A New Trend

It's no big surprise to anyone who reads this blog that I like art.  I've been a devotee of so called 'modern and contemporary art' since we spent 30 days in Europe in 1980, and I was able to see the artistic progression of the styles of art throughout the ages.  It's a lot easier to appreciate the art done in the past 100 years when you see how the art world 'got there'.

 However, even I lost patience with the minimalist art craze.  For every Rothko, there were thousands of wannabes drawing single lines across a piece of paper and calling their creation 'art'.  I'm always suspect of the artistic value of a piece if the artist has to give me a three paragraph explanation of the creation, so I can appreciate it.

Thus, it was with great excitement I discovered a backlash going on in the art world rejecting abstract minimalism.  There are a group of modern artists presenting a style of art which is a throwback to earlier techniques and even subject matter.  I've heard it described as 'contemporary realism' or 'modern realism'.  The bottom line is it requires the artist to possess drawing talent, and the ability to use either acrylics or old-school oil paint or other medium with precision.  These artists are reimagining subject matter and reinventing the art of portraiture.

Here are some examples.  The first, is from the American Art Museum in New Britain, Connecticut, and this painting is an allegorical rendering of the 9/11 tragedy by the artist Graydon Parrish, who also paints flowers in the 18th century style.

When we were in Colorado Springs last summer, I discovered another modern realism painting reimagining David slaying Goliath.  The artist is Paul Cadmus.

The last time we were at the Smithsonian, in the American Art Museum in the Portrait Gallery, I discovered Kehinde Wiley.  Some artists just draw you to them with their fresh ideas and wonderful execution of their concept.  Therefore, when the Phoenix Art Museum, which has a really good modern art collection, was presenting an exhibition of Wiley, I was really excited.  Here's a sample of his work which has reinvented modern portraiture.  

Napoleon Crossing the Alps, by Kehinde Wiley

Not only does he reimagine Napoleon as a young black man, but he paints him in the traditional 18th century portraiture style on a rearing charger in full battle dress, which in the 21st century is hip hop camoflage, a 'do rag', and work boots.  Wiley's mastery of oil painting is impressive.  In addition to painting anonymous subjects and titling his work as a re-imagination of 18th century masterpieces, he has also been commisioned to paint portraits of the famous.

 

If his mastery of the use of oil isn't enough, look at Wiley's ability to use other medium to express his point of view

Stained glass - this is life sized

Bronze casting of a traditional bust

If you'd like to see more of the exhibition, click on the link to the pictures.  I think you will find his art thought provoking and his techniques superb - a tribute to his classical art education with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute and a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University.  Kehinde Wiley isn't a wannabe; he's the real deal.

https://goo.gl/photos/ayntCBDMheiyEuQJ6

A Cautious New Year

I was getting ready to send out an electronic New Year's card to my friends, and all of a sudden this rant just popped out.  The card features famous clocks from around the world striking midnight.  I was trying to write a Happy New Year message when these thoughts came out of my fingers.  

Turns out the most iconic clock of all is in your hand most of the time:  It's your iphone.  Mechanical clocks, especially wearable ones are virtually obsolete.  When's the last time you put on the one in your jewelry box?  Just another example of technological obsolescence.  Watches are going the way of paper maps, phone books, land lines, paper checks, and a whole slew of other things.  No wonder we're all so anxious.

Even an optimistic person like myself feels wary rather than happy about the coming year.  So, let me wish you a Cautious New Year.   There're going to be pitfalls, quicksand, fell strokes, quagmires, catastrophes, and fiascos, and that's only the big stuff which will befall some, if not all of us, in the coming year.   Try not to let the frustration of not being able to talk to a live person on the phone, find a clerk in a brick/mortar store (another thing becoming obsolete), or being able to find anything to watch on TV despite the 200+ channels you're paying for kill you.  Who knew screening your calls on the nifty answering machine using endless loop cassette tape your family got for Christmas in 1972  would morph into text and Instagram?  At least we finally have video phone calls ('Facetime').  It was really tardy arriving.  I wonder when flying cars are going to make their appearance?

