Petals and Feathers

PhotoTypography project by Rose Liu and Angela Choi.

[petalsandfeathers]

Warmest holiday greetings to all! We have been a little bit crazy (in a good way) spending time with our friends and families of late. And, we hope you have been too! Angela has been more than overjoyed with the marriage of her dear older sister this past week, while Rose has been snowed under with graduate school applications…Time of change is surely upon us… 

The idea of P&F was born in January 2014 so we are officially now 2 years old! We look forward to returning to this space next year on a more regular basis. Until then, may your End of the Year be marvelous—no matter if you are glitz and glam in sparkly dresses with your loved ones, or cozy and warm in your favorite pj’s greeting the new year in peaceful solitude. 

We genuinely wish that your 2016 be as adventurous and splendid as you imagine it to be. Thank you for sharing this (yet another) very special year with us.

Happy New Year!

xo Rose and Angela

[petalsandfeathers]

Date: May. 25th. 2015

Theme: Belongingness

“Sit beside me in long moments of shared solitude, knowing both our absolute aloneness and our undeniable belonging.”

[ The lack of belonging yields a sense of loneliness or of solitude. Can a loner ever find a sense of belonging in the world? We have spent a long time searching for the answer to this question. We may still haven’t found it yet but one thing we have learned along the journey is that being lonely is not such a bad thing. ]

Source: the book “The Dance: Moving to the Deep Rhythms of Your Life”, written by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

[petalsandfeathers]

Date: May. 18th. 2015

Theme: Belongingness

“But, like ivy, we grow where there is room for us.”

[ It is not easy to find a sense of belonging in this vast and evolving world. It may take a lifetime to figure that out. Sometimes we have to reach our hands far out—challenge our own boundaries—to discover new space for us to call our own. Voraciously, like ivy, we tirelessly try again and again, one after another, as part of our process of growing up and seeking belongingness. ]

Source: the book “No One Belongs Here More Than You”, written by Miranda July

[petalsandfeathers]

Date: May. 11th. 2015

Theme: Belongingness

“To belong nowhere is a blessing and a curse, like any kind of freedom.”

[ Being third culture kids, we often feel like we belong nowhere. There are myriads of benefits as well as challenges being so. The innate sense of belonging to our family becomes less and less apparent as we seek out to cultivate our own paradigms to belong in. We are no different to migrating birds in how we choose to move from places to places (both physical and psychological)—free, and most of the times, alone. But it’s okay. We can choose to believe either that we belong nowhere, or that we belong everywhere. ]

Source: the book “The Myth of You and Me”, written by Leah Stewart

[petalsandfeathers]

Date: May. 4th. 2015 

Theme: Belongingness 

“The intrinsic human need to be an essential part of something other than oneself.” 

[ Just as a tree belongs to a forest, we as individuals belong to entities of all different levels and characters. The sense of belonging is often central to our identities and our relative understanding of all worldly things. We wish to explore the existence and absence of this sense in our lives as nomads, moving through cultures, generations and geography. ] 

Source: Psychology Today and Infoplease

[petalsandfeathers]

Date: April. 27th. 2015 

Theme: Childhood 

“You will find more happiness growing down than up.” 

[ There’s no better way to wrap up this month’s exploration of Childhood than to share this quote! It seems easier to be happy as children mostly because as adults the childlike innocence we once had is gone. Obviously there are lots of great things adults do that children can’t. We believe that trying to keep that fine balance between keeping your youthful wishes and mature wisdom is the key to living a happy life. ] 

Source: author unknown

[petalsandfeathers]

Date: April. 20th. 2015 

Theme: Childhood 

“Never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun.” 

[ Childhood to us is about being free spirits. Oftentimes, we adults obligate ourselves to seriousness and lose our carefree nature. It is easy for adults to over-think and neglect the fact that the primary purpose we serve in life is to just be. Our existence needs not to be heavy, but be fun and happy-go-lucky. ] 

Source: the actress, Katharine Hepburn 

[petalsandfeathers]

Date: April. 13th. 2015 

Theme: Childhood 

 “Grown-ups were children first (but few of them remember it).” 

 [ The Little Prince is one of our favorite books, because it is chock-full of inspirational words on how to stay as a child while growing up. There are so many great qualities of a child, like inquisitive zeal and innocent sincerity, that we start to lose gradually into adulthood. P&F, for us, is our way of nurturing our inner-children as we evolve as artists and human beings! On a side note, we love hearing from our precious friends as you are an important part of this adventure. Please don’t hesitate to drop us a line, or simply to say hello~ at petalsnfeathers at gmail dot com. ] 

 Source: the book “The Little Prince”, written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

[petalsandfeathers]

Date: April. 6th. 2015

Theme: Childhood 

"The state of being a child." 

[ Hello everyone! P&F has been inconsistent with posts for the past several months, but we are so happy to be back to regular schedule now…we missed it! We chose this month's theme of 'Childhood' because we thought it was an opportunity perfect for our physical and metaphysical revisiting of younger days' memories. Rose is back for a little while at her hometown, Shanghai, and Angela has been back at hers in Seoul for about a year and a half now. We find it interesting to comeback to this seemingly familiar yet unfamiliar place, and to relive some of those old memories now in a totally different perspective as an adult. ]

Source: definition of Childhood from merriam-webster.com

[petalsandfeathers]

Happy, happy holidays to you all, friends! Thank you so much for your amazing support and love…P & F is ALMOST one year old! It truly has been a wonderful year and we cannot wait to see you in this space again in 2015. Wishing everyone a merry and beautiful holiday with loved ones. Cheers to you all! xo Rose and Angela

[petalsandfeathers]

Date: July. 14th. 2014

Theme: Paracosm

“A garden wall at home may enclose more secrets than the Great Wall of China.”

Source: the book “Wind, Sand and Stars”, written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

[petalsandfeathers]

Date: July. 7th. 2014

Theme: Paracosm

"A detailed imaginary world created inside one's mind."

 Source: definition of Paracosm from Wikipedia

[petalsandfeathers]

Date: June. 30th. 2014

Theme: Flow of Time

“There is a certain part of all of us that lives outside of time.”

Source: the book "Immortality," written by Milan Kundera

[petalsandfeathers]

Date: June. 23rd. 2014

Theme: Flow of Time

“The past is just a story we tell ourselves.”

Source: the movie “Her”, written and directed by Spike Jonze

[petalsandfeathers]

Date: June. 16th. 2014

Theme: Flow of Time

“Inelegantly, and without my consent, time passed.”

 Source: the book “No One Belongs Here More Than You”, written by Miranda July

[petalsandfeathers]

Date: June. 9th. 2014

Theme: Flow of Time

"How long is forever? Sometimes, just one second."

Source: the book "Alice in Wonderland," written by Lewis Carroll

[petalsandfeathers]

Date: June. 2nd. 2014

Theme: Flow of Time

"The continuous passage of existence in which events pass from a state of potentiality in the future, through the present, to a state of finality in the past."

Source: definition of Flow of Time from WordReference