In the autumn sunshine

in the autumn sunshine #623 (30 May 2016)

in the autumn sunshine #621 (30 May 2016)

in the autumn sunshine #622 (30 May 2016)

in the autumn sunshine #626 (30 May 2016)

in the autumn sunshine #625 (30 May 2016)

in the autumn sunshine #624 (30 May 2016)

in the autumn sunshine #628 (30 May 2016)

in the autumn sunshine #627 (30 May 2016)

in the autumn sunshine #629 (30 May 2016)

in the autumn sunshine #630 (30 May 2016)

in the autumn sunshine #631 (30 May 2016)

Yesterday, the last day of autumn … out in the city. And it’s a sunny afternoon. The camera doesn’t like being stuck in the bag; I can tell it wants to get out and play. So here – with a minimum of Photoshop time involved – are the results of my playing in the sunshine.

The orange flower spikes are sampled from the bed of Aloe vera just off Civic Square, behind the City Art Gallery, on the way down to Jack Ilott Green. “A member of the Liliacea family, Aloe vera is a succulent perennial, grows in a clump and has long, spiky, grey-green leaves. The yellow-orange tubular flowers bloom at the top of tall spikes that emerge from the center of the plant. There are approximately 400 species of Aloe, but it is the Aloe Barbadensis Miller, or “true aloe,” referred to as Aloe vera, that possesses the most remarkable healing properties” (from a web site called Way of the Wild Heart).

And the tall plant with the wonderfully curved blade-like leaves … is that some kind of Agave? (If you can identify it from my pix, please comment.)

The wooden wheel is part of the sculptural decoration on the City to Sea Bridge. I hadn’t been intending to stop on the bridge, but the silvery-blue light was just too appealing to ignore.

Back in the 1930s, the St John’s Bar and Restaurant used to be the home of the Wellington Free Ambulance. I mention it because the cabbage tree shown here is among a number outside the handsome Art Deco structure.

Can we?

scrabble sculpture (03 Dec 2011)

Can we? — quickly now!
— Can we just keep pretending
that nothing happened?

(07 May 2016)

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The text here is something plucked indiscriminately, unresisted, out of my subconscious. “Reality is … a sum of all texts in various media, including action and thought” (Annette Lavers. 1982. Roland Barthes : Structuralism and After. London: Methuen & Co. [p171].

Drama in Opera House Lane

To me, there’s always been something vaguely sinister about Wellington’s Opera House Lane. That feeling was pretty strong when I was walking through last Wednesday. But it wasn’t the tagging and graffiti grabbing my attention.

The sculptural bulk of the structure overhead – it must be a walkway, I think – the weathered brickwork, and the qualities of the light combined to make it more than usually impressive. And my camera thought so, too.

So here are my three shots. (Oh! you might notice there’s a bit of a photo-shoot happening in #607,  by the way.)

Opera House Lane #605 (13 Apr 16)

Opera House Lane #606 (13 Apr 16)

Opera House Lane #607 (13 Apr 16)

Kaizen – a change for the better

kaizen

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The Japanese term “kaizen” translates loosely as improvement or change for the better, according to the web-site of Leclair Ryan, an American firm of legal advisors. In Porirua, however, Kaizen is the café at Pataka Art + Museum.

After visiting my father at Kemp Home, Titahi Bay (21 May 2015), I met my sister for lunch at the Kaizen. The beautiful Japanese garden adjoining the café added to our experience as we ate the best spanakopita we’ve tasted in a long time … and the coffee was great!

Incidentally, kai refers to food in the Māori language, and a pataka is a place to store treasures.

Pataka houses a fine collection of sculptures, including one of Michel Tuffery’s tin-can bulls (image below).

Outside the entrance, and elsewhere in the vicinity, heaps of white sandbags – needed after mass rainfall on 14 May resulted in extensive flooding in the area. (My camera could not resist.)

Pataka: sandbags after flooding #292

Pataka: sandbags after flooding #293

Pataka: Zen garden #291

Pataka: Zen garden #288

Pataka: Michel Tuffery bull

 

Chimney cats in the last days

chimney cats (07 May 2015)

Today (14 May 2015) is the last day for Avid Gallery’s limited edition of the Chimney Cats made to celebrate Bronwynne Cornish’s exhibition of work currently showing at The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt.

Originally intended to guard chimneys from witches coming down them, the first group of Bronwynne’s chimney cats appeared 1982.

 

A public hanging

public hanging #174 (09 September 2013)

Wandering down Opera House Lane yesterday, I found this piece of sculpture – one component of the $720,000 upgrade aimed at making one of Wellington’s shady lanes “more attractive and safer.” (The Wellingtonian, 18 April 2013).

Neil Dawson’s ‘The Rock’

Neil Dawson’s ‘The Rock’ [image #1] (18 Feb 2013)

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Here are two of my recent images featuring ‘The Rock’ (1984) by Neil Dawson, a sculpture installed outside the Bank of New Zealand Centre, Wellington, New Zealand.

For views that show the work’s relationship to the building, go to the artist’s website. And you’ll find images of Neil Dawson’s large-scale artworks at www.keads.com.

Neil Dawson’s ‘The Rock’ [image #2] (18 Feb 2013)

The Hobbit: 3 days to go

“Hobbit stamps, Hobbit coins and Hobbit markets are all in the works as the city of Wellington, New Zealand, prepares for the world premiere of ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ on Nov 28.” (Mark Johanson, writing in the International Business Times, 10 Oct 2012)

3 days to go #1 (25 Nov 2012)

“The film is the first in a trilogy, with director Peter Jackson returning to JRR Tolkien’s novels after his hit adaptations of Lord Of The Rings.” Subtitled ‘An Unexpected Journey’, the film stars British actors Martin Freeman and Sir Ian McKellen. (BBC News : Entertainment & Arts, 08 Oct 2012)

I snapped these shots this morning on my way to work. (The Embassy Cinema, on Wellington’s Cambridge Terrace, is just a few minutes’ walk from my apartment.)

3 days to go #2 (25 Nov 2012)

Mother Mary comes to me

Pieta by Michelangelo (detail)

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When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be 

(Let it be: words and music by The Beatles)

Things didn’t go at all well for me yesterday. The cold and damp had my joints and muscles aching, and the pain-killers I swallowed made no difference.

Which made my list of errands – all of them off the beaten track (ie, away from all the bus-routes) – more arduous.

One thing after another failed to go my way.

Conversations I’d intended as useful went desafinado – “slightly out of tune”.

Financial agreements and working arrangements fell disappointingly short of expectations.

Then I spilled my antiseptic cream on the floor in a public rest-room.

Across the street, a busker was playing a familiar song: “Let it be”.

“Patience … is not learned when everything is harmonious and going well. … There is no cultivation of patience when your pattern is to just try to seek harmony and smooth everything out. Patience implies willingness to be alive rather than trying to seek harmony.” (Pema Chödrön)

Rock and bamboo

rock and bamboo (03 Feb 2012)

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summer’s day – a duet
of frog and shakuhachi!

(found on a blog
called Myoan Shakuhachi)

The Japanese feeling of restraint and order apparent in this image is illusory. The rocks and bamboo are mere details in a riotously playful and chaotic garden that surrounds a house notable for its wild imaginings and its undisciplined ebullience.

 John isn’t living there at present … he’s recently become infatuated with an old boat on Nelson harbour and has been devoting a lot of his time and energy to making it seaworthy.