Psalms 91:11-12

Psalms 91:11-12

For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.

 

Leonardo da Vinci, Virgin of the Rocks 

c. 1483, oil on wood

Louvre, Paris, France

Sous le Ciel de Paris

Sous le Ciel de Paris

[Photo By: KPA]

"For he shall give his angels charge over thee"

11 

Notre Dame de Paris

[Photo By: KPA]

Psalm 91:11-12

11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee,

to keep thee in all thy ways.

12 They shall bear thee up in their hands,

lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

12 

St. Joan in Paris

Jeanne d'Arc at the 

Places des Pyramides, in Paris

In my "Prayer to Joan of Arc" I didn't add this very special Joan of Arc, the one in the Place des Pyramides, in Paris. Yes, it is a little traitorous that I, who spent my primary and secondary education in beautiful England (see "bio" here), would shill for this French saint, who went to battle to fight the English!

But, remember, my first introduction to life outside of Ethiopia was beautiful Paris, where I spent a full six months before entering the beautiful Betteshanger (then called) School as a boarder (and would return every "1/2 term," every six weeks, to beautiful Paris for 1 week to three-month stays).

So, my first love is Paris. And the Catholic St. Joan is a testament to that!

Above is the bronze statue, where she is in full, stiff, armor.

And here is Parisian politics at its best.

Prayer to Saint Joan of Arc

This is a photo that I took of the Joan of Arc statue on the edge of Central Park, in New York City. It was a cold, cold winter's day, as the photograph shows of snow still lying on the ground. And very early morning.

Prayer to Saint Joan of Arc

In the face of your enemies,
in the face of harassment, ridicule, and doubt, you held firm in your faith.
Even in your abandonment, alone and without friends, you held firm in your faith.
Even as you faced your own mortality, you held firm in your faith.
I pray that I may be as bold
in my beliefs as you, St. Joan.
I ask that you ride alongside me
in my own battles.
Help me be mindful that what is
worthwhile can be won when I persist.
Help me hold firm in my faith.
Help me believe in my ability
to act well and wisely.

Amen.

Take Three: School Playground: Morning, Noon, Evening

Take Three: Playground: Morning, Noon, Evening
Photo By: KPA

Take Two: School Playground: Morning, Noon, Evening

Take Two: School Playground: Morning, Noon, Evening

[Photo By: KPA]

School Playground: Morning, Noon, Evening

School Playground: Morning, Noon, Evening

[Photo By: KPA]

Resume - with a focus on artistic background

Resume - with a focus on artistic background

About Patterns

Trillium and Queen Anne's Lace

Textile Design by Kidist Paulos Asrat

[Image Source: Well-Patterned: Designs by Kidist Paulos Asrat]

Textile designers have a wealth of design tradition to draw on. Patterning our designs after our heritage is about pursuing excellence.

Past designs nourish our present ones. Tradition provides a launching board for our own innovations and creations. Tradition is the foundation for the patterns of our thoughts and our ideas. It is ultimately the basis for the patterns of our designs. Thus, I use such guidance and examples to shape my patterns. I look to the past to direct me to the present, with the ardent hope that my designs will in turn positively influence my, and others’, future endeavors.

Well-followed, well-conceived, well-designed. That is the goal of “Well-Patterned.”

Tradition is the basis for the patterns of our thoughts and our ideas. It is ultimately the basis for the patterns of our designs.

Tradition is the basis for the patterns of our thoughts.
Tradition is the basis for the patterns of our ideas.
Tradition is the basis for the patterns ultimately of our designs. 

Tradition, if we follow it with care and intelligence, guides us to the future.

Text from: Well-Patterned: Designs by Kidist Paulos Asrat

Proverbs 6:19-19

Proverbs 6:19-19

16 There are six things that the Lord hates,

    seven things detestable to him:

17 snobbish eyes,

    a lying tongue,

    hands that spill innocent blood,

18 a heart set on wicked plans,

    feet that run quickly to evil,

19 a false witness who breathes lies,

    and one who causes conflicts among relatives.

