This set of images was generated from an accidental arrangement of shapes in the process of making new Crystal Kings digital images. The goal was to line up a few pixels, but instead all the shapes in the whole image collapsed onto each other. A tweak of the opacity and a few quick deletes to
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Waiting for spring with some forsythia branches blooming on the kitchen table, cuttings brought indoors last week to force the blooms.
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Here are some detail shots of one of the embroidered mandalas that were completed last year during our time in Mexico. This mandala has a face of white linen and a crisp yellow and turquoise color palette. This seems just the thing to look at in this very grey day in Toronto – April 15
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When we invent the future, the most important thing is to capture is the feeling so that we can make a connection to that time space and then climb up and forward just like a mountain climber who uses safety ropes on a sheer cliff wall. So what is it like to live in the
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One of my favorite things to photograph with the kaleidoscope filter are cactus because the spines arrange themselves nicely into elaborate mandalas.
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The photographs show work in progress on a monochromatic blue embroidery on white linen mandala. This embroidery is destined to be pressed into clay to make a relief pattern for glazes to pool and reveal the slight indentations left by the embroidered pattern. Ceramics are a new medium to both me and Marc and it
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In one of the early stages of embroidering a mandala I print out a paper pattern to regulate the stitches, sometimes just a plain grid-in-the-round like this one. This mandala is 34.5 cm in diameter (about 13 inches) and the grid had to be printed in pieces that here are joined with fun neon pink
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Last week we started private classes in the ceramics studio of a local artist called Alejandro Sanchez. Alejandro’s family is from nearby Cuernavaca and has for generations produced ceramics, focusing primarily on the casting method. Alejandro himself expanded his craft over decades into every different type of ceramic, including with workshops in Japan and the
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This pretty, surreal landscape emerged when beads that were collected in a color palette for an embroidery project spilled out onto white linen that was stretched in another embroidery hoop. The hoop was under a strong studio light and the little beads cast dramatic shadows, creating an open landscape. The beads are collected from all
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Meet a cereus cactus species with fruit straight out of a Jim Woodring cartoon and very large white flowers that bloom for just one night.
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An art studio work table is covered in beads and materials for the mandala project.
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Do you know a nasty woman who deserves a trophy? How about a Kali spirit on a war path in the name of love? Free print and fold Valentines.
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By popular demand, the image “What does it mean to love someone?” is now available as a print in our shop in an open edition. Choose a small or medium size archival print and have it delivered to your door. Standard shipping is included in the price. This drawing is part of Marc’s ongoing project
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Fur suit, fur helmet, and air bike ready on the terrace of a cliff residence. An early sketch from Marc in the Lodar storyline.
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According to Ukranian tradition, these headdresses were worn by young, unmarried women to show their “purity” and marital eligibility. These crowns were woven specifically for the photo shoot by Treti Pivni, to celebrate the tradition and foster social unity. The flower and plant arrangements are mesmerizing and bountiful, and oh so optimistic. This way of
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In the studio last week we photographed an embroidered mandala with a kaleidoscope filter for a completely new arrangement of stitches.
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These photos are studies for the mandala project.
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The mandalas were inspired by a kaleidoscopic filter on a cellphone camera app that turns any view into a radiating, swirling pattern. The very first mandala, photo above, was a photograph of a hairbrush. The brush had black tines tipped with pink plastic, on a pad of charcoal grey rubber. The resulting photo looked like
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In a day of contrasts, we visited the world’s smallest volcano and the world’s largest pyramid all in one day. The tiny Cuexcomate volcano is in Cholula, a small town outside of Puebla city. It is primarily a geyser offshoot in the ridge that holds the much larger Popacateketl Volcano that dominates the Puebla horizon.
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The Great Pyramid of Cholula, just outside the city of Puebla in Mexico, is that largest constructed pyramid in the world, with each side at the base measuring 400 meters and an overall height of 450 meters. Because the pyramid is covered in earth and vegetation, it feels like a mountain to be near it
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Tepoztlan is a small town of about 24,000 people nestled in a small green valley 1.5 hours south of Mexico City. The town is one of the federally designated “Pueblos Magicos“, a status it earned for its natural beauty, it is held as the birthplace of Quetzalcoatl. On the weekends the town fills up with
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We spent a day being tourists in the tiny town of Cholula, just outside the city of Puebla. The village is known for the largest pyramid in the world as well as the smallest volcano in the world. It has many churches, several appear in this post. Cholula is also full of restaurants, shops, galleries,
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These photos were made in June 2016 and they are early experiments in the mandalas project. The original images are below. This is what the camera actually saw while the filter was being applied for the above images.
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Home altars are set up in Mexico for Dia de los Muertos to entice departed spirits to visit and to linger. Sweets, flowers, and food are offered. We set up our altar with existing and new objects, sugar skulls and a chocolate skull, and all on pieces of silk and linen that Magda is currently
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October and November in Tepoztlan is the season for flowers. As the summer rainy season ends and the dry season approaches, plants use their stores of food to burst into bloom and attract pollinating insects that are also getting a reprieve from the torrential downpour and thriving in the warmer weather.
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Two years ago I attended a fermentation workshop with @surlyfarmer and have been fermenting my own pickles ever since. For a while I was probably putting up a new jar every day. Documenting the beautiful colors and patterns of the fermenting plants turned into the Every Day I’m Pickling project. Below is included a basic
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This chaotically embroidered mandala is the first test of embroidery with the help of a circular paper grid. The addition of beads was also tested. This is an experiment in the larger mandala project.
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Monstera deliciosa or philodendron pertusumare is a tropical vine native to Mexico and Central America. It has large, glossy dark green leaves distinctive for their lovely pattern of oval holes and deep long cuts from the edges. They grow under the canopy in subtropical and tropical climates in both rainforests and those areas that are
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