Writing Love Letters

Detail of Young Girl Writing a Love Letter (1755) by Pietro Antonio Rotari

This week, we've got a bunch of holidays crowded together. When celebrating Mardi Gras, two days ago, I posted up an appropriate work of art from the local art collection. I figured that would be a fun thing to do again with today's Valentine's Day post.

Therefore, here's Pietro Rotari's Young Girl Writing a Love Letter, one of my favorite paintings from the Norton Simon Museum. I adore her coquettish, sidelong glance and confident, almost saucy, demeanor. Her actions indicate that she's daydreaming about the object of her adoration, but her pose implies that this object is actually the viewer!!! It's a playful piece that I enjoy visiting time and again, both to appreciate the work and to observe how other viewers react to it.

It's especially fun to see the difference in reaction between women and men. ;-)

Anyways, we can't have a holiday post without Barbie.

Queen of Hearts Barbie (1994, designed by Bob Mackie) says "Happy Valentine's Day!!!"

Likewise, whether you have a sweetheart or are currently going solo, this day, like every other, can be as good as you can make it. So, seek out that which makes you happy and have a wonderful time!!!

Glorious Spam!!!

Sir Can-A-Lot, cartoon promoter of Glorious SPAM!!!

We'll there are a whole lot of silly cartoon characters used to shill various foodstuffs. Perhaps one of the silliest is the  "spokescharacter" that SPAM introduced to celebrate their 75th anniversary, Sir Can-A-Lot. This diminutive knight goes about surprising people in their kitchens and exhorting them to spice up their meals with "Glorious SPAM!"

Yeah, that's not a word pairing that one hears very often. ;-)

Anyways, I figured we could do with a whimsical post tonight.And every one's favorite "mystery meat" is on the menu!!!

While the Thrill Is On

Mardi Gras Barbie says "Laissez les bons temps rouler!!!" Now, throw her some beads. ;-)

Well, it's Fat Tuesday and we can't let the day pass without some type of celebration.

I've been taking a couple days off. That'll put me in good spirits to power through the Lenten season, in which I plan to post each and every day. I might even write on occasion about religion or spirituality, topics that I avoid but, oddly enough, about which I have a considerable amount of knowledge.

Normally, I don't like writing about matters that might upset my readers. We're here for the fun, not to quarrel across the internet. But changing things up every so often is probably a good policy, keeping fresh the random stuff that pops up here at Paideia. We'll see how it goes.

Boulevard Montmartre Mardi Gras (1897) by Camille Pissarro

But, for today, let's let the good times roll. ;-)

Become a Habit

Shadows and reflections upon the surface of a car, gilded illusions of the day's final hour

A Fixed Idea

(By Amy Lowell)

What torture lurks within a single thought 

When grown too constant, and however kind, 

However welcome still, the weary mind 

Aches with its presence. Dull remembrance taught 

Remembers on unceasingly; unsought 

The old delight is with us but to find 

That all recurring joy is pain refined, 

Become a habit, and we struggle, caught. 

You lie upon my heart as on a nest, 

Folded in peace, for you can never know 

How crushed I am with having you at rest 

Heavy upon my life. I love you so 

You bind my freedom from its rightful quest. 

In mercy lift your drooping wings and go.

Three trees illuminated in the late afternoon light

Well, I was in the mood for more poetry. ;-)

I really haven't very much to share today. But, since it is Amy Lowell's birth date, we can appreciate her lovely poetry and call it a day.

Friday Flowers: Forget-Me-Not

Myosotis sylvatica: Victoria Blue

One Art

(By Elizabeth Bishop)

The art of losing isn't hard to master; 

so many things seem filled with the intent

to be lost that their loss is no disaster,

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster

of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.

The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

places, and names, and where it was you meant

to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or

next-to-last, of three loved houses went.

The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.

I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

- Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident

the art of losing's not too hard to master

though it may look like (Write it!) like a disaster.

Forget-Me-Not

Another Friday. More flowers. ;-)

And today we're celebrating the birth date of one of my favorite poets, Elizabeth Bishop. With such beautiful words, such compelling verse, she is in no danger of being forgotten or lost.

