“The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.” – Rumi
Listen to yourself, Mairead.
Month: November 2012
Art Works – Caravaggio.
(Clare street looking onto Merrion Square – notice the perspective!)
I saw a documentary on Friday in class about Caravaggio (1573 – 1610), his full name is Michelangelo da Caravaggio. Poor guy, he had a difficult life, one of his parents died when he was five and the other when he was eighteen. He was also literally poor and lived in the poor part of town. Unfortunately he was also easily offended and regularly got into fights, once killing a man in a duel. Paradoxically he was also very religious, taking the bible stories very seriously and wanting to bring them to life in a truthful and lifelike way. At the time this was not the accepted practice. Art was nice and paintings of the saints were pretty. Caravaggio changed that.
(The Virgin and Child (1440), Paolo Uccello, you can take a no-flash picture of this one – notice the baby’s feet are out of the frame)
He used ordinary people, those he met in the taverns as his models. Once when he painted the Death of the Virgin for a convent, the nuns returned his finished painting as it was too realistic – she looked dead! Of course it probably didn’t help that the model was dead, and when she was alive she worked as a prostitute…. He was very offended by the nun’s action. Another painting, Doubting Thomas shows Thomas’ finger going into a realistic looking deep cut under Jesus’ rib cage – not pretty.
(Postcard of Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ (1602) – four hundred and ten years old. Not the postcard…)
He was thirty-seven when he died, in mysterious circumstances. His behaviour (the fights) may have been caused by the lead in the paint he used or maybe he was just sensitive… On Saturday I went into the National Gallery in Dublin to see his The Taking of Christ, no pictures allowed but I got a postcard.The first time I saw this painting I was struck by the shiny armour of the soldier, it was only on a subsequent visit that I realised the illusion of shine was created by paint and a very talented (if tormented) painter.
You don’t have to be happy to create art… or buttons… or crochet…. or stories… or cakes… or…. Mairead.
Friday Quote – Once upon a time Picasso couldn’t paint….
(Remembering Canada)
I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. – Pablo Picasso
What do you want to learn to do today? Mairead.
Leonard and Leonardo…….
(Botanic Gardens, succulents)
We were looking at a very good documentary about Leonard Cohen on Saturday night. It was called I’m your Man and had other people singing his songs from a concert tour, while he chatted to the interviewer (and to us.). One of the songs I hadn’t heard before was called The Traitor. While Leonard explained the song to us I was reminded of Leonardo da Vinci. (Yes, interestingly similar names….)
(Fly catcher)
Each week in Art History we get an assignment, this week it’s about the High Renaissance, we have to choose one of the artists of the time and write about them. There are (as far as I can tell) only three artists in that time – Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. I was wondering which one to go for when our lecturer told us a small detail about Leonardo….. he didn’t finish everything he started! Not really surprising when you think of all the things he did. He was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. Not really surprising and yet I was surprised, I thought finishing was really, really important and have felt guilty many times for the things I didn’t finish.
(Are they seeds?)
So getting back to Leonard Cohen who was explaining the song. He was saying that it was about a feeling that you had messed up some important mission, some important thing you were supposed to do. But you come to understand that the bigger mission was not to complete it. The real mission was whatever happened…. the deepest courage was to stand guiltless as “people called me traitor to my face“.
All is well, Mairead.
Good Luck!
“I’m a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” – Thomas Jefferson
Today could be your lucky day! Mairead.
Down memory lane with buttons….
(A Sony Walkman picture – can’t find mine – too small…)
Yesterday we went to the market in Dun Laoghaire. It’s held in the People’s Park and there’s food, books, music (live and recorded), vegetables, meat (cooked and raw), crafts, coffee and cake. We bought almond slices and Americanos (they offered to add whiskey for free if we wanted!) and sat on a picnic bench watching the world go by. I forgot to bring my camera so you’ll just have to imagine the scene.
(In case you don’t know – this is a cassette tape)
Then I remembered an assignment I had and we started talking about when I was twenty-one and Denis bought me the latest gadget (I think he had to take out a loan to buy it…) It was the Sony Walkman, a cassette tape player with head phones (not earphones) that worked on AA battery power and could fit in your hand (almost). We thought it was amazing. Before the Walkman the smallest cassette player was a chunky black plastic device needing mains power or huge batteries. The Walkman was shiny with cute buttons.
(In the process of making ceramic buttons – will be shiny)
Of course now we’re older and more mature we don’t fall for the latest gadgets, we don’t need to own the latest smallest thing that will make listening to music easier. We don’t get excited by cute buttons and shiny covers……
Maybe we haven’t changed all that much…. Mairead.
Why does this keep happening to me?
“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein
If you want a different result, then stop doing what you’re doing and start imagining something new you could do instead…… Mairead.
Watch La Luna by Pixar!
(Butterfly on lavender at Powerscourt Estate)
I watched a beautiful short movie on Sunday… here’s the blurb about it. There’s a little boy, his father and his grandfather and they are out in their boat. In the beginning of the movie the father gives his son a hat, the same kind of hat as the father’s, the same kind of hat as the grandfather’s. The father places this hat on the son, in a particular way – just like his own hat is placed on his head. The grandfather huffs and puffs, grabs the hat and then places it on his grandson’s head in a different particular way – just like his own hat is placed on his head.
(Gothic doorway)
There’s a bit of a scuffle and the father’s way of placing the hat on the little boy’s head finally wins and the story continues.
(Raindrops on flowers… requested by Grahame…..;-/)
By the end of the story the little boy places his hat in a completely different particular way on his own head as he teaches his father and grandfather something new. Our children learn all they can from us and then there comes a time for us to learn from our children. Probably sooner than we think…..
What’s the lesson for today? Mairead.
How are you today?
“People who say … they’re perfectly fine [are] more insane than the rest of us.” – Ruby Wax
We’re all crazy, Mairead.
Travel stories 