Tag: post a day

Monday, Monday

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chron102999La vie d’artiste

After a long and unexpectedly protracted hiatus from the blogosphere where one day just rolled into the next without a blip, we find ourselves back at the keyboard. Admittedly, it would have been easy to let things lapse just a little bit longer but like that thank-you letter to Aunt Joan for the bespectacled crazy cat-lady slippers, it just had to be done.

We missed you. There were moments in the craziness of this past month’s real-life project that we yearned just to be blogging – to toss everything aside because it was becoming a chore, a bore, an insurmountable task for which our skill set seemed ill-equipped but we survived. We proved that given enough sheer will-power (and divine inspiration) we could overcome the limitations of time zones, scheduling and other parties interference and interest (or lack thereof). We learned that sometimes you have to push to get what you want and know is right and sometimes you have to put your faith in the person handling your stuff at the other end and just hope, pray and cross your fingers that they too have your best interests at heart.

We’re far from done on this one.  Many times we moaned to ourselves that we were too old to be doing this, that in an ideal world we were supposed to be retired by now, but we did manage to hurtle across the first deadline panting to lie winded for all of five minutes before leaping back into action. Our suppliers delivered, as promised, leading us to believe that the true meaning of service is indeed being perpetuated by a small group willing to make sure things get done right. Karma points all around – on to Part Two.

We did meet a few truly nice people, people who went out of their way to pay attention, say something good for a change, be encouraging about what we’re doing and yes, even get excited of the prospect of things going forward. Much like all our blog readers who waited patiently for our return.

We’re glad to be back. We will, shortly, indulge in a bit of shameless self-promotion to show you what we have been working so hard on for longer than we care to admit.

Forgive us, in the meantime,  if we are a bit rusty in our routineness…

F is also for Friday: Japanese Pre-War Painting

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The first snows are almost upon us.  The light is changing, becoming more muted, much like the sky filtering through in this late 19th century watercolour.   There is nothing like a good mystery to keep indoor life interesting and the search for information about the artist who captured the very breath of winter in these few sure brushstrokes proved riveting.

We have become accustomed to being able to find what we want with a tap on the keyboard – names, biographies, archives – and when all else fails we resort to Wikipedia, but sometimes the trail has been cold for so long that little remains.  Such is the case with Japanese Pre-War painter Ginnosuke Yokouchi (1870 -1942) whose slate, apart from images of some recent reprints and works in a private collection, seems to have been wiped clean.

Oddly, the scene (above) of the little group on their way through the snow to the local temple made one think of Pissarro – it is as if the two painters were inspired by the same soft light, the crispness of the winter air and the serenity of daily village life unfolding around them, even though they were worlds and years apart.

Road to Versailles at Louveciennes – Camille Pissarro, 1869

Was Yokouchi a part of the group of Japanese painters during the Taishō period so greatly influenced by European Impressionist works?  Perhaps, but for lack of a backstory, we may never know…

More to look at:

Impressionism
Ginnosuke Yokouchi at the Hanga Gallery
Japanese Watercolours
Camille Pissarro

F is also for Friday: Impressionism

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A favourite amongst many masterworks

Across the Bored had the privilege of visiting the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts to see the French Impressionist collection currently on tour courtesy of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts.  Consisting of four relatively small spaces whose walls were hung with the cream of the Impressionist crop, this exhibition was filled to capacity at the time of our visit.  Nonetheless, the works on display are truly jaw-dropping.

Now, here comes the but – we were acting as field-trip chaperone for a group of grade 9 students from a friend’s art class…

Although well-behaved, polite, reasonably responsive (for 14 year-olds) and happy to have the afternoon off, only about 10% of them had any idea of what they were about to see. This wasn’t for lack of preparation on their teacher’s part but rather that they just didn’t care…  Luckily, we had a lovely tour guide who not only knew fascinating details about the paintings presented but also had the magical gift of keeping the group relatively engaged for what could have been a very long hour otherwise.  The only time she cringed was when one student kept repeating “Is it real?”

The temptation to blurt out “NO, it’s a digital reproduction – it’s a knock-off made in CHINA and you can get one in the gift shop” was great.

Afterwards, as they all sat on the stairs of the museum foyer, we made the mistake of asking them if they had liked their visit.  Blank faces.  Really?  Well, what type of art did they like?  “Music art”, “Dance art”…  what?  Do you mean like Warhol, Richard Hamilton or Banksy?  Blank faces.

