BENEATH THE PAVEMENT, THE BEACH

“An artist’s concern is to capture beauty wherever he finds it.”  ~ Kazuo Ishiguro, An Artist of the Floating World

Sous les paves, la plage!

Scrawled by student protestors during the May demonstrations at La Sorbonne, in Paris 1968, Beneath the pavement, the beach! eloquently articulates the currents of unrest that ebb and flow.

(It is 1968 that is still considered the instrumental year of mass upheaval within the Social and Behavioral Sciences. In Paris, the month of May, what began as quiet demonstrations at the Sor Gonne (a rather prestigious university) and Nonterre (a progressive academic environment) campuses, turned into large protests that spurred a vivid spirit of rebellion against all things authoritarian. The ideology epitomized in the graffiti scrawl: “Beneath the Pavement, the Beach” spread to universities in the United States, particularly Colombia and Berkeley. Beneath the rigid, post-WWII politics, Bourgeoisie politics, et cetera, spontaneity and the unexpected had emerged. This resounding, new spirit was to resonate for decades to come.) ~ from ‘“Beneath the Pavement, the Beach:”  Reflexive Intellectualism and the Performance of Disruption,’  Kascher, Stephia M., 2007.

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~ The Art of Life and Life as Art ~ 

DEFAMILIARIZATION:

PLAYING WITH THE FAMILIAR:  TO MAKE IT STRANGE, TO CHANGE PERSPECTIVE, TO COLLAGE THE VOICES (BOTH LITERAL AND SYMBOLIC) AND GIVE PAUSE TO THE VIEWER

“…but they never see what’s close to them. It’s easy to see the exotic. But to see your own environment, it never even occurs to them…. I had to write about all the things you couldn’t see.  The artist has to make a leap of faith to insight, otherwise it’s just description.” ~ Duane Michals

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“There are many things in place Saint-Sulpice…  A great number, if not the majority, of these things have been described, inventoried, photographed, talked about, or registered.  My intention in the pages that follow was to describe the rest instead:  that which is generally not taken note of, that which is not noticed, that which has no importance:  what happens when nothing happens other than the weather, people, cars, and clouds.” ~ from ‘An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris’ by Georges Perec

VOICES:

“We speak not only to tell other people what we think, but to tell ourselves what we think. Speech is a part of thought.”  ~  Oliver Sacks, Seeing Voices

belows:  The Artist and Her Daughter, Preparing for Work

Assorted Expressions and Excavation:

WANDERING LENS

Phototgraphy, Portraits, Quotations, Projects, Creative Inspiration, etc,

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“The marvels of daily life are so exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street.” – Robert Doisneau

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“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life. And I am horribly limited.” 
― Sylvia Plath

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NOTE:  

THIS BLOG IS A CURRENT WORK-IN-PROGRESS.  THE THEMES AND CONTENT OF MY WORK, MY IDEAS AS SUCH, ARE STILL BEING MORE FINELY FORMULATED, CRYSTALIZED.  ALSO, IT TAKES QUITE A BIT OF TIME TO COLLECT AND ORGANIZE ALL OF THE VARIOUS ELEMENTS I WISH TO INCLUDE HERE IN THE FUTURE.  I KINDLY ASK THAT YOU UNDERSTAND IF THIS ALL SEEMS A BIT HAPHAZARD AT THE MOMENT – MUCH LIKE LIFE, I SUPPOSE…

BESOS, FIA