your practice.

A women I teach a private to was wanting recommendations on yoga videos and
I thought maybe some of you would too... so here goes:

1. Ali MacGraw Yoga Mind & Body: This is one of the best produced videos that I have ever seen for a less advanced but still challenging practice. The class is led by renowned teacher Erich Shiffman and is filmed in a beautiful white sand dessert, it is about an hour. I highly recommend.

2. Rodney Yee, AM/PM Yoga for beginners: there is a reason Rodney Yee is the Oprah darling of yoga... He has an amazing practice and he makes excellent videos. This video has a 20 minute am practice and a 20 min pm practice. So it can fit into anyone's schedule.

3. Bryan Kest Power Yoga: definitely a more vigorous practice, faster and requiring more strength but Bryan Kest leads you in an encouraging and inspiring way. And he is easy on the eyes too. His brother Jonny is also an amazing teacher. The video might be a little dated by the practitioners and Bryan's hairdo. But still one of the better power video's.

4. By far the best pre-natal yoga video is Shiva Rea's . Shiva is one of my favorite instructors she is creative and fun and has the best music. For her prenatal video she presents herself while pregnant as a strong and beautiful women and that is what all pregnant women should feel.
and her vast array of regular yoga stuff is amazing too.

5. The best book to introduce yoga to your kids is Baron Baptiste's My daddy is a pretzel.
Very cute and educational. Babar is pretty good too.

6. And for anything Ashtanga I say go with Richard Freeman one of the most humble and inspiring teachers I have ever had the privilege to meet. But be warned these are not for the faint of heart. And in order to look like he does in the videos you would need to practice 2-3 hours everyday for like 20 years, literally, so put judgment away as you watch and practice.

practice.

"with practice all is coming." Pattabhi Jois

I once had a yoga practice where I practiced 5 days a week for an hour and a half.
It changed my life and is still very much part of my present existence.

But as much as I want to get back to this, it seems that I cannot.
My life was fuller, and "easier," and my body much stronger and yes, beautiful.
So why is it that I cannot, though I want to.
I say I do not have the time, but I really do...If I make it.

So what makes us practice?
What makes me get to the studio and make my work but not the (other) studio to nurture my breath?
Am I being lazy?

How do you finally (re) commit to something that is difficult but that can save your life?

this morning...

will this morning be the morning that changes our lives? (for better)
will i hear good news?
will your day be good?
will we enjoy the evening?
will we talk to each other while we are out with friends?
will we spill our coffee?
will we fall asleep in an embrace?
will this day be the day that moves our life toward our dream?

tension.

tension, tension go away.
don't come back some other day.

light.

On the other side of darkness, far away there shines a light, A light to end all sorrow, A light to be ever free, A light for a new tomorrow A light for you and me

from A Step by Raja Sivaji

i want to know more about:

Artist Magdelena Atria

agdalena Atria's work is about longing and indifference, closeness and detachment, emotion and reserve. The images that inspire her work may be of concrete identifiable things such as a deer, a rabbit, an ear. Or they may be vague and undefined, freighted with meaning, but without a name. All of the images are related to the body and to embodied experiences such as touching, breathing, looking, holding, growing, hesitating. . from here.


made from toothpicks.


I could not find much information on Atria, as she is Chilean and most was not in english...and there just was not much written. But I am very curious to how she builds her large scale pieces. And what her references are.


Either way the work looks beautiful and hopefully I can see it in person soon.

sterile and initmate

Photographer Jason Lazarus has me intrigued.
I most prefer his images of the domestic situation, most of which are from the series
living with a portrait, I love how he uses object and negative space to create emotional tension in the image.

then there are these images of sort of the everyday detritus of living.
I love how there is no contrived beauty in the image, allowing it to act more like a document.
And that in itself creates the beauty.

and his new work is jumping towards a much more conceptual approach but it might go somewhere good.
or he might be thinking too much and seeing too little.
I will be interested to see.



See more work at here and here.
And check his blog out here.

sometimes...

sometimes... he is an asshole.
and I want to throw a cutting board at his head.

the opening night.

the white dress.

the crowd.
was huge.
it was so fun to see thousands of people all in white.
the men looked smashing in their white pants, white shirts, and white belts.

the unique accessories.

the opening.
had a great turn out and the worked looked good.
all work available at BECA Gallery.

the work.

a new interpretation of the "sentiments."

young photographer.

from connections.

My friend forwarded me the young photographer Erin Jane Nelson's website.
The images intrigue me and at moments the use of light is phenomenal.

from time to myself.

I love the intimacy in may of the images.

from connections.

I wish she had a statement with her work, I so prefer knowing a bit of artist's intention...even just a sentence a quote.

from time to myself.

I am very interested to see what she continues to do and how she evolves.

from hanging on letting go.

she also has a flickr page and a blog.