Before all this crazy dog visiting and fundraising stuff I was busy with a lot of personal statement preparation and graduate school application stuff. Over the past two weeks the mounting pressures of those stuffs have squeezed all the stress they can out of me. Poking and prodding at certain synapses in my brain, these unexpected trials have effected a weariness.
I can recall, though the shades and nuances of light have receded and memories of the conversations on that day have faded, a brief period not too long ago where this mind was poked and prodded with less resistance. Succumbing to the impressions from and ruminations on the "Georgia O'Keeffe and the Sublime Landscape" exhibit at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in the company of fine family back in September.
What follows are some of those Massaged Sparks and their conductors where found - derived from the original scratches of first impressions.
O'Keeffe had always been a bit on the dull side for me. Landscapes and flowers weren't really my schtick. Her paintings never really reached out and grabbed me while flipping through the pages of my Art History books. It wasn't until I set myself before the paintings that I truly began to appreciate how vivid, full and inviting the colours truly are.
I think it helped that I was fortunate enough to be attending the exhibit at the same time as a class of Montessori kids. I believe they were third graders. They sat Indian style in front of each of the paintings and fidgeted while the museum employee asked them questions concerning the framed images. I remember one question concerning the depiction of the sun, "What do you think this is?" A boy in the front row sat up a little straighter for a moment before swaying into a protective position as he answered enthusiastically, "It looks like, it looks like a...a...COMET!" To which the museum guide responded -- "Well, yes, it does look like a comet -- it is in the sky and does resemble fire. Can anybody tell me what else is in the sky that is on fire?" To which the same boy responded, "A meteroite!"
Deep down I wanted to tell him he was wrong. Meteorites aren't in the sky silly! But the point was made on me. The imagination that you can have walking into a museum knowing next to nothing about the exhibits or artists is a great deal of the adventure and fun in discovery.
Artcyclopedia's listing of O'keeffe works on the web
(and so ends the FUTURECAST...now back to our regularly scheduled program)
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