Readings and Musings

I waited till the last minute again..ugh

The Blue of Distance by Rebecca Solnit

I cheesily made the font blue.

Monet, master of color, did it too.

In this article, Rebecca Solnit is exploring the concept of distance, and the (I think) romantic notions that come with it. She writes about how artists discovered that the color blue conveys distance in a painting, and if one looks at a horizon full of mountains, one will see that there is a bluish hue among the farthest ones. She also thinks about the more abstract feelings of distance, and the difference between adults and children.

This may be the reason that to us blue is melancholy--it is represented in nature as  something unreachable and fleeting.

A Painter's Wisdom by Max Beckmann

I would not liked to have been around Max Beckmann when he wrote this...bad mood alert! This piece mostly makes me wonder whether the art world has changed at all since he wrote this. My intuition says no, nothing has changed, and it never will. Society really does view art as an elastic good, something they can substitute for a vacation or a car, something that will always be here and something that no one really needs, just wants. It makes me scream--the world without art would be desolate and anti-intellectual, why cannot the public see this? Everyone takes everything for granted.



Tradition and Identity by David Smith

I like Whistler

David Smith came from the wide-eyed perspective of a small town that viewed art as something distant (and elastic..grr). When he explored art he realized that it's not so glamorous as it seems, it is dirty, rough, messy, no rules, no expectations. Art doesn't come from method and tradition, it comes from somewhere inside you.

Ok, I find this kind of pretentious! He seems to make art even more distant for those who can't naturally understand. This sort of thing really depends on the individual artist--if an artist uses traditional materials, does it make him/her less of an artist? I don't think so. Some people are more methodical than others. And using good materials creates lasting art. Paintings by people like Whistler who used whatever mixture of pigment/oil he wanted are starting to crumble and rot because of poor craftsmanship. Not that I'm a perfect example of a methodical person, but seriously. Not everyone is like you.

cool art thing

Everyone go here NOW!

http://www.googleartproject.com/

You will never leave your computer again.

Still Life by Mary Gordon

Pierre Bonnard, Self-Portrait in the Bathroom Mirror

Mary Gordon beautifully pairs her mother's decline with the paintings of Bonnard, juxtaposing the delicacy of human life with the immortality of a painting. There is a sense of longing for the saturated colors that Bonnard used in her everyday life--especially in the nursing home where her mother lives. Gordon idolizes Bonnard for his ability to take something that maybe isn't so beautiful into something vibrant and alive with joy and color, and seems to wish she had this ability too. She brings her mother flowers and colorful food, hoping to emulate Bonnard and also hoping that her mother would notice. In the end she realizes that life and color are fleeting, and even Bonnard cannot overcome the darkness of lifelessness.

I'm going to show this article to my grandmother. Her mother is in her 90's right now, and declining. She forgets now when we visit, and spends much of her time daydreaming about something or nothing, it's hard to tell. My brother is in the Coast Guard, and he went to visit her in uniform one day. The next time he came in after, she told him "I just met the nicest man in uniform the other day, I think you two would get along very well!" But we knew she had just forgotten that it was actually my brother both times. In her younger years she was energetic and quick-witted, but now she can barely remember her family. I feel blessed to know my great-grandmother, but it's so hard to see her failing.

failure

Let's just say yesterday did not go well. Figures.

Snow Daze!

click for bigger size, if you want.

I'm so very excited for a snow day tomorrow, because that means I get to do art! Normally I have very little free time with school and my two jobs, so I'm going to get down and dirty tomorrow! Here's what I'm working on right now, it's a series of quick sketch portraits. My extremely pregnant aunt let me take a picture of her and her belly tonight so that's the first thing I'm starting tomorrow. Along with portraits of David R. Smith and Barbara Steinberg, of course. I'm seriously beyond excited.

Procrastination

the ultimate form of procrastination

Wasn't the article about procrastination fun? I waited till the last minute to read it, of course, and not for effect. The facts in the article seem true--we focus on the short term and long term goals are put by the wayside. The article talks about how procrastination stems from seeming to have so much to do that one  becomes overwhelmed and does absolutely nothing. The short-term self wins out; what is happening in the here and now always wins out over things that seem like a far-off goal. For example, writing this blog post. I thought I had all the time in the world to write these posts this week and every day said, "Oh, I'll do my blog posts tomorrow." What BS! Anything I was doing at a given moment seemed more important. Another point the article made that was particularly interesting was the idea of "planning fallacy." It's so hard to set aside an hour to do an assignment and strictly spend that hour on it--something always comes up. This morning I was trying to do these posts and a friend ended up coming into the room and talking to me, and suddenly I was set back an hour and a half!  Anyway, this article was eye-opening, but I doubt my days of procrastination are over.

Criticizing Art: First Summary

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Manet, Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe. This painting was a scandalous horror to art critics of the time period. Now it is considered one of Manet's finest masterpieces.

Being a former Art History major, I thought I had all this stuff covered already. But really, Criticizing Art seems like a somewhat interesting read. At first I was wary of it since Art Criticism to me seems a bit fuzzy and relative, but I like how Terry Barrett approaches it. He quotes many different sources and comes clean about the unreliability of many critics. He also discusses how critics coming from different backgrounds can impose their political/moral/philosophical/whatever beliefs on the art and that there are many different publications that are politically specific or will only hire people with certain beliefs. Audiences should be taken into consideration also, and many critics will slant how they write based on they publication they are writing for, and who reads it. I think we should all be diligent about keeping our heads clear when we read about art and not automatically accept what the critic says, because we never know what kind of background he or she comes from--let's do our own research and think for ourselves!