Day 8 – Fauvism and *Another* Lawyer Turned Artist. Le Sigh

Today I spent time reading about Fauvism (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/fauv/hd_fauv.htm). The Fauvism movement was known for using brilliant colors and spontaneous brushwork. This intense, emotional style eventually gave way to Cubism, but before it did several artists experimented with the Fauve style.

Henri Matisse was a name listed among the Fauvist artists which I recognized (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mati/hd_mati.htm). Matisse had a career that lasted over six decades! And… he was originally trained as a lawyer. (Seriously- I think I might need to find a second career that lets me be creative. It seems a lot of former lawyers have!) Matisse was a prolific artist who experimented with a variety of painting styles, including Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, and, briefly, Fauvism. He also dabbled in sculpture and even book illustration! One of his Fauve paintings was The Young Sailor (pictured below). You can see the intense colors and spontaneous brushwork. I’m not so much a fan of the brushwork but I do like the colors. I’m not sure what else to say about this style- I feel like the closer and closer I get to modern times the less I like the artwork.

Next up will be Cubism, which was created by Picasso. I’m already pretty sure I won’t be a fan, but I’ll save a more in depth discussion for tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s that Matisse painting. Happy Weekend, everyone!

Xoxo,

Diana

Day 7 – Is “Crazy” (or being an Incan Savage) a Requirement for a Good Artist?

I got some coffee creamer yesterday, so I put the green tea away and switched back to coffee today. By the way, I love coffee but I don’t necessarily consider myself a coffee snob. Sometimes I buy really expensive coffee online, sometimes I pick up a bag of beans at Starbucks, and sometimes I grab stuff from the sale bin at Target. Today’s selection was one of those sale bin specialties – Target Brand White Chocolate Strawberry Coffee. If you’re wondering how the heck Target flavored their coffee like white chocolate strawberries, you would be justified in doing so. Let’s just say it smells delicious while brewing and tastes like chemicals when you actually drink it. Thank goodness I had a fresh supply of creamer to take the edge off a bit.

So today while drinking coffee creamer with a bit of coffee, I continued reading some about Post Impressionism. I browsed through some information on Paul Cézanne and Georges Seurat, but today’s real find came when I read a biography page on Paul Gaugin (find it here: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gaug/hd_gaug.htm).  I have to admit today’s blog strays a little bit away from a review of the actual art and into gossip tabloid-esque territory… but I really can’t help it when I read things like “Descended on his mother's side from Peruvian nobility, [Gaugin] spent his early childhood in Lima. He would later misrepresent his ancestry to portray himself as an Incan savage” and “Gauguin encouraged van Gogh to paint as he himself did, from memory and imagination… rather than from motifs in nature. Their collaboration ended abruptly when van Gogh had a mental breakdown and cut off part of his left ear.” Seriously, is it a requirement that you have to be a little crazy to be creative? I mean, we have here a fake Incan savage and someone who cut off his ear. There’s a lot more interesting information in the biography- I encourage you to give this one a read. I can only imagine the US Weekly covers if these artists were alive and famous today. Is it necessary to be a little crazy to create this level of art, and, if so, is it worth it for humanity? Sure, we have some awesome art thanks to these guys, but maybe they would have personally been better off in a bit more stable of a career? I’m not sure there is a good answer to that question. You have to take care of yourself, but you also have to follow your passion, I think.

Gaguin poured a lot into his art. He started out as an Impressionist, but eventually moved past this and set the stage for Fauvism and Expressionism (which I definitely need to study some as I continue my art journey). He spent time living in Tahiti, which  influenced his painting. His masterpiece was painted while he was there, and is entitled Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (pictured below). It’s an allegorical painting known as a culmination of his art. I’m not sure how I feel about, except to say that the title itself definitely shows Gaguin had a troubled, searching heart. The painting seems busy and tense to me. I like the colors, but that is about it. Something about it moves you, though. Perhaps it is knowing that Gaguin was troubled. Although I’m not sure I understand the technical merit of the painting, seeing the title and feeling the haunting emotion behind the painting makes it hard for me to just dismiss it outright. Is emotion the most important aspect to art?

I’m not quite sure how to answer that question.

Xoxo, Diana

Day 4 - Dalmatians and Impressionism

I decided to spend another day learning a little bit about Impressionism, since I’ve only really read about specific artists or works and not on the broader topic of Impressionism itself. I read through the National Gallery’s Guide to Impressionism (find it here: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/learn-about-art/guide-to-impressionism/guide-to-impressionism/*/viewPage/1), and realized that Claude Monet was an Impressionist. This is probably not news to most people, however, let’s review: I am pretty much completely illiterate when it comes to art.

