This week I read the essay 'Total Eclipse' by Annie Dillard. The first words were, "It has been like dying" she elaborates, describing the same event as slipping, falling, and sliding slowly without control. Her description feels panicked. I find it striking that this description which she finds akin to death is far more like life. Many people slide through life living without intention, watching as time falls away, living a life like sliding down a mountain pass. Death, even the nearness of it is like slamming on the breaks. The reality of death is the clarity to see life, to love life. Wondering if you will wake up in the morning makes you treasure the day as a gift when you do. I am not afraid to die. I have been fairly close. There are steps when you are going downhill, panic, pain, struggle, and fight; this is life, this is living. Then it gets quiet. That is the best way to describe it. You go from being unable to get comfortable, squirming with the agony of it all, to stillness. The pain dies away, you don't move, not an inch, not a finger. You breathe, slow. You look. You are tired, it would be so easy to close your eyes. But you have people to love, and a God to live for, not just die to see. To go to school, to walk without getting tired, to wake up, to see, to hear, to feel good, even to feel bad, simply to feel, what a gift. Inspiration Gordon Parks photographic work has been another inspiration this week. Parks captured images that illuminated the daily life of African Americans during the civil rights movement. These powerful images of their life and humanity had a profound effect on others. I am inspired by this use of art as activism. https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/theme/KALyWEH0ykiDIA Another source of inspiration this week was an editorial by Google Arts & Culture, 10 Fascinating Letters worth Reading. The article includes letters written by Martha Washington, Nelson Mandela, and Elenor Rosevelt among others. It is the humanization of these elevated figures that captured me. https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/theme/gALCXglnIoY4IQ A quote by Mother Teresa captured me this week, although admittedly I am always captured by anything she said.However, this quote in particular seems to apply so fittingly to the production of art. It is easy for me to create art out of a desire for praise. But it is the work created out of love and humility that means the most and leaves me wanting to create more and love more. "Humility is the mother of all virtues; purity, charity and obedience. it is in being humble that our love becomes real, devoted and ardent. If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are. If you are blamed you will not be discouraged. if they call you a saint you will not put yourself on a pedestal." - Saint Mother Teresa This quote is a challenge to create and act out of humility and love. Work in progress...
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Human For humans love nature the patterns the ease, there is something about it we like it to please. But if I may pose the question for a moment or two. What if that was all others liked about you? If you were symmetrical from your head to your toes, and all people saw was your perfectly aligned nose. What would become of the person inside? Would you shout? Would you scream? Would you run and hide? Each of us are more than a body, a face, We each have a soul. We are the human race. Choose? People are dying before they can see, What it is like to live like you and me. I find it atrocious I cannot lie, That ones so young must already die. Because they are different, because their life will be hard, too expensive, too troublesome what will it be? I think the answer comes to you and to me. It is the challenge of love, the problem of pain, We are unwilling to struggle, our life might not be the same. If we think of ourselves, and begin to choose. Which life is worth living. We will all lose. For if we kill or push aside, those who are different, who will struggle, or live hard lives. It might come as a surprise, There will be no one left free or alive. InspirationThis article shows the intersection between space, form, and art history, in our contemporary art world. I love the interplay and juxtaposition of different human creations across time. https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/exhibit/5gIy_zyA8L6uLQ Oil painting by Daniel Gerhartz. I find the technical elements of this work inspiring. Particularly, the reverence for light. I also love the composition of the painting and the way the middle woman engages the viewer by her gaze. Another inspiration this week has been looking at images of celling frescoes and thinking about what that perspective does to the viewer and how it changes their relationship to the work physically and conceptually. Work in Progress...What is Truth In the darkness of the night I could hear two voices. One called out to me, “I am the truth”. “What is truth?” said a second voice. I listened to see what the first would say but no response came. I