Nature therapy- Aarey guest House

Aarey Guest house is my favourite part of Aarey Milk Colony, your cellphone will not receive any network here, so the moment you enter to the moment you leave, you are alone.....with nature and give or take a few more people :)

Spring, summer has such an intoxicating effect, I think I love all seasons, even hot and humid April... there are many trees in brilliant bloom right now..... many parts of the world will be witnessing the earth returning to life with buds and young leaves reassuring us of nature's eternal cycle of impermanence.

Here are a few pictures I took during my last walk at Aarey Guest House, enjoy! :)

The path leading up to the guest houses situated on top of a hill, when you reach the top you get a beautiful view of the city. I took these pictures in the evening.

Didn't get a very good shot, but you may notice pods bursting with cotton.....red silk cotton tress? will find out...

African wattle tree with its yellow blossoms strewn on the path, I love these blossoms, this is my "Indian Spring" :) they are the flowers that inspired me to take pictures in Aarey, if you walk in the New Zealand Hostel area, you will find entire canopies of these trees in bloom, and the delicate blossoms raining on all and sundry....

Gravel and flower in what is called the "golden hour", the last light of the sun which has a magical effect.....

my favourite picture, in the background is a defocused image of a lady, resident of the forest no doubt, collecting wood for domestic purposes......

and here is a link to a beautiful website that will give you information on the Flowers of India.

Have a lovely weekend!
Love + light!

Jacob Hashimoto

Slip into vapour, Jacob hashimoto, 2005,

The other day I was going through a fabulous book, Sculpture Today, and I came across Jacob Hashimoto's delicate yet durable art-works which exist between sculpture and painting. What I like best about his work is how a traditional technique such as kite-making with rice paper and bamboo frames translates into striking installations made up of myriad tiny parts which appear to float or cascade.

Here is more on his work from Artnet.
(b.1973) Jacob Hashimoto cuts rice paper into small geometric shapes and glues the shapes to delicate wooden frameworks, which he attaches to black fishing line and ties to long wooden pegs at the top and bottom of his rectangular, wall-mounted, waterfall-like hangings. The pegs are evenly spaced from side to side across the top and bottom of the piece.

The artist ties six roughly overlapping layers of shapes onto each peg, creating a dense, kaleidoscopic multi-level field in which a given shape may be visible or hidden, depending on the angle of view. The hanging seems to move as we walk past....

Slip into Vapor could almost be a landscape. Measuring five feet high and four feet wide by 7.5 inches deep, it is composed of paper ovals, each roughly four inches wide, which are mounted on X-shaped frameworks and suspended between 13 wooden pegs at the top and 13 below. White and blue ovals, suggesting clouds and sky, comprise the upper half of Slip into Vapor, while darker ovals in the lower half could be rocks, soil or vegetation. The artist collages long slices of green paper-like grass onto some ovals and puts fanciful decorative designs on others. As the viewer walks by, these peep out to surprise and amuse.

Hashimoto begins by making wooden frames from tiny sticks, tying them together with thread, and affixing translucent rice paper to them. If he wants color or a design, he collages it onto the paper shape -- nothing is painted. When a framed shape is ready, he dips it in acrylic resin for strength. After creating a large inventory of these elements, he selects shapes of different size and design, and strings them on nylon line, which he employs because it does not stretch. Now he is ready to tie the strings to the pegs.