Bird on Balcony: An Iridescent

Tacazze Sunbird

(Nectarineia tacazze)

More here, including sound

[Photo By: KPA]

(From a previous post)

 

Identification:

A large, dark highland sunbird. Breeding males look black in poor light, but show extensive purple iridescence and a coppery-green head in good light. Non-breeding males lose most of their iridescence, but usually retain their elongated central tail feathers. Females are dusky olive-green with a pale eye-stripe and a limited dark mask. Found at middle and high elevations along the edges of montane forest and in gardens and cultivated areas. Similar to Bronze Sunbird, but males are separated by their purple iridescence and females by their duller, unstriped underparts. Female also similar to female Malachite Sunbird, but less yellow below. The common call is a series of several “tew” notes, and the song is a frantic and high-pitched jumble. [Source] 

Mountain Ranges

Fall Hills

Greyhound Bus Through the Mountains

October 2009

[Photos By: KPA]

I'm not sure which mountain range I was just approaching in the above photographs, or which I just left, while traveling through northern-eastern United States in New York state and Pennsylvania, but here is a brief account of the bus, and the maps I used to orient myself, posted at my original blog: Camera Lucida: A Place to Explore and Shed Light on how Art, Culture and Society Converge:

Two Mountain Ranges: In One Trip

It was early autumn, and the scenery was spectacular!

The photos above are from my photograph files I kept of that trip (in October, 2009), which included about a week in New York City. Here's a brief summary of my time in New York, and also an afternoon in Princeton University (New Jersey).

Happy Thanksgiving: Canada

[Photo By: KPA]

Summer Garden

Summer Garden

Mississauga Jubilee Garden

[Photo By: KPA]

Isaiah 58:11

And the Lord will continually guide you,

And satisfy your desire in scorched places,

And give you strenght to your bones;

And you will be like a watered garden,

And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.

Ethioipia, France, Engand, America, Mexico, Canada

I have just posted on the "side posts" my "full" CV, which includes my Ethiopia, France, England, America, Mexico, and Canada backgrounds.

--------------------------------

Kidist Paulos Asrat Resume (CV)

Education

Primary Education: Ethiopia, France and England 

The English School: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 

- Prizes Awarded: General Knowledge Prize - Awarded Laura Ingalls' Little House on the Prairie

Artistic Participation:

- Piano performances

- Theatrical performances

- "Visual" poem published in the annual English School yearbook: The Raggle Taggle Snake

Betteshanger School: Kent, England

- Head Girl 

- Prizes Awarded: 

--- French, Music, Divinity (Scripture), and Ballet (3rd place in regional competition)

Artistic Participation:

- Piano performances

- Theatrical performances which included Potiphar's Wife in the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and the Strawberry Seller in the musical Oliver

Sports Participation:

- Netball and Field Hockey teams

- Ballet group

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Secondary Education: England

Dover College, Dover, England

- Astor Scholar (Tuition Waiver, with stipend)

- Prizes Awarded: Music and Poetry Prizes 

Awarded: 

-- Mozart's  Complete Piano Sonatas Volumes 1 and 2

-- Book on the Impressionist Painters

- Published:

--- Poem "The Dancer" in the Dover College Year Book (which was awarded the Poetry Prize) 

Artistic Participation:

- Editor for the Dover College Student Newsletter with published poem ("Untitled")

- Member of the Dover College Choir under Choir Director Leo Forsdyke, with various solo performances, and as part of the choir's touring member to renowned cathedrals, including St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and in Wurzburg, Germany

- Actress: as Mme Smith in La Cantatrice Chauve (The Bald Soprano) by Eugene Ionesco

Sports Participation

- Netball and Field Hockey teams

Social work;

- Weekly visits to an elderly lady, Mabel, with limited visual ability (later corrected through cataract surgery), who would prepare for me tea and biscuits. She gave me her ring, a gold ring, with her initial "M" as a gift, which I still have.

After her successful surgery, Mabel attended a theatrical performance in a small school production where I was the main character, and made her wise and prescient  "critique" - giving me a good score!

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University Education: United States and Canada

Lock Haven University, Lock Haven, PA, USA

B.A. Natural Sciences

- Four-year scholarship - Tuition Waiver

- Prize Awarded: International Students Club Appreciation Plaque

Artistic Participation:

- Performances: 

-- Solo piano performances of Grieg, Mozart, Handel and Debussy music at various venues and events

-- Soloist and member of Lock Haven University's Choir, of a variety of classical, modern, and contemporary music, including as a touring choir member

-- Organizer and member of the International Students' singing group, performing in local churches, especially during Christmas, where we sang carols in five to six languages, including Amharic

-- Participant in the Lock Haven Black Students' Gospel Choir

-- Member of the Lock Haven University's American Square Dance group

-- Founding member, and participant, in the Annual Lock Haven International Students' Festival, where we performed dances and theaters, and put together an International Dinner

-- Founding member, and participant, in the International Students' Festival Panel Discussion Group, where we tackled political and social issues, often with colorful, and controversial discussions

---This was my first presentation on Ethiopia and Food, where I proposed that we CAN feed the children

Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
M.S. Applied Nutrition/Nutrition Education

Practical Components:

Participation in community-based nutrition programs for low-income families

- Women, Infants and Children (WIC) 

- Expanded Food and Nutrition Edcuation Program (EFNEP)

Artistic participation: 

- New Brunswick (NJ) community choir performances of  Mozart's and Faure's Requiem
- Performer in a local New Brunswick African Dance group

Cultural enrichment:

- Regular audience member at the Rutgers Film Society

- Frequent travels to New York City (only an hour away), visiting museums, galleries, and especially free rehearsal concerts at Lincoln Center for their classical music, orchestral repertoire

University of Connecticut, Department of Nutritional Sciences, Storrs, CT, USA
PhD (ABD) Nutritional Sciences

- Teaching Assistantship - Full tuition waiver with salaried teaching post teaching fundamental nutrition courses to undergraduate students

- Collaboration with: the Mexican National Institute of Health Sciences and Nutrition - Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, and the Research Center of the Solis Valley - Centro de Estudios Rurales del Valle de Solís, Mexico City and Solís, Mexico

- Research Assistantship - Field and Clinical Research - Salaried project conducting field, clinical and laboratory work in the Centro de Estudios Rurales del Valle de Solís

- Blood plasma analyses for Vitamin B12 and related tests, short-term salaried position at the Glenn Tisman Hematology/Oncology Laboratory, Whittier, CA, USA

Artistic Participation:

University of Connecticut - Community Dance Program, Storrs, CT, USA

- Modern dance program, with dance instructor and performer Marcia Heath 

- Performed in various public events

Centro de Enseñanza para Extranjeros (CEPE): National Autonomous University, Mexico City, Mexico
- Performed with CEPE's Mexican Folklore dance group as a soloist

Cultural Enrichment:

Travel and study, visiting towns and villages, and attending theaters, films musicals,

concerts, festivals, and local performances throughout Mexico

Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada

- Certificate in New Media - Film/Photography/Digital Arts 

Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Advanced Studies in New Media - Film/Photography/Digital Arts 

Yearly grants towards tuition and material costs

Artistic Participation:

- Film and video screenings in the Ryerson Gallery, Toronto, Trinity Square Video, Toronto 

and in various venues in Toronto, France and other European locations

- Photography exhibitions in the Ryerson Gallery, and in various venues in Toronto

Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, Canada
- Textile Surface Design 

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Training

Institut Catholique de Paris Institut de Langue et de Culture Française, Paris, France
- Certificat de Langue Française (French Language Certificate) 

Institut National de la Santé et de Recherche Médical (INSERM), Paris, France

- Interviews and discussions with INSERM nutritionists

Centro de Enseñanza para Extranjeros (CEPE): National Autonomous University, Mexico City, Mexico
- Advanced Diploma in Spanish Language and Literature

Mexico City, Mexico
- Film production workshop, with Mexican film director Sergio Arturo Garcia Michel

International Communicative Languages Service, Toronto, ON, Canada

- Certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language

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Experience

Present: Cultural Analyst - Study, describe and analyze contemporary art and culture in both written and image form

Present: Preparing and implementing The Kidist Foods Expanded Project in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

2013 

Cabbagetown Regent Park Community Museum, Toronto, ON

- Docent

2007 

Botanical Artists of Canada Newsletter, Toronto, ON

- Writer

Trinity Square Video Newsletter, Toronto, ON
- Writer 

Among other publications

2004-Present 

Well-Patterned, Toronto, ON/Mississauga, ON

- Textile and Decor Designer 

--- Hand craft and design textile prints for patterned fabrics 
--- Hand craft and design decorative objects for homes and offices

2004-Present 
Well-Patterned, Toronto, ON/Mississauga, ON

- Graphic Designer

--- Design promotional materials for cultural organizations

2004-Present 

Kidist Paulos Asrat Photographs, Toronto, ON/Mississauga, ON 

- Photograph and install images for websites 
- Photograph special events/conferences

2000-2001 

Ryerson University, Toronto, ON
- Film research assistant for filmmaker Bruce Elder 

1998-2004  
Toronto District School Board, Toronto, ON 
Catholic School Board, Toronto, ON 
Bleecker Street Co-op, Toronto, ON

- English Language Instructor and Computer Graphics Instructor

1998-2000 
Trinity Square Video, Toronto, ON

- Board of Director, Secretary 

1994-1998 
COSTI-Immigrant Services, Toronto, ON

- Counselor and Interpreter/Translator (Spanish, French and Amharic, and some Portuguese)

