From black to pastel

I was having a really bad day today. Things just weren't working out how I wanted them to and a frown was attached to my face all morning. It's such an awful feeling and I realised it was up to me to choose how long I was going to indulge in my bad mood. Sometimes it's easier to say angry. I tried to do things that make me feel better. 

I said sorry to someone I needed to. 

I went and saw Hoishi, my supermarket man who is 70 and high fives me on arrival and departure. 

I bought coloured pencils.

I ate shoe cream (it's like an eclair)

I looked at pictures that made me laugh.

I rode my bike.

I patted a cat.

I wrote a letter to a friend.

I put fresh flowers in my vase.

I bought a train ticket for Tokyo.

I took photos with a new roll of film.

I feel better now.

The feast

Art 21. A great website.

"Ford’s meticulous paintings satirise the history of colonialism and the continuing impact of slavery and other forms of political oppression on today’s social and environmental landscape. Each painting is as much a tutorial in flora and fauna as it is as a scathing indictment of the wrongs committed by nineteenth-century industrialists or, locating the work in the present, contemporary American consumer society. An enthusiast of the watercolors of John James Audubon, Ford celebrates the myth surrounding the renowned naturalist-painter while simultaneously repositioning him as an infamous anti-hero who, in reality, killed more animals than he ever painted. Each of Ford’s animal portraits doubles as a complex, symbolic system, which the artist layers with clues, jokes, and erudite lessons in colonial literature and folktales."

Mirai Chan

Oh those expressions! Mirai Chan is super cute.  This has been captured by Kotori Kawashima, a Tokyo photographer who is commonly thought to be a woman, and Mirai Chan's mother (as previously stated on this blog). A book of photography details the intimate and often hilarious moments of this charming little girls life. Mirai Chan lives in a world of colour, curiosity, wonder and amusement. Dreamy!

Fukushima