Week 2 Readings

Blue of Distance by Rebecca Solnit

"The painters seemed to be smitten with the blue of distance, and when you look at these paintings it is easy to imagine a world where you could walk through an expanse of green grass, brown tree trunks, and white houses, and then suddenly arrive in the blue country where grass, trees, houses are blue, and perhaps if you looked down, you, too, would be as blue as the Hin- du god Krishna." -Rebecca Solnit, page 14

Rebecca Solnit discusses painters use of blue as a background hue to express the distance behind a subject. I like how Solnit discusses how children and adults seem to react differently to what is displayed in the foreground and background. Children tend to view things in the distance as intangible and are more interested in the things that are displayed directly before them, that they can touch and look at up close. Adults tend to take a liking to scenic distances and quaint horizons, as if seeing into a distant future, dreaming of possibilities.






Ginevra de'Benci
By Leonardo DaVinci

A Painter's Wisdom

"The best thing an artist can do, of course, is to die." -Max Beckmann, page 32 of Harpers Magazine, 1998

I found this article pretty amusing. It basically says, to be a great artist you must: have a wealthy patron and hot girlfriend/wife, not go over board on religious references(too old school), don't be the creepy anti-social neighbor, critiques are allowed to say whatever they want about your art, and you will only become a noteworthy artist once you are dead. Yea, real inspiring, but I can certainly agree with most of these depressing statements.

Tradition & Identity by David Smith

"I found that painting was made with anything at hand, building board, raw canvas, self-primed canvas, with or without brushes, on the easel on the floor, on the walls, no rules, no secret equipment, no anything except the conviction of the artist, his challenge to the world and his own identity." -Davis Smith, page 2

David Smith mentions how "sculpture can be painting and painting can be sculpture", implying how both the 2D and 3D arts are very similar in that they can come from the simplest of tools and found objects to create a beautiful vision. That all artists share a "visual heritage" that comes from each individual artist connecting to his or her inner self in a "declaration of purpose" through the journey of creating art.

Frank Stella & Carl Andre

"There are two problems in painting. One is to find out what painting it and the other is to find out how to make a painting. The first is learning something and the second is making something." - Frank Stella, page 820

I liked reading these short passages because I could connect to it. I don't paint much, and I think that might be because I have a hard time making it into something I find like able. I love observing other paintings and how the painter makes use of colors, materials, and brush strokes. However, I still have a hard time interpreting my ideas on the canvas. I generally use a palette knife, so I'm kind of sculpting with the paint, pushing it this way an that.

Still Life by Mary Gordon

"I wonder if Bonnard could do anything with this lightless room. If he could enter it, see in these suffering people, including my mother, especially my mother..." -Mary Gordon, page 49 of Harper's Magazine, 1998

Mary Gordon writes this memoir mostly about her obsession to the colors and "lightness" she finds most appealing in Pierre Bonnard's paintings. Gordon discusses her relationship with her ailing mother(who forgets she even has a daughter) and how she imagines Bonnard could paint a picture of her mother's sad life with it's glum surroundings of old age, fear, and emptiness, and change it to something bright and colorful; breathing life into objects and people that would normally be seen as dull, boring, or dead. Pictured right is a painting by Bonnard, Bowl of fruit. He had let the flowers in the bowl wilt and die before painting them, so "they would have more of a presence".