waited… Then the second voice said again, “What is the truth?” Hoping to avoid another uncomfortable silence, I responded. “I don’t know!” I told the second voice. Then calling out to the first I asked, “Who are you?” “I am the truth”, it responded in the same constant and steady voice. “Well there you go!” I told the second voice, he is the truth. “Who is the truth?” “The other voice, he says he is the truth” I said, a bit exasperated with the two voices. “What other voice? I didn’t hear anything.” said the second! “The voice of truth” I exclaimed. Uncertainty and frustration stirred in my mind. “I didn’t hear Truth, are you sure it’s really there?” The voice prodded. Nervously and with hesitation I called out, “Truuuth, are you there?” “I am.” The voice spoke out. Relief washed over me. Then to my horror the second voice said, “I still don’t hear anything, it must not be there.” “Are you really there?” I asked truth my own voice cracking. “I am. I am if you listen for me, I am if you look.” “How do I know you are real?” I asked. There was a pause, not of hesitation but of waiting. “I am as real as you allow me to be. You decide.” Inspiration...This empowering Ted talk by psychologist Susan David, focuses on self image and emotion provides helpful research for my mirror project. https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_david_the_gift_and_power_of_emotional_courage Another inspiration this week has been in rediscovering my love of Rembrandt. His use of color to create depth, form, and lighting is masterful. Ilya Repin, the Russian master portrait painter expertly captures both gesture and emotion in the faces of his figures. I found the painting below inspiring this week. Work in progress...A Sense of Time He appeared suddenly, although he must have been there before. I kept walking, figuring I was too lost in thought to have noticed his approach. Walking towards me he smiled kindly, it seemed as though he would pass out of my life as quickly as he had entered it. But he stopped. Just as we were about to pass on the sidewalk he paused and asked, “Would you like a gift?”. “No thank you” I replied, wary of this odd statement from a stranger. “Don’t you want to know what it is?" Seeing as the man appeared to be at least seventy I allowed my curiosity to reign over the faint possibility of danger. “Well I suppose I do!” I answered. He paused and smiled. “It’s another sense. Like seeing or hearing, you know a sense” he added noticing my puzzled expression. In an attempt to humor this man who was clearly delusional I inquired “What do you sense?”. His eyes came alight with youth and energy as he responded, “time”. My mouth parted slightly in surprise at loss for words. “Everyone can see time” I said tapping on my wristwatch that was proving my point by ticking away. “No, no, my dear, you are seeing the consequences of time. The setting sun, a ticking clock, wrinkles that form, you see the single moment in which they are happening not time itself.” Now my interest in this surprising old man was growing. “What is it like then, your sense of time?” He looked away as if at some unseen view. “It’s like one long line from the moment you began to the very end, it stretches on and will never bend.” Then suddenly I saw it and knew there was no turning back. I would say yes to the gift, I supposed I already had. For this was a memory, I have no idea how. Both the present and past are in front of me now. I still remember the twinkle, I can see it in his eye, of things yet to happen and things gone by. I now see time like seeing blue, smelling a rose, or the feeling of you. I will not tell you what happens in the end. It is the mystery and the unknown that makes time seem long. Enjoy the uncertain, the wandering days, they are a gift for which no one prays. Inspiration There is a scene in the movie "The Giver" which mimics a feeling and sends a similar message to the one I am hoping to provoke. The premies of the book and the movie is of a society where memories and history have been erased and even emotions are limited. The protagonists are fighting to return these memories. Here is the youtube link to the clip... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYrVQ1BwRT0 Another source of inspiration is a Ted Talk which shares research on the impact certain positions and postures can make. Posture as well as the phycological impact of being able to visualize on success and performance plays a role in the new piece I am working on involving a mirror. I hope there will be a phycological effect at play within the work.The talk is below. https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are?utm_campaign=tedspread--a&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare My final source of inspiration is Kumi Yamashita's work. This work is incredibly inventive and exciting in it's use of materials (or lack there of). The absence of material and use of shadows is not only ascetic but plays a strong role in the conceptual meaning of the work. Work in Progress... |
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