They say a picture is worth 1000 words, although in our modern society of selfies and food-stagrams, most pictures seem to be worth far less.
But every once in awhile you see an image that makes you remember that photography is an art form, and that some people have the ability to capture an amazing story with just the snap of a shutter.
Reuters released their top images of 2013, and they are awe-inspiring. You can check out more of the images here.
A little bit of loveliness, because it’s Friday.
Just one favourite today. My mom painted this for Derek and I as a gift for our first anniversary. We met in Hawaii, and all of the signs point to places that are special to us.
Lanikai is my favourite beach, Derek used to work at Sand Island, and the Barefoot Bar is the place where my parents met him for the first time.
I love it.
And also, my mom has mad skills.
A few weeks ago I was out wandering around the city and came across an art supply store. I ended up going in, and buying anything that drew my attention, even though I’ve only been to one painting class and have basically no artistic ability whatsoever.
I’ve been bringing them out and experimenting a bit lately and it’s pretty fun. Maybe I’ll never show them to anyone, and they are probably terrible, but maybe they will sit in my closet for years collecting dust and one day after I die someone will find them and the world will mourn that such an amazing talent wasn’t recognized until it was too late.
No need to look so skeptical, that sort of thing happens all the time.
Today was kind of a bad day. Nothing major happened, just nothing seemed to go right. Sometimes it just helps to have a reminder that there are still lovely things in the world.
Last time we were down in L.A. I dragged Derek to LACMA. I like doing things like that, just going somewhere I’ve never been before and seeing something new. Some of the pieces in there were really neat, and now I’m even more eager to go to some of the amazing museums in San Francisco.
The only bad thing was that a lot of the exhibits were closed when we were there, and they had almost one whole building closed off for a Stanley Kubrick exhibit that you had to pay twice as much to get into.
But I did get to see the unnecessarily large amount of light poles outside, so all in all, not bad.
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| it’s right beside the La Brea tar pits, so you find random tar bubbling up here and there |
I went to my first pottery class yesterday, and it was pretty neat. The instructor went over the basics with us, and then just kind of let us go, stopping to check in every once in awhile. We all got as much clay as we wanted so we were able to make lots of different things.
At first I made 2 bowls that looked exactly the same, and then a coffee mug that looked the same as both of my bowls. I think I was being a little bit hard on myself, I spent a really long time on each piece trying to get it perfect, but the people around me were just cranking through them one after another.
Our instructor was telling us how pottery is one of the most long lasting art forms, which is true, archaeologists are always finding pottery from ancient civilizations. Maybe one day, thousands of years from now, someone will find one of my pieces, and wonder what kind of society could have survived when it’s people were so bad at making pots.
I didn’t keep any of the pieces I made for the first class, I signed up for 3 classes so hopefully by the end of the third I’ll have improved enough to bring home a mug that will actually be able to hold coffee.
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| one of my pots will probably end up there eventually, let’s be honest |
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| this is where the magic happens |
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| pre-glazing |
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| finished works |
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| before |
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| after |
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| my first attempt at a plate. no bueno. |
Happy Friday!
It’s going to be a gorgeous weekend, and I’m pretty excited to sleep in and go for a nice long run tomorrow, and then to do some shopping.
But the thing I am MOST excited for is Sunday morning, I finally found a pottery class in the Bay that doesn’t cost your first born child to attend, and also offered weekend classes.
This is about to be me on Sunday, but with more Patrick Swayze (hopefully).
If you’re interested in taking a class, you can sign up with Create in Clay School of Ceramics, here. They offer classes 7 days a week, and it’s only $40 for a 3 hour class.
This week is so busy, I can’t believe how fast it’s going by. I also started reading Divergent last night and I’m kind of hooked so I just want this day to be over so I can get back to my book. Here are a few things I’m loving today:
loveliness. 