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61

“You need to associate with people that inspire you, people that challenge you to rise higher, people that make you better. Don’t waste your valuable time with people that are not adding to your growth. Your destiny is too important.”
— Joel Osteen

I discovered these pieces today and immediately fell in love. What an incredible concept.

A description from the artists' website: 25th Century is the brainchild of Lucas Ighile and Ayla El-Moussa. As the name suggests, their vision is anchored in the perpetual future, ever changing and evolving into higher forms of human expression. Depending on what day you catch him, Lucas is either a producer, philosopher, art director, photographer, fine artist or grand master chill ski aka lazy bum. Ayla continues to weave her experiences into bundles of magic, shooting, directing and designing for 25th Century. They both reside in sunny California.

The artwork below reminds me of some of the framed pieces I've been lightly creating on Instagram. My loose, undefined concept is taken to another world here, and I'm impressed and obsessed.

 

 

Some of their still photography below:

For more 25th Century, check out their website.

57

“People think that beauty opens doors, but it opens doors to cliff edges.”
— Caitlin Stasey, StyleLikeU Video

I recently discovered an incredible movement on Instagram by StyleLikeU. I searched the longer videos on YouTube and was blown away. The videos are a concept created by a mother-daughter team leading a movement that empowers people to accept and express their true selves. Last month, they began their foray of expanding What's Underneath to all corners of the earth by taking the project to Los Angeles.

I've watched most of the videos they've done for the project. My eyes were opened to the struggles of other women: I connected to their stories, became inspired by their insight, and learned lessons from their words. Almost every video brought me to tears. I beg of you to watch as many as you have time for. Both men and women can learn from these individuals and their life stories.

Check out their YouTube channel for many more #WhatsUnderneath videos.

51

“Anything I do, I spend a lot of time. I do it with passion and intensity. I want to be in charge.”
— Eli Broad
Image from Broad Museum site. (All other images mine.)

Image from Broad Museum site. (All other images mine.)

The Broad Museum opened up in September 2015 in downtown Los Angeles. Admission is free, but tickets are booked up months in advanced, especially for a weekend date. I jumped on reserving tickets before the museum opened. I have been lucky enough to go to The Broad twice, in November and in February, with two groups of friends. 

I was particularly excited to see the Infinity Room. I had gone to a Kusama exhibition in New York two years ago, and although I got to see much of her incredible work, the line for the Infinity Room was 3 hours long. This November at the Broad, I was again unable to see the exhibit. I learned that the only way to see the room is to get tickets for the museum for 10 or 11 am and claim a spot in line when you arrive. I was successful in February when I did just that. Rob and I had to wait 4 hours to see it (our friends decided to skip), but we leisurely went through the museum, had a lovely brunch at The Otium next door, and were texted when we could enter. It ended up being a lovely day.

After Rob and I had spent hours in the museum and seen the Infinity Room, we went back to my favorite exhibit in the building, The Visitors by Ragnar Kjartansson. We sat in the room for about an hour. I had been feeling extremely stressed and upset that week, sitting in the corner in the dark, surrounded by soothing music and beautiful images was the best therapy I could have had. I never wanted to leave. 

The Broad Museum gives a short description on their website: "The Visitors features nine musicians in various rooms at Rokeby farm in upstate New York, a decaying nineteenth-century mansion known for its romantic setting and gloomy charm. Each performer uses different instruments and plays the lyrics in their own deeply felt ways in one long, extremely impressive sixty-four-minute take. The screens in the gallery project all at once, resulting in a collective experience for the viewer. Together, the videos create what critic Hilarie M. Sheets calls an “entirely absorbing ensemble piece that was alternately tragic and joyful, meditative and clamorous, and that swelled in feeling from melancholic fugue to redemptive gospel choir.”

Although it doesn't do it justice, I posted a video below of The Visitors at a previous gallery. Skip to 3:40 for one of my favorite songs in the piece which also happens to be last song in the 64 minutes.

The Broad is terrific. If you live in LA or know when you will be making a trip here, reserve tickets. There's no need to wait in line to see the museum.

XXIII

“You were red.
And you liked me because I was blue.
But you touched me and suddenly I was a lilac sky, and you decided that purple, just wasn’t for you.”
— Halsey

My photos/edits x Neon Dream, Slava Thisset

Russian photographer Slava brilliantly combines photography and digital art. Through her photographs, she explores the fluorescent aesthetics of neon lights with make-up, body painting, lights and photo retouching. Read more...

XIX

Yoko Ono’s Cleaning Pieces

CLEANING PIECE I
Write down a sad memory.
Put it in a box.
Burn the box and sprinkle the ashes in the field.
You may give some ashes
to a friend who shared the sadness.

CLEANING PIECE II
Make a numbered list of sadness in your life.
Pile up stones corresponding to those numbers.
Add a stone, each time there is sadness.
Burn the list, and appreciate the mount of stones for its beauty.
Make a numbered list of happiness in your life.
Pile up stones corresponding to those numbers.
Add a stone, each time there is happiness.
Compare the mount of stones to the one of sadness.

CLEANING PIECE III
Try to say nothing negative about anybody.
a) for three days
b) for forty-five days
c) for three months
See what happens to your life.

CLEANING PIECE IV
Write down everything you fear in life.
Burn it.
Pour herbal oil with a sweet scent on the ashes.

CLEANING PIECE V
Let a list of arbitrary names come into your mind as you go to sleep.
Say “bless you” after each name.
Do this with speed, by keeping a constant rhythm,
so, in no way, you would hesitate to bless them.