A Life in Japan - Documentary (English with English subtitles) /  by mirena

it is a mystery why I became obsessed with Japan, after all I was born 9016.92 kilometers, 5602.86 miles miles and 4868.75 nautical miles from it. What portion of the neural paths in my brain decided to connect with the image of Japan, made me think and read about it? Where I grew up there was very little information and attachment to Japanese things and my first visual contact with Japan was through a Taschen book on Japanese Gardens. When I moved to the States - it was in Northern California and the Bay Area was very connected to Japanese culture. One of my landlords used to tell me a story about Japanese businessman coming to the Silicon Valley before it was the Silicon Valley and waving 100 bills in bars, while supposedly looking for investment opportunities in the daytime. I went to Japan on two occasions and especially the second time - on a solo trip with my camera - I felt a deep pull towards every single train, temple, crowded intersection, pond, sand pattern, high tech shop and piece of sushi. I am still mystified as to why.

I never considered living in Japan as I don't believe I will be happy with the day to day subduedness of life. But there are so many threads still connecting me, emotionally and artistically, to Japan, that I technically don't need to.

IS LIFE WORTH LIVING? /  by mirena

O CT OB ER, 1 8 9 5. IS LIFE WORTH LIVING? Read more here.

WHEN Mr. Mallock's book with this title appeared some fifteen years ago, the jocose answer that " it depends on the liver" had great currency in the newspapers. The answer that I propose to give today cannot be jocose. In the words of one of Shakespeare's prologues, " I come no more to make you laugh; things now that bear a weighty and a serious brow, sad, high, and working, full of state and woe,"

Some Kind of Garden: A Journey Into Zen [Kindle Edition] is now live on the Kindle store /  by mirena

Some Kind of Garden: A Journey Into Zen [Kindle Edition] Mysterious and enigmatic, abstract and impenetrable, the Zen gardens of Kyoto are a product of enlightened and sophisticated culture whose aim was to transcend nature by means of a man made nature.

The empty space, the surrounding landscape and the frame of mind of the viewer are all part of the design. A design that transcends representation, meaning and ideology. A powerful idea distilled to simple ingredients, the evaporation of art as we know it.

The book is a collection of photographs I took and small poems I wrote during my journey to the Zen gardens of Kyoto. I felt it is impossible to untangle their mystery with the rational instrument of reason. It is a stream of visual and versed thoughts on the joyful occasion of simply being there.

Accompanying my photographs and poems are several short verses from Basho, Ryokan and other Zen poets. Their words have sometimes been modified to fit my own frame of mind, using their verses᠆ superior ability to express my own feelings.

This book is about the frame of mind and the geometry of calm that the Zen gardens of Kyoto represent. As there are no explanations on the walls of the gardens as to the meaning of the sand patterns, so is my book void of explanations and floats on a visual lotus, like an imaginary house.

This book is a photographic essay about the Zen gardens of Kyoto, designed specifically for the Kindle and features stunning, high-resolution photographs accompanied by small poems I wrote and small verses by Zen poets. It is crafted to create a calm space of the mind, a vision of tranquility and peace.

The title derives its name from an ongoing photographic chronicles I called “some kind of" project, of which Some Kind of Garden is the first volume.

Some Kind of Garden: A Journey Into Zen
Some Kind of Garden: A Journey Into Zen by Mirena Rhee
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Grandpa passed away 29 years ago today, he was a painter, a businessman, a family man who kept extended family together /  by mirena

grandpa-intarsia Fortress that inspired the Intarsia - Tsarevets

My grandparents' house was always full of guests - friends, relatives, immediate and extended family were always welcomed, fed and entertained.

My grandmother was a perfect hostess and homemaker and baked the most delicious desserts from a leafy book of secret recipes.

grandpa

 

Here is my grandfather sporting a mustache, to the right of the little girl who is actually my aunt whom he had to take care of but couldn't find a babysitter so she ended up at the party - Union Club, Sofia 1938.

A couple of grandpa's paintings always travel with me.  Usually they are proudly displayed and occasionally hide behind clutter when  I work on the walls. Here are some pics of his Intarsia work - in my studio. Sorry grandpa, unlike you I get sloppy and not always properly hang them.

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Quote of the Day.. not really about a horse, is it? /  by mirena

So what of this horse, then, that actually held opinions, and was sceptical about things? Unusual behaviour for a horse, wasn't it? An unusual horse perhaps? No. Although it was certainly a handsome and well-built example of its species, it was none the less a perfectly ordinary horse, such as convergent evolution has produced in many of the places that life is to be found. They have always understood a great deal more than they let on. It is difficult to be sat on all day, every day, by some other creature, without forming an opinion about them. On the other hand, it is perfectly possible to sit all day, every day, on top of another creature and not have the slightest thought about them whatsoever.

- Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency/ Long Dark Teatime of the Soul By Douglas Adams

The Greatest Artist that ever Lived - Virtual Tour of The Sistine Chapel /  by mirena

There are hundreds of to do lists of the "hundred things to do before you die" sort. I have only one item and it is the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo. A One Man Show of gigantic proportions that has been around for 500 years and still makes ordinary beings like myself weak in the head. Photography at the Chapel is not allowed and I was happy to discover The Vatican has kept up with the 21st Century and put this online. If there is one thing that is worth the price of admission and a round trip ticket so you could see it in person, this is it. Below is a link to the Vatican website that hosts the tour online.

virtual-tour-of-sistine-chapel

My Book Some Kind of Garden - A Journey into Zen is up - Get Your Copy and Enter Zen Now ! /  by mirena

It is a gorgeous Zen Book with Very Large Photographs and Very Small Poems. Some Kind of Garden A Journey Into Zen

 

 

I call these Zen Gardens the Geometry of Calm.

For me going to Kyoto was getting into the Zen space of the Mind. Japanese Zen Gardens have very little to do with Horticulture and a lot to do with sophisticated culture refined by the teachings and reflections of Zen Masters, whose sole focus had been to contemplate and distill reality to simple, vanishing abstractions.

Why some kind of? Some kind of is a larger body of work that started long time ago and contains Photographs, Video and Text. Some kind of is a thread that runs through all of my work and hops on various obsessions like one of those Stepping Stone Bridges in my book.

Enough said, Get Your Zen fix Now!

Featuring small poems by Shiko, Hanshan, Ryokan, Huang Po, Basho and myself.  With my poems being the smallest poems.