Monet is a famous name in art - famous enough that I think most people would recognize the name even if they don’t know he was an Impressionist. The first time I remember hearing about Monet is when I was twelve years old and taking painting lessons at a Hobby Lobby. At this point in my life, I was obsessed with puppies, as I think most girls are at some point during their childhood. Specifically, I was obsessed with Dalmatians, since I was lucky enough that my parents had allowed us to get a Dalmatian puppy. The only thing I wanted to paint was Dalmatian puppies. I painted Dalmatians in gardens, at the beach, and even in a gift box. I wasn’t a particularly talented painter, but I had fun creating these tributes to Dalmatians. The teacher did her best to not only teach us some about painting, but also to introduce us to some well-known painters. I remember Monet because she showed us his work, Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies (pictured below), and I liked it so much I decided to break my streak of Dalmatian paintings and paint a water-lily pond. So, I guess, even back then I was a fan of the Impressionists. I just didn’t pay enough attention to remember the term Impressionism.

Now, I’m rediscovering Impressionism. One snippet from the National Gallery’s guide that I found interesting was that “…significant to the Impressionists was an interest in the way in which the human mind processes what it sees. When we look at a landscape, or a crowd of people, we do not instantly see every face, or leaf in detailed focus, but as a mass of colour and light. Impressionist painters tried to express this experience.” I like this aspect of these paintings. Sometimes it’s nice to not focus on details, but on an overall experience. Maybe art viewed in this light is more attractive in a certain sense. There’s no pressure to find specific details, but rather the freedom to enjoy an overall experience. Something to think about at least.

Xoxo, 

Diana

Day 3 - Moms in Art

This morning I decided to look a bit into mothers portrayed in art, since today is Mother’s Day. I’m very excited about Mother’s Day this year, since it’s my very first one. I was hoping my seven week old daughter would decide to scream and cry a little less today as a Mother’s Day present, but she seemed unimpressed by the holiday and continued on with business as usual. Oh well, c’est la vie.

I simply googled “motherhood in art” and came across this four and a half minute lecture from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Find it here: http://www.metmuseum.org/connections/motherhood/). This is the perfect snippet of information to watch over morning coffee. The lecturer, Jean Sorabella, talked a bit about how she rarely sees an image where it appears that the mother has work to do- most of the mothers she comes across in works of art seem to have perfect angel children. These moms have it all together. Of course, this is not reality, and the idealizations of the moms in the works Sorabella presented did irk me a bit. It gave me the same kind of feeling of annoyance I get when someone asks me if my newborn is sleeping through the night yet. People have been asking me this since she was just days old, when of course she was not sleeping through the night. But, everyone seems very concerned that my daughter causes the least amount of disruption in my life. Obviously, anyone who has kids or has spent much time around people who do have kids knows that kids cause a lot of disruption. It’s just the way it is. But the art Sorabella presented seemed to follow the general trend I’ve seen of idealizing motherhood instead of portraying it as the hard work that it is. This kind of annoyed me, but I might be particularly sensitive to this right now since I'm a first time mom with a newborn and a bit overwhelmed with the responsibility.

The lecture did introduce me to Mary Cassatt, whose works mainly portray motherhood. I did a little bit of quick research on Cassatt and I enjoyed viewing some of her pieces. Coincedentally, she was an impressionist, so she fits right in with the works I’ve been looking into over the last few days. Below is one of her works I came across and liked, titled Summertime. With summer looming around the corner, it seemed appropriate and put a smile on my face.

Enjoy, and Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

Xoxo, 

Diana

Day 2 - The Story Behind the Artist

I decided to spend my coffee time today looking a bit into the Impressionists, at the recommendation of my friend and former professor, “Doc Rose.” Doc Rose was one of my favorite professors in undergrad- I took a linguistics class from her. Linguistics was known as a very difficult, scary class at my university, but it was a required class to graduate if you were an English major. Since I was only an English minor (my major was psychology), I wasn’t actually required to take Linguistics to graduate. Spurred on by a love of all things language (ok, and perhaps a little bit of pride that “just because I was only an English minor and not major, that did NOT mean I was incapable of handling the highly dreaded Linguistics), I took the class anyways. I’m glad I did – the class was challenging but not impossible, and I enjoyed the content. (Yes, even the diagramming sentences part. Grammar nerd alert.) Doc Rose and I still keep in touch via Facebook, and when she read my blog yesterday she told me she likes the Impressionists, particularly Gustave Caillebotte. Since Doc Rose has never steered me wrong on literature recommendations, I decided to take her art recommendation and check out the Impressionists.

