Ben Heine Art and Music Blog: Sea

Showing posts with label Sea. Show all posts

Recent Photos (Mix - June 2015 to January 2016)

Warsaw, photo by Ben Heine (more photos)

Forest Melody, photo by Ben Heine (more photos)

Tranquil, photo by Ben Heine (more photos)

Theo, photo by Ben Heine (more photos)

Horizon, photo by Ben Heine (more photos)

Forest in Chevetogne, photo by Ben Heine (more photos)

Han sur Lesse, photo by Ben Heine (more photos)

The Sea, photo by Ben Heine (more photos)

VIEW THE FULL POST »

Faith in Destiny

(See it on deviantART)

Everywhere we go, there is a line to follow! Civilization is the destination. I took this photo near Sousse, in Tunisia.

Here is an interesting review I received for this picture on my deviantART account from Kalistina. I'm sharing it here below because I think it's a good analysis:

One of my favorite visual impressions in physical reality is the disappearance of the ground-sky interface. I first discovered it in the Alps, were clouds frequently come in direct contact with the permanently snow-covered summits of the highest mountains. It can get very hard to tell where the earth stops and where the sky begins.

This photo initially triggers a similar effect. The sky seems to stop at the character’s feet... or even below. Of course, after a few instants the brain manages to get past the illusion, to unlock the physical reality that was captured in this photograph, to realize that it’s actually dealing with a beach-sea-city-sky continuum. But this first impression remains. There’s a city in the sky and the character’s looking its way.

“Faith in Destiny”. Now that’s an interesting title. Though most people use “fate” and “destiny” interchangeably, they actually designate two nearly opposite concepts - “fate” is the inexorable result of what happened before the present, whereas “destiny” is the anticipation of a future given the current situation. “Fate” introduces the concept of fatality; “destiny” deals with destinations, goals. Fate binds people, whereas destiny projects them.

As for “faith”, it’s the opposite of “knowledge” - it’s the belief in something that is impossible to prove (it is by definition irrational). Typically, one’s faith is aimed toward their gods - something that transcends them, that likely determines them by defining their fate. Greek tragedy comes to mind.

Here, though, we’re dealing with destiny - something that people set for their own sake. Having faith in destiny, unlike having faith in fate, means irrationally believing in one’s own ability to set oneself a destination and to advance toward it. I think it’s a very humanist kind of faith.

Back to the photo. In the horizon (which, remember, didn’t look like a horizon at first), we see a city. It’s the only non-natural element in the setting. This is the character’s destination. It’s the place he want’s to go to. He’s going toward civilization, leaving the cradle of nature. That doesn’t mean he’s giving up on nature, it just means he wants to interact with mankind.

Now, a frequent belief in occidental religions is the concept of heaven - the place good people go to when they die (whereas bad people go to hell). Morality ultimately relies on the believer’s faith in the existence of hell to motivate him to be a good person. In most of these occidental religions, heaven is also the place god(s) live in, and it’s usually either in the sky or above it.

As discussed earlier, the city initially appears to be sitting in the middle of the sky. I’m going to go ahead and say this city is the character’s heaven. It’s not situated in the actual sky, though - we’re literally dealing with a case of heaven on earth here. The destination isn’t an eternal afterlife with fellow deceased, but a present life with the actual, present humankind.

In other words, civilization is bliss.

Pencil Vs Camera - 59
.

(See it on deviantART)

Which one do you think is the predator? Ok, to be honest, this is somehow a metaphor of "capitalism". I have been willing to do something like this since some time… Everything is connected in this image (the smallest fish at the top is asking for help, see detail below). I took the photo near Sousse in Tunisia not too long ago, I also made the drawing. I'm not a biologist or a fish expert, I just drew these animals intuitively. If you wish, you can view the full Pencil Vs Camera album here.

Sketch evolution (for the first fish in the shark's mouth):

Random details/zoom:

Miniature - 4
.

(See it on Flickr)

I took this picture in Mykonos, Greece. I've used the
"tilt shift" technique to simulate a miniature scene.

