Do Art

Still from Diana-Sofia Estrada's 'Ways of Making Love in u.s' (2006) on display today at Alice Yard, Woodbrook, Port of Spain . For crying out loud just find out more by clicking here ! WATCH a teaser of Diana-Sofia Estrada's 'Ways of Making Love in u.s' here .

Wall at upper Edward Street, Port of Spain. FROM THE ORGANISERS: "Come witness for yourself the record and results of an amazing journey. EVENT: "From Concrete to Canvas"   AT: Queen's Hall  WHEN: April 29 to May 2 Former vagrant/mural (so-called graffitti) artist Clinton Cummings shares the heart-rending, painful and ultimately inspiring story of his challenging journey from the desolate depths of addiction, homelessness, crime and violence towards a clean, purpose-driven, dedicated life of wonder, beauty and hope, on the continuing road to fulfilling his dreams, through this, his first ever official exhibition of his latest works since that life-changing moment less than one year ago when he began to turn his life around. This remarkable transformation, almost metaphorically reflected in the evolution from crude murals on concrete walls and city streets, to expressions on canvas sheets is a rousing testament to the tenacity of the human spirit. Grasp the opportunit...

ProteoFareSapere - Pratopresenta: SCHEDA/SKEDA Metropilitana n°4 Presentazione alla Provincia di Prato SALA delle RIUNIONI Palazzo Novellucci Via Cairoli, 25 - Prato Venerdi 30 aprile ore 17:00 http://www.skeda.info/scheda-_skeda_periodico_Prato/home.html Ad ogni uscita una grafica d'artista come allegato di SCHEDA/SKEDA. In questo numero quella di ENZO CORRENTI, in 300 copie numerate e firmate dall'artista. - Isole del tempo perduto Sono incline all’osservare a metabolizzare e restituire sotto diversa forma le riflessioni che colgo nella società. Ma è una sfida accettare e scrivere di me perché voglio dare voce all’arcipelago di solitudine che ho dentro, ma che è la condizione preoccupante della società nichilista contemporanea. Convergenze parallele, questo sono le mie carte arrotolate, percorsi di vita che non devono mai incontrarsi. Binari di una ferrovia che conclude nel vuoto pneumatico che ci circonda, il suo viaggio. C’è spazio per le parole se siamo capaci di stravolge...

Macram é  cord and wood bead belt by Denise Hendrie. Photo coutesy Kerry Samuels-Noel/Chic Shak. Place: Chic Shak Lifestyle. Jerningham Avenue, Belmont, Port of Spain.  Dates: Wednesday,28th April 2010 and Saturday, 1st May 2010.  Time: 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm and 12 noon - 4:00 pm.  Chic Shak, in Belmont, is starting another ' Meet the Maker ' open house series and the first designer for 2010 is Denise Hendrie. To create her fashionable belts and jewellery, Denise uses mainly macramé cord and hemp twine/yarn, embellished with various types of beads. Her pieces are like nothing you’ve ever seen before, so, if you don’t like fading into the background and you like to be different, come meet Denise and see her stuff. READ  more at the Chic Shak blog here . 

Photo courtesy the artist. Trinidad 'cross-over' artist Eddie Bowen calls this one of his favorite paintings. It's called 'Ghost of Carnival' (2009) and was shown in a select exhibition of work that opened on April 22 at 29 Syndenham Avenue, St Ann's Port of Spain. Bowen lists his inspirations as: "the Great Pyramid at Giza, my dad, Leonardo da Vinci, Durer, Ghiberti, Michaelangelo, Shakespeare, living in Trinidad, the Bhagavad Gita, the study of Yoga since 1993, the Psalms, Egyptology, sci-fi, cricket, sacred/ancient architecture, teaching, questions arising from skeptical, objective, analytical, spiritual and speculative enquiry into mankind’s history and evolution, painting, growing trees (the oxygen machines),'outsider' art, world affairs - the environment, Cydonia, architecture." FIND  out more about Bowen at his website  here . From 'The Rock Machines' by Eddie Bowen (c) 1997

My seven-year-old nephew was playing with these Sesame Street cards. But he was more interested in the reverse of the cards than the other side with the writing. He scattered them on the floor, with the images and colours facing upwards. I liked how it looked. A puddle of monsters.

CAISO on Thursday continues its series of movie screenings with The Times of Harvey Milk , a moving and funny Academy Award-winning film about the first openly gay elected official in the US. (This is the original Harvey Milk film, not the Gus Van Sant-directed Sean Penn movie). TIME : 19:00 - 22:00,  LOCATION : Bohemia, Woodbrook. Free; donations accepted. Refreshments on sale.

