persons to have to live with, but I was convinced enough that if we both tried to the best of our abilities, our relationship would be a success...
I'd sincerely like to thank each and everybody who read and commented recently, who managed to keep me afloat at a moment that I almost subsided... if anything, I need you all to let me remember to learn, to look and to listen, even more than I've been doing... to look and listen into my own life and into the lives and experiences of others, to relate and connect and so doing become myself once again...
Keep well, please...
Friday, June 09, 2006
Nothing's going to change my world...
I hope, just a little bit of encouragement for myself and anybody else, at the right time and perhaps at the appropriate place...
Right now, I'm at a low point, again... one of the many, with still so many to follow... it's no real big deal, just something I need to deal with at the right moment and in the right way... learning to see things in the right way is an art form in itself.
Things collapsed a little on me during the last few days, not in an earth-shattering way but one that left me reeling... I managed to get some sort of conversation going with my partner, one that left me feeling empty and terrified after I realised that there was absolutely no common ground on which we could conduct a sensible discussion or even a sane arguement at all...
Whatever happens, I need to be true to myself and even after weighing out the ethical demands placed on me, I can't do otherwise than choose for myself in the first place, and for my children after that... if I don't look after myself, my girls have no chance at all and I need to choose for them now because I chose for them in the first place, before all the rubbish got deposited at my doorstep...
Plodding along, getting there and vaguely optimistic once again...
...I'm not alone...
...You're not alone...
...We're not alone...
Keep well...
Right now, I'm at a low point, again... one of the many, with still so many to follow... it's no real big deal, just something I need to deal with at the right moment and in the right way... learning to see things in the right way is an art form in itself.
Things collapsed a little on me during the last few days, not in an earth-shattering way but one that left me reeling... I managed to get some sort of conversation going with my partner, one that left me feeling empty and terrified after I realised that there was absolutely no common ground on which we could conduct a sensible discussion or even a sane arguement at all...
Whatever happens, I need to be true to myself and even after weighing out the ethical demands placed on me, I can't do otherwise than choose for myself in the first place, and for my children after that... if I don't look after myself, my girls have no chance at all and I need to choose for them now because I chose for them in the first place, before all the rubbish got deposited at my doorstep...
Plodding along, getting there and vaguely optimistic once again...
...I'm not alone...
...You're not alone...
...We're not alone...
Keep well...
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
A memory lane called Sesame Street
One of the things I've tried to cover up for most of my life, is my total fascination and enjoyment of Sesame Street. OK, big news... Bart loves Sesame Street and has decided to come out and declare his total commitment to the educational undertones and the totally silly overtones which were/are generated from time to time.
My first introduction the on-screen mayhem was in 1972, when Sesame Street was aired for the first time by the Australian Broadcasting Commission. The original series had already started several years earlier in the United States and the ABC in it's wisdom adopted the formula quite quickly, airing the 50 minute programme twice daily.
I loved it, from the first moment I saw the programme... Bert and Ernie, Kermit the Frog, Cookie Monster and countless other creations that appeared in the course of the years managed to transform my perceptions of sense, sensibility and any propriety whatsoever. It was just so silly, it was fun and although I was working hard at growing up, I loved the flashbacks to a world where associations and perceptions were less inhibited.
Music, good stories and a quiet injection of commonsense values... things worthwhile, things often lost in the confusion of modern life...
The Sesame Street people tramped on, worked diligently and produced so much of worth in the course of the years... I remember Bob Segar with his "Duelling Banjo" routine so vividly, a real treat for the receptive... so many artists of note have passed through in the course of so many years, who regretfully have been forgotten...
After a while, the guest artists began to appear...
Johnny Cash on Sesame Street.
The Henson people pushed much of the concept (and occasionally even better) further and further across the decades, but original Sesame Street of the 1970's, with Susan, Gordon, Bob, Mr Hooper, Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird as some of the original inhabitants of a wonderfully new world were so enamouring, the memories of something wonderful and delicious, linger on...
Learning the alphabet was fun...
...and learning to count was an even greater joy :D
Some things I treasure... welcome to my world and keep well...
My first introduction the on-screen mayhem was in 1972, when Sesame Street was aired for the first time by the Australian Broadcasting Commission. The original series had already started several years earlier in the United States and the ABC in it's wisdom adopted the formula quite quickly, airing the 50 minute programme twice daily.
I loved it, from the first moment I saw the programme... Bert and Ernie, Kermit the Frog, Cookie Monster and countless other creations that appeared in the course of the years managed to transform my perceptions of sense, sensibility and any propriety whatsoever. It was just so silly, it was fun and although I was working hard at growing up, I loved the flashbacks to a world where associations and perceptions were less inhibited.
Music, good stories and a quiet injection of commonsense values... things worthwhile, things often lost in the confusion of modern life...
The Sesame Street people tramped on, worked diligently and produced so much of worth in the course of the years... I remember Bob Segar with his "Duelling Banjo" routine so vividly, a real treat for the receptive... so many artists of note have passed through in the course of so many years, who regretfully have been forgotten...
After a while, the guest artists began to appear...
Johnny Cash on Sesame Street.
The Henson people pushed much of the concept (and occasionally even better) further and further across the decades, but original Sesame Street of the 1970's, with Susan, Gordon, Bob, Mr Hooper, Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird as some of the original inhabitants of a wonderfully new world were so enamouring, the memories of something wonderful and delicious, linger on...
