Slacker Art

“...because he likes to wrap things.”

This is The Girl by the Window, painted in 1893 by Edvard Munch.

In the late 1990’s or so it became a trend in Hollywood movies to make promotional posters with a masculine action hero standing alone and looking downward. It was supposed to give the hero gravitas and complexity. To me it always seemed like pandering. Those attempts have nothing against a master like Munch. Here a woman stands next to a window, almost genuflecting to… what? The Moon, a street lamp, Heaven? The scene has such power to me. I’d rather stare at, think about, and talk about this painting for 2 hours compared to watching any movie.

This painting is like poetry. It has a structure, theme, composition but ultimately it is left up to us to decide what to hang upon that structure. It could mean so many things to so many people. Not just concretely, but symbolically too. It could be a discrete scene or a misty feeling. With either carrying equal emotional punch.

If I’m going to keep doing this, I need to get a better camera and learn how to use it. In person, the blues glow stunningly. And in the window across the street you can see detail, such as a small streak of orange red at the bottom suggesting a burning fireplace. There are a ton of photographs of this painting online, and this was one of the largest resolution wise. But none captured the detail of that tiny window or the brilliance of the blue light.

When everything you want is within reach but out of sight.

By Keiko Satoh.

This is one of the Heads of Luohan, made in China around the 11th century.

Luohan are Buddhist disciples near or in enlightenment. There are multiple layers of expression here, that all combine to give that serene yet slightly mischievous look so many Buddhist monks and priests have. The eyes are relaxed, the lips have a subtle hint of a smile, veins are popping on the forehead. The only thing that jumps out is the swollen nose, as if he just got punched in the face. Maybe instead of figuratively, he should have literally turned the other cheek.

This is “John Cage rehearsing with Merce Cunningham and Carolyn Brown” taken by Hervé Gloaguen in 1966.

DJs have always been the coolest of the cool. And it is nice to know that is a timeless archetype. And despite my love for the 808, it has nothing on the reel-to-reel in terms of oozing cool. This man was also the composer for the show and I bet he squeezed every last bit of juice out of that bell-horn speaker.

How many layers are in this photograph? I count 5… the foreground, the sculpture, dancers, poles, landscape background. Except for that landscape, all the layers are equal in my eye. They draw equal attention, have equal things to say and without any of them it would be a profoundly different photograph.

The photo has tons of movement, but the first thing that jumped out to me was the statue that looks just like one I see daily as I take the #2 bus up and down Lake Shore Drive. All those vertical lines make me want to soar straight up into outer space (especially on that darn neck tie). And what about the poor sap with his arm cut off? It opens the scene up to our imagination.