My Grandma was buried on this cemetry, we (Grandpa, Dad and me) visited her grave on April 2nd.

"I have been working on a proposed set design for Mount Irvine Bay Hotel And Golf Club- JAZZ ON THE BEACH 2010 for about 3 months and this weekend things materialized. Last year I noticed people stayed far away from the stage as there wasn't any shaded area close enough. Working with the idea "SHADE"... this lead to the design of a canopy that felt like the sky came closer. It was both aesthetically appropriate and functional as this year people actually got to lay or sit in the shade near the stage"-Trinidadian design artist Marlon Darbeau. READ more at Marlon's blog here . SEE an interview with Marlon here .

'Eve' by Marilyn Morrison. Exhibited at Island People's 'If House' during Erotic Art Week 2009. Erotic Art Week is an annual festival that was conceived by a collective of visual, graphic and performing artists living in Trinidad & Tobago. 2010 will be the second year of the Caribbean's first Erotic Art Week which will run under the theme "Wider". CHECK out the blog here .

eNZo CoRReNTi - Le isole del tempo perduto. Sono incline all’osservare a metabolizzare e restituire sotto diversa forma le riflessioni che colgo nella società. Ma è una sfida accettare e scrivere di me perché voglio dare voce all’arcipelago di solitudine che ho dentro, ma che è la condizione preoccupante della società nichilista contemporanea. Convergenze parallele, questo sono le mie carte arrotolate, percorsi di vita che non devono mai incontrarsi. Binari di una ferrovia che conclude nel vuoto pneumatico che ci circonda, il suo viaggio. C’è spazio per le parole se siamo capaci di stravolgerne il significato, se ci specchiamo solo in noi stessi, come moderni NARCISO? I miei lavori, le mie opere, sono piene di parole accartocciate su se stesse, incapaci di urlare, mute dinanzi ad una società cieca e sorda. Le performance dell’UOMO CARTA evocano l’incomunicabilità di questa giovane generazione, a cui la tecnologia offre strumenti sofisticati ma l’ha privata dello strumento più bello… la...

the first shots of the sunlight session. Nikon F90 with a Nikkor 35-135 lens, 200 ASA film, makro shots

RECITANDO POR UN SUEÑO ECOLÓGICO Hoy los poetas recitamos por un sueño: ¡Salvar al mundo de la devastación! El esfuerzo que hagamos es pequeño pero si te unes, seremos un montón. El clima hunde el litoral ribereño, plantar más árboles es una solución. Que no se anegue la costa del isleño, por el desborde y por la inundación. Recita, poeta, recita por un sueño... ¡Tu poesía es la mejor opción!... para dar a conocer con mucho empeño que nuestras selvas requieren protección. Proteger el agua pura es desempeño, también cuidarla de la contaminación. Preservar el aire limpio con ingenio evita males de la respiración. La Tierra no resiste otro milenio, si a este tema no le damos atención. Tal vez haya que cambiar pronto el diseño de este sistema de la autodestrucción. Recita, poeta, recita por un sueño, nuestro planeta necesita protección. Hagamos juntos con la Tierra este convenio: Ella nos da vida, y nosotros: ¡Amor! ...

bailando por un sueño" bailando por un sueño" surgiò del camino a la fama por todos los sufrimientos que conllevan para llegar al triunfo, es una metàfora de esta sociedad convulsionada en que vivimos .donde para lograrlo se debe pasar por caminos peligrosos http://nancycari.blogspot.com/

First picture of todays scan, shot on April 2nd 2010 in Leipzig, city part Reudnitz - Thonberg, I wouldn't want to live there. Yeah, I finally got around to scan in three films which added up to 112 pictures . (Which I have to cut still!) Four other films will follow tomorrow, including the film of the sunlight session. Have a nice weekend.

It's my birthday and the first gift I got today was White Egrets, the latest collection of poems by Derek Walcott. I've placed it at the top of my pile of bedside books which I've been slowly working my way through for a good few years now. Here is the opening poem from White Egrets: 1. The chessmen are as rigid on their chessboard as those life-sized terra-cotta warriors whose vows to their emperor with bridle, shield and sword were sworn by a chorus that has lost its voice; no echo in that astonishing excavation. Each soldier gave an oath, each gave his word to die for his emperor, his clan, his nation, to become a chess piece, breathlessly erect in shade or crossing sunlight, without hours-- from clay to clay and odorlessly strict. If vows were visible they might see ours as changeless chessmen in the changing light on the lawn outside where bannered breakers toss and the palms gust with music that is time's above the chessmen's silence. Motion brings loss. A sab...