Picture a world where the rivers are clear
Where a dunk in the water is just a block or two from here
And try to think of a way to make it that way
Picture a world of honey warm haze
And the wind playing tag in the playground trees on summer days
And try to think of a way to make it that way
Brown frog talkin' to a butterfly
Flowers growin' oh, so high
Skies wide open, stars so near
Just reach up and touch one from here
Everybody picture a world where little kids run
Where the sunshine is pouring love and life on ev'ryone
And try to think of a way to make it that way
Make it that way
Make it that way
Learning the alphabet was fun...
...and learning to count was an even greater joy :D
Some things I treasure... welcome to my world and keep well...
Monday, June 05, 2006
Fundamentalist fault line
Although this image is aimed at Muslims in the light of recent events, the same message is applicable to most religions and economic systems around the world, where orthodoxy, compliance and adherance to proscribed norms is preferred above the the human right to social and emotional freedom...
Another late night/early morning parting shot... keep well...
Hot topic
How to blog in the tropics, Part One...
Don't forget to wear comfortable, loose clothing...
Don't forget to wear comfortable, loose clothing...
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Which one are you?
Gratuitiously nicked from somebody elses weblog this evening.
---------
Presenting... the four personality types :D
Please deliver comments,
appropriate or not
in the space provided below ;-)
Keep well and your glasses well filled so there's no confusion...
Presenting... the four personality types :D
Please deliver comments,
appropriate or not
in the space provided below ;-)
Keep well and your glasses well filled so there's no confusion...
Altered perspectives, yet again
Ever since I was a child, I've been fascinated by the works of Salvador DalÃ. Some of them are totally absurd, some so surreal I can hardly take them on board easily.
On the other hand, some are so poignant and touching, the motives and contrasts so revealing, you can almost feel the sadness of a world that disappeared almost immediately after its image was entrusted to canvas.
The Belgian painter, René Magritte was another, managing to relate the commonplace and the absurd, the abstract and the deafeningly rational into so many of his works.
Just a little something I needed to share... keep well...
On the other hand, some are so poignant and touching, the motives and contrasts so revealing, you can almost feel the sadness of a world that disappeared almost immediately after its image was entrusted to canvas.
The Belgian painter, René Magritte was another, managing to relate the commonplace and the absurd, the abstract and the deafeningly rational into so many of his works.
Just a little something I needed to share... keep well...
Fractal universes
I decided to try one of the programmes Dzeni recommends for generating fractal images... here's one of this evenings results, which I rather liked :D
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Concerning parrots, dead or alive...
One of my all-time favourites, written and produced by the Monty Python clan...
The Dead Parrot sketch with Michael Palin and John Cleese.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Thought for the day
...in other words, don't drink and derive :P
I wonder if Sir Isaac Newton would agree...
OK, so I'm being silly but calculus has been one of the wonders of my mathematical life, a kind of abstract half-world outside the borders of accepted reality at moments.
A complicated way of saying, "I'm me..."
I enjoyed High School mathematics. It was a subject that opened up new areas of reality in a way I was never aware of. I think Liesl would agree with my feelings that pure mathematics are almost akin to art in its most intriguing forms. An abstractness, a detachment from the accepted daily ways of life, an incursion into new and exciting realms.
Fibonacci sequences, which have very real expressions in natural life, return to goad us in artistic terms when generated as computer art.
The nautilis sea-shell in all its beauty.
This one was taken from Dzeni's weblog, one of those I often come back to when I'm in need of inspiration and healing.
The artists who take the riot of colours created by mathematical and physical interactions almost intuitively sense the intertwinedness and dependence of the various disciplines to create masterpieces of light.
Heaven and hell colliding, unable to survive without each other and generating the energy we need to be able to understand life in the first place. Night and day, the good and the bad, the predictable and the chaotic, colours and shades of grey, reality and illusion, all return to me in the equations, postulates and computer generated representations of how we see the world around us.
Mathematics, physics and expressions of art, interchangeable and enhancing each other, incomprehensible without each other, bringing intuitive meaning when least expected.
Maurits Cornelis Escher, at work...
Yet another crystal that has grown in my mind during the last few days... I'm feeling happy and justified at the moment.
Keep well...
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Good news
Finally, some good news I'd been hoping for... Eldest Daughter has been accepted to the Media College as of next school year after a number of misunderstandings and foul-ups in communication recently...
In a strange way, if she's able to concentrate effectively I'm really sure that this is the school she'll do well in...
She's so creative, but does so in a way most people can't or won't understand, she's really original in her own way but badly unfocussed up to now... the art world moves in mysterious ways but she'll have to find her place in it somehow... take a look at her DeviantArt site, there's some really good photography there and some interesting (if strange) designs as well...
Today's been strange, today's been wonderful but I'll wait until tomorrow to tell... :P
Keep well...
In a strange way, if she's able to concentrate effectively I'm really sure that this is the school she'll do well in...
She's so creative, but does so in a way most people can't or won't understand, she's really original in her own way but badly unfocussed up to now... the art world moves in mysterious ways but she'll have to find her place in it somehow... take a look at her DeviantArt site, there's some really good photography there and some interesting (if strange) designs as well...
Today's been strange, today's been wonderful but I'll wait until tomorrow to tell... :P
Keep well...
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