So, this morning, I found myself drinking a hot cup of Joe while reading the Wikipedia page for Mr. Caillebotte. By the way, I have a love/hate relationship with Wikipedia. I still (rightly!) refuse to use it for formal research, but I must admit it’s often a good starting place for learning about a new topic about which you know nothing. After reading the Wikipedia page, I was intrigued. I found out that Caillebotte went to law school and was licensed to practice law. I’m always interested when I see someone who was a lawyer pursuing a different career path, since I’m a lawyer but sometimes many times wonder what else is out there for me. Reading Caillebotte’s story made me interested in seeing some of his work. Lucky for me, one of his most famous paintings, Paris Street; Rainy Day (pictured below), is owned by the Chicago Art Institute. I’m going to try to get by there this month and see it. The real take away from this morning, however, is that I enjoyed hearing the story of the artist himself, and this is what made me interested to learn more about and see some of his art. It’s too soon to say, but perhaps it will never be the beauty of a painting itself that moves me, but rather the story behind the artist. Does this count as “liking art,” even if I don’t necessarily have an interest in the mechanics and technique of certain styles of art?

Xoxo,

Diana

My Own Version of a "Self-Improvement Year"

I’ve realized (although this probably does not come as an astonishing revelation to anyone) that it’s popular to take on year-long “self-improvement" projects. I’ve read many of the slightly older books outlining these endeavors, such as Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, in which Gilbert travels to three different countries over the course of a year to figure out what she wants; and The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, in which Rubin spends a year trying to improve her life and attempt to, well, figure out happiness. I haven’t read Julie and Julia, an account of an author stuck in a dead-end job who finds her escape by cooking 524 Julia Child recipes within the span of a year, but I did see (and enjoy) the movie. There are others, but those three are (perhaps?) the most popular.

I’ve wanted to attempt my own happiness/self-improvement project, but have been unsure of quite how to do so. Cooking hundreds of Julia Child’s recipes isn’t really my thing (although I do enjoy cooking and baking to a certain extent), and I lack the ability to travel overseas for a year for many reasons – time, money, a job, and a newborn baby being the most obvious. I found an article called Eat, Pray, Spend (linked here: http://bitchmagazine.org/article/eat-pray-spend) which categorizes these books about self-improvement projects as “priv-lit” since, let’s face it, these year-long improvement projects are expensive and, for most “ordinary” people, unrealistic. The Eat, Pray, Spend post states that: “If more women become willing to put aside their fears, open their eyes to cost-free or inexpensive paths to wellness, and position themselves as essentially worthy instead of deeply flawed, priv-lit could soon migrate to a well-deserved new home: the fiction section.” This sentence struck me. While I don’t necessarily begrudge those who are able to tackle expensive, time-consuming year-long self-improvement projects (let’s face it, if I had the resources to travel the world for a year, I’d be packing my suitcase right now - and so would you), I feel as though there must be a better way to find happiness, zen, self-improvement… whatever you want to call it. We shouldn’t have to spend a ton of money traveling, or live in a comfortable, cushy New York apartment to feel as though we can improve ourselves. Which brings me to my idea for my own “year of self-improvement.”

I tried to think of something I really enjoy that doesn’t cost a lot or take a lot of time. Topping the list was a morning coffee ritual. Even on days when I am in a rush to get to work, I love pausing for a moment before leaving the house and inhaling the aroma of a good cup of coffee (or tea!). I find closing your eyes and breathing in the scent of coffee while holding the warm mug between both of your palms to be a very calming experience. So, for the next year, I’m going to spend 5-10 minutes every morning drinking a cup of coffee or tea and reflecting on things that make my life better, ways to learn more about those things, and ways to incorporate them into my life. The end-goal is not to “fix myself”, but rather to have a better understanding of what kinds of things I enjoy, what kinds of issues matter to me, and how I can better structure my life around those things and issues. My plan right now is to choose one topic per month and spend my morning coffee-time reflecting on and learning more about that topic.

This project is a work in progress, and I would welcome any feedback on how ways to make my year of self-improvement worthwhile. Just remember, the idea here is to keep things cheap and not incredibly time consuming so that you don’t have to have a fat savings account to participate. (Also, although the priv-lit article focuses on women, this project isn’t intended to be gender specific at all – it’s something men and women can do!)

This blog title, Coffee Beans and Dreams, is recycled from when I was a very tired, very broke law student. I used to tell myself that I could make it as long as I had coffee (read: caffeine) and kept focused on my dreams. It seems an appropriate title for this project as well.

Here I go… a year of coffee beans and dreams. Let’s see where it takes me!

Xoxo,

Diana