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headwrapper
Guest
headwrapper
15 years ago

I like that. Brings to mind Gottlieb

Sandi
Guest
15 years ago

The moon has been so beautiful the past couple of nights. It’s nice that the clouds have been cooperating with it’s viewing :-).

Jen
Guest
Jen
15 years ago

I noticed that moon the last few nights. It feels like Fall and I love it.

Ben
Guest
Ben
15 years ago

“Ah Moon of my delight that knowest no wane
The Moon of Heaven is rising once again.
How oft hereafter shall she search
this garden spot for me in vain.”
Omar Khayyam

Staff
Member
15 years ago

Headwrapper,
I’ve never seen that painting before. I think as I go back and look at it again and again, I’m learning to enjoy it. I’ve always had trouble with modern art but you’re giving me some appreciation for it. Thank you.

Jen and Sandi, Last night’s moon had been nibbled on. It looked like a sugar cookie left unattended near a two year old.

Ben, I love that one too. Here is the most delightful piece of moon poetry that I just discovered:
“The moon’s snow falls on the plum trees; Its boughs are full of bright stars. … ”
Isn’t that a sweet image? Supposedly, it was written by a Japanese boy in Chinese then translated by Pound.

Ben
Guest
Ben
15 years ago

Here’s my favorite modern moon poem:

Open the book of evening to the page
where the moon, always the moon, appears
between two clouds, moving so slowly that hours
will seem to have passed before you reach the next page
where the moon, now brighter, lowers a path
to lead you away from what you have known
into those places where what you had wished for happens,
its lone syllable like a sentence poised
at the edge of sense, waiting for you to say its name
once more as you lift your eyes from the page
and close the book, still feeling what it was like
to dwell in that light, that sudden paradise of sound.

Mark Strand

archiearchive FCD
Guest
15 years ago

I will be sharing my, cloud affected, harvest moon next Friday. In the meantime, my small effort at moon(ish) poetry.

In the city the stars are shy.
They whisper celestial secrets
Only amongst themselves
And to a passing moon

They hide behind the haze of overcrowding.
They make a compact with all who live there.
The small stars will not look down.
Big people will not look up.

At night here in the desert
I hear the stars shouting
In the west Venus yells, “I am here!”
From the east, the Martian counterpoint.

The growing half moon joins in
With the span of the Milky Way
Where small men look to
The blatant glory of the stars.

bluelaker4
Guest
bluelaker4
15 years ago

We have had clear skies here and its been a joy to see that beautiful full moon.

headwrapper
Guest
headwrapper
15 years ago
Staff
Member
15 years ago

Ben, I’ve never heard of Strand before but I like that piece.

Archie, “They hide behind the haze of overcrowding.
They make a compact with all who live there.
The small stars will not look down.
Big people will not look up.”

That is a lovely image!

Bluelaker, I wish I had big windows and a big chair in front of it so I could snuggle up with a blanket and stare at how beautiful the moon is.

Headwrapper, What a striking woman she was! I love her work. I just haven’t had enough time to explore modern art and learn to appreciate it. She, however, speaks to my sensual side.

headwrapper
Guest
headwrapper
15 years ago

Kym, I thought the composition, with the round ‘moonlike’ head and the dark lower half, was similar to your photo. Hey, speaking of appreciating modern art, I watched this Netflix movie —The Cool School five or six times in the last couple of weeks. I guess you could say I liked it… It wasn’t flawless, but I thought it was a very well made movie and overview of that scene. I especially liked the abundance of old L.A. footage having lived there ’65 — ’70.
One of the artists featured Ed Moses says to the interviewer, Critics, people in general, always try to interpret the work. You don’t need to interpret it –you just need to see it. He spit the word “interpret” out like it was foul tasting rotten egg. I’m not necessarily saying I agree but . . .

Another great line in the movie, from an unnamed poet from UCLA–
Art allows for the possibility of love with strangers 🙂

Staff
Member
15 years ago

Headwrapper, You really have the eye. Now, that you said that I went back and compared. You’re right. I can see the composition does echo Stieglitz’s. I thought you hadn’t studied art but you seem to have within easy grasp a piece of art that connects every time–that seems to indicate a deep familiarity with the world of critic’s as well as artists.

headwrapper
Guest
headwrapper
15 years ago

Kym, Here’s a quote from Carol Es that I lifted from a North Coast Journal article. She says it better than I can.

… I too am self-taught, and have no formal education, but like Reuben, this does not mean we aren’t educated.
Carol Es

Carol’s story is inspiring. She was living alone on the streets at age 10 or 12. She taught herself to read hiding out in the Santa Monica library.

Staff
Member
15 years ago

How did you educate yourself on art?

headwrapper
Guest
headwrapper
15 years ago

I don’t know much. I know a little about 20th century art but not much more. I never set out to educate myself. I just nosed around trying to see what was happening. And, when I was younger, like in my teens and twenties, if I saw some art that I liked I’d always try to find out everything that I could about the artist. Everything. I found that the best way to do that was the magazine archives in a good library. Look up the magazine articles on an artist you like, only on an artist you really like, if you don’t like them or aren’t interested in them, why bother. But when I was passionate about knowing more about an artist I’d go there and search for every tidbit until I exhausted that resource. If you go to, say Adolph Gottlieb, in a University library card catalog –you’ll find hundreds of articles about him. And surf from there, one thing leading to another. That’s the best way to do it. Books on art, except for the prints, are usually very boring. The art magazines have the good stuff. And they’re free at the library, thousands of archived issues with aricles and reviews of shows. It’s perhaps all online now I haven’t checked that out. One problem though is that the artspeak they use can be frustrating and seem snobbish. But for the most part it’s not that, but art has become so isolated from the rest of life that it has formed a sort of language of it’s own and the writers are addressing people who understand that language. I remember having to read some of the articles over and over many many times sometimes in order to understand what they were saying. But that’s where the gold is as far as 20th century art goes … it’s all in the archives of Art in America, Art News, Art Forum, and a few others.