The mounting anxiety we all seem to be feeling is a greater malaise than just personal setbacks and minor frustrations.  The yearning for the past, you know those idyllic 'good old days' however you define them is really more about slowing down the pace of change than really wanting a return to an earlier time.  Pre-electronic people (life before individual computers) are really feeling disconnected, rushed and downright angry.  I've managed to 'keep up' (sort of) picking and choosing my tech while constantly feeling there are too many choices while technologically running as fast as I can.

There is too many of everything.  Every time I'm in a grocery store, my thoughts keep veering down the path of do we really need so many types of _________.  I most often have this thought on the cereal aisle.  If the plethora of products aren't enough to convince you, well, think about the constant barrage of electrons thrown at us every day. How many people at your family during the family Christmas dinner pulled out his/her phone at sometime during the meal?  Text checking, Tweeting, Facebook checking, or worse 'following' are more important to an increasing number of people than face to face conversation with their families during a special social time.  Face to face real time communication is emotionally messy, requires a longer attention span, and isn't always all about you.  The electronic version is so much more reassuringly self-centered.  

In its defense, tech life is also the convenient life.  Siri, Alexa, and whatever the Google version is called are changing our home life usually for the better.  Technological advances in medicine are astounding and life saving.  Information at the tips of your fingers is a good thing.  We all love to Google an answer, look for a You-Tube video to show us 'how to', or map our route.  We love being able to Skype with our family members around the globe.  I think WWII mothers would have chopped off a digit to be able to actually see and talk to their soldier child even for 30 seconds.  The list of good tech stuff really does outweigh the bad.

What's causing our anxiety is we aren't learning how to psychologically manage the electronic revolution fast enough. Major technology advances used to be around for hundreds of years with gradual adoption by the general public.  Clocks are a good example.  Even our beloved computers took a few decades before they were an integral part of every person's life.  Now, major advances seem to be coming at us like flaming lava bombs.  (Look it up - very pre-tech; I got one for my birthday.)   We are increasingly engaging directly with our 'smart' tech.

Here comes 'virtual reality'.  (Can holodecks be far behind?)  I can hardly wait to see the advertising for self-driving cars.  (Imagine the first personal injury law-suits!)  Plan on wearing your tech.  That's what is currently replacing your wristwatch, and your glasses aren't far behind.  Your phone is going to be so fast you're going to need to tether it to your person.  All your devices are now starting to talk to one another.  (I fear they will eventually plot revolution.)  Have you heard of the newest spectator sport?  It's mega video gaming.  Yes, it's a tournament of the best video gamers in the world shown on an Imax, 3-D screen to screaming fans in a pay-per-view streaming format all around the world. This past year the winner took home $100,000.  Cyber security is a hot new field of employment.  Then, there's 'crowdfunding'; a new way to raise capital.  I could go on and on and on, but the tweet/text generation has already stopped reading.  This paragraph is too long for the 140 character attention span.

So pull up your sox.  Here comes another year.  I predict it's going to be a bumpy, exhilarating and even exasperating ride.  Do your best to concentrate on the positive.  Life is way, way too short (still) to be anxious and afraid.                                

The infamous Christmas Carol Quiz

Some people got snail mail cards this year.  If you weren't on the snail mail list, well, you either moved and didn't send me your new address, or you stopped sending ME cards, or you were never on my snail mail list for some other reason.  I sent out 70 cards this year.  Drake claims I keep the post office in business not just for my Christmas cards, but also because of all the snail mail letters I write.  It's usual for me to send out an annual Christmas letter tucked into my cards.  I don't care if people make fun of those of us who send out the annual missive, I LIKE opening a Christmas card which contains either a printed letter or a handwritten note.  However, if you read the blog, then you know everything already, so instead of the annual recap letter, I sent my blog readers a Christmas Carol Quiz just for fun.

Well, this has been wildly popular.  I've heard from numerous people who plan to take it with them to use as a family Christmas game, as well as people who sent me an email saying, WHAT IS THE ANSWER TO #___?  By far, the first question is the stumper.  I must confess here and now, #1 is a bit of a trick question since technically it's not a Christmas carol, but it IS Christmas music.

You can thank Jane for prompting me to remember I promised the answers via a blog entry.  So, here's a repeat of the questions along with the answers.  And, yes, there's no #3.  I rearranged the quiz, and somehow #3 got lost in the shuffle.  Get over it.  Ho. Ho. Ho.

