THE ART OF FINDING
PLACEMAKING AND JOURNEYS ………………….. WORKING + BEING IN A CERTAIN PLACE — A JOURNEY OF FINDING. When you get some where, what do you find? There’s one critical point, to the idea of working in other places in the world and that is learning to be there: work there,...
THE MARK OF A PORTAL; THE CULT OF THE SIGIL
Designing Magic: The Draft of the Letter as the Quest for Mystery Everyone knows that occult really means hidden. But in that, one might surmise that the Cult of the Occult would be nothing more than the quest for the hidden. I probably live there, in more ways than...
The Handmade Journey | Calligraphy
Sometimes you go back to go forward There’s a noun that is oftentimes used in contemporary parlance: “creatives,” as a description for those that work in creative and maker space. It’s an interesting idea, using an adjective as a noun, but it works. I was sitting at a...
Look out, look up, look in
PRINCIPLES OF ABOVENESS THE STATE OF WOWNESS* IN THE NATURE OF SEEING, THERE ARE DIRECTIONS – THE VECTORING OF PLACE AND SITE, SIGHT SEEN AND UNSEEN. BUT IT DOES COME DOWN TO THE LOOKING – AND THE LISTENING IN THE LOOK. AS ONE STUDIES ANYTHING, THERE IS THE REACH BACK...
The Sign and the Symbol, the Signal of the Sigil — Rudolf Koch’s Book of Signs
Strategic Magic, Designed Mysticism, Metamagical Thematics. It’s been said that illustration, the real meaning of the word is a shining — to illustrate is “making bright.” But also — to purify. The image above, a sigil of the Heptameron Arbatel, Peter de Abano, 1575....
Wowness | The Condition of Wow
What is wow? Girvin image above: a streetside wow, cast iron, Queen Anne Hill, Seattle. I was writing a proposal and overview for a client. And I used the opening: Wow! That was the first word. I contemplated that, an opening — wow! What is that? I was thinking about...
Soul Finding
BEARING YOUR SOUL DIGGING IN FOR THE SOUL OF BRANDS I was writing a piece, earlier today, on the concept of baring — that idea of revealing, versus the other similarly sounding expression of bearing — which is more like “carrying” something. To bare, to lay open,...
Scribbling Dreams and Inspirations | Journals as Palettes of Magic
The Scribble Book | The Journal as Magic Markings I have some books, journals that I’ve made, that only contain scribbles. Scratching. Scarring. Scripting. What I think is: that the scratching and scribble of antiquity, the ancient sound of drawing, the scripting of...
Night is drawing nigh, drawing at night
Working at Night — Night is Drawing Nigh Working at night, working at candlelight. Seeing by fire. Some nights back, as I was on the farther shore, waiting for the night boat to come crossing, I was drawing in the dark, with light. Dawn was shooting these images, with...