Girls’ Day at the Art Museum March 15, 2009
Posted by A in Art, Entertainment, Friends, Hobbies, Life, Western Civilization.Tags: Art, Friends, jan lievens
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I’ve been wanting to check out the museum’s new exhibit for quite some time, and today I went with 2 of my girl friends. The exhibit was displaying Jan Lievens’ work. I’ve seen other painings in this style (by van Dyck, Rembrandt, and Rubens) so I knew I’d like the artwork at least to some degree. I have to say I liked it quite a bit.
To me, this is art. It was beautiful, it required quite a bit of skill as well as tallent and training. The people in the paintings seems to be alive, like they’d just walk off the frame and shake your hand. The eyes in the portraits look alive and intelligent. The objects in still life paintings (Stil life with books – this one was my favorite, I think) look so real you can touch them. That pitcher, the highlights, and the books. The books look so real that I can almost smell the dust and the leather of the binding. You can almost feel the grime on the musical instrument that’s in the background.
I was completely shocked at how he depicted cloth. In one painting, Profile of an old woman, the gauzy head covering is stunningly painted. You can see how the organza folds and the shimmer and gold highlights. In another painting, he shows his mastery by painting silk in such a way that makes it glow.
We took our time at the exhibit and walked through it slowly, savoring the experience.
After this, we deicded to visit the rest of the museum and see what’s there. I haven’t been to the museum for a few years, so it was nice to see what else they had. I didn’t enjoy the rest of the museum as I enjoyed the Lievens’ exhibit. Let’s just say that my idea of art and many people’s idea of art varies wildly. Some things look more like an engineering braintease yet others are just canvases colored in a single color, and some are just like something a first-grader could paint. I don’t know what it’s supposed to make me think other than I could have done the same and gotten paid a lot of money. It doesn’t inspire me, it doesn’t make me think, it doesn’t uplift, and it looks like it takes no skill whatsoever. If you painted a wall at any point in your life, you could have painted some of the things on the walls of the museum. But to some it’s art. To me, it’s not.
Birthday February 27, 2009
Posted by A in Friends, Life, Relationships, Society, self.Tags: birthday, Friends, Society
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As kids, we look forward to birthdays with great anticipation. As adults, many of us dread turning another year older. Usually, I dread my birthday and it’s not because I wish for the alternative.
Last year, my birthday was really hard on me. Not because I am now in a different age bracket or started a new decade of my life. It was hard because I thought I’d be much farther along in life than I am. I just naturally assumed that by a certain age, my life would look a certain way. Well, it doesn’t. I feel like I’m “behind” where I should be, and before you ask who determines the “where should you be” – I determine that.
Another reason I dread my birthday is I don’t really want to celebrate it. I want to celebrate achievement. Thank God we live in a time when reaching adulthood is no longer an achievement worth celebrating. It’s not like I’m over 100, though that would certainly be a number worth celebrating. Thank God (and modern medicine, living conditions, and progress on too many fronts to mention) that my age is no longer considered “old age” or even close to it.
Now, when I say I don’t want to celebrate it, I mean *I* don’t want to make a big fuss about. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want others to make a big fuss about it. I know, I know, silly. But true. Don’t get me wrong, I love my birthday, and I do look forward to it, though no longer with the anticipation and excitement I had as a child. Even something as small as getting a phone call from those who are important to me, makes the day great.
Does any of that make sense to anyone else?
Catching up February 14, 2009
Posted by A in Friends, Life, Random, Relationships, Society.Tags: catching up, Friends, Life, Society
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In the last few months I’ve been doing a lot of catching up. Not on things like work or house work or reading or whatever but catching up with people I haven’t seen in a while.
This past December a fried whom I haven’t seen in a few years was in town with his family. It’s been more than 2 years since I’ve seen them and it was good to catch up and meet his toddler. A very adorable boy who was very tired because his schedule was all different.
A few weeks ago, I had lunch with a friend whom I haven’t seen since my last birthday (which was almost a year ago). Turns out that he works practically across the street from where I work, but when he started work at this new job, it was too cold for us to meet for lunch. He did call a few months ago and I told him that I’m a wuss to go out in the cold and that we’d have to wait till the weather is better. Since he knows me well enough, he just chuckled and said “OK”. But the weather was absolutely great about a week or so ago, so I called him up and we had lunch. It was really great to catch up. Can’t believe his daughter is already 5 years old! I remember holding her when she was just 1 day old. Though, I bet she’s already nearly as tall as I am.
Then today, I had a chance to catch up with a college buddy whom I haven’t seen in about 10 years, if not more. We’ve exchanged a handful of e-mails through all that time, but never actually got to hang out. See, we were really great friends in college and used to hang out ALL the time. We had some crazy great conversations, did homework together, and even designed a website for one of the clubs on campus. But we went our different ways; he moved to CA and I stayed here.
Well, we finally got together in person and between bites of very delicious pizza shares some stories of the past 10 years. It was fun; the hours we spent chatting just flew by. But it was also surprising. After not seeing someone for such a long time, you never know how that person changed, if at all. The surprise was that we kinda picked up where we left off. Like the 10 years didn’t elapse. He also said that I’m still the same. I’m not sure about that; sure I have a few extra pounds, a few more gray hair, but I think I changed in some ways. I know I definitely learned a lot. But I also know that the core of who I am is the same (so he’s right on that account) and that core will never change. I often describe myself as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), take it or leave it, I am consistent. I don’t change to please someone, if I change, it’s to make me happy.
