The skillful hands of Vietnam

The Eyes of the Luzzu boats

Luzu boats

As promised here is the blog post about the Luzzu boats, I  know I should have wrote about it long time ago, but as I was going through my photos I remembered.
I am a passionate about the sea and boats, it relaxes me.
If you were to go to Malta you have to go see this place it is called "Marsaxlokk" , it is an amazing port  with lots luzzu's, normally that day  was suppose to be a market day and very crowded, but for some festival reasons from the day before it was closed.
I love markets, even though we woke up very early, and made a trip of 2 hours to see this market, I was not disappointed at all that it was closed , I was so amazed by the scenery, everything was clear blue and calm, the colourful boats floating very lightly and the breeze drifting on by , I could stay hours and hours gazing at the beauty of this nature, I was just living the present moment
 I liked the eyes design on the boats and the cheerful colours
When I asked about it they told me that this was a Maltese traditional boat and the eyes were put to protect the sailors from Evil eyes. Some say it is a tradition that came from the phoenician customs.
The  Luzzu was used for fishing,




Comme promis voici le post sur les bateaux "Luzzu", je sais que je devrais écrire ce blog depuis longtemps mais l'autre jour je regardais mes photos et je me suis souvenu.
Je suis une passionnée de la mer et des bateaux, ça me détend.
Si un jour vous visitez Malte, je vous conseille d'aller voir cet endroit magique, ça s'appel Marsaxlokk. Le jour où on est allés devait être le jour du marché mais un festival organisé la veille l'a annulé. J'aime beaucoup les marchés. Malgré un réveil aux aurores et un long trajet (2 heures...) je n'étais pas déçue que ça soit fermé, j’étais juste stupéfaite par la beauté magnifique de ce paysage. Tout était d'une couleur bleu clair, calme. Les bateaux aux couleurs gaies flottaient doucement au bord du quai et un air très doux nous effleurait le visage. Je savourais le moment présent.
J'ai aimé le dessin des yeux sur les Luzus, bateaux utilisés pour la pêche. Les gens m'ont raconté que sur ces bateaux traditionnels de Malte, les yeux étaient ajoutés pour protéger les marins du mauvais sort, selon une coutume phénicienne.

Folk and Primitive Art from around the world

Histoires de voir " Show and tell"

 

The Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, presents the exhibition Show and tell " Histoires de voir " from May 15 and will be on until 21 October 2012 .
It is a must see exhibition, so much to discover and to learn about tribal and contemporary art.
The exhibition features the work and the stories, of more than 50 artists from around the world, they are Brazilians,Indians,Congolese, Haitian, Mexican, Danish, Japanese and American.
It is interesting to see how those artists developed their talents in uncommon circumstances, they are self thought or the art was passed to them from generation to another.Even though they are considered a naif arts, primitive art, you can feel that there is deep meaning into their work, and lots of spirituality, most of these artists don't live from their artwork, they have another job to help them survive.
Intriguing life stories, how they learned and developed their talent, their believes and spirituality, their resilience,their patience, and passion for their art . there is a lot we can learn from these artists .


Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos, but you can find lots of documentary on the Cartier foundation site, and of course why not go and visit the exhibition .

Every work of art was very impressive, it is an expression of the artists life, surrounding, and their struggle through their arts 
All the artists were just extraordinary, I will talk to you about some of them and let you discover the rest .

Antonio de Dede : from Brazil, his father was a carpenter and he learned how to make his own toys with wood at a very young age.

Hans Sherfig from Danemark, he paints mostly nature on big format, loved his colors

the works of the Artist jangarh singh Shyam : was discovered by the late, painter J.Swaminathand, painting the huts of Patangarh village in 1981.
Jangarh singh Shyam, had a particular artist life, married at the age of 13 for love, succeed in art world, he participated in art festivals and shows around the world , and sadly suicides at the age of 37 .

Allesandro Mendini, great Italian artist, he likes mixing different cultures and different forms of expression,He has been awarded several international prizes, including the Compasso d'oro in 1979 and in 1982. He holds an honorary title from the Architectural League of New York as well as the title of "Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres" from the French Republic.
 For this exhibition he created a mini cathedral, but when you u look inside of it you will some kind of idol, very interesting project.

