Art Institute Chicago

The Herring Net

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Cloudy Mediterranean Sea 1857

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Imitation: Montaigne

Of Conception (of an Idea)

The act of conceiving an idea comes from: emotional feelings, positive or negative, and day-to-day occurrences that happen to the artist, that become channeled into creativity, amongst any art, of which the artist is enticed by. Yet there are infinite directions one may lead their sense of creativity in, there are also an infinite amount of directions that one can also slow or stifle their creativity through use of any number of vices, in which they become subservient to their own realm of un-tranquil reality.

 There are also times at which the impious vices may serve as a motivational fuel that encourages creativity and personal ambition to apprehend the idea consciously and willingly. Though use of any such vice may seem impious, there are also times at which the impious vices become pious. Within any number of avenues of creativity there lies an understanding of just an unjust.

The true artist may like what they are interpreting, through auditory or visual fixation, yet there is always the re assuring and underlying fact of disgrace of ones own creation.

Self-Assessment

1.     Kind of. I feel like I skipped over some details of the statue itself. Also feel like I might have ranted about art appreciation and its use with symbolism a little too much. In a sense though it fits… some does some does not.

2.     Somewhat. More or less I feel that I listed too many examples or situations that felt right or wrong as compared to actually writing about the piece itself.

3.     I guess…

4.     Seems so. My perspective doesn’t coinside… I know what I wanted to say and have my own take on my piece… but… it should be left up to others to give a final judgement to see if it made sense to them.

Amelie Film

I think for my post I’m going to try and answer the last two questions…How was it for you to watch a movie in French with subtitles where you had to literally read the story? And, discuss how the film was absurd or full of whimsy.

Personally, having seen only half of the film, I have grown very much through watching it with my full-designated attention. One can only interpret this film with an open mind. It is a very “jumping around” kind of movie. With that said, I feel that all of the elements that the director was intending to place into the story through his visual art were accurately placed and is left for own interpretation. There is a certain message that is obviously speaking to the audience… More or less some people may not be able to grasp the idea. Which is what makes art so grand. Interpretation amongst civilized beings is and can always be interesting to observe in its self. As far as the movie is concerned I feel that the message that this film delivers is a strong one. Amelie is in search of her true self… No matter what road she takes she shall remain optimistic. Reason being for her optimism would simply be she has been living her life free and playfully… Dramatic events have occurred in her life and she has become someone looking for an escape. She finds it… But not through inspiration of love or another sappy movie storyline, but she finds what her calling is in life. She has to protect and remain conscious to her own surroundings and the surroundings of others. She intentionally helps people for the greater good. Yet, she isn’t blinded by the dullness that everyone around her is blinded by. She remains composed and ready to tackle anything and is ready to help whomever she comes into contact with. A sense of her child hood desperation is coming to life as she fills in missing segments of other people lives through solving some of their past reminisces.

The film is completely in French. This is a benefit to the viewer. Having never been out of the US myself I feel that you learn several aspects of French culture having been submerged into the movie for the 2 hours it goes on.  Obviously an English speaking person must watch it with subtitles… but that isn’t a problem. The fact that it remains in its own culture is prominent to the fact that it shows the viewer a deeper sense of where Amelie and her companions and enemy’s (or protagonist and antagonist if you will) mingle, go to eat, where they work, how they talk to each other, what they read, what they appreciate etc. I love it with or even without subtitles.

I can see how some might feel that this film is absurd. Some people just haven’t experienced something in their lives to truly be happy about. Most people just want things done for them and live in self-pity and feel lost or scared. Their loss is ours as well. Some may not even experience the happiness that Amelie feels in the film until they are on their deathbed. Realizations sometime come later in life. Ex. My uncle Stephen bought me an album in 2006… I was a kid. A year ago I came back and listened to the album and it was like all of the sudden I felt exactly why my uncle bought me the album. The album enlightened me to new thinking and understanding. Had I not gone back and listened I would have not been where I am today. Huge landmark it was. As far as the movie goes… Some may take time to understand… Life presentations are always fun to watch… sometimes are scary and sad to come back to… others full of prosperity and wisdom. Through time comes knowledge and through knowledge comes wisdom. Amelie is all of this… time, knowledge and wisdom.

