Flying Carpet

Monday, November 30, 2020

November Flying Carpet 2020

In November
The Flying carpet
prayed for a transition
from chaos to order

Special thanks to EVERYONE

who made this a possibility

Saturday, October 31, 2020

In October,
The Flying Carpet
attempts to navigate
“The Cloud of Unknowing”
during this incredible time of
so many overlays
of truth and falsehoods.

Images of palimpsest come to mind

Traditionally palimpsest referred to
a manuscript or writing fragment
on which the original writing
has been partially removed
to make room for later writing
but with original traces remaining.

Now a palimpsest can be…
something reused or layered
but still revealing visible traces
like these walls in Nara, Japan

A palimpsest of billboard messages
subsumed in time

Or the message implied
by what remains visible

The forces of nature
obscuring a graveyard memorial

or autographs of men
fighting in Algeria…
a palimsest of
person superimposed upon place

…and history juxtaposed
with the present…
So many sailors from distant lands
waiting with their goods
quarantined on San Lorenzo,
“The Plague Island” off Venice…
a palimpsest of their scrawls

“Before I Die'

is a global wall art project…
originally created by Candy Chang
on an abandoned house

in New Orleans
after the death of a loved one.
There are now
over 5,000 of these walls

around the world.

A Momento Mori

for the modern age...
This one becomes an inscrutable
palimpsest in North Carolina

A memory moment
captured in reflection palimpsest

Summer Fall Winter Spring,
my journal for the year 2008…
layers of daily drawings
on translucent mylar...
fan shaped segments...
hermetic images
approximating the way
events can float
to the surface of memory

With heartfelt love to all...

Thanks to Sialia for making

the excellent box

for Summer Fall Winter Spring

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

September Flying Carpet 2020

In September

The Flying Carpet notices

that in this time of seclusion
and hasty planned escapes,
the happenstance of SERENDIPITY
seems almost non existent.

So, The Flying Carpet
sends you an antidote:
Greatest Hits of SERENDIPITY

Our neighborhood kebab joint
in Venice…
an assemblage readymade…

André Breton, surrealist,
enthused about
“the chance encounter
of a sewing machine and an umbrella
on an operating table”
but how about
this Elephant Carving School
in Chaing Mai?

Mistaking free bookmarks
for our look-alike
Biennale tickets in Venice (!)
our day’s plans caput…
we discovered this strangeness…

SERENDIPITY… defined as
“an apparent aptitude
for making
fortunate discoveries accidentally”
These leering Nagas
and this sign in Laos
seemed like providence

Perhaps our most
SERENDIPITOUS
day ever… April 8, 2017
Was it a dream, Nelly and Nancy?

Zack discovered
these tiny masterpieces
of scraped paint layers
hiding throughout
the Passages in Paris

How many years
and how many stories?
this ghostly silhouette…
bed headboard
in the demolished mansion
in Mexico City

the mystery of
Christo-ish repair
in Lisbon

SERENDIPITOUS
alignment in Paris

Anachronistic SERENDIPITY
in the History of the Ages
Parade in Kyoto

and the gondolier
checking his cell phone
in Venice

And the SERENDIPITY
of finding the perfect gift
for She Who Loves Giving

Dedicated to the memory of

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

Artist unknown

Monday, August 31, 2020

August Wondering Carpet 2020

In August

The Flying Carpet imagines
what this
Time out of Time
feels like to you…

perhaps a time of
connection
rectangles within rectangles...
our eyes and minds
are pixilated

perhaps a time of
disconnection
hives of loneliness

perhaps a time of
mourning
when mirrors are draped

perhaps a time of
time standing still

perhaps a time of
sorting
and sweeping up
the dust from parts of your life

perhaps a time of
metamorphosis
(in the pupa stage
when the caterpillar’s enzymes
almost completely dissolve his body,
the imaginal discs remain
to form wings, antennae, and the rest)