Seeing some really great masterpieces face to face is also a must so that one has a sort of standard. A major work by Van Gogh for instance, or any master artist, can blow your mind, but not necessarily. It depends on who you are at the time. I think the best way to approach art at a show is to leave behind all the baggage of what you know about art, or are supposed to know, and, like Ed Moses says, just look. But that’s easier said than done –getting your head clear of all the shit you think or have heard so that there’s no filter. That’s the way to look at art imho. But of course there’s as many ways to do things as there are people to do them, whatever works.

Staff
Member
15 years ago

Headwrapper,

I wanted to get my father-in-law some books because he devours everything on art he can find. I never even thought about magazines. He tends to like the pre-impressionists. Are there magazines that deal more with “classic” art than modern art?

headwrapper
Guest
headwrapper
15 years ago

Magazines probably aren’t the answer to his needs. I don’t know of any magazines that deal with Classic art, but there likely are some that I’m unaware of. The mainstream zines like Art in America will occasionally do an article about it. You can check the archives for artists he likes. And you can search for other magazines that might be of quality. But, it’s most likely a dead-end.

For classical and neo-classic art I’d go with books. Use the library and used bookstores. What artists does he like? That’s the starting point. I’d give him a good book on Ingres. He can also google him and other Europeans like Courbet, David, Millet, . And older artists like Titian, Poussin, Velazquez, Tintoretto, Rubens, and Caravaggio … And of course, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Durer … along with Americans Homer and Eakins, and English artists Whistler and Gainsborough. He may like pre-raphealite artists like Mallais. And from looking at his work I think he must surely like Botticelli. And almost everyone loves Rapheal.

But I’d also highly recommend you encourage him to take a life drawing class –drawing from the live model. There’s a huge difference between drawing from life and copying from other art sources. When a person studies Classical art, drawing the human form from a live model can really bring the work to life. One needs a good teacher though. There might be something at CR.

And, some SoHum artists to check out are, Frank Cieciorka, Larry Heald, Peter Holbrook, Ralphie Hendrix, and Karen Horn. I think they all can be found by googling.
I’m not sure but I think Frank still might be overseeing life drawing sessions, not to be confused with classes, at the Mateel on Wednesdays. Your FIL might enjoy the camaraderie.

Staff
Member
15 years ago

Headwrapper, I just printed out a copy of your comments. I’m going to try and get him some of the art books you recommend and I’ll pass on your other ideas, too.

Thank you for taking the time to be so helpful.

headwrapper
Guest
headwrapper
15 years ago

No prob. I also should say that “pre-impressionism” is not a very useful term. It was not a movement, like say Post-impressionism was, but if you want to, you can use it as a word to loosely define what came before Impressionism.

But actually, (over-simplifying now for brevity) in Europe during the 19th century, art is seen as having divided into two main streams or “schools”. Classic or Neo-classic and Romantic. More exactly, Romanticism was a 19th century movement against Classicism. A good way to compare the two paths is to compare Ingres with his contemporary Delacroix

In most artists though there is usually some overlap. One of the artists I mentioned in the previous post, Millet, would also be mainly a Romantic. The other Europeans are mostly Classic — (Renaissance, Baroque and neo-Classic). Homer and Eakins tend to be more romantic, most Americans are. Whistler is Classical, but also quite modern. I think of Poe as an example of someone who is largely both –a Romantic as well as a Classic writer. But I don’t know, maybe you can straighten me out there.

In the visual arts in Europe, Romanticism via impressionism became 20th century modern art, which has been the dominant movement since Picasso and some others at the beginning of the 20th century invented it (again I’m oversimplifying but this is true generally speaking) .

Today we have post-modernism which is not any one distinct movement but rather a hodgepodge of different approaches. A sort of Pluralism. A sort of anything goes, even the dreaded, now dated, modernism –even classicism!! The important thing to remember is that everything must be considered in context. E.G. Classicism being done today is much different than what was done in the 17th century simply because of context. Doing a piece of 18th century style Classical (or 20th century modern) art –today– changes everything about it’s meaning because of the context it appears in –the 21st century. We are now in the 21st century and any art done today is in that context. What was in the 17th or 20th century the zietgiest — in this century might be nostalgic. Etc.

It looks to me like artists today, (except perhaps true outsiders) are much more self-conscious. With all the info we now have one is more hyper-aware of one’s place, as if being able to view from above. This can be an impediment, but I also see it as an opportunity. Art can be more subtle, more ironic, more multi-dimensional, more layered.

Once again though, the best way to approach art is to dump all that baggage and just look
😉

Staff
Member
15 years ago

Well, since most of my art learning has come from you, it is easy to “dump” what little I know and just look. But I have found with other skills, that if I know a bit about something I can appreciate it more. So I try to pick up what I can, so I can get more pleasure out of life. Thanks for the help.

headwrapper
Guest
headwrapper
15 years ago

Well I don’t mean dump permanently, what I mean is like something more akin to Coleridge’s idea of temporarily suspending disbelief. Or maybe — suspending cynicism.

Staff
Member
15 years ago

Well, then I think the whole concept applies to life. Suspending cynicism lets in joy and I’m for more joy!

headwrapper
Guest
headwrapper
15 years ago

totally!