3 posts tagged “painting”

Joe and I spent the weekend in the Berkshires, and despite the fact that I tried numerous times for the umpteenth millionth year (okay, maybe only 9) to get Joe and/or his family to go with me to see a Shakespeare & Co. play, it didn't happen. I was really hopeful this time, but alas, I think that I am just plain alone in my desperation to see Shakespeare. It was Romeo & Juliet, which I've not yet seen on the stage, sigh.

Share a photo of something that made a huge impact on your life:

Six years ago at this same time of year, I was taking an oil-painting course. I had never been a fan of Impressionism but with learning how to manipulate the thick paints, I realized the skill and talent it took to create the works of art we are familiar with by artists such as Monet, Renoir, Degas and the Post-Impressionists, van Gogh, Gaugin and Cezanne. Much to my great surprise (I actually had HATED his work in the past), I found myself interested in van Gogh and had even begun reading Dear Theo, a fascinating collection of letters from van Gogh to his brother.
 

Also around this same time, six years ago, I started talking on the phone to a guy that I found on Matchmaker.com. It was a fluke really...I had decided to talk to just one more person before I went on a dating hiatus since all the rest turned out to a. want me for the wrong reasons b. not want me at all c. wanted me but were too stupid to act on it or d. they just didn't live up to my standards. Good thing I did, because one place of common ground that Joe and I had was this funny insane man whom the world mostly rejected during his lifetime. As an artist, Joe was really able to relate to what I was talking about when I was trying to explain the transformation I was having when it came to my understanding and appreciation of art. He began telling me about his favorite van Gogh painting at the Fogg Museum at Harvard. It was a self-portrait, an odd piece that made extensive use of a very green color for the background (the webshot doesn't do it justice...it's extremely lime in color in life).

Over the next few weeks we talked about many more things. But it came back to that painting and van Gogh ended up dictating where we met. I recall that vivid moment, stepping out of the cab, seeing him sitting on the

steps, my ticket already purchased. He was wearing a black sweater, it was October 1st. I remember how I felt seeing that bright bit of green, wanting to touch the thick paint (because I'm too tactile, I want to feel the way the oil has dried, the texture, the layers) but holding back, conscious of the man by my side.
 

We wandered the museum, talking about everything we saw. I was so comfortable with him. We looked at the Bauhaus art, the Durer woodcut exhibit, by a small gallery with Philip Guston paintings. Two hours after we had met, we were walking through an exhibit of 27 Terracotta angel sculptures, 14 of which were attributed to the sculptor Bernini. It was a cozy, dark, winding exhibit. The statues were beautiful and detailed. The light was perfect, romantic and there wasn't a soul around.

He didn't kiss me then, but he did later. It didn't matter though. I knew that everything from that point on would be very very different in my life.

I wonder sometimes, if van Gogh looks down at the world in astonishment at how much he ultimately influenced both the art world and the people who love art. He changed my life, which may sound a bit dramatic, but I believe that to be true. I don't know what things would have been like if I had taken up some other type of interest than oil painting, if it was a different artist that I had found interest in who may have been represented at the MFA or in some other museum--i.e. would a different venue have changed how Joe and I related to each other? I don't know, but I really do believe that van Gogh had a big hand in changing my silly little life. Thanks Vincent.
 

  I'm such a fucking mushball, huh? Go ahead, you can commence with the gagging...  ;-)

My dear friend Greg just posted on a book that he picked up about painter Paula Rego. In his discussion of the book he included her modern interpretation of a very famous theme, Mary and Joseph resting with the baby Jesus while they were fleeing to Egypt. There are dozens and dozens of paintings depicting this scene, most of them more traditional, showing Mary holding Jesus in a simple setting of some sort, sometimes with Joseph hovering in the background. It's amazing how many painters tackled this subject. Check out this link (ignore all the crappy advertising at the top and scroll down) to hundreds of paintings about the "Rest on the Flight to Egypt."

Here is a woodcut by Durer, one of my favorite artists (I saw this woodcut at the Fogg on the day I met Joe, actually):

And Lucas Cranach the Elder:

My favorite is the one by Luc Olivier Merson, which I wish I could remember where I saw on loan, possibly at the Met or the Clark or something. It's haunting and beautiful and completely different than all of the other traditional takes on the theme.

What I think is interesting about the Rego painting is that she puts the baby in the arms of the father, not the more child-like mother. I'm not familiar with Rego's work...Greg gives a better description of the things he notices, but I find this an extremely interesting take on the subject.

As an artist, my husband Joe probably has a gazillion things to say about the subject but heaven forbid if he actually commented or blogged. ;-)