SeeingDrawing as a Meditation

Was in the public library today and have been reading in Frederick Franck's book about drawing and seeing. He calls his way of working Zen Seeing.

A Day at the Beach in Bergen

A Day at the Beach, 2004 by Flora van Stek

Bergen aan Zee is a small beach resort not too far from the old city of Alkmaar where I live. It's 20 till 40 minutes by bike through quiet green meadows, dark woods and spaceous hilly dunes, before I reach the beach, park my bike against a fence and take off my shoes to walk barefoot to the welcoming rolling waves of the North Sea.

Great Radio Online

Gemeentemuseum The Hague

It's one of the finest mueums in the world, they say. My father Wim van Stek worked there as graphic designer when I was between 8 and 10 years old. Many Wednesday afternoons I played near the doll's house and in the beautiful garden.

Curtis Keeps it Natural

Jamie Lee Curtis claims her movie career may be over -- because she won't get plastic surgery. In a revealing interview in the new issue of More magazine, the actress says "I don't want to watch my face get older on film." That's just one of the revelations that the 45-year-old Golden Globe winner makes as she lashes out against what she calls "Hollywood's plastic surgery epidemic," warning that, "It's going to backfire at some point; somebody famous and young is going to have to die on the table."

Seven Wonders of the World

Autumn in Summer

The warmth was so thick
that everything seemed to stand still
everything except for the cars,
the motorcycles and the bicycles
and the pedestrians naturally

Suddenly a windhose moved
a large amount of dried out leaves over the road
In the midst of all the busy traffic
It appeared like Autumn
on this tenth of August

The scene is engrained in my being
This contrast between the motionless atmosphere
of a clouded day right after a heatwave
And those Autumn leaves
Almost dancing

(written by Flora van Stek)

what intrigues me

raindrops
mist
names on boats, houses, cars
deserted streets
public women

silent couples
shop keepers

how people earn money

what inspires me

to walk in a park surrounded by trees, leaves, water, birds
to sit on a bench looking at swimming ducks, walking geese,
flying birds, clouds, airplanes
to cycle to the countryside and see cows, sheep, horses,
meadows, birds in the grass eating worms
to sit near the waterside and listen to the sounds of frogs,
seagulls, ducks, motorboats, cars on the motorway

where are the people in my world?
how inspiring are they?

Stillness = joy = love

'To meet everything and everyone through stillness instead of mental noise is the greatest gift you can offer to the universe. I call it stillness, but it is a jewel with many facets: that stillness is also joy, and it is love.'

Eckhart Tolle

More about Cartier-Bresson

I saw a documentary about Cartier-Bresson on tv yesterday and was pleasantly surprised by his sweet, almost childlike smile when he showed his black and white photographs to the camera.

In Memoriam Cartier-Bresson

Topfotograaf Cartier-Bresson overleden

De wereldberoemde fotograaf Henri Cartier-Bresson is op 95-jarige leeftijd overleden. Cartier-Bresson is voornamelijk bekend geworden door het door hem (en Robert Capa en David Seymour) opgerichte foto-agentschap Magnum. Tevens is hij wereldberoemd vanwege zijn fotojournalistieke werk. De bekendste foto's van hem zijn die van Mao Zedong en Mahatma Ghandi. Henri Cartier-Bresson schijnt overigens ook de bedenker te zijn van 'het beslissende moment' als een fotografisch begrip. Zijn werk is terug te vinden op vele websites, waaronder
http://www.photology.com/bresson/ , http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/cb/ en http://www.afterimagegallery.com/bresson.htm.

(uit: Nieuwsbrief Zoom Magazine, augustus 2004)