Chicago Place 3

There is the sound of the train
which screeches alongside its rails.
There is the sound of people talking.
There is the sound of people’s clothing rustling.
There is the sound of people’s actions
Which speak louder than words.
I hear the sound of the trash receptacle door swinging.
I see the lights illuminating the room.
I feel the instability in the room.
There is the sound of cars going by
Thinking about the individual lives of the drivers as they go by.
I see people smoking cigarettes
Wishing I could smoke one too.
Thinking and knowing how bad it is for the body
Which is redundant to the fact that I smoke.
I hear the sounds of people walking.
I see the places they have been through their eyes.
Eyes.
Tell a story all in themselves
Emotions.
Illuminate through people’s bodies
Like the smell of liquor in someone’s clothes.
After all of this one thing can be said
Many of these actions of the people I have described
Have been witnessed through other eyes.

Uncomfotable, yet Comfortable, place in Chicago

An unfamiliar place or uncomfortable place in Chicago, to me, would have to be some of the alley ways weaving throughout the city. In a sense they’re not as shady as one would think, but during particular hours of the night the real cretins of the world start migrating around the pockets of the city.

I actually met a homeless guy and talked to him in the entrance to his home, or one of them anyway… this is what he had to say… (a snippet)

“Asked me for some money or food:

Me: “sure”

I walked into a convenient store and got him some snacks and some water. Came back and was still there… One of nicer guys I would presume… Pulled out my cigarettes, lit mine, and offered him a Dunhill, he took it and was enjoying his smoke… He was drunk… You could smell the liquor in his breath and in his clothes from where he must have spilled his, what smelled like vodka, on himself…

Me: “What’s you name?”

Country: “my name is Country. I’m sure you have seen me on the documentary called “Life is hot in Cracktown…”

Me: “no I haven’t seen that one.”

I can’t really transcribe verbatim what was said, but the conversation brought me back to a good sense of reality… knowing that at any moment human beings can go from enjoying a few beers (whatever your thing is) to devastatingly ruining your life through drug use or excessive drinking… This man is a pristine example of a man who got hopelessly sucked into a sub culture of people that have no ambition… They sucked his life away from him like a carpet.

Personally if I were in Country’s situation I would drink until I couldn’t anymore… Blanketing my sense of fear of living in squalor or worrying myself sick of when I’m going to eat or drink water again… Where I’m going to sleep, who I’m going to have fight off tonight over some territorial dispute crushing my soul more and more as the days/weeks/or even years progress. Those are the strongest Americans in my eyes… Those who have been tormented and not helped… who live and suffer more than anyone of us “normal people” could ever suffer in the true sense of the word.

The way Hunter S. Thompson described Dr. Gonzo was absolutely brilliant by all means. Gonzo, in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, was music to my brain. Reading that book is like reading people out of your life. In a sense a re-imagining of a happening that already existed but was uncovered through reading this book. So many great descriptions of the way people act, walk, look, appear (propaganda), drive and even the way people go about living life completely oblivious to everything. Words cannot describe the fears that all of us feel in our day to day routines… Life, in a sense, is a test from whatever created us…

From a psychedelic and non psychedelic point of view Hunter S. Thompson describes this point clearly and well stated:

“We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled that 60's. That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around America selling "consciousness expansion" without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him seriously... All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped create... a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody... or at least some force - is tending the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Specific Memory in Chicago: Location

One Color:
One Sound:
Specific memory in the location:
Word artichoke: 

A nice and reflective place where one can think clearly and openly would be a specific location that could trigger any number of memories, even if you have never been there but just once. My particular location, just one for this blog, would be outside my apartment building on S Michigan Avenue. There is a stone image of a woman holding a script or book of some kind... Almost contemplating her actions and thinking deeply, very intellectual. There isn't really a particular color of the statue... its a statue... The sounds, especially at night, are that of trash blowing in the wind... dancing, if you will, to the beat of the wind. Actually come to think about it... (having to use the word artichoke in this blog)... one could say that the plant like objects wraping around the womans forearm and on her book could appear to be artichokes... but they're not artichokes... from a distance, which is where i stand looking at the statue, one could think its an artichoke...