The Complexity of All Things Persian

Whether it's the art or the food or damn it, the people, all things Iranian/Persian are complex. Especially the traditional miniature art. The detailing is insane, meticulous, designed completely to please and captivate and appear elite. These are three of my favorite examples. The Qajar era of design was during a social time of contradiction and sloth. The kings of that dynasty reveled in riches, harems, sexual exploration, erotica and still imposed on the people, a strict interpretation of Islam in the form of rule while they partied till dawn. The painting of the sexually ambiguous being on the cushion with the tea is actually a man in drag...I love that one, it's curated I believe in London now, not 100% sure though. My beautiful graphic designer and fellow jeweler Leila Marvel took that image and the first and recreated for me some awesome The Hand of Fatima Design art prints last year. I will have to share them.
If your in NYC, a great place to go and see some of the Persian bests is The Asia Society.

The Photography of Sia Aryai

No relation that I know of...but it is not exactly a common last name.

All copyright of Sia Aryai

Forough Farookhzad

The Wind Will Take Us

In my small night, ah
the wind has a date with the leaves of the trees
in my small night there is agony of destruction
listen
do you hear the darkness blowing?
I look upon this bliss as a stranger
I am addicted to my despair.

listen do you hear the darkness blowing?
something is passing in the night
the moon is restless and red
and over this rooftop
where crumbling is a constant fear
clouds, like a procession of mourners
seem to be waiting for the moment of rain.
a moment
and then nothing
night shudders beyond this window
and the earth winds to a halt
beyond this window
something unknown is watching you and me.

O green from head to foot
place your hands like a burning memory
in my loving hands
give your lips to the caresses
of my loving lips
like the warm perception of being
the wind will take us
the wind will take us.

Forugh Farrokhzad
Translated by Ahmad Karimi Hakkak
The Persian Book Review VOLUME III, NO 12 Page 1337

Belated Nowrooz Mobarak!

It's 1389, I want to wish everyone a happy, beautiful New Year full of freshness. This year I got a really great photo of the family babies in the grass in my Baba's backyard. The small joys of life are not so small, they are just as recognizable and grand as they are.

On another note we're moving! Two blocks away...LOL. I won't be listing or creating for at least two weeks, try moving with two kids and hardly any help! It's hard.
So the first show of my season will be one of my favorite places EVER, The Brooklyn Lyceum. Be there the very first weekend of May, it'll be tons of fun.
http://www.bkcraftcentral.com/
Check out the classes that are available those days, Deb Klein has made them insanely affordable, I'm talking $5 to $10...

Eternal Love

I had a few minutes to snoop through Flickr...I am basically falling in love with the site. I think it's really bringing forth the artist in people that don't even realize themselves as artists...and I've had Pablo Neruda playing through my head, saw this picture from a fantastic photographer Hamed Saber.

It's a photo taken of some kind of companions (i would of course want to say lovers) buried facing one another near the Blue Mosque in Tabriz,Iran. It's 3,000 years old! But who can put a time on love anyway?

*Some say Tabriz is the actual biblical site for the Garden of Eden...

As for a treat...
"And good, this danger
is danger of love, of complete love
for all life,
for all lives,
and if this love brings us
the death and the prisons,
I am sure that your big eyes,
as when I kiss them,
will then close with pride,
into double pride, love,
with your pride and my pride."

From "And Because Love Battles"
by Pablo Neruda

Sleep

When I am with you, we stay up all night,
When you're not here, I can't get to sleep.
Praise God for these two insomnias!
And the difference between them.
-Rumi

I can't sleep these days, it's a combination of things I suppose. It's the haunting of unsettled feelings, inspiration and uncertainty...oh yeah, life!
It's not bad things, just bad that I can't peacefully rest while I have these ideas barraging me and working on my being. Creating is a gift to those that appreciate your work, you and the energy of the universe in general...it can also be a curse in that you become intoxicated with the feeling it gives you, and unable to desire other things with out completion of your creations.

Above is a poem from one of my all time favorite masters and one of my great inspirations, Mawlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī...but you can call him Rumi.

Lucky Me, Lucky You

Luck...it seems that no matter who, pagans, monotheists, polytheists, all kinds of believers always believe in luck. Through out mankind's history we see evidence of this. Well, I was using the fifteen minutes of free time I have when the boys are eating breakfast (no wonder it's called "break-fast"), and snooped around Flickr to find these Hand of Fatima doors in southern Spain and Portugal where the Moors, Berbers and Arabs ruled for hundreds of years. These exquisite door handles were crafted into "hands of Fatima" as signs of luck to ward off evil and malice from the dwellers of each home. You can see the European spin on the style.

I chose the name The Hand of Fatima for many reasons, one main one being that everything is made by hand, another being I love the name Fatima, and finally, a little luck can't hurt, even when you're not the most superstitious person, why not cover your bases?


Photos from the following AMAZING photographers on Flickr...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54427714@N00/395600505/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lxavian/3010927580/
jsprhmsn:bcn
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alfonsogamo/3456913496/in/pool-aldabasyaldabones