Arik Levy, who already experimented working with ceramic, sees this material as both magical and very primitive. The material’s raw aspect, its endless shaping possibilities and the fact that one cannot foresee what will come out of the oven, are what attracted Levy in working with it. The dialog Arik was able to establish with the ceramic expert who manufactured the WellOfLife pieces was an important part of the creation process.

The interaction between the material’s texture and the color, that becomes «liquid» when set in the light, makes each piece look as if it were in constant evolution.

The mat dark gray (elephant skin color) outside and the smooth yet strong colored enamel inside create the contrast I was looking for and bring color into space : a soft color reflection will drop on the walls, while the ceiling will get a white light – Arik Levy.

In many traditions and in everyday life Light is Life…. I wanted

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The Associated PressKate gives Martha a run for her money.My neighbor Jim came over Sunday, stood at the bottom of my steps and said, “I came over to make you feel better about how you look when you garden.”

Now, that may sound mean, but we’ve lived three houses apart for lots of years, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve apologized for the dirt, the sweat, and, most of all, my outfits. I’ve been known to start weeding or watering in my pajamas (one has big red lips printed on them). I stood there with a new hole in my jeans, dirt turned to mud by my sweat and little twigs stuck in my slicked-back hair. At least I had a bra on. Full Post…

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Please have a look at Turenscape’s photographs of Tianjin Qiaoyuan Park – you can see why the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) gave Tianjin Qiaoyuan Park an award.  Then please consider the above photographs. They were taken on a crisp Sunday in April: the park is bare, dry and without people. Did the ASLA act in haste? Did the ASLA judges visit Tianjin? Are the ASLA judges regretting their decision? If the design was as good as it looks on the designers’ photographs, shouldn’t it be full of people on a spring day?  North China has long hard winters. When spring arrives, everyone wants to warm their bones, stock up on Vitamin D, and admire the spring blossom. So where we

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Wikimedia CommonsDracunculus vulgaris is the stinkiest plant I’ve ever smelled.The scent of my variegated mock orange (Philadelphus ‘Innocence’) in the backyard is rapturous. In the front garden, on the other hand, the odor wafting around was more-than disgusting. Talk about yin and yang.

Whenever I walked outside, I thought, “There’s something dead out here.” I grew up on a farm,  and there were plenty of dead things around, so I know what dead smells like. But, wow, this was baaaad. I wondered if a cat (maybe mine) had killed something and left it in the garden to rot. I’ve got a lot of plants, so it would be easy to overlook. Full Post…

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