IN SEARCH OF THE ORDINARY

DO WE LIVE OUR LIVES IN THE DETAIL OF EVERYDAY OR DO WE LOOK UP AND SEE BEYOND? 

Georgia O'Keeffe's Flowers                                  from google image for education only

Zen would tell us to focus on one act, to perfect it so well that it becomes a spiritual act in itself. But most of us are just trying to go to work, but groceries, feed the kids, get the car fixed, go to the dentist, or decide if we want paper or plastic at the check out counter.  The details of life can overwhelm us, mesmerize us, so we just go on in an kind of survival mode. 

Picasso's Bull Sculpture made from a bicycle seat and handle bars

 But we have those moments when we look up, we look beyond, and we imagine.  Sometimes these moments come out of the blue, as an epiphany, and other times it is one of life's dramas that awaken us: the illness or death of a loved one, a major illness of our own, a world event of war or natural calamity and the like.  I can point to my moments as you can yours, but they stop us in our tracks and slap us awake.  

La Momma Morta from Philadelphia Story

as Tom Hanks character faces his own death

due to the aids virus devastating effects

Sometime it is an aha moment and sometimes it is an oh no moment. Which ever it is, we see and think differently..we are almost hyper aware.  This is where the arts step in..where art is created, where imaginations are enlivened, where music scores are written and opera scores sung.   It is where inventions come to life and visionaries see the future. 

Edward Hopper's Nighthawks                           from Google image for education only

How do we translate the ordinary into another language…how do artists find another vision…how do some people see the same thing so differently?  

                     Andy Goldsworthy, Environmental Artist

That is what we are exploring now.  Lets look at a few more artists elevating the ordinary to a fine art!

Andy Warhol's Marilyn

IF EDWARD HOPPER HAD PAINTED TODAY

photo by elizabeth gordon

photo by elizabeth gordon

If Edward Hopper lived today and painted, what would his paintings have looked like?  We know he painted about how people feeling alone and isolated in urban environments.  How would he view the loneliness that comes with technology and our relationship to what we ironically call social media? Hoppers' paintings were stark and empty, re-enforcing a sense of separation and isolation.  I remember seeing an exhibition of Hopper's work at the Tate Museum in London and coming away completely depressed.  I love his work and how he expressed a sense of what our society brings in some of its most negative aspects.  
I was standing on the metro (underground in Washington D.C.) with friends waiting on the next train when I looked up and saw this lone figure against a plain background. The contrast was wonderful and the eerie light underground only highlighted the feeling of abjectness.  

Detail from NightHawks by Edward Hopper  google

NightHawks by Edward Hopper                          google image

Stanley's(click)

Minimalist in look, maximalist in food!

There is this place off of Jackson Square in the French Quarter called Stanley's.  You can stop in for cafe au lait, or a scrumptious breakfast or lunch.  I had gone with my friends down to the Quarter (as the locals call it), it was hotter than hot...sweat rolling down my back in rivers...I had looked at the various