I’ve loved this painting desperately since the first time I saw it. There’s something both quirky and subtle about it, while all the time being emotionally engaging. The sensation of motion, the pull of the waves and sounds of the ocean and cries of the gulls are just as loud as the colors on the canvas, and they reach out to you from the paint, crying out to be heard.
Month: September 2019
Sunday
This window is something else and a bottle of pancake syrup, boys and girls. It’s meant to be semi-religious, but it isn’t really doing a very good job of paying homage to the Christian church – it’s far more of a case of secular mocking of the church as applied to the banking world: holding the moneylenders up as God. It’s amusing in its sarcasm.
Saturday
*points with feeling* If this is what the ventilation system cover looked like, you guys, imagine the rest of it. Don’t tell me you don’t feel me on this.
Friday
Oh my god, y’all. Look at these balusters. LOOK AT THEM. Aren’t they about the most pea pickin’ elegant things you’ve ever blinking seen? That must have been a hell of a staircase. I can’t even.
Thursday
In many ways, this motif reminds me of the rosette carvings from the middle ages in churches from Europe. I doubt that was the intention, but, nonetheless, it is the outcome.
Wednesday
One of my very first posts was of another one of the elevator grilles from the Chicago Stock Exchange (also in the SLAM collection), but they are differently sized and also, this one has this bit of decorative paneling at the bottom, too. I mean, dude. This isn’t your mom’s elevator grille. This is a hardcore, hard working elevator grille; it wasn’t just decorative, it was functional as all get out. And speaking as someone who was in a rickety scary old elevator of death in a perpetual construction site apartment building in New York City last weekend… that’s gotta mean something, right? Function over form, yo.
Tuesday
Look at this – again, it’s that Art Nouveau style, but kind of prior to the real beginnings of that movement, so it’s sending out feelers and going, “how far can we push the envelope without going too far?” It’s really kind of ingenious, really.
Monday
Holy hell on wheels with a side of cheese sauce, y’all, architectural motifs are my bread, butter, and jam. This lunette is a particularly gorgeous example of the form; there’s an element of high drama and almost painful snobbery that gives it an elevated status amongst its peers. Even in un-treated terra cotta, it’s absolutely beautiful. Love it.
Sunday
I’m constantly in awe of people who can just sit down with a piece of wood and pick up a knife or a pick and just whittle away until they have something to show for it at the end. I think it’s a mad wicked skill and they should be applauded and lauded for it.
Saturday
This particular piece of wood sculpture has been one of my favorites in the SLAM collection for a very long time. It has a particular feeling to it that you can’t appreciate until you’re standing in front of it, taking in all of the mana and life essence of the piece. Until then, it’s just a pretty piece of wood.