I remember studying the original painting by Jan Van Eyck in Ms. Mauck’s art appreciation class. The images was nice enough – beautifully painted but just a pretty picture – until she started to explain some of the symbolism in it. That was a chinese box moment for me. Suddenly art wasn’t just fun or pretty anymore. It was also challenging, charged with meaning and secrets, a beautiful world all its own and a language as well.
Well I was working on an image the other day – really just playing with the shape tools in Photoshop CS5, and making landscapes. This particular one was crying out for something man made- a human presence to supplement the cold beach.
I went into my photo portfolio looking for a figure or two, but nothing seemed suitable. I found a group of photos from a car show back in October, and one of the cars had a hand grenade welded onto the muffler cover. I extricated the grenade from the photo and imported it into the landscape. Now I had something edgy to work with. The image implies something explosive about to happen.
Then I thought of marriage – my nephew married last April, and I th0ught of importing a pic or two of the wedding, but unfortunately had not brought the drive with my wedding snaps on it. So instead I went online, where I found an excellent high res image of the Arnolfini wedding. What’s more explosive than a wedding, fraught as it is with possibility and power? Why a wedding with a pregnant woman of course. The cake in the oven is an explosively attractive idea. I loved the idea of the Arnolfini’s finding themselves in the modern world. The only problem was the lighting – the Arnolfini’s were lit from a window in the Van Eyck picture. In order to explain the difference, I added a beam of light to my own landscape.
If you look closely you can see that superimposed on the ground is a page from my book.
These days, Ms. Mauck’s lesson still rings true! When I paint or draw I always try to include some elements of vocabulary – they may not be coherent words, but even inarticulate ones communicate something.
Namaste my brother. I have enjoyed following your thoughts today. I invite you to follow my blog so that we may share views.
ReplyDeleteIn Lak' esh, my brother, a new world awaits....
Thank you Christopher - Happy new year!
ReplyDeleteThis is coming from someone with a total of one college-level art class, and I never studied this particular painting, so take it as you will, but I always found the original painting kinda creepy. His face and hand seem to be pushing her away; it made me think of Mary and Joseph after he found out she was pregnant, before his vision from God saying, "It's all okay, it's mine." So to me, the sky that I see as ominous fits perfectly with the couple. Not sure how I feel about the grenades; I think I want to see a version with something more organic but still scary. Maybe tiny, adorable little mushroom clouds.
ReplyDelete