Christmas Carol Quiz

1. The two room apartment of a psychiatrist. 2. May the Deity bestow an absence of fatigue to happy male humans 4. Sir Lancelot with laryngitis. 5. A B C D E F G H I J K M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z. 6. Present me naught but dual incisors for this festive Yuletide. 7. The smog-less bewitching hour arrived. 8. Exuberance to this orb. 9. 288 Yuletide hours. 10. Do you perceive the same longitudinal pressure which stimulate my auditory sense organs. 11. The December mythical being is due in this burg. 12. Stepping on the pad cover. 13. Four legged boozer named for silent film heart throb. 14. Far back in a hay bin. 15. Leave and do an elevated broadcast. 16. That exiguous hamlet south of the holy city. 17. Hitherward the entire assembly who are loyal in their beliefs 18. Listen, the winged heavenly messengers are proclaiming tunefully. 19. A joyful song relative to hollow metallic vessels which vibrate and bring forth a ringing sound when struck. 20. As the guardians of little woolly animal's protected their charges in the shadows of the earth. 21. Frozen precipitation commence 22. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystals. 23. Oh, member of the round table with missing areas 24. Boulder of the tinkling metal spheres 25. Vehicular homicide was committed on Dad's mom by a precipitous darling 26. Tranquility upon the terrestrial sphere. 27. We are Kong, Lear, and Nat Cole 28. Cup-shaped instruments fashioned of a whitish metallic element 29. Natal celebration devoid of color, rather albino, as a hallucinatory phenomenon for me. 30. Our fervent hope is that you thoroughly enjoy your yuletide season 31. Parent was observed osculating a red-coated unshaven teamster 32. Diminutive Percussionist 33. Oh small Israel urban center 34. Behold! I envisioned a trio of nautical vessels.   35. K.O. the aisles ANSWERS 1) Nutcracker Suite 2) God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen 4) Silent Night 5) Noel 6) All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth 7) It Came Upon A Midnight Clear 8) Joy to the World 9) 12 Days of Christmas 10) Do You Hear What I Hear? 11) Santa Claus Is Coming To Town 12) Up On The House Top 13) Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer 14) Away In A Manger 15) Go Tell It On The Mountain 16) Oh Little Town of Bethlehem 17) O Come All Ye Faithful 18) Hark The Herald Angels Sing 19) Jingle Bells 20) As Shepherd's Watch Their Flocks At Night 21) Let It Snow 22) Frosty the Snowman 23) Oh, Holy Night 24) Jingle Bell Rock 25) Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer 26) Peace on earth 27) We Three Kings 28) Silver Bells 29) I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas 30) We Wish You A Merry Christmas 31) I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus 32) Little Drummer Boy 33)  O Little Town of Bethlehem 34) I Saw Three Ships 35) Deck the Halls

       

As We Approach the Holidays

I'm struggling with Christmas this year as is everyone in our family.  It's difficult to approach a holiday with the adjective of "Merry" in front of its name when a treasured family member has been lost to us in the not distant enough past, and no one feels very merry. Everyone is still working through grief surrounding his death right now, and our first response is to turn away from happy holidays.

I've been pondering how to celebrate Christmas for weeks now.  We've traveled to Austin to gather for an extended family Christmas ever since it became obvious 'Jay' was going to be the SIL.  (That's son-in-law for the acrynmyically challenged.  Gosh, I don't even think that's a word - you know, where you use initials instead of the words.)  Anyway, over the past several years, we've all come to cherish our Christmas time together, and we've developed internal family traditions just like every family.  Over time, the four parents drew closer together and became friends enjoying each other's company during not just Christmas but at other joint family times.  Now one parent is gone, passed away in late October.

I had change my approach to the holiday.  Sadness was overwhelming me, and when I thought about Christmas, my first emotion was dread.   My Christmas decorations have remained firmly packed for the past several years.  Why go to all that trouble to unpack, and unwrap decorations when the center of the celebration was not going to be at my house?  Just too much trouble and effort.  I was grateful I could enjoy decorations without the hassle of having to 'do them'.  This year, however, I needed my decorations in a way I've never needed them before.  I got them out, unpacked them, and set them up around my Arizona home.  They have helped me re-center myself and re-think the holiday.

