In 1993 I traveled in Thailand and Indonesia. I visited briefly several Thai Islands in the Andaman sea, crossed the border to Malaysia by boat and sailed onwards to Sumatra. There I stayed for a while on Pulau Weh at the Northern tip of the archipel. It’s a tiny Blue Lagoon island. The fish we ate for lunch and diner was harpooned five minutes before on the reef.
At that time the coral was still pristine and full with life.

Today I was shocked by the news that the tsunamis sent out by a massive earthquake in the Indian ocean near Indonesia hit the Thai coast. Two friends are holidaying at some Ko (Thai island) there. These past weeks we followed their adventures on the beach in their travel log. By cell phone someone was able to contact them and put in the comments that they fled into the mountains before the tsunami swamped the island.

foto: Maurice Amoureus

www.nu.nl

Yesterday I made some comments on illustrators in Holland
My friend Mark is an illustrator and this is the new year card he send us today.
Also a Happy Merry Christmas to you Mark.
Check out his site at
www.marksmolders.com

It’s not art that dominates today’s visual culture and in the U.S. the home of Pop Art they are very aware of this. Over there illustrators are taken more serious as a creative designer and artist. It’s easier to get your illustrations put up in a decent Art gallery in the U.S. then in Holland. Generally the art-scene here is more conservative and traditional as we do have some fresh illustrators and designers but they hardly get exposure.

The paintings of Moira Hahn are very narrative and make me think she was an illustrator before, there’s also a Time cover illustration on the front page of her portfolio. There aren’t many illustrators here in Holland who crossed over from illustration to planet Art. www.moirahahn.com (link via art-bbq)

‘The energy of a spinning toll is the perfectness of stillness in movement’

Said by an Aikido Sensei on National Geographic Channel. On Friday they did a special martial arts day!

The quote made me think of a dancing Derwish.
This summer in India my yoga teacher mentioned that the dancing Derwishes represent a distant branch of Kriya Yoga. This yoga is a very ancient technique. Long ago the Kriya method was still whole and undevided. Kriya masters traveled from the Indian subcontinent to Tibet and across the Middle East towards Europe. The tradition dispersed into pieces and changed, due time and influence of other cultures. Compare it to a body. The head is here the arms are there, but the body is not one anymore. Dancing Derwishes work from the hearth. Opening the hearth chakra is an advanced step in Kriya yoga.