You know what's annoying? When you're working on a painting, but you can't talk about it or put pictures of it on the internet because it's a gift and must be kept hidden from the world until CHRISTMAS. Shhhh, it's like it only exists in my mind! I'm also moving forward with my dialogue paintings. I spent four hours straight lettering the other day, and my shoulders are SORE. A sneak peak: It still needs to be cleaned up. Also, I was so motivated to begin that I didn't give as much thought to my colors as I should have, and ended up with an unfortunate Dunkin Donuts / Juno effect. In the future, I'll actually put some consideration into it! The idea is to have it be pleasing (or at least interesting) to the eye from afar, a general impression of color and shape, and then resolve into dialogue as the viewer approaches. The conflict between the two characters (almost all the dialogue I've chosen is an intense moment between two people) should be reflected in the tension between the colors, the way they control different parts of the conversation, and canvas. Ok, is that enough Senior Review language for you? Sometimes I don't know if I even mean what I'm saying, or if my brain was forced by art-school environment to make an unfortunate evolutionary leap.
Well, I'm off to read "The Good War"! Only 12 years after it was assigned in school. Sorry, Christopher!
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I finished a new painting! Sold it, too, which was an exciting first. I'm very pleased with how Data turned out. I'm especially happy about the experience of painting Spot. I haven't tried to paint an animal in some time, and it was fun to attack his face with no clue as to where to start. By the end, I felt like I had lost control. All I know is, I didn't intend for him to look like the demon's spawn, and he kind of does! I don't know how that spirit got in there, but I love it! It made me want to stretch my boundaries more, at the same time as the whole experience made me want to paint more portraits. I'm comfortable with that format, I feel fairly competent, and I enjoy all the baggage that comes along with a portrait - the question of, who is this person, really? Why were they chosen to be immortalized? The idea that a portrait will live on long after its subject is gone, a record forever, fascinates me.
I've also become re-interested in an idea I had a while ago, of painting dialogue from movies I love. I really like this idea because in the most blatant sense, it's one of the things I'm trying to convey with a lot of my paintings - that what can be seen to many as junk can also be viewed as art. And then again - is a canvas with words painted on it art? Oh, so many Benningtony levels of MEANING! I also like the possible relationship to illuminated manuscripts. Hence, I have spent the last two and a half hours watching scenes from movies I love, pausing every few seconds to transcribe the dialogue. (I don't trust IMDb's memorable quotes section OR what screenplays I can find online; I want the genuine article, right out of the actors' mouths!) As a result I have sixteen pages of my little notebook filled and a painful blister on my ring finger from the pen. Oh, the lost art of handwriting! I read an article a few days ago that suggested that cursive may be vanishing from this earth. As an honorable Montessorian, I shuddered - I learned cursive before print, from those wonderful sandpaper letters. ANYWAY, I've now got scenes from Point Break, Damien: Omen II, Black Narcissus, and A Matter of Life and Death a.k.a. Stairway to Heaven. An even split between schlock and brilliance. One thing I'm always amazed by is how many words are in even the shortest of conversations. It makes me want to be even more taciturn. It's no secret to those who know me that I love Patrick Swayze. Or, to put it more precisely, Bodhi. Sure, I'm a girl, so of course I've seen Dirty Dancing a million times, and when I was fifteen I went through a phase where I thought I was S.E. Hinton, so I love The Outsiders and was peeved when one obituary referred to Swayze as Dally instead of Darry. But Point Break was truly the greatest Swayze movie of all. His most powerful onscreen pairing was not with Jennifer Grey or Demi Moore, but with the handsome dullard Keanu Reeves. They were perfect foils, "fire and wood" if you will. They made the tired cliche come alive. You may laugh (many do) but I find that however silly the story may be (delightfully so) the relationship between Bodhi and Johnny Utah feels real and heartwrenching. Swayze spoke every line in that movie like a prophet letting wisdom tumble from his lips. Even "Back off, Warchild. Seriously." I think of his words every time I find myself creeping along the freeway in my metal coffin. The final goodbye absolutely kills me. I rank the last ten minutes or so of Point Break up there with The Searchers and Notorious as Perfect Endings.
I never met Patrick Swayze. I don't feel too sad about his death, maybe because it wasn't much of a surprise. But I have been thinking of him a lot since his death. Mostly I'm just very, very grateful to him for playing such a big part in such a fantastic movie. Like Bodhi, Swayze will live on forever after death. |
Julia Cooper
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