Blue Dimension
.

(See it on Flickr)

A lovely landscape I captured in Naxos, Greece . I first thought
this was a small toilet block, but not at all. It's a magic door. :)

Pencil Vs Camera - 41
.

(See it on Flickr)

Left alone, desperate and drunk... but still smiling! This is a photo I recently took in Greece. I also made the drawing... Please, see the whole "Pencil Vs Camera" album.

The above picture has been shot with the Samsung NX10

Random details:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5248/5262426337_f0fc6268ff_b.jpg

Give Me Some Fresh Air !
.

.
I took this photo in Portugal some

time ago and just edited it today

Flying Into the Unknown
.

I See Light
.

This Light

By Peter S. Quinn

This light is a light out
In its flickering caressing flow
Some themes in shadows about
In their way in, to and fro go

Those pleasing of dim flames
So dear to the night to hold
The streets of the nocturnal names
From inside dreams never told

Those light from bulbs and fiction
To carry their ecstasies run
Without this worlds addiction
Universes between night and evening sun

Deepness of being something more
To give us their spills of shadows
Each dripping dropp of glowing store
That with the new day all goes

Dim lights from lamps here between
In glowing thick gloomy night
The winter thoughts not else seen
In ordinary underneath daylight

The feeling forgotten into sleep
But giving its breath of being
Something among between to keep
Without it actually all seeing
.

My Boat Wants To Sail

My Boat
Wants To Sail

By Peter S. Quinn

My boat is all alone
On the weaving mystic sea
Like a bottom pebble stone
That cannot become free
Blue white billow's high
In their faraway circling around
Surround it there and tie
On deep abyss own playground

My boat wants to sail
Through oceans of unknown
In search of a fresh trail
Where easy wind has blown
But brine seas are deep
And get so much there lost
Commitments cannot keep
On rocky shores get tossed

Sea dreams won’t elapse
If we can find their way
Sail through hidden traps
Reefs that with ridge play
My boat wants to find
The freedom of the deep
And leave old scenes behind
That my turret can’t keep

A Piece of Earth

Come Dream like
a Cloud Above

By Peter S. Quinn

Come dream like a cloud above
Uplifting deep and its sunshine
So much of misty worthy of
In every faraway horizon line
Deep as the river is giving
From its watery stream going
Where every gleam is living
And from both sides flowing

A day that has come from deep
Just to bring you shine things
With hours and moments to keep
That with every enjoyment sings
Rain that comes to drip drop
Making freshness more clear
Giving its flow and its loop
In everything that's now near

Come dream in liking of July
Shift windblown grass like hair
Everyone’s fate there must lie
In completeness of emerging year
Where light touches soft earth
Never a fraction in icily fears
And blossoms of bright is worth
Each of the day ongoing careers

My Way
.

I Walk in Life
The Way I Am

A poem by Peter S. Quinn

I walk in life the way I am
Sometimes strong and sometimes weak
I have my happy hours too
Some are like those you might seek

I hope everybody finds their way
That's the purpose for being here
Different goals we might find out
Coming from distance everywhere

I walk in life with love and care
It's the way we all should do
Sorrows and joys we might share
So come and join by being you

We walk in life unperfectly
For nothing is too absolute
Take a look from inside me
There may lay your different route

I hope everybody finds their way
And joy with dreams they share
For tomorrow is another day
I hope I'll be finding you there

Bring The Light
.

© 2009 - Ben Heine

Come Here - Light

A poem by Peter S. Quinn

After light comes darkness
And after darkness comes light
For you and with - I shall caress
And fly onto your flight
To the sunshine nearby
Just across the dim sea
Through the blue morning sky
That the soul sets free

Every hour of the dark
Shall not dwell on too long
For the gleams must spark
In a new day breaking song
That shall melt any ice
That has broken its way
In the roots full of lies
That now meet brighter day

Come here with your speech
In to love of the far
With every thought it’ll teach
Of peace – not of war
Come here in your wings
Fly among true love
With what it to the heart brings
Full of sunshine from above

The Key to Your Freedom
.

