Required Assignment 2: The Meaning Behind the Meaning (Allegory)

I've been studying Claude Monet's "Railway Bridge at Argenteuil" (1873-74). I probably saw this painting when I visited the Musee d'Orsay, but I saw so many Monets I don't remember this one specifically. Today I'm fixated by this bridge painting because we're talking about allegory, and I use bridges for this all the time! In my role at work, I encourage my colleagues to build bridges to other faculty mainly to gain their perspectives but also to form alliances which can be valuable when one is assigned a big project. When we help each other, we lighten everyone's load and build a broader understanding of systems and our place in them. Monet's bridge symbolizes this for me, both in the workplace and outside of it. Build bridges to friends and neighbors, businesses and organizations, in-person or through social media to add value to life. We're standing on one shore or bank in Monet's painting, and we could figuratively jump on that steam-powered train to find out what is on the other shore. We might find assistance or encouragement for some problem that is troubling us, or we could find someone or some group with a problem with which we are equipped to help.

Monet enjoyed painting bridges as I enjoy photographing them, and he painted this bridge four times. I've chosen the one without sailboats which portrays the bridge on a gloomier day, possibly at dusk. I like this bridge for the allegory assignment because there's a hint of a train crossing the bridge (as we should) to see what is on the other side.

Claude Monet, 1873-1874

"Railway Bridge at Argenteuil"

Musée d’Orsay

ARTstor SCALA_ARCHIVES 1039779664

Sketchbook Assignment 4: Keeping Time

Sunday was my birthday, and I chose to do something special and visit the Barnes Foundation, a special art collection created by Dr. Albert Barnes in the early twentieth century. The collection moved from Merion, PA, to Center City Philadelphia in recent years amid much controversy since he had planned his museum down to the views of his arboretum through the windows. I'm reading a biography about Barnes at the moment, and learning what a difficult but brilliant and innovative man he was. Well, the Barnes Foundation was filled to capacity on this rainy Sunday, so I resorted to Plan B...

I walked up the long blocks of the wide avenue in the pouring rain, in and out of the Barnes Foundation lobby, up the 72 "Rocky Steps" and into the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

I found the Vermeer in Gallery 264 on the second floor of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Young Woman Seated at a Virginal" is on loan to Philadelphia from the Leiden Gallery in New York City. Only 36 paintings by Vermeer exist, and incidentally, three feature women standing or sitting at virginals. This 1672 painting features a woman in a gold shawl, hands on the keyboard, and looking at the painter/viewer. The most meticulous attention to detail has been paid to the subject, illuminated by light from a window we do not see. The keyboard instrument is in shadow, and so is the back of the woman. The realistic drape of the fabric, gold for the shawl, and ivory for the skirt, cause me to expect that if I reached out to touch it, I'd find them to be a heavy, high-quality silk. Two gentlemen were viewing the painting with me, and after some time, one remarked, "There's a certain intimacy, isn't there?" Indeed there is, since the woman seems to recognize us and it is such a small space. There's also a certain intimacy in the man's comment, not spoken directly to his companion, but to the group gathered to view the painting. This was not the first time I've experienced this fleeting beholder-of-art (or music) intimacy.

The above is another assignment from the MOOC I'm taking from Cal Arts. The lone sentence describes something that took a long time to happen: my walk in the rain from the train station to the Art Museum. The paragraph discusses gazing at the Vermeer painting, a slice out of time. So the assignment was to write short on a long thing, and write long on a short thing. Get it?

Required Assignment 1: Thick Description (Eric Schultz at the Noyes Gallery)

Eric Schultz, MAGIC LANTERN, 2014, compressor, car ramps, lantern, pitch forks, pipe and other found objects

The Noyes Museum of Art, Galloway Township, New Jersey

Artist Eric Schultz from Trenton is featured at the Noyes Museum of Art in Galloway Township, New Jersey. This museum is situated next to Lily Lake in New Jersey’s unique Pine Barrens region. The ride to the museum took me through a world of forests, wetlands, and tall phragmites within minutes of the contrasting world of glamour and conspicuous consumption known as Atlantic City.

Eric Schultz’s work would be at home in either world. He makes brilliant art from found objects. “One man’s trash is another person’s treasure,” Schultz says. “I enjoy making art that makes people wonder why I made it. I like to evoke some kind of wonder in people, (sic) I like it when they make up their own stories.” The colorful figure of the Magic Lantern (2014) looks over the Schultz exhibit and features pitchfork feet, yellow air-tank cheeks, gauges for eyes, and braids made from blue and green electrical wire. The found objects share size, weight, and texture with the body parts for which they are intended. Red auto ramps represent the hulking figure’s shoulder blades and back. A shiny, flesh-colored retired Hoover floor polisher plays the part of the creature’s buttocks. The Magic Lantern creature is still taller than me as he sits on his haunches. He dominates the gallery as a monster would, holding his illuminated lantern. Perhaps this mysterious creature is an inhabitant of the magical, mysterious Pine Barrens where I spotted him today. The region has a rich culture of its own complete with a fantastical creature known as the Jersey Devil, and a unique environment home to a certain species of tree frog who lives nowhere else. The Magic Lantern with his gravitas would be a natural leader.

While in the presence of the hulking lantern-monster, the mismatched ambient sounds included children’s voices, footsteps on wooden floor, Eric Schultz's own voice coming from a small video screen, and the R&B/indie-pop song stylings of singer Nicolas Castillo. The music did not fit into the Magic Lantern’s implied world, but it was a perfect match for the rest of the skylit museum which featured contemporary artists in its four other galleries.

Sketchbook Assignment 2: Storytelling from the Everyday

Quilting is a creative activity in which artistic, geometric, mathematical, and needleworking skills are required. At a quilters' jamboree such as The Quilt Fest of New Jersey X, the attendee will see award-winning innovative, traditional, and completely handmade quilts alongside entries from local quilters. The experience is illuminating for some, and inspirational for others. This past Friday at the show, I decided to eschew the brights and pastels I'm usually drawn to, and I acquired a selection of Civil War reproduction blues, browns, and creams. While resting my feet at home after the show, I paged through my quilt books for ideas and looked for something unlike anything I'd done before. Here's the complete story in pictures.

By the way, the book pictured above where I found my inspiration is: Kooler Design Studio. Quilts of Thimble Creek. Little Rock, AR: Leisure Arts, 2002. The prototype for my quilt was made by Marg Gair. My fabrics were designed by Jo Morton, Studio e, Andover, Moda, and Marcus Bros.