Anywhere you go…

Like most designers I know, I am always taking pictures of signs. Though well-intentioned, the goal of clear, unambiguous communication (such as advisories, warnings, way-finding aids, notice of restricted activities, etc.) is frequently misconstrued and misinterpreted—and often with humorous results. I’ve finally started to compile a collection of some of my sign pics from around the world in a Facebook album, here.

Above: warning of a steep path in a crocodile sanctuary, South Africa (thanks to colleague Guy Schockaert for this pic from a game farm we visited together a decade ago); a particularly confusing railway crossing/right-of-way sign in Wanganui, New Zealand; “no motorcycles or riderless bikes” in Havana, Cuba; “touch electric crotch at your own risk” on a Caribbean cruise ship.

(I also welcome sign-pic submissions from others: rob[a]robertlpeters.com).

—Doug Swanson (original source unknown)

Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

My girlfriend Evelin Richter has been busy in her ceramics studio (What? Clay Art & Curios) over the past months. I thought it was time that I post a “work-in-progress” update with a sneak peak at some of her recent figurative work… the studio pics above are of current ceramic sculptural pieces at various stages in the process. See more of what Ev’s been up to here.

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The pleasure of risk is in the control needed to ride it with assurance so that what appears dangerous to the outsider is, to the participant, simply a matter of intelligence, skill, intuition, coordination—in a word, experience. Climbing in particular, is a paradoxically intellectual pastime, but with this difference: you have to think with your body. Every move has to be worked out in terms of playing chess with your body. If I make a mistake the consequences are immediate, obvious, embarrassing, and possibly painful. For a brief period I am directly responsible for my actions. In that beautiful, silent, world of mountains, it seems to me worth a little risk.

—A. Alvarez

Fear… the right and necessary counterweight to that courage which urges men skyward, and protects them from self-destruction.

—Heinrich Harrer

Many years ago, I climbed the mountains, even though it is forbidden. Things are not as they teach us; the world is hollow, and I have touched the sky.

—from Startrek

Short is the little time which remains to thee of life. Live as on a mountain.

—Marcus Aurelius, (Meditations)

If the conquest of a great peak brings moments of exultation and bliss, which in the monotonous, materialistic existence of modern times nothing else can approach, it also presents great dangers. It is not the goal of grand alpinism to face peril, but it is one of the tests one must undergo to deserve the joy of rising for an instant above the state of crawling grubs. On this proud and beautiful mountain we have lived hours of fraternal, warm and exalting nobility. Here for a few days we have ceased to be slaves and have really been men. It is hard to return to servitude.

—Lionel Terray

I hope I die before I get old.

—The Who

Rankin Inlet, Nunavut

I arrived here to art-direct a photography shoot on Tuesday, just as a blizzard was closing in on this remote Inuit community on the northwest coast of Hudson Bay. Our crew has been trying to leave for days now… but true to the notoriously stormy reputation that Rankin Inlet has, nothing’s flying in or out (due to near white-out conditions). Current temperature: minus 55° C wind-chill (minus 70° F) with visibility ranging from 30 to 300 meters. Hoping that a flight may open up on Friday…

Lots of power outages, and Internet access from the hotel we’re in has been pretty dodgy as well… ergo, no blog posts for a few days.

More inspired lines from the great Rumi…
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī, جلالالدین محمد بلخى

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Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving, it doesn’t matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow a thousand times.
Come, yet again, come, come.

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The heart has its own language.
The heart knows a hundred thousand
ways to speak.

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Wherever you are,
and whatever you do,
be in love.

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Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.

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And from beyond the intellect, beautiful Love
comes dragging her skirts, a cup of wine in her hand.

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Everyone has been made for some particular work,
and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.

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Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?
Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.

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The beauty of the heart
is the lasting beauty:
its lips give to drink
of the water of life.

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In the early dawn of happiness
you gave me three kisses
so that I would wake up
to this moment of love.

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Love is that that never sleeps, nor even rests,
nor stays for long with those that do.
Love is language that cannot be said,
or heard.

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Let us fall in love again
and scatter gold dust all over the world.

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There is a life-force within your soul, seek that life.
There is a gem in the mountain of your body, seek that mine.
O traveler, if you are in search of that
Don’t look outside, look inside yourself and seek that.

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We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust.

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Sit only under a tree
that is full of blossoms.

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The idol of your self is the mother of all idols.

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If you wish mercy, show mercy to the weak.

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If you dig a pit for others to fall into,
you will fall into it yourself.

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No mirror ever became iron again;
No bread ever became wheat;
No ripened grape ever became sour fruit.
Mature yourself and be secure from a change for the worse.
Become the light.

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We rarely hear the inward music,
but we’re all dancing to it nevertheless
directed by the one who teaches us,
the pure joy of the sun,
our music master.

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Remember, the entrance door to the sanctuary is inside you.

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Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself.

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Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.

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Winnipeg, Manitoba

Louis David Riel was a Canadian politician (elected three times to the Canadian House of Commons, although he never assumed his seat), the leader of the Métis people of the prairies, and is considered to be the true founder of the province of Manitoba (in these parts he’s now regarded as our greatest folk hero). Today we celebrate his contributions by means of an official provincial holiday—125 year sago he was hung for treason… his body is buried here in the churchyard of Saint-Boniface Cathedral.

“My people will sleep for one hundred years,
but when they awake, it will be the artists
who give them their spirit back.”

—Louis Riel

Edmonton, Alberta

Truth is where you find it… and sometimes in the most unexpected of places—such as the tailgate of this beat-up pickup truck that I encountered a few years back while in Edmonton (capital of Alberta, Canada’s equivalent to Texas—with cowboys, red-necks, and rig-pigs* from the oil industry in the majority) to give a lecture at the University of Alberta. Pleasant surprises and “exceptions to the rule” are thankfully everywhere…

*Seriously. That’s what these guys call themselves.

Thanks to David Busch (North Georgia) for this aphorism…

—Unknown