Lost Bikini

Lost Bikini cocktail

I'm the type of person who takes comfort in gustatory pleasures, rich meals and smooth beverages. This is especially true for those periods in my life when things have me down. Now, it is really very extremely bad to let my Epicurian delights get the better of me. So, I impose limitations, projects, and other mental diversions to reduce intake through arbitrary procedures.

Yeah, that sounds silly, but it works for me. Therefore, since grief might drive me to excessive imbibing, I'm making a point of savoring a single drink per day. Moreover, I'm limiting it to rum drinks for February. That's because rum is very filling and reminds me of happy, warmer days.

Moreover, various rum cocktails are so pretty and of delightful coloration, from the dirty green of a Crocodile to the deep azure of the Blue Hawaiian to the Psycho's lurid crimson. And they taste absolutely delicious!!! ;-)

Well, we'll see how it turns out.

Relentless and Restless

Detail of Big Box Zombie by Nathan Fox, illustration for Bloomberg Businessweek (Oct 18, 2012)

Some days leave you feeling like a shambling ruin, one of the walking dead, too tired to do anything but slump over a meal and look at anything on television. It can be a grind.

For me, this is one of those days. Fortunately, I had some interesting videos to get my brain back into functionality, and the pizza was a help too. Yum!!!

My life has been consistently bad this year, with only a few upsides. Yet, I have somehow been able to keep up a daily stream of blog posts. I really don't know how I set aside some time to write these things, but it's kind of cool that I do. Yeah, almost nobody reads my stuff, but that's alright. I take pleasure in composing these little works, from attempting to structure eloquent prose, to searching out a photo that best captures the mood of the text, and then selecting some fun videos to wrap things up.

Eh, I don't know if I'm doing a good job at it, but practice makes perfect. I'll keep on going until I finally fall apart, a moldering mess at the keyboard. ;-)

Second Star to the Right

"You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!!!" - Disney's Peter Pan was released on February 5, 1953

Today marks the 60th anniversary since the release of Walt Disney's Peter Pan. Although I wasn't around to see the first run of this movie, I caught it on a subsequent re-release during the 1970s. It is one of the first movies that I remember seeing and, therefore, it has always had a special place in my imagination.

As a child, my interest was in the fantasy adventure elements of the story, as well as the mischievous antics of Tinker Bell, always the troublesome pixie. However, looking at it again in adulthood, the themes of nostalgia for the carefree days of youth create a bittersweet counterpoint throughout the story. I eventually read the original work by J.M. Barrie and, though it was a bit of a grind, my appreciation for the story grew.

There's something very pertinent about Peter Pan to those who cultivate artistic aspirations. The desire to express how one feels through an aesthetic work is a very intense engagement with the imagination, an act of innocence which presumes that others would actually wish to receive one's creative vision. Every time one reaches within one's mind to engage in artistry, it is as if the artist is journeying to their own personal Neverland.

Tinker Bell stuck in a keyhole

Yet, it is so hard to make a living as an artist, of any type. There is always a nagging pressure to "grow up" and "be responsible" by getting a "real" job or accepting assignments that pay the bills but have little to do with artistry, in other words, selling out. Moreover, there is nothing fun about being a starving artist, working part-time minimum wage jobs in retail or food services to barely get by.

Even with supportive friends and family, it is hard to ignore the social expectations into which we are born. An inner voice will always criticize the "perpetual childhood" of the artistic life.

But, when the creative spirit flows, all the troubles of this world fall away. You can fly!!!

Beacon of Light to Pierce the Gloom

Point Fermin Lighthouse in San Pedro, built in 1874

Although the sky was leaden, I went to visit a couple of the local lighthouses, Point Fermin in San Pedro and Point Vicente in Palos Verdes. From these locations the view of the Pacific Ocean is especially dramatic, seen from high upon the bluffs with Catalina Island in the distance.

At Point Fermin, I was able to enjoy a tour of the building, learning about the site's history. Walking among the antique furnishings and looking at the old photographs, it was interesting to think of life back in those days, before the Los Angeles region had been developed, when it was a rough frontier town. Without our modern irrigation bringing greenery to this prominence, the cliffs would have been a barren and forlorn place in which the keeper's family would have lived in near isolation.