.
Lock and Key

By Kristen McVay

My heart under lock and key
Until you came along and stole
Both lock and key
You unlocked my heart and let it be free
But now you've also let it be hurt
You promised you wouldn't
And I trusted you
So I'm stealing back the lock and key
My heart under lock and key.

(The poem appeared on poetry.com)

PS : This is a photo of a sculpture by the American artist Tom Otterness. I took it in The Hague, Netherlands

If I could Fly...

...f r e e d o m would be mine

Bring the Light
.
By Peter S. Quinn

Come come morning come
Freshness awaits me then
Tickle each bosom blossom
When they will feel you again
Rise to the edge of the sea
Bring the light there on
Billows that waves so free
Never to shore are all done

A bird in a nest is to fly
Finding the freedom in wings
Reaching the horizons sky
Wondering what morning brings
Flocking to oceans wide
Searching for something to eat
Into the deep they glide
Every small motion to read

Come come to day newborn
With every aspect of light
Dark gown is becoming worn
Taking its dim and the night
Faraway times going around
Each with its moments to turn
Somewhere a glow they've found
To give to the new morning burn

(The poem appeared on petersquinn.blogspot.com)

PS : I took the photo last Summer
in The Hague, in the Netherlands
.

Belém Tower
.

Belém Tower is a fortified tower located in the Belém district of Lisbon, Portugal.

It was built in the early 16th century in the Portuguese late Gothic style, the Manueline, to commemorate Vasco da Gama's expedition. This defensive, yet elegant construction has become one of the symbols of the city, a memorial to the Portuguese power during the Age of the Great Discoveries. In 1983 it was classified, together with the nearby Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Belém Tower was built both as a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon and as part of a defense system of the entrance of the Tagus river and the Jerónimos Monastery, which was necessary to protect Lisbon. The system was initiated by King John II (1455-1495), who built the Fortress of Cascais and the Fortress of São Sebastião of Caparica. The banks of Belém were protected by a ship, the Grande Nau, replaced by the Tower of Belém during the last five years of the reign of King Manuel I.

The Tower was constructed between 1515 and 1521 by military architect Francisco de Arruda, who had already built several fortresses in Portuguese possessions in Morocco. The influence of the Moorish decorative art is manifest in delicate decorations of the arched windows and balconies and in the ribbed cupolas of the watch towers. Diogo de Boitaca, first architect of the nearby Monastery of the Jerónimos, probably also participated in decorating the building. The machicolation and the battlements are decorated with the rich sculptural ornamentations of the Manueline style.

Originally, the Tower stood on a little island on the right side of the Tagus, surrounded by water. Opposite the beach at Restelo, with the progressive southward creeping of the shore over the years, it is now practically moored to the bank itself. It was dedicated to the patron saint of Lisbon, St Vincent.

In 1580, when Lisbon was invaded by Spanish troops in the course of a struggle for the Portuguese throne, the Tower fought and surrendered to the Duke of Alba. In the following centuries the Tower was mainly used as a prison (with the underground cellars regularly flooding) and as a custom house. Indeed, given its height and lack of dissimulation in the landscape, some historians believe the Tower was mostly intended to serve as a customs outpost.

In the 1840s, under the impulse of romantic writer Almeida Garrett, the Tower of Belém was restored by King Ferdinand II. At this point many neo-manueline decorative elements were added to the building. It was declared a National Monument in 1910. --> More
Source : Wikipedia

----------------

--> I took the photo in Belém, Portugal

Floating Soul
.