Next, I returned to my daily devotional.  For non-Christians, this is called 'meditation' or 'spiritual centering'.  It really doesn't matter what you call it, the kernel of importance is to remove one's self from only dealing with the commercial world and recapture a sense of the spiritual.  Christmas time is when the conflict between these two sensibilities is most evident.  So, what is 'the season'.  Well, for Christians it's the birth of Christ.  For Jews it's the celebration of Hanukkah, the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, and for African Americans it's  Kwanzaa, is a celebration of family and culture.  These three holidays always occur in close proximity, and all feature presents which is how the commercial world has horned in.

More important than presents, all three traditions center around family.  Families grow and change over the years.  Members are lost to us through estangement, death, and distance.  Members are gained through reconnection, marriages, and births.  On most usual years, Christmas IS a merry time with food, drink and laughter.  But sometimes, it's time to be together in rememberance as well as a time to cherish one another.  Coming together after a tragedy says, "We're sad, but we're OK.  We're still a family.  We are going to get through this and come out the other side different, but stronger in our love, support and belief in one another.

So, now as we prepare for our annual Christmas trip, I will bring simple presents to say, I love you.  We'll go places, eat together, and talk.  Overall though, this Christmas our focus will be coming together for a time of offering love, seeking peace, and finding hope. Those are the real reasons for our season this year.    

     

Revisiting the Met

When we are in New York, my short list of what I want to do always includes a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  In my opinion, it's the finest museum this country has to offer.  Each year I like to revisit 'old friends', as well as scope out the new exhibits.  This year there were two really exciting exhibits.

Being from Fort Worth, we loved the Kimball Museum, and they own an important painting by Caravaggio.  We became instant fans of this Italian painter of the late 1500's and early 1600's.  He was the first artist to paint 'naturally'.  No, not in the nude, he was the first guy to use actual models for his pictures.  He started with a blank canvas and painted the expressions and poses provided by real people standing in front of him. Before him, artists drew what they were going to paint on paper and then copied the drawing onto a canvas.  That technique was acceptable when you were illustrating a Biblical parable or perhaps an oft told Green myth.  Since Caravaggio never drew out his paintings on paper, he quickly began posing his models in a more modern context such as this painting showing a young dandy being fleeced at a card game.

"The Card Sharp" - 1594

As with any great artist of the time period, Caravaggio had disciples.  One of these was French painter, Valentin de Boulogne.  The Met together with the Louve put together an exhibition of Boulogne's paintings.  He only created 60 paintings, and there were 45 in the exhibition.  He took Caravaggio's ideas about using models and pushed them even farther.  We were privileged to see so many magnificent paintings by this Renaissance artist.

We also took in two famous portraits of Ben Franklin as well as some gorgeous furniture from the American Aesthetic Movement.  Finally, Drake was happy to see some gems of a baseball card collection donated to the Met.  Jeff Burdick, the collector/donor, was told by the Met he needed to 'catalog' his collection before they would accept it.  He did such a good job, the book he wrote about his cataloging procedure is now the 'bible' of cataloging 'paper' collections such as posters, leaflets, and, of course, baseball cards.

Here are the pictures:  https://goo.gl/photos/KP66yXWpwWUXNgRd7   

The other exhibition which caught my interest was a costume exhibition.  Drake was just humoring me when we trekked down the hidden staircase to see the exhibit, but he quickly got interested.  He especially liked the 18th century cherry colored wool/silk men's suit.  These are sixty iconic pieces of fashion owned by the Metropolitan.  There were several which I don't think could be called 'clothes'.  Take a look and see what you think.

https://goo.gl/photos/xTFMuRj7R3SG6Mnu8

 

A Sense of Awe

Boy, we've had a hard 45 days.  Usually our life runs smoothly thanks to our ability to successfully collaborate on any project we undertake.  Smoothness is easy to take for granted.  One does not normally awaken thinking, well, my life is going to hell in a hand basket today. Unfortunately, in our extended family, life has been in the proverbial hand basket lately, and collectively we are all still reeling over an untimely death and the massive grief it has left behind.  Our freaking car wreck didn't help much either.

When life serves up the unpalatable, my optimistic nature tries to find ways to put myself looking up rather than down.  Laying in bed contemplating the ceiling this morning, I started focusing on what inspires awe.  (Yes, really.)  What started the chain of thought was the seven week old baby I visited while in Austin.  Gosh, tiny fingers, tiny toes, angelically asleep. The conversation all revolved around how amazing it is to actually make a new human, and then be responsible for creating a person.  The alternative bookend to the end of life.