A view over the Point Fermin bluffs down at the Pacific Ocean

On the other side of the peninsula, at Point Vicente, there was no tour of the lighthouse, which was built in 1926, an era with a larger population and much improved communication and transportation technologies, making life as a lighthouse keeper a little less lonely. However, the nearby Interpretive Center was very active with whale watchers, seeking to spy a few of these leviathans on their migration down the California coast.

I saw no whales during my visit, but the playful antics of some dolphins made for fun viewing.

Point Vicente Lighthouse in Palos Verdes, built in 1926

The weather matched my mood, but keeping busy, appreciating tales of times long gone and enjoying the natural wonders, lightened my disposition. Now, the grey clouds of unhappiness are still weighing down upon me, but maintaining an active mind and seeking out activities to engage my imagination will lead me through the gloom.

2013 Weekly Wrap #3

Twilight, overlooking the Pacific Ocean

This has been a very bad time for me.

You have probably noticed that I'm dealing with serious unhappiness in my personal life. Well, to make matters worse, Google has played around with its Image Search, resulting in a massive drop of viewers to this blog. To explain the situation in a succinct way, the images of this site can be viewed in full without having to actually visit this blog. Therefore, Google Images gets the traffic that my content generates, but Paideia gets nothing.

Now, as I have said on past occasions, I don't blog for fame or fortune. My goal is to share information, ideas, and my diverse enthusiasms with anybody who is interested. It's all about learning and experiencing, conveying my love for the arts and sciences to others and, hopefully, encouraging them to cultivate a similar passion for learning. I am an evangelist preaching a gospel of aesthetic revelation.

Therefore, it doesn't really matter if it's me or Google that gets the credit. As long as my message is expressed, then this blogging is worthwhile. However, I am a rarity in this matter; most bloggers want something for their hard work, a reward for the content which they create. Yet, their material is being scraped away and their traffic revenue is plummeting. That's not fair.

I'm waiting to see if the situation will be addressed. It feels somewhat unethical to be donating my content to Google when they're causing such difficulties for my fellow bloggers. I may have to close down the shop or stop putting up images. We'll see.

Lawrence under the nearly leafless branches

Anyways, here's the Wrap.

We had four Art related posts. First, we appreciated the street artistry of Angry Woebots. Then we visited CoproGallery to view the exhibit, Conjoined III, filled with ghoulish imagery. Next up was a birthday celebration for Claes Oldenburg, featuring some of his works in Las Vegas. Finally, we appreciated Cesar Santander's painting of Betty Boop, which was part of Route 66, an exhibition at Skidmore Contemporary Art.

There were two Friday Flowers, a white winter and some Birds of Paradise. Silly Saturday took us to the World of Mr. Toast. ;-)

We brought back our monthly celebration of music, looking at the songs of January over the decades. And then we had three photo posts, some random groceries, leafless trees, and an image of twilight descending; it was a weepy collection.

Anyways, we'll see what the future brings. I'm driving in the dark right now, but I don't know when things will brighten up, when the sun will eventually rise.

Detail of Midnight 76 (2012) by Eric Nash, part of Skidmore Contemporary's Route 66 exhibit.

Enjoy!!!

Champagne Coupe, Garnished with a Boop

Detail of Betty in a Glass (2012) by Cesar Santander

You all know that we love Betty Boop here at Paideia. So, when I saw this painting by Cesar Santander at Skidmore Contemporary Art, I was thrilled. If only I were a wealthy man. . . ;-)

Well, I'm a bit short on time at the moment, but I figured that this image would make for a fun way to celebrate our Silly Saturday post. If time permits, I'll try to write up a post on Skidmore's current exhibition, Route 66, which is full of the mid-century imagery that I love so very much. Yeah, I can get a bit nostalgic from time to time.

Anyways, here's some music.

Friday Flowers: Paradise

Strelitzia: Bird Of Paradise

Dreams

(By Langston Hughes)

Hold fast to dreams 

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

Crane flowers and a blue sky

Did you know that the Bird of Paradise is the official flower of the city of Los Angeles? Given the way that they thrive out here, it doesn't surprise me. Even in the midst of an unusually cold winter, these hardy plants are still thriving.

Well, it's certainly nice to see these bright colors. ;-)