Don't Rock The Boat

By Bob Marley (Lyrics)

Huh, please don’t you rock my boat
’cause I don’t want my boat to be rockin’ anyhow
Please don’t you rock my boat, no
’cause I don’t want my boat to be rockin’

I’m tellin’ you that, oh, ooh-aah, I like it a-like a-this
Can you miss?
And you should know, ooh-aah, when I like it a-like a-this
Am I really it? ooh yeah
You satis- satis- satisfy my soul, morning time
Evening cold, -fy my soul
Yes, I’ve been a-tellin’ you, bake me the sweetest cakes
I’m happy inside all the time
Oh, can’t you see what you’ve done for me? yeah

You make me feel like when we bend them new corners
We feel like sweepstake winners, yeah
When we bend them new corners
We feel like sweepstake winners

And I said, oh, ooh-aah, I like it a-like a-this
Yes, I do
And you should know, ooh-aah,
when I like it a-like a-this
I’ve got it, just can’t miss, ooh
Satis- satisfy my soul, darlin’
Make me love you in the morning time, yeah
If ever I treated you bad, make it up to me one time
’cause I’m happy inside all the time
I want you beside me, yeah, to be mine

One thing you’ve got to do, is when a-we holding hands together
You’ve got to know that we love, a-love each other, yeah
And if every time you should walk away from me now
Uh, you’ll now I need your sympathy, yeah

Can you see? do you believe me?
Oh, darlin’, darlin’, I’m callin’, callin’
Satisfy my soul, satisfy my soul
Never, never, never give it up now

All in the same boat
Rockin’ on the same route
We gotta get together, join each other
And can’t you see what I’ve got for you? yeah

I’m happy, happy, happy, happy, happy,
and not you can turn me blue now
Come a little closer, satisfy my...

(Lyrics' source : metrolyrics.com)

The Magic of a Smile
.

.
Kiss The Earth
.
By Thich Nhat Hanh (*)

Walk and touch peace every moment.
Walk and touch happiness every moment.
Each step brings a fresh breeze.
Each step makes a flower bloom.
Kiss the Earth with your feet.
Bring the Earth your love and happiness.
The Earth will be safe
when we feel safe in ourselves.

(*) Thich Nhat Hanh (pronounced Tick-Naught-Han) is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk. During the war in Vietnam, he worked tirelessly for reconciliation between North and South Vietnam. His lifelong efforts to generate peace moved Martin Luther King, Jr. to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. He lives in exile in a small community in France where he teaches, writes, gardens, and works to help refugees worldwide. He has conducted many mindfulness retreats in Europe and North America helping veterans, children, environmentalists, psychotherapists, artists and many thousands of individuals seeking peace in their hearts, and in their world. Read more

-------------

--> The poem appeared on poetseers.org

River Don't Cry
.

We Are Made One With
What We Touch and See
.
By Oscar Wilde

We are resolved into the supreme air,
We are made one with what we touch and see,
With our heart's blood each crimson sun is fair,
With our young lives each springimpassioned tree
Flames into green, the wildest beasts that range
The moor our kinsmen are, all life is one, and all is change.

With beat of systole and of diastole
One grand great life throbs through earth's giant heart,
And mighty waves of single Being roll
From nerveless germ to man, for we are part
Of every rock and bird and beast and hill,
One with the things that prey on us, and one with what we kill

One sacrament are consecrate, the earth
Not we alone hath passions hymeneal,
The yellow buttercups that shake for mirth
At daybreak know a pleasure not less real
Than we do, when in some freshblossoming wood
We draw the spring into our hearts, and feel that life is good

Is the light vanished from our golden sun,
Or is this daedalfashioned earth less fair,
That we are nature's heritors, and one
With every pulse of life that beats the air?
Rather new suns across the sky shall pass,
New splendour come unto the flower, new glory to the grass.

And we two lovers shall not sit afar,
Critics of nature, but the joyous sea
Shall be our raiment, and the bearded star
Shoot arrows at our pleasure! We shall be
Part of the mighty universal whole,
And through all Aeons mix and mingle with the Kosmic Soul!.

We shall be notes in that great Symphony
Whose cadence circles through the rhythmic spheres,
And all the live World's throbbing heart shall be
One with our heart, the stealthy creeping years
Have lost their terrors now, we shall not die,
The Universe itself shall be our Immortality!

(Poem's source : judithpordon.tripod.com)