Just in Case

I promise that I'll start writing about my own life at some point in the near future, but lately all I've been thinking about on my walks home (which is when I connect with my inner-blog) is art history. It's lame and wonderful. The class that I'm helping out with the term continues to inspire me.

I want you, mom (since she may be the only person reading my blog) to guess who painted this. It's called First Communion from 1895.

Did you guess Picasso? Probably not.

Now guess how old he was when he painted it.

Did you guess fourteen? Probably not.

Did you see the detail on the carpet? Wowza.

I threw this up here, just in case anyone thought he was making "mistakes" in his later work.

Pablo Picasso, Dora Maar, 1937, Oil on Canvas

I'll take jaggedy portraits of Picasso's super cool photographer wife over first communions any day. I should probably mention that a similar portrait Dora Maar au Chat sold for about $100 million a few years ago. Art Historians never talk about money, but I secretly Google it all the time.

PS-I really think whoever bought Dora Maar au Chat is probably sitting alone in a room in a large velvet chair across from the painting, drinking brandy, and occasionally tossing piles of gold coins in the air.

Degas and Other Musings (that's the only possible title for this post)

Edward Degas (1834-1917)

Seated Violinist, 1977, oil on canvas

Edward Degas (1834-1917)

Ballerina in Blue, date unknown, oil on canvas

Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836–1911)
Young Woman with Morning Glories in Her Hair, 1870, oil on canvas

Degas was a rebel. Isn't that funny? I'll never get over how fun it is to be a Modernist. It's called MODERN art, because it was so revolutionary and well, edgy. But now everyone has calendars of little French prostitutes skipping about and multicolored haystacks and their neighbors don't accuse them of Anarchy. How could waterlilies have been so subversive? I love it when someone tells me that they don't like Modern art--I get to have a little moment in my head when I say "Oh yeah, Monet really rubs you wrong?"

Degas was, in fact, a double rebel, because he defied the French Academie, who liked paintings like this one on the right -->
by Lefebvre (obviously chosen by men, while they smoked cigars and congratulated each other on their impressively large...fortunes.).

Claude Monet (1841-1926)
  Boulevard des Capucines, 1873, oil on canvas

 
 But, Degas also went against his buds, like Monet, Manet and Tippy-Tippy-Day-Day by returning to the figure. Most Impressionists, although they had very diverse subject matter, avoided figures except at a distance, like the image on the left, which is only about two feet wide.  Some of my favorite Impressionist paintings are the anomalies that have figures in them (like Monet's Girl with the Red Kerchief). Note: Please do not talk about the impressive work of Tippy-Tippy-Day-Day, that's a Seinfeild reference. I've promised myself, though, that if any student writes it (or "TTDD" for short) on a test, I'll give them bonus points.

Claude Monet (1841-1926)
Impression Sunrise, 1872, oil on canvas

I really enjoy abstract works (that is what I focus on when I do research) and even the occasional landscape, but I find portraits and other figural works the most captivating when I'm in museums. That's why I like Degas, I think.

I'm not a quote person. Some people are always throwing them up on facebook, buying diaries that have quote for each day, or putting them on their walls and such. I recently heard of a person (thank you Jackson) who puts their own quotes on their walls. Hmmmm....not so sure about that. Anyway, I like this quote from Degas, who didn't quite buy into the oft-taught-in-Art History 1010 tenants of Impressionism, such as interest in light on landscape, the new infusion of steam into the atmosphere of the city, and the idea that everything must be fundamentally new and unplanned. He says:

No art was ever less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and study of the great masters; of inspiration, spontaneity, temperament, I know nothing. 

 

Edward Degas (1834-1917)

Blue Dancers, 1989, oil on canvas

I've been studying (and thus getting really tired of) a lot of Abstract Expressionists who adopted the romantic idea of spontaneity and carefully. slowly. put it into practice over several years. I'm getting tired of fighting the idea that artists receive a bolt of genius, strip naked and start throwing paint at one another...although that does sound fun.  I think Degas had it about right.

I might also be hanging out with a young man (*cough* Michael) who has to write a thesis, but is struggling (even though he has a macbook--isn't it true that if you buy a mac, you'll be able to write the next, great American novel?) and thus, has to work on it everyday. But, hey, looks like all Tim Tebow has to do to be good at football is pray (not play football his whole life). Maybe if Michael just struck that pose between paragraphs everything would work out. 

Or, maybe this is what really happened:

Just watch for Gandalf Michael. 

I bet you didn't think this post was going to end with a picture of Gandalf and Tim Tebow, did you? I'm a multifaceted blogger.

Moose Met a French Moose

Today, Michael and I drove up to Coeur d'Alene. We visited a few art galleries in town and drove around the lake. I was very pretty, albeit very cold and very covered in dead fish.

 Moose is there, but it looks more like Michael's wearing a skirt. 

 Michael wonders why any settlers, upon seeing Coeur d'Alene, would continue on to Spokane. I tried to argue that early Spokanians didn't have a meth problem, like most of them do now, but after seeing Coeur d'Alene, I agree with him--it's beautiful and I kind of wish he lived there instead. We did avoid the turn off to the white suprematist camp, however.

We also saw a bald eagle, which made me wish I had a better camera. Really though, look how great this picture could be:

 Can you see the eagle in flight?

Suddenly! We noticed that Coeur d'Alene has a kind of film theme: MOOSE. So, we spent the rest of the day introducing Moose to moose.

Puppet Shows

This year, my dad and I built a puppet show theater and my mom made a curtain to give to Michael's nieces and nephews. I blame Pinterest for the idea.

I suppose I should say that my parents built a puppet show theater and I stood next to them being supportive. I did do a fair bit of sanding and occasionally asked to try different kinds of saws.

Shopping for the curtain was kind of frustrating though. Why is it so difficult to find gender neutral fabric? It seemed like everything was pink and sparkly or covered in transformers. And people say gender isn't constructed...

It reminded me of this video.

This little girl seems a little coached if you ask me, but I appreciate the sentiment. However, I read an article a while ago about a few families who gave their children gender ambiguous names, like "Sky" or "Fruitloop," and refused to tell friends and family the sex of their child. What do they do in public restrooms--use both men's and women's bathrooms equally? If their trying to mess up their kids in a creative way, then I bet they'll succeed. Alright, I made up the name "Fruitloop," but I kind of like it.

Anyway, puppet shows.

Here's the kids opening puppets and discovering the wooden stage. I'm the coolest fake aunt.