walkway
portrait. sfmoma cafe.
Monthly Archive for April, 2007
ImageKind is a digital printing online service that just announced a partnership with Flickr. It is “one community for creating, buying, and selling art.”
They’ve got a bunch of interesting advantages for folks with digital pictures:
- I like my prints from Adorama… but when I print out the “digital size” (e.g. 11×17) its almost impossible to find frames for them. (And my crops to 8×10 or 16×20 just don’t look as good.) ImageKind provides framed prints at digital sizes.
- Canvas prints.
- Flickr integration, which means no uploading of huge files in two places.
- And of course, the amateur’s dream of selling his/her photos to random strangers.
Would love to hear what your experience has been with ImageKind if you’ve already tried them out…
This afternoon, I went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Their current exhibit is “Picasso and American Art.” The whole thing is VERY well done: the selections, the layout, the audio tour.
The goal of the exhibit is to showcase how Picasso influenced modern art in America. Sometimes the “influence” was very direct. For instance, the below Arshile Gorky’s Blue Figure in Chair is based directly on Picasso’s Femme Asise (Seated Woman).
In general, though, the American artists first tried to imitate Picasso’s style, and then extend and go beyond it. It’s interesting to see the early attempts – Picasso’s work has such cohesion, beauty, and balance. On the other hand, many of the American artists’ early cubist or abstract studies were obviously forced and come off clunky. Of course, they (e.g. Gorky, Weber, Pollock), eventually mastered their own style that drew from Picasso but firmly stood on their own.
My favorite quote on the audio tour, however, came from Jackson Pollock. In 1939, the New York MOMA gave a comprehensive exhibit of Picasso’s work. Before then, many American artists had only seen Picasso’s cubism… Pollock was floored by the exhibit. Later…
A loud bang was heard from Pollock’s study. His wife, fellow abstractinist Lee Krasner, went to go investigate… Pollock had been looking at a catalogue of Picasso’s work, but then threw it across the room in frustration.
As explanation, he said: ”God damnit. That guy thought of everything.”
If you find yourself in San Francisco between now until May 28th, I highly recommend you take the time to visit this exhibit.
Pablo Picasso
Femme Assise (Seated Woman), 1927
Arshile Gorky
Blue Figure in Chair, c. 1934-35
I just read an excellent Washington Post article.
The Post had Joshua Bell, world renown violinist, play as an anonymous street musician in the DC metro during morning rush hour.
After 43 minutes of playing, Joshua Bell made $32.17.
- Joshua Bell concert tickets usually go for $100 minimum.
- In the metro, 1070 people walked past him.
- Only 7 people stopped to listen (for even a minute).
The articles practically begs you to ask yourself: Would I have stopped and listened?
The question is not a test of whether you have the capacity to appreciate that caliber of music. It’s whether you would have allowed yourself to hear the music in the first place.
You’re in rush hour. You’re running late. You’ve got a meeting, a deadline. You’re tired. Your week’s schedule is running through your head.
As the day-to-day world is happening, can you actually hear the beauty that exists around you? And when you do hear it, do you make yourself stop and appreciate it?
anonymous street musician (joshua bell) playing for money in the DC metro
Definition of child prodigy:
[Bell's] parents, both psychologists, decided formal training might be a good idea after they saw that their [4 year old] son had strung rubber bands across his dresser drawers and was replicating classical tunes by ear, moving drawers in and out to vary the pitch.
Another aside: a great article like this wouldn’t have been as delicious without the embedded video. Ah, technology.
My friend had a folks over yesterday to enjoy the cherry blossoms in her neighborhood. Out of 15 people, 4 had SLRs. It was a great day for photographs…
cherry blossoms
photographer
blue flowers
tea inspired self-portrait