Loving the Len Lye Centre…

It certainly is a striking building. And in the early evening it looked positively mesmerizing. Hopefully all our American visitors for this weekend’s AmeriCARna Festival are enjoying our lovely city and scenes such as this, as much as many locals are admiring their classic American cars touring tonight in our city.

 

I went to the Len Lye Centre yesterday. It is a stunning and frequently photographed building on the exterior. Inside the gallery was a collection of some of his works and some other collections….including several items from one of my favourite artists…Colin Mc Cahon. But what really struck me as the most beautiful and stunning art in the building…was the building! It’s gracious, smooth, very tall curved concrete walls and the slips of light peeking through between some panels was the most beautiful art of all.

The changing city skyline and lego bricks…

I watched this group of older school boys…they were completely engrossed in building a city skyline entirely from white Lego bricks –  it was part of an interactive public display at the Auckland City Art Gallery recently. The structures that had been created by others so far were striking in their elegance, complexity and intricacy creating a fantasy city skyline of magical, wonderful, imaginary towering structures. It was also temporary, as each structure could be dismantled or added to by the next person and turned into something new and different, always changing and evolving – an interesting way to consider a city…

 

Reflecting on the new and shiny….

It is certainly going to be interesting!

Reflections of the church buildings across the road… as seen on the first of many stainless steel curving panels forming the exterior of our new contemporary art gallery and Len Lye centre. It’s currently under construction in our city centre – not without controversy I might add.

Will it last? Will it stay shiny? Will it rust in our sea and salt laden air? Will it blind drivers and pedestrians? Will it get too hot? What will our high rainfall do to it over time? Who knows…certainly not me….but who cannot fall in love with the idea of a unique, original, elegant building? I personally cannot wait to see how it looks finished. There is a place in cities for protecting heritage and old buildings and there is also a place for new and innovative approaches and fresh, risk taking ideas…the best cities celebrate both!

 

Through the gates…

 

 

What is beyond the gates? Yes they are rusted, broken and crumbling down…but they are also strangely inviting, inspiring, and interesting. There is something romantic, glamorous and slightly spooky about them…I wonder what I would find if I could venture up the stairs. 

Mid winter beach walk….

It was time to get out. A long beach walk in the middle of winter seemed sensible. So that is what we did…we gathered up four kids who had spent all morning staring at various screens, two soccer balls, one camera and headed out into the brisk winter air for an afternoon at a beach not far from our home.

We had a great game of beach football, we walked and walked, had running races, jumped streams, collected shells, wrote our names in the sand, one even played in the water (even in July!). Two of us carried shoes, jackets, shirts and the collected shells. After hours on the beach, we were all a bit cold, a bit tired, but happy, laughing and sandy as we headed home.

I felt recharged and reconnected and really alive.  The fog has started to clear and as it did, I saw the most beautiful view right there in front of me. A sign, I think.

 

Storm clouds gathering…

 

There was a low, dense fog rolling into the valleys and a few chimneys on the hills in the distance, and nearby, curling out a trail of grey smoke. I imagine people stoked their fire places to warm up and dry out after three solid days of rain. Everything is drenched and it is cold, but it also looks so sparkly and clean after such a deluge.  The storm clouds continued to gather on the horizon at dusk. All combined, it was a magical scene, for a fleeting moment before darkness.

 

Thoughts from the bottom of the tree…

 

I spotted this tree in Auckland recently. It’s silver white trunk was so smooth and shiny and seemed to go on for miles and miles toward toward the sky.

 

I imagined what it would be like to be a bird flying around and resting at the top of the tree, in the shelter of the branches, and looking out at the world from there.

 

 

Something new in the garden…

 

A protea. It’s taking ages to blossom. But it is stunning even as a bud waiting to bloom so I don’t mind. It has many shades of pink (which I like) and is strangely velvet smooth to touch. Quite spectacular!

Not yet, but….

 

Sometimes a photo has to wait until the right moment. This one has sat quite a while, neglected and forgotten. By chance I came across it today and immediately liked the old, highly decorative and symmetrical church building contrasted nicely with the modern green spiky plant and the shot of deep blue in the foreground – a fence?  What for I wonder….