cosmic sequence

from terence malick's "tree of life"

(watch it full screen...)

how can one watch this and not feel... something...

(nyc)

game changer

sometimes you manage to be in the right place at the right time in your life, and you can just feel it.

you get to participate in something that you just know is about to change your momentum going forward.

thank you to the amaaaaaazing crew i had the honor of working with this week, down to every single last PA. you guys made it possible for me to shine, and i couldn't have done it without all your seriously hard work.

super excited to see the rough cut already... :)

(nyc)

blue in green

ok, to redeem myself - here's one of my favorite songs, ever - blue in green by the iconic miles davis.

no matter how many times i listen to this song, every single time it moves me inside to a different place...

(nyc)

old korea + new korea

the human body - the human soul - is capable of amazing creations when you demand the best of its abilities.

inspiration in motion:

(nyc)

salty genius

this guy can do with salt, what i can't even do with pencil...
props to you, sir.

(nyc)

love changes everything

watch this, you won't regret it:

beautiful.

(nyc)

making babies

they are two types of babies in the world. one of them looks like this:

cute, cuddly, adorable and they smell good. 

and then there are these types of babies:

a little scary, i know. 

the second type of babies is not overgrown men (although that could qualify as well), but i'm actually talking about creative babies. the kind where you come up with an idea, nurture it, grow it and make something out of it. and it's your baby. these guys above are all geniuses at making those kind of babies. 

they say it takes a village to raise a child, and anyone who's ever babysat a toddler for more than two hours knows that it is not a one person job. they make you want to tear your hair out, they exhaust you and they run you into the ground, all the while smiling sweetly. parents can't get enough help, and it's an endless quest to find more family, more money and more hands.

yet... when it comes to creative babies, so many artists choose to struggle down the path alone. there is a sense of ego involved - that something is my creation and i want all the credit. but how foolish is that?!

look at these guys! together they've creatively achieved more than they ever would have been able to do on their own. raising a creative baby is no different than raising a baby-baby. it's a shit ton of work! so why would you not get your village in place, give credit where credit is due, and in the process make an amazing piece of work that elevates everyone involved?

every person has a set of parents who originally gave birth and hopefully provided the bulk of love and support. but we would not be who we are without the numerous friends, experiences, teachers and soulmates along the way. in fact, we turn out to be better, deeper and richer people when we've had more life-expanding experiences.

it's gotta work the same way with creation too. collaboration should be the journey upon which the masterpiece is created. we need to recognize the contributions and potential of others around us b/c it truly benefits the big picture.

so lay down your lions, let others in, and get to work.

(los angeles)

floored

i always loved sculpture, but was never truly moved by it, until i saw two things.

the first was this:

il ratto di proserpina (the rape of persephone) by gian lorenzo bernini @ the galleria borghese in rome.

persephone was the daughter of zeus and demeter, and forcefully taken by hades to be his queen of the underworld. she was missed so much by her mother that demeter caused a terrible drought in the world. zeus allowed persephone to return, bringing the world back to life, but was obliged to spend one season a year in the underworld. thus persephone is also known as the goddess of vegetation.

that's the back story that explains what is happening in the sculpture, but as far as sculpture goes, it looks fairly "standard" in terms of composition and subject material. like so many other sculptures i had seen in so many other museums around the world.

that is, until you see this:

this is the money shot, the close-up detail of where hades grabs persephone as she is in flight. 

when i saw this, i was floored.

the fact that bernini could sculpt so much emotion into cold, hard stone showed his unmatchable skill, his artistry and his depth of understanding. if you look at most sculptures, you can see technical skill in the folds and layers of the way a cloth drapes. but when it comes to body parts touching other body parts, they always lightly rest on the surface. faces, hands, legs, anything. the most amount of contact is simple light touch.

but bernini's hades actually grabs-- persephone and you can just feel his overwhelming strength in this tiny little detail. his hands are actually digging into her flesh, forcing her into his violence. the fucking veins in his hands are popping.

absofuckinglutely brilliant.

the second thing that made me appreciate the infinite difficulty and thus beauty of this art form was this:

if you go the galleria dell'accademia in florence to see michelangelo's david, everyone immediately flocks to the main attraction. but if you take your time, you will notice his series of unfinished sculptures called "prisoners" that line the hallway leading up to david. these four massive unfinished works show the detail and the process of how excruciatingly difficult sculpture is, to end up with a beautiful finished work of art that tells a story. seeing these monstrous pieces was actually much more impressive than seeing his finished works, because i came to understand how painstaking every single little chip and chisel and sanding down must have been. it's almost as if michelangelo freed his forms out of these massive blocks, giving them life. if you see it in person, each little chip in the stone is about the size of an eraser head on a pencil, and these blocks are approximately ten feet tall. the process... the process.

and then within that context of understanding, to then see how bernini sculpted those fingers digging into pure stone flesh...

completely blown away. that's all.

(nyc) 

think big

one day i will have one of these in my house... wall-size.

(nyc)

new.

past choices
past mistakes
벗어나
일어나

또다시
한번더
두번더
go.

..........

past choices
past mistakes
(shed it)
(get up)

(again again)
(one more time)
(two more times)
go.

(nyc)

creation in motion.

(nyc)

create it. raw.

conceive it, think it, pray it, breathe it, eat it, sleep it, try it, fry it, write it, act it, dream it, cook it, draw it, load it, speak it, sing it, play it, be it, fuck it, make it, live it.

i create, therefore i am.

-youri

(nyc)