5.28.2023 (at the Getty) (i just drank milk (large cappuccino))
[I took an art history class once and they talked a lot about framing — you know, foreground and background and where the eye is drawn. And here — here you can see that the artist is drawing the viewer’s eye to this sad woman. She’s not directly in the center — off to the left — rule of thirds or something — but the light falls directly on her. She’s illuminated. And the figures around her — they — it’s framing, y’know?]
[Is my smile good? Does my smile look right? And --.]
There must be more to watching a man than the watch him look at art.
[Hugh has the erasers. If you want an eraser, ask Hugh.]
There must be more to watching a man than to watch him look at a woman, and contemplate her brushstrokes, and lean in a little too close, and stand back to get a better sense of the whole. Does he prefer a standing nude or a reclining nude? Who is the penitent Mary Magdalene to YOU?
There is Saint Joseph in the foreground — in the center, here — really in the center — and this is a headboard — and this was likely a wedding present — and there is a dog all the way off to the left, his front feet in the water — and there, off to the right, are ships — and they are manned, they must be — and the world stretches back and back and back to mountain paths and to distant towers and to steeples that predate churches — and they say that our dreams are populated by figures we saw somewhere once — and they say that angels sometimes visit men in dreams.
I want a clarity of line. I demand a clarity of line. Oil on panel. Etched glass. I want a countryside that retreats. I want a town in the background. I want a background.
It is foggy today. It is cool and foggy today. Everything is fog — the world sits on top of it.
The ducks are very realistic here. They almost look real.