On the underground level of this exhibition you will find
The warli paintings, a traditional, mural painting that is done by white pigment it is a mixture of rice past and water with gum as a binding, it seems it was a ritual paintings that, and only married women used to do it with very basic graphics, circles, triangles, squares etc. things they see in the nature .
U can discover more on Warli painting on this site .

Mamadou Cisse : he is a night guard and in order to chase away his boredom he sketches , his work is just so impressive and very colorful.

Gregorio Barrio, from Mexico, his work is just so outstanding, he uses thousands of little colored beads to create different animals head motives, just so amazing, i could stand hours gazing at his work and it wouldn't be enough..you can see his work by clicking on his name link.

I will let you discover the rest of the artists exhibiting by yourself

Glass Jewelry by Dana Kranz

Meeting, Dana Kranz
An art  boutique cached my attention during my visit to Malta, even though I was in a hurry  that day, couldn't stop myself from taking a sneak peak at what this beautiful boutique had inside, colorful beads, jewelry, and " vitrail "art  then at the end of the shop there was Dana, behind her small atelier, I asked her if this is  her work, with a big smile on her face she said yes, then she started explaining to me how she manually creates this beautiful glass beads, I liked her work but what i liked the most is Dana's personality so open and passionate about her art, usually not all artists want to talk about their techniques in details, she even proposed to show me how she creates her beads if i come back in the after noon, time was running out and I had to rush to my next destination, with the determination to come back again.

Dana studied 3 years porcelain and glass painting for 3 years in Germany , then moved to Gozo to set up her business, she has a shop Glass line in Savina square , and also another workshop in Qala , where she creates her stained glass, handmade jewelry, glass painting and other souvenir items
For more information on Dana's work you can visit her website : www.danakranz.com

This is Lebanon

Happy Independence day ya Lebanan ya watani lebanan

This is Lebanon , this is my country that i love so much.

Today i wanted to share with you a glimpse of Lebanon, there is so much more than just those photos to show you the beauty of this place, it is true that it is a tiny land with 10452 km2 but each inch of this land is a heaven on earth. What i learnt from my country and the people of my country is that no matter how hard life can get, we should always stand up and walk again .

enjoy the photos,the great scenery, the mountains, the beach not the mention the great tabbouleh.

Museum National D'histoire Naturelle

Somewhere Far from the Tour Eiffel ????

 If you are on a long trip to France or you live in Paris  and want to go on a gateway far from the condescend and crowded touristic places like the heart of Paris, Champs Elysee's , Tour Eiffel, Mont Mart and many other places .... You should head to Brittany " Bretagne " in french , in the North West of France

The historical province of Brittany is divided into five departments: Finistère in the west, Cotes-D'Armor in the north, Ille-et-Villaine in the north east, the loire-Atlantique in the south east and Morbihan in the south Bay of Biscay .
Where we went couple of weeks ago to see a bit of Sun and the sea in a small village called Arzon .After 5 hours drive we finally reached to a charming place, Stunning natural landscapes, far from the madding crowd it was us and the  nature...
Feeling the wind, observing the birds and walking on the shoreline....in our case was relaxing .

but here is a list of the things that you can do over there 
There is a wide  range of activities and things to do while visiting, also it depends on the mood and the reason of the visit and the season .

On the top of the Tour

  It is hard to believe now that once the Tour Eiffel was an unloved monument by the Parisian people, and they requested many times to demolish it after the end of the universal exhibition.
 I don't think at that time they thought that one day this tour will become  the symbol of France and will be the number one paid  monument visited  in the world .
 But i Guess Mr Gustave Eiffel had a dream and he hold on to it, some even say that he continued the construction of the Tour on his personal expenses
Gustave Eiffel is really an inspiration to me 

 The structure was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle , a World's Fair marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution.


I really enjoy seeing this tower, each and every time i pass i always have an amazed happy feeling, but didn't know that being on the top of it and seeing Paris from above would be such a breath Taking experience.It is surely a must see even if you have to wait in the line for hours to get on top.

The Land of Magic

Chambord a master piece of the french renaissance