Free play
Derrida: The concept of structure itself — I say in passing — is no longer satisfactory to describe that game. How to define a structure? Structure should be centered. But this center can be either thought, as it was classically, like a creator or being or a fixed and natural place; or also as a [...]
Not so the traveler
Angels & Demons, Nosara, Costa Rica, 2011, by Arthur Ou [A]nother important difference between tourist and traveler is that the former accepts his own civilization without question; not so the traveler, who compares it with the others, and rejects those elements he finds not to his liking.—Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky
Silence
Fish Scales, Nosara, Costa, Rica, 2011, by Arthur Ou There is a way to master silence Control its curves, inhabit its dark corners And listen to the hiss of time outside. — Paul Bowles
Begin at the horizons
Birds, Nosara, Costa Rica, 2011, by Arthur Ou A poet makes himself a visionary through a long, boundless, and systematized disorganization of all the senses. All forms of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself, he exhausts within himself all poisons, and preserves their quintessences. Unspeakable torment, where he will need the greatest faith, a [...]
An inexhaustible well
Rocks, Nosara, Costa Rica, 2011 Arthur Ou Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don’t know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It’s that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don’t know, we get to think of life as an [...]
Into the rainforest
A little video I did with Erik Gustafsson and Deborah Moss for a Costa Rican rainforest ecolodge called Lapa Rios.
Nosara in NYT’s Top 2012 Destinations
Now that the New York Times has included Nosara in their top 45 “Places to go in 2012” the word is out about the sleepy little surf town we know and love. What will this mean for Nosara? Will the beloved Guiones break start to look like choreographed chaos in Rincón featured in Surfer’s Journal‘s Symphony of [...]
Voguing
It takes one a few days to feel Nosaran. One either watches the surfers or is the one surfing, as was described to us when we first started to shuffle our feet along the bottom of the ocean floor to pop-up ourselves as well as the stingrays. Both activities occupy time, and at the end [...]
Free, Beautiful, Biodegradable Toys!
As part of my quest to incorporate more DIY, reused or found toys into my children’s lives, we’ve made it a point to show up at the beach without pails, shovels, etc and then see what we can find. My kids often find their own treasures, but sometimes (especially early on) I have found it’s [...]
Repositories
Costa Rica is known for its holes, and in particular following the rainy season on the roads. I have a fondness for holes and a collection of mounds. These mounds range in material composition, but they tend to be made from organic matter. In composition they are created and range from additive to subtractive processes.
Illya Kagan in Costa Rica
This painting is just roughed in. I start them all on location, and get the foundations down. Then when I get them back to my studio, I make changes to the composition, colors, and details. As I look at this jpeg, I already see changes I will make to the clouds. This sight was interesting [...]
Postcard from the Farm
Lemongrass is one of my favorite herbs, well grasses I should say. It grows prolifically wherever we seem to plant it (on the farm in Garza, Costa Rica). Two great culinary applications are pictured above and you can check out the growing process below.
VOWEL HOUSE
In 1955, the letter A was used as the form for a structure by the architect Andrew Geller for the Reese House, a beach residence in Long Island, New York. The New York Times published the house on May 5, 1957. Following the publication of the house, the form went viral across the globe. Today, [...]
Illya Kagan in Costa Rica
Once again, I found a site not far from home. The surfboards on the beach along with the palm covered beach shack and the lone palm make for a good entrance into the painting.
BARBS DOLED
There are many things that run deep in still waters. In the Pacific, things run even deeper and one is advised when one is spending time in the surf to shuffle their feet as you move across the ocean floor. Adhering to this logic is a purposeful measure against being barbed by a stingray. Rays [...]
Illya Kagan in Costa Rica
One does not have to go far to find inspiration. The lone palm is an icon on the beach, and let’s you mark where you are from any point. As you walk to the beach along the woody path from Harmony, first you can hear the roar of the surf, then catch a glimpse of [...]
Illya Kagan in Costa Rica
As I get out of the water from surfing (a little beat up, and well washed by the surf), this is the view that greets me. I always find the view down the beach and over the waves a little more intense having been out in the water… Maybe the adrenaline has something to do [...]
Illya Kagan in Costa Rica
I scrambled up the steep hill that divides Playa Guiones from Playa Pelada [located in Nosara, Costa Rica]. Had to go hands and feet as it was so steep… Almost turned around after sliding out twice, but was rewarded with this incredible view over both Pelada and Guiones. At low tide the pale blue green [...]
Postcard from the Farm
Greetings from the farm in Garza, Costa Rica where it is hot and humid. We’ve officially returned to the Nicoya Peninsula for the winter season where we were blown away by these beautiful plants: fresh ginger (gingibra in Spanish) from the huerta (garden) in Garza! That ginger goes into making a vodka infusion (see below) [...]
Sand Dollar!
Walking down the beach in Guiones you can still find sand dollars at the waterline. These little critters are beautiful and fascinating but because they are typically pretty motionless, some tourists pick them up thinking of them like “seashells” and leave on the beach to dry out and inadvertently kill them. Here’s a short clip [...]
The Sheltering Sky
“Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler, belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly, over periods of years, from one part of the earth to another.”― Paul Bowles
Surf Book Review
There are only a handful of non-fiction surf books that I’m excited about and Surf Survival, the Surfer’s Health Handbook by Andrew Nathanson, Clayton Everline and Mark Renneker is one of them. The canon of essential surf books has long been missing a comprehensive resource to cover the myriad of potential threats surfers deal with [...]
Walking on Water
The Harmony Blog sits down with Spencer Klein, paddleboarder, surfer and founder of adventure outfitter Experience Nosara.
