Holidays

Noon-day Rest,1910

by John William Godward

I have a couple of weeks holiday and I'm taking a blogging break. (I have only just started being a blogger so how cheeky is that?) I would like to travel a little bit but still have not decided where to go. I will certainly be posting some postcards when I'm back. Wishing you lots of magical words in your life

Love

Las Palabras Mágicas

Miguel Navia

La cerilla sueca

Castillos encantados

El mundo flotante

El caso de la señorita Amelia

El gran libro del misterio, cover

El sueño de Pau-Yu

La edad pato

El juego de las supersticiones

This work belongs to the portfolio of a very young and talented Spanish illustrator, Miguel Navia. I discovered his work via this address and was amazed by the mysterious atmosphere and sense of space of his drawings. He has done so many professional work in spite of his youth! The illustrations above have appeared in book covers, posters and children's books illustrations, to me this is 100% artistic.

You can see his online portfolio here. I love it.

Images: courtesy of Miguel Navia, thank you so much Miguel!

Mercedes Sosa

link...}

Today I have a special gift, a very special song full of hope dedicated to all the survivors of daily wars. And why should language prevent us from knowing more about the rich culture of far away places? Here's my attempt at translation:

By Argentinian singer Mercedes Sosa : "Como la cigarra"

Like the cicada


I've been killed so many times

I've died so many times

However, here I am, resurrecting

I thank disgrace

and the hand with the knife

because it killed me so badly

that I went on singing

Singing in the sun like the cicada

after a whole year beneath the earth

like a survivor

returning from war

I've been erased so many times

I've disappeared so many times

I even went to my own funeral

alone and crying

I tied a a knot in my handkerchief

but later I forgot

that it had not been the only time

that I had gone on singing

Singing in the sun like the cicada

after a whole year beneath the earth

like a survivor

returning from war

As many times as you've been killed

you will resurrect.

How many nights will you spend in despair
and in the moment of shipwreck and darkness

someone will come to your rescue

to go on singing

Singing in the sun like the cicada

after a whole year beneath the earth

like a survivor

returning from war

A pinch of magic with Miss Clara

I love the work and stationery featuring designer Miss Clara.

I hope you like it too.

Thanks to Sia from Siagrafica I found out that La Marelle en Papier editions have a beautiful website

I specially like their "Notebooks for crazy ideas"

She is also featured in this post at cruststation blog

Jewellery

Shop Window in my Hometown

Exhibits at the National Archaelogical Museum in Athens

Paris photo

Someone has sent to me this to a panoramic photo of Paris by night.

Enjoy!, but don't sigh with longing, because Paris must surely be, for all of us mortals who live elsewhere, a myth as much as it is a city.

Warning: there's accordion music playing

Magic potion, my homage to charcoal

Take one of these


Mix with a bit of this in the right proportion.




You'll get something like this:

I am absolutely fascinated by the possibilitites of charcoal as a drawing medium. In this ultra technological times, rubbing a piece of burnt wood against a white piece of paper must feel like the ultimate transgression. Such humble material, but add a bit of human endeavour and passion then, only then, will you get something like this:

These portraits have been drawn by wmwrose, and luckily he shows examples of his work in his flickr photostream. He's going to be on the cover of American Artist Drawing Magazine this summer, and no wonder!
Such mastery and capacity for subtlety leave me speechless.

Images: courtesy of wmwrose, thank you so much for this Bill!

In the news a few days ago

" A domestic parrot that got lost in Japan was returned back home by the police after the bird told them the name and address of its owner"

(I'm not kidding)

Rare books

From the Bodleian Library in Oxford

From old editions of Alice in Wonderland

These scanned images are shown in Rare Book Room, an amazing site where you can read ancient books that have been entirely digitally photographed to a high resolution. They come from some of the greatest libraries in the world and they are a joy to watch, even if it would take a bit of effort to read them all! Unfortunately the images shown above don't do any justice to the high quality images shown in their site. You can search by author or by library and they have books from the Library of Congress, The British Library, The Bodleian Library, The American Antiquarian Society... a peek into a world that normally remains hidden to the general public.

Interesting lady: Sylvia Beach

... And a word on inspiration

Inspired by her friend Adrienne Monnier, who had been one of the first women to found her own bookshop in France, "Amis des Livres", Sylvia Beach set up her own English language bookshop in Paris and she named it "Shakespeare and Company". They were lending bookshops, where they organized readings and supported the the work of young writers.

Sylvia Beach was the first publisher of James Joyce's Ulysses

Many years later, Mr. George Whitman went on to open his own English language bookshop, and also named it Shakespeare and Company, with the intention of preserving the spirit of the original store .

It is currently run by George Whitman's daughter.

And guess what her name is...Sylvia Beach Whitman.

Photos from the literary traveler and Parler Paris

More on Sylvia Beach

Stationery

I love these cards and notes from https://www.fabulousstationery.com/. They are so colourful and have such a sense of humour

(oops, I've just seen that they sponsor a very famous blog out there, but I can assure you they had been my favourites forever)