The Dreaming Butterfly

Photograph by HaPe Gera, used under the Creative Commons Attribution licence 2.0

The great Taoist master Chuang Tzu once dreamt that he was a butterfly fluttering here and there. In the dream he had no awareness of his individuality as a person. He was only a butterfly. Suddenly, he awoke and found himself laying there, a person once again. But then he thought to himself, "Was I before a man who dreamt about being a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly who dreams about being a man?"

There's No Such Place As Far Away

One of the best birthday presents I have ever received is the book "There's No Such Place As Far Away" by Richard Bach ISBN 0-586-05174-0 (God bless you Raman!)

There's no such place as far away starts out in the heart of a humming bird to find the truths he's always known... about friendship and love and growing up and living in this lifetime.

For friendships that don't depend on time and space

The Sleeping Giant

The Sleeping Giant

I traveled far
To find
A sleeping giant
Head in the stream
Drifting
Dreaming
Waiting for the dawn
Of golden myth
To awaken


(copyright Stephen Peto)

Musing about Muses

While looking for the Chagall quotes, I found something I had written some nine years ago, on the subject of muses.

I will fall in love, as is my way, with the sky and with flowers, and with blades of grass. Love is an often used, seldom understood word that covers so many things - ah!

The muse is an impossible dreaming love, whose very impossible nature makes us have to explain and express ourselves, for we are in love and it need to be shared. And the pain we feel when we think it is lost is too an aspect of the muse. But when we have learned what it is to enter the hidden dreaming love of creation and express its beauty, we can never really be truly lost, or be without love, for we have found the key to the magic kingdom.

Perhaps I should post about how much I love fairytales... particularly the Snow Queen

Inuit illustration and psychedelic rock

Today I have been drawing inuit style illustrations and listening to psychedelic rock. This is a good day at work, and beats working out hexadecimal and RGB values colour tints which I was doing yesterday. While drawing these, I was listening to Simon Dupee - Kites, Jimi Hendrix - The Wind Cries Mary, The Strawberry Alarm Clock - Incense and Peppermints, The Beau Brummels - Magic Hollow, Grace Slick and The Great Society - Somebody to Love

I will have to work out how to add music to my blog posts!

I've just remembered... I used to have this great children's book, but I haven't seen it for a while, so either it is lost to the all consuming chaos of my belongings, or it has migrated to a new home. Anyway it was called The Wind has Wings: Poems from Canada - Compiled by Mary Downie and Barbara Robertson. ISBN 0-19-540432-7

An angel touching heaven

It was a beautiful spring day on Saturday, and I went on an adventure to take photographs. I saw an angel touching heaven in the park.

It was truly a glorious day, as everyone in the park was having a lovely time in the sun, laughing, playing, sunbathing, sleeping... taking photos. The sort of a day that it is good to remember, for when it is grey and miserable.

My pictures from the day, are in my flickr album spring

Rabbits in the sky

I found a rabbit in the sky, whilst out walking to Hathersage. I was quite excited about this as it reminded me of the film Amelie, which is one of my all time favourite films. (OK, its also unashamedly very dreamy and romantic, but thats not the reason I'm mentioning it)

When Amelie is a small girl she is given an instant camera, and one of the pictures she takes is a rabbit in the sky, and its true they do exist... as I have photographic evidence (above)

If you have never seen this film, it is simply beautiful. Anybody who day dreams in the clouds should definitely see it. Heres what is says on the box - "Amelie Poulain has led a sheltered life - educated at home by over-protective parents, she retreats into a fantasy world of her own. When she finally leaves home and finds work as a waitress in a Parisian cafe, life is pretty uneventful until a chain of extraordinary events leads her to the discovery of a tin box containing a schoolboy's long forgotten memories. It is then that Amelie discovers her true vocation in life - helping others find love and happiness - which she sets about in her own unique and magical way. When Amelie falls in love herself, she realises that making neat solutions is not as easy as it seems... "

For someone who is intrigued the lure of ringing phone booths... you will particularly like Amelie's creative use of public telephones... as she leaves clues for her mystery to be solved.

Ahhh... I love Audrey Tautou

What colour is paradise?

If I had to choose a favourite artist, I would choose Marc Chagall. I love his paintings. I was lucky enough to see a small selection in real life at a galley, and they made me cry. I like a lot of art and artists, but no other paintings have made me cry... because they are simply so beautiful.

"When Chagall paints you do not know if he is asleep or awake. Somewhere or other inside his head must be an angel." - Pablo Picasso

"Art always has a little to do with magic." - Ernst Fischer, writer and art critic

"He was a dreamer and reality did not exist for him." - Leopold Zborowski, art dealer and friend

My favourite books about Marc Chagall are children's book called, "What colour is paradise?"
ISBN 3-7913-2393-8 and "Life is a Dream" ISBN 3-7913-1986-8

A quote from the book about the painting "The Magician 1968", says, "It is the artist's job to search out and portray things that are hidden from most people. If we let ourselves be enchanted (by him), we can discover a whole new world! Things can leave their usual places, change colours, stand on their heads and tell stories!"

Where to begin...

At the beginning I suppose