Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2007. I snapped it in the middle of a pumpkin patch at Butler's Orchard in Maryland. This is a farm we would take Mattie to each October! He loved pumpkin picking, riding tractors, and playing in hay. I know my readers have seen this picture multiple times, but it is one of my favorite photos of Mattie, and I can't think of a better picture to capture the Fall. What I love about this picture is Mattie looks healthy and happy. In fact, prior to kindergarten Mattie really looked fragile and quite skinny. However, from ages five to six, Mattie was beginning to fill out and had this wonderful pink glow to his cheeks. It is hard to believe that underneath this healthy glow, his body was slowly being taken over by cancer. As Peter kids me all the time, it is apparently easy to tell which photos of Mattie were taken by me versus Peter. Peter claims that Mattie smiled or beamed when I was the photographer. I am not sure I agree with this assessment but Peter always gets me to laugh about this!
Quote of the day: Give sorrow words. ~ William Shakespeare
My parents and I visited the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, CA. I have driven passed this museum many times, and have always heard wonderful things about it, but until today, I had never been inside of it. The museum was named after Norton Simon, a distinguished entrepreneur, industrialist, and philanthropist, who also contributed to the development of this fine museum. In 1972, Norton Simon was quoted as saying ,"One of the most profound means of human communication is the visual arts. By establishing a meaningful dialogue between an artist's vision of the world and our own perceptions, art can help us to understand ourselves more fully. Moreover, art at its finest gives us a deep sense of history, tradition, and the true potentialities of man's creativity. In today's world where often scientific development is regarded as the highest goal and where the individual frequently feels alienated from himself and those around him, the role of art becomes increasingly important in keeping open the lines of communication."
The Norton Simon is a small and intimate museum, and true to Simon's vision. The museum has done a wonderful job at capturing the human condition through art. We toured through the 19th and 20th century wings and naturally spent a great deal of time with my true interests, the Impressionists! What I love about Impressionists is that they depicted and created art based on their perspective and in many cases their feelings. Impressionist art isn't exact, instead it is a marvelous expression of imagination and creativity! What I observed at this museum was the pieces selected all seemed to have a story attached to them.... a story which helps the viewer understand the circumstances in an artist's life. Such circumstances (e.g., a death of a loved one, financial hardship, illness, etc...) that influence, explain, and provide insights into the art before our eyes. Below is a sampling of some of the wonderful pieces we saw today.
He moved from Paris to Arles, in the South of France, to escape what he saw as the decadence of urban living in the French capital. He moved to improve his health and to return to a world less cluttered by corruption and selfishness. His move also facilitated his return to the painting of peasant life. Unlike earlier peasant portraits, this one used a spectacular range of pulsating and vibrant colors, colors which were used to express the intensification of the subject's character.
The Mulberry Tree (1899) by Vincent van Gogh
In May of 1899, van Gogh entered an asylum. He experienced a breakdown the previous December in which he severed his left earlobe. This incident left him suffering from periodic attacks of epilepsy. Between attacks, he painted this exquisite painting. The thick, curling paint used to depict autumn colored leaves lends the tree a sculptural quality, particularly against the more thinly painted, evenly brushed background. Eight months after the completion of this painting, van Gogh completed the act of suicide.
The Artist's Garden at Vetheuil (1881) by Claude Monet
Monet painted this particular work as he was recovering from several tragedies in his life. One of the tragedies was the death of his wife, Camille, during the birth of their second son. It seems to me that this painting is a magnificent illustration of the therapeutic nature of art. Broad strokes of blues, violets, creams, and whites delineate the large swaths of sky, house, and garden path, while energetic dapples of greens, reds, and yellows brilliantly define the abundant green foliage and the profusion of sunflowers in full bloom.
The next piece illustrates pentimento. Some of you may recall that I went to a cafe yesterday by this very name. I did not know what this artistic term meant until I looked it up yesterday. It means an alteration of a painting, and van Gogh's Winter is an excellent example of pentimento!
Winter (The Vicarage Garden Under Snow, 1885) Vincent van Gogh took an interest in painting peasants and laborers, which alienated him from his middle class community. van Gogh turned to these local characters as his subject matter, depicting them at work in the fields and at their spinning wheels and looms. In fact when this painting was x-rayed, it revealed the composition of a woman sitting at a spinning wheel (see the photo on the left). It wasn't clear if van Gogh ran out of resources to complete this work or he was simply dissatisfied. However, he literally painted right over this woman and captured this laborer tending to the garden of a vicarage (where he lived; the photo below). van Gogh wrote a letter to his brother which expressed his views on the parallels between peasant life and bleak landscape. He said, "the life and death of peasants remain forever the same, withering regularly, like the grass and flowers growing in that churchyard."
Needless to say, van Gogh was a deeply feeling person, as evidenced through his writings and paintings!
Morisot was considered one of the most dedicated impressionists of her time. She displayed her works at 7 out of the 8 exhibitions in Europe, which in those days was unheard of for women! Many of her works featured women, children, and domestic life as her subject matter.
View at Berneval (1900) by Camille Pissarro
Pissarro painted this seaside resort community in Normandy, where he and many other French artists retreated. This painting caught my attention because of the soothing colors and the view of the sea. It was the kind of painting that made you wish you could jump right into the scene and experience it first hand.
Leaf in the Wind (1963) by Agnes Martin
It is said that this piece elicits private contemplation! I don't know, frankly I am pretty sure if you gave me a canvas, a pencil, and a ruler, I too could achieve this same look, and I wouldn't even charge you admission to see it!
The Tokaido Road or Eastern Sea route connected Edo, the newly established center of power, and Kyoto, the traditional imperial capital of Japan. The route had 53 stopping stations, allowing weary travellers and their horses a place to rest and have a meal. Feudal lords were required to live in Edo every other year, therefore they would travel along the Tokaido in large processions. Hiroshige's series provides a visual journey along this celebrated highway.
I had the opportunity to go out to lunch and dinner with my parents today, and we chatted about all sorts of things. Being in the same physical location enables us to connect in an important way. Losing Mattie has impacted our entire family, and time together helps us all renew our energies and feelings together.
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