Courbet's Territory

I went to Linda Nochlin's lecture at the Getty "How Landscape Means, Courbet and His Territory". She discussed how Courbet's landscapes could be interpreted as self portraits, or covert political statements, or in some cases, and not all are in agreement about this, some feel that there was a stage where some of his work was meaningless. She states, "Once a painting is out in the world its meaning is up for grabs." I find that an interesting thought and of course any individual finds meaning as a work of art is perceived through their subjective filters. I also find it interesting how these perceptions shift over time.

I found the lecture to be very entertaining in several ways. At one point a cell phone went off while Linda Nochlin was speaking - it turned out to be hers. That was good for a laugh. It might have been even funnier had she answered it.

New Work

I am calling this one finished. This is painted from memory of the way the sky appeared a couple of months ago.

Halfway

I think it is about halfway through my partial fast. I think I'm okay now with not having caffeine. That is, I don't miss it and not having it doesn't have anymore negative effects, no headaches, I wake up easily enough, and so on. Now I am noticing the effect of the absence of refined sugar. I allow myself to have some on weekends between Saturday evening and Sunday evening. I am starting to see how much of an effect it has on mood and on appetite. The more sugar I eat the more sugar I want and the more food I want to eat in general the next day or so. And not drinking coffee and not eating refined sugar allows me to feel calmer. However, if anything goes wrong, I still feel like compensating with a cookie.

Neuroaesthetics

I learned a new word today....neuroaesthetics, which is the science of the biological basis of aesthetic experience. In other words the brain is wired to know and appreciate beauty.

I found some interesting writing on this, including 10 principles of art from The Science of Art, by V.S. Ramachandran, written with William Hirstein. This science seems to explore the idea that there are universals in art that cross cultural and/or religious boundaries.

I haven't read all the material but it has me wondering, what about the new? What about culture? Didn't Gombrich already cover much of this? And so on.

Also, the Getty Research Institute will be having a lecture about neuroaesthetics in the near future.

Spring?

The calendar tells me that today is the vernal equinox which indicates the beginning of spring. I do hear a lot of little chirping birds, however the breeze is cold and the sky is cloudy, although the daffodils are blooming, so, we'll see.......

I'm glad that the daylight hours are increasing-more painting!

Day Off

Went for a hike yesterday, and in the daytime for a change. We hiked up to Amir's Garden in Griffith Park. I have been there before, but never in the daytime. It was a treat. Growing there are, among other things, succulents, geraniums, jasmine and I think I even saw an olive tree.

On the way up there were plenty of wild mustard flowers growing along the trail. I like to eat them, they taste like little, tender, spicy broccolli. We also saw a hawk of impressive size, an alligator lizard tail, and a drummer under a tree with a full drum set.

Hail, or snow, or slush, or....

...something that fell from the sky that's still out there.