HARA Kenya, Designing Japan: A Future Built on Aesthetics. HARA Kenya is one of the most influential designers working today. A theoretician as well as a practitioner of contemporary design, he is responsible for the success of some of Japan’s most beloved product brands, such as MUJI. In Designing Japan, A Future Built on Aesthetics, Hara sensei explains his belief…
Genevieve von Petzinger, The First Signs. Although the full story of human origins may forever remain an enigma, over the last twenty years scientists have been able to uncover new clues as to who we are as a species. Shedding light on when we first became “cognitively modern” has been for archeologist Dr. Genevieve von Petzinger an ice-age journey into…
Steven Pressfield, The War of Art. From the author of The Legend of Bagger Vance and Gates of Fire, Steven Pressfield writes of more than just the secrets to artistic success in The War of Art, and its sequel, Turning Pro. A veterans’s toolbox or a tricks-of-the-trade pass from a master is expected. Identifying the enemy within however is this author’s candid wisdom for…
Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida. Roland Barthes’ classic, Camera Lucida, Reflections on Photography, is an exquisite book, deeply thought-provoking. Had he and I been contemporaries, we would have had much to talk about. Photography is unlike other arts, it captures certainty. To look at a photograph is to be confronted evidentially with existence, the fact of having been there or having been thus.…
Flannery O’Connor, Letters. Mary Flannery O’Connor (1925 – 1964) was not only one of America’s greatest fiction writers, but also a hero. Both for her courageous act of living in the face of tragedy as well as her nobility of character which shined through her suffering. Although she was merely 39 at the time of her passing, having battled lupus for…
D.T. Suzuki on the Zen of Sengai Gibon. Take a moment to look online at some of the calligraphy of Sengai Gibon. Done we are told after formerly retiring at the age of 61 as the one hundred twenty-third abbot of Shōfuku-ji, the first Zen temple established in Japan, Sengai’s legendary wit and humor jumps from his brush. Living well…