1993-1994

Field to Table, Toronto, ON 

- Assisted in developing and distributing a nutritious and 

inexpensive monthly grocery box, The Good Food Box,

for lower income multicultural Toronto residents 

1990-1992 

Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion Salvador Zubiran, 

Mexico Mexico City, and the Solis Valley rural health station in the State of Mexico

- Field and clinical research on Vitamin B12 deficiency, with cultural components

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Solo and Group Exhibitions

2001

Film: Sketches 
Trinity Square Video, Toronto, ON

2001 

Video installation: (Toronto) Lake Ontario
Ryerson School of Image Arts, Toronto, ON

2002

Experimental Film: Gathering the Ripples 
Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains, Tourcoing, France

2002

Photographs: Neighborhood Trees 
Allan Gardens Conservatory, Toronto, ON

October 25, 2014

Visual Presentation: Reclaiming Beauty 
The Power of Beauty Conference 
Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio

- Photographs and textile and graphic works part of the presentation

March 19, 2016 

Presentation/Speech: Strength in Beauty 
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals conference 
Commission on the Status of Women 
United Nations, New York

March 16, 2017 

Presentation/Speech: Urban Development through Small Businesses 

Kidist Foods Cookbook introduction                         
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals conferences 
Commission on the Status of Women 
United Nations, New York 

May 7-31, 2019 

Designs and Decor: Well-Patterned 

Mississauga Central Library, Mississauga, ON

July 4-31, 2019 

Watercolor Paintings: Ontario Views 

Mississauga Central Library, Mississauga, ON

October 7-31, 2019 

Color Digital Photographs: The Mississauga Civic Centre                                                             

Mississauga Central Library, Mississauga, ON

August 18 - September 6, 2021

Online group exhibit: Sunflowers

Kidist Paulos Asrat: Color Photograph: Riverwood Barn Sunflower Glow 

Visual Arts Mississauga

Riverwood Conservancy, Mississauga, ON

August 23 - September 23, 2022 

Online group exhibit: Southern Ontario Wildlife

Kidist Paulos Asrat: Color Photograph: Black Crowned Night Heron: Sentinel

Visual Arts Mississauga

Riverwood Conservancy, Mississauga, ON

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Presentations and Conferences

January 14, 2023

Sandford International School, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,

- Paper Presented: The Kidist Foods Expanded Project at the Sanford Addis Ababa Alumni Reunion

March 16, 2017

United Nations Committee on the Status of Women Conference 
New York, NY

Parallel Event Workshop 
- Paper Presented: “Cookbook project to economic sufficiency of young Ethiopian urban women.” 
Sponsor: Nation to Nation Networking Limited, New York

Funding: Travel, expenses and conference costs

March 19, 2016

United Nations Committee on the Status of Women Conference 
New York, NY

Parallel Event Workshop 
- Paper Presented: "How do We Empower Young Women in the Third World? By teaching them to understand their own beauty, and the beauty around them."
Sponsor: Nation to Nation Networking Limited, New York
Funding: Travel, expenses and conference costs

October 25, 2014

Franciscan University Power of Beauty conference 

Steubenville, Ohio 
- Paper presented: “Reclaiming Beauty: Winning Back Our Western Civilization” 

Partial funding for travel and expenses: Franciscan University

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Special Skills

- Research and research methods 
- Writing and Editing 

 - Digital photography and editing 

 - Digital video and editing 

 - Website Design 

- Graphic Design

- Artistic renditions

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Language Proficiency

- English: Excellent speaking, reading and writing 

- Amharic: Excellent speaking, Good reading and Good writing
- French: Good speaking, reading and writing 
- Spanish: Moderate speaking, reading and writing

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Travels

Ethiopia, France, England, Wales, Germany,  The Netherlands, Italy, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, The United States (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, Georgia, California), Canada (Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, New Brunswick) 

Fortitude

Fortitude Holding Fort

[Photo By: KPA]

At the New York Public Library.

First posted at Reclaiming Beauty: Saving Our Western Civilzation, on January 2018.

Interior Garden, Addis Ababa

Interior Garden, Addis Ababa

[Photo By: KPA]

Cafe Latte K With a Perfect Heart

Cafe Latte for K

[Photo By: KPA]

[From previous post in May 2023]

The barrista at Jupiter's brewed me this perfect Cafe Latte (they know my name).

Forget about the perfect design, but marvel at the perfection of the brew. Just enough strength in the cafe, and just enough creaminess in the latte.

One small treat for a Big taste!

[Previous "Jupiter" posts in May]

Adey Abeba in the Fields

Image Source

Adey Abeba

October

October Grass

[Photo By: KPA]