I've got the films from Saturdays sunlight session back and dare I said it?! They are brilliant! Well some of them anyway. Some are overexposed due to the reflective surface of the object, but they are good nonetheless because I won't shoot stuff that reflects from these angles again. So... Mission accomplished. I learned a lot already. I'll scan and show them as soon as I find the time to do so. Today I have other stuff to do, like writing an application and plan future photosessions with my friend the Digital Photographer . The tripod I use is hers. (To have friends like her is fantastic.)

Brought the first three films in yesterday, we'll see how the sunlight session worked out. I didn't get around to shoot the other light versions since I was to tired. At the moment I ponder the question if I should shoot the same pictures with the other light or create different still lifes. What do you think?

"I'm reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Forgive the post title. I might be heading in a few years of self imposed solitude myself"--From Brianna Mc Carthy's awesome blog Passion Fruit . CHECK it  here .

Collagista: Aline Fonseca

Kick Ass It was touching. It was violent. It was VERY good. Kick Ass  is the first film in recent memory to turn the conventions of a genre inside out while at the same time managing to maintain earnest dramatic weight in its story line. It's a film about the impossibility of what films often make possible that establishes the possibility of the impossible still (even though its impossible). In other words-the characters get real licks trying to be bad. The violence is startling, but serves a larger purpose. It exposes the gross realities of what is really involved in "super hero" activity, a reality often glossed over by other films. This approach, combined with some exceptional performances from Nicholas Cage and some lesser known actors, turn this into a must see. Even if just to quell the curiosity factor. Five stars ***** Sam Worthington in Clash of the Titans The same cannot be said of The Clash of the Titans  which aims to exceed the original film it is based on, b...

Novelist Monique Roffey ar Maracas Beach "I fantasise that Patrick Manning has read my book, even likes it. I also fantasise that he wants to have me shot. If he banned my book, I’d be very proud of myself"--novelist Monique Roffey, author of The White Woman on the Green Bicycle , a novel which features a fictional rendering of a well-known Trinidadian politician. The novel was this month shortlisted for the UK's Orange Prize for Fiction. READ full interview here .

WHO? I was born at the park Nursing Home, Port of Spain (now St Clair Medical centre) at about 4am on the 24th April 1965. Early memories of Trinidad include a jelly fish invasion at Toco and sitting on a bamboo pole covered in bubbles, not knowing they were jelly fish, ouch. I was sent to a girl’s convent boarding school in the UK at the age of thirteen and have spent my entire life, since then, travelling between the UK and Trinidad. Today, I live in London, where I mostly write and teach creative writing. I recently invited my editor out to Trinidad to launch my second novel, The White Woman on the Green Bicycle at The Reader’s Bookshop, in St James. On the way home from the airport, driving through Maraval, I saw her staring out the window at the hills. I’ve written a lot about the hills which you see everywhere in Port of Spain. …she said: “God, now I see at you mean.” I loved the way she was looking with such awe at Trinidad and she hadn’t even got out of the car. “I still stare ...

Our favorite ISLAND blog features Laura Ferreira's photographs of designer Meilings 2010 SS collection. CLICK here . For more on an exhibition of Laura's work, see here .

Still from 'Ways of Making Love in US' (2006), by Diana-Sofia Estrada. Image courtesy Alice Yard blog and used by that blog with permission of the artist. Ok so the organisers may be shocked by this post's headline but hey, cheeky headlines are one of the few pleasures of life. Anyhow, FROM THE ORGANISERS : Proximities is a programme of five artists’ videos posing questions about family and domesticity, intimacy and publicity, anxieties and appetites. Curated by artist and Alice Yard co-instigator Christopher Cozier, Proximities explores the medium of video, its immediacy, and its relations with performance, spontaneity, and self-revelation.  READ more here .

What fun!!! It started this morning with getting the cameras, tripod and films ready. "Mmmh, I definitely need more 200 ASA Films and batteries." Took the stuff for the still lifes out: belgian chocolate, Othello chocolate cookies, the wooden bowl, etc Since I needed batteries and films I went to the city by streetcar and bought them and Lunch. First I wanted to get thai food but then felt more like cheese. So I got myself 3 bagels, 100g of berry cream cheese and at the supermarket I bought Rocchetta Alta Langa cheese. Pure bliss. You gotta taste it. Yummy. On my way to and fro the city I took several pictures with my Ixus (I don't leave the house without it). After a nap, around 4 PM I started with the set up for the session. Since the sun finally was getting to the position to get the pictures. My first setup for the test pictures. Not happy times. Because my camera was having one error after another and I'm not used to look through an eyepiece anymore. It took me...