Here is what they did like…

OK, so it’s cute…

Didn’t get a chance to look at the date on this installation but it sure has echoes of Brazilian design team, Fernando and Humberto Campana’s 2002 Banquete chair…

Where is the snake?

Oh well, looks like we will be going back to the Museum.  Solo this time.

More to look at:

Impressionism
Impressionist Masterpieces from the Clark Collection
Giovanni Boldini
Claude Monet
Edgar Degas
Statement Furniture: Fernando & Humberto Campana – RETROSPECT

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Pressure

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This is our last dance – not much has changed since 1982…

For those of us of a certain age, the saying there there is nothing new under the sun starts to have greater meaning.  Trends in many circles – art, music and fashion – come and go, then reappear, reinvented with a new coat of paint, appropriated riff or brighter shade of lipstick.  The cycle seems to get shorter as time goes on but then our life experience alone suggests that we have probably seen or done it at least once before.  It is said that people born between the first World War and 1960 have witnessed more changes to our planet and the way we conduct our daily existence than those at any other point in history.  Some days, life plays out with nary a hiccup, on others it is “full of sound and fury” but on most we are, at best, reacting to circumstance.

The heavy load that man doth bear…

When the stresses of the 21st century seem about to collide all at once in some sort of weird cosmic finger-pointing, all that is necessary is to step back – or to the side – and think about how someone else is dealing with the vagaries of life at this precise moment in time.  Such visualization can have dramatic and profound results: Would you really want to be in those shoes?

Today, of all days, when a good portion of the population on this continent feels the onus of civic responsibility weighing down upon them, Across the Bored puts forward the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge topic – Pressure.   In all its incarnations as a verb or a noun, action or reaction, as a social construct or in the animal kingdom, from architecture to hydraulics, sound to weather, our world is an example of how everything is affected by compelling and constraining influences.

So,  “How does pressure appear to you?” – As a butress flying out from a gothic cathedral, the force of a hurricane bending trees to its will or as that long line of voters snaking into the distance?

If this is all too much, just Relax…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or post by you or attributed to someone else, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble.
  3. The Challenge will be open for 6 days after it is posted upon which I will post another challenge.
  4. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on Across the Bored’s blog.
  4. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Foreign

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One of these things is different from the others….

This week’s  Photo Challenge: Foreign opens up a whole world of images with great visual impact. Although the text on this wall-sized butcher’s sign needed translation, the graphic content was fuel for a hot debate between travellers to ShenZhen.  Unpalatable to many of the group, vegetarians and carnivores alike, it proved once again that when travelling everything is relative – a matter of taste, so to speak – and that, like a good book or film, the enjoyment lies in our suspension of belief.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Silhouette

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to new ideas…

The learning curve has been a little steeper than usual this week.  Here, all things tech are absorbed at a pretty much need-to-know speed, manuals and instruction books a luxury for those few minutes when there are no deadlines or last minute tasks.  iphone, ipad, laptop, the computer itself with all its magic programs, the big camera (or “my baby” as Miss Z covetously likes to call it), each has its own universe of creative possibilities but also the caveat that you have to figure out how to get there.  This week’s Photo Challenge: Silhouette arrived in the middle of a work-related road trip to the wilds of Ontario. Yahoo! No archives to consult, a tight schedule and wi-fi became the borders to cross.

Out of the city and into the trees

Silhouette is not an easy challenge – it is a way of seeing we often bypass in favour of close inspection of the thing itself.  It is the shadow, the outline, the impression left by complex forms that sometimes says more.  Toying around with the iphone proved artistic salvation. Who knew one could get quite lovely results through the window of a fast-moving car in less than ideal conditions or just by pointing at the sky and hoping for the best?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitary

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When few are awake 

Travelling into a time zone that is ahead of our own lets us rise comfortably early.  As the sky starts to change from inky blue, everything is calm and it is easy to imagine those who have already been up for a few hours, from the vendors in the market and the bakers pushing golden loaves into ovens to street cleaners sweeping away the dust of yesterday. From a hotel window we can survey the city as it stirs from sleep: at dawn, all is quiet and one can easily pick out single sounds before they get swallowed by the rush of the day – water tumbling over itself into the fountain, a robin calling to its mate, the far-off rumble of a city bus making its rounds.  Like the solitary woman who wends her way to work or the man practising tai-chi in the clear light of a new day, we are alone with our thoughts, undistracted and undisturbed.