Friday, March 31, 2006

Technology Requires Patience...and a meme

With all the extra time on my hands maybe I should learn to meditate. After all, I had 1 hour and 56 minutes to stare at my monitor and laptop screens as old and new machine, um, shared files. (Calling a spade a spade here, they had SEX! I'll share Andy's comment, "Your computers are having sex and you're just hoping one won't die of a heart attack!") There was much nail biting as I doubted very much Lappy would stand to be on for 2 hours, but low and behold he did. I would not at all be surprised if the sound spontaneously came back and the letter "k" magically began working again. Aaaauuuummm. I did not just drop a grand for nothing....hmmm, maybe that should be my meditating mantra??? Kinda like the one that sounds like, "Oh how money makes me hummmm," that my high school chum Lily shared in an "In the garden of Eden, baby" moment.

Enough with the big scary machines. Well, mini scary machines. I'll be putting Lappy away once I'm sure all the files I need are really and truly on the new guy. Joy, more time with the machine....

Until then let me do the meme I found over at Snitty, which she got from Scout. Basic premise: choose your favorite painting and 'splain why.

So of course I'm torn...I took my one and only Art History course in high school, which I found absolutely amazing, even 14 years later. Call me sheltered, but before then I thought most art consisted of the religious nature I saw at church (or on the walls at home) or the murals of all those Aztecs around the El Sereno/Lincoln Heights area where my mom took us to bank and shop.

My friend Carla was in that class and I learned to sketch, if not as well, at least as fast as she did cuz, well, WOW, art is cool! But the final consisted of identifying 100s (okay, maybe just 100) works, naming artists and years--or something...similar. Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, so like any convert (art really is a form of religion) I'm rather overzealous at times. My favorite? Eeep, there are many...Snitty actually posted one of my favorites: "Flaming June" by Lord Frederick Leighton. As I commented to her, I had that and a couple by Maxfield Parrish decorating my dorm room walls, as well as Escher and Magrite for that matter. But I think it's Parrish I will share with you tonight (maybe I'll do the others later :)).

I'm cheating though, I'm posting two paintings:
"Daybreak" 1922

and "Ecstasy" 1929

Why? Aside from the breathtaking beauty, the color, the fantastic use of shading and light...(deep sigh) they both speak to me in ways that Magrite, Escher, and Leighton don't. "Daybreak" is Puck coming in to wake Titania, or a sprite coming to make mischief (same difference there, eh?). I LOVED "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Especially as I got to see the "Shakespeare in the Park" video with Julian Sands playing Oberon, wow.

"Ecstasy" is where I want to be. Can there be a grander feeling up above with the world at your feet? There's such a look of, "Now my life is beginning" or "I can do anything you can, and maybe even better" on her face. Well, that's what I see anyway.

That's the funny thing about art, it really is in the eye of the beholder. I can't make you like what I like. Ah well. So umm, yeah, if you're interested in doing the meme, go for it :).

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