Archive for the ‘curiosities’ Category
What, exactly, about the light?
Brillianted and Shadowed and Beyonded
What about the light turned mundane joyous?
Dorian asked. Great question.
On May 23 at 7:32am I widened a set of blinds in a way I typically don’t. My office was brillianted (please, ma’am, can that be a verb?) in a light I don’t often witness. After our long winter and so many dark mornings, this unfettered, energetic beam lit tired old spaces. Intense oranges resulted. Jaunty slants of shadow led to spot lit scraps of yesterday’s thought pinned to the wall—the ordinary jetsam of my process.
This May light a minor miracle revealing what I had forgotten.
It was the visual parallel of smelling fresh bread or brewing coffee—arming my lazy brain and fortifying it for that day’s work.
That new old light still reminds me of the old gospel story where the man now walking was never the only paralyzed man in attendance. Shining light can make a person dance.
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Image credit: mirrormaskcamera via 2headedsnake
Can’t Judge a Bookist by Her/His Cover
What We’re Reading
Yesterday my second grade teacher, Mrs. Wheeler, stopped by with a sharp attitude. Her words made me watch how my assumptions and stereotypes changed as I saw what these strangers were reading.
“FRANKENSTEIN”, BY MARY SHELLEY
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Image credit: Ourit Ben-Haim
Cody Kiser: Painting the Consumer’s Irrational Fears
View from the backside
Cody Kiser paints his way into the mundane stuff of everyday life and resurrects it in a form that is both familiar and disconcerting. Mr. Kiser’s artist statement says his work functions as commentary on the irrational fears peculiar to people who self-identify as consumers. He strips away language and cultural barriers in his paintings and deposits the viewer on a not-so-distant shore with a view of the backside of our culture.
Mr. Kiser’s paintings drew in Mrs. Kirkistan and myself as we wandered through this year’s Northeast Minneapolis Art-a-Whirl. We like seeing things from a different perspective and Kiser’s work accomplished that instantly. But there is also a sort of gathering darkness to his work that hints at sinister ends. Where have the people gone? And how did I get to this place where I’m shopping for stuff I can barely identify?
Finding patterns and vision in the dreary details of everyday life is itself inspiring. The surprise is that the closer we examine nearly anything, the more we see how wrong were our first assumptions. Upon a close examination, the hard surface becomes porous. Smooth becomes cratered under the right light. It’s funny how often that proves true.
See more of Cody Kiser’s work here.
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Ulysses Despite His Parents
Ulysses S. Grant had a serious, civic demeanor despite his parents’ constant pranks.
Old Joy: Nothing Happens.
Really. Nothing.
It’s a walk in the woods. It’s reconnecting with an old friend—though it’s unclear if the friend is a bit off his nut because of all the weed he smokes or just generally off his nut. For 73 minutes I waited for the crazy guy to pull out an axe or to shoot the other friend. Nothing.
Old Joy is a meditation on slowing down. The photography of the Oregon woods is beautiful. The destination of the Bagby Hot Springs, breathtaking. Lots of peaceful ambient sound and streams and dripping. The vehicle is two friends reconnecting in awkward ways: one has moved on, about to become a father. One lives among his abstractions, poverty and drug sales.
Watch Old Joy for the reflections on friendship. Watch expecting to revisit your own awkward attempts to reconnect. Don’t watch for robots, explosions or aliens, though Will Oldham’s character (“Kurt”) might just as easily fit in a Men In Black film. Actually, Oldham’s beard alone would make an excellent alien.
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conversation is an engine 