Obviously, natural creations found on this blue marble definitely create a sense of awe.  We've been so fortunate to directly contemplate some of God's best work.

I could put up 2,000 pictures equally as beautiful as this one.  I chose this ocean scene since the immensity of the oceans define our planet.  Awesome - gigantic and wonderful all rolled into one.

Sometimes a person gives those around her a sense of awe.  My nominee for a person of whom I'm in awe is someone who steps up and into difficult situations with grace.  Oh, you know that person; always knowing what to say as well as how to be silent.  She sees what needs doing and just does it.  You know you've seen one of these folks when someone says, "Wow, I can't believe you did that."  She always seem surprised as if what else did you expect?

Art inspires both awe and envy in me.  My bedroom ceiling got a big work-out on this.  I was totally at sea trying to figure out what single piece makes me awe struck.  Finally, I had to call a mental time-out and whittle down.  I set some parameters:  (1)  I had to have personally seen it.  (2)  I arbitrarily restricted my choice to painting.  Hmmm.  Landscape?  Watercolor?  Still life?  Portrait?  What time period?  I got up and played around with my thousands of pictures of pictures, and you know what?  I couldn't pick. So let's leave this one with the not very original observation:  Great art creates awe just by being viewed.  It's that talent thing.

The best thing about the feeling of awe?  It makes me feel better.  It helps put my small ups and downs into perspective.  My spirits lift.  While I was looking at the photographs I've taken of magnificent paintings, I looked up and saw our own art collection.  Every piece brings back a significant memory.  I could recreate our life from just looking at our art.                                                                    

                                                                    Awesome        

 

Time to Exit this Alternate Reality

It's all over except for the actual voting, the only really important element of this horrific election cycle we've all collectively lived through.   I don't care if you are voting for Clarabelle the Cow tomorrow, we all have one thing in common:  "Thank God this is election is going to be over!"  I am so damned tired of nasty.  I am so tired of repetitive, manipulative ads.  I want to be finished with this insanity.  I'm sick of polls and last minute revelations.

Collectively we are not a vindictive population.  It's certainly time for all of us to step back from the world is coming to an end if THAT PERSON is elected frenzy the media has been whipping up for months and get back some perspective.  Think of it this way:   When I was sitting dazed and bleeding in the passenger seat of our wrecked car, total strangers ran toward the steaming, still ticking wreck to help me.  No one asked who I was voting for, unfriended me on Facebook, screamed at me, nor turned away disgusted if I wasn't on board with their political views.

We help people.  Today, the day before the election, just look around you.  There will be people doing kind actions everywhere.  In old people land I routinely pick up dropped stuff, and pull down items from the high shelves in the grocery store. Sometimes I just talk to people while doing my errands knowing I might be the only person they actually have a conversation with for the next 24 hours.  It's also imperative in my neck of the desert to admire a person's dog.  We all practice routine courtesies everyday; it's second nature to us and is the grease which makes our multi-cultural society function.  

Manners and being civil are important.  They take the edge off the stress most of us routinely live under.  That's why we are all shell shocked by this vituperative election campaign stacked on top of all the other stuff we all have going on.  In the past 20 years, we are working (on average, of course) about 163 more hours a year - that's an entire extra month of work each year!  Americans are the most productive worker bees on the planet.  In the past 60 years we've also incorporated the second half of our population into the workforce (women), and now almost every worker is juggling the work/family dynamic every single day.  Everybody is always trying to figure out where they stand in relation to the people they work with, the family they care for, and the neighborhood they live in.

Humans love the pecking order.  It's in our nature.  We learned eons ago the odds of our personal survival went up if we worked as part of a group.  We also learned every person has a set value to a group and could be ranked accordingly.  Our overarching 'big group' is our national identity as Americans.  Thus, we have a basic binary ranking:  you either are or aren't in the group.

Well, my point is no matter who you vote for tomorrow, remember:  That person standing next to you is part of your basic group:  An American citizen, and I guarantee you will feel a solidarity with them just because they are standing in line and voting. Give that person next to you a high five tomorrow.  And, for heaven's sake, let's start remembering again who we really are - a kind and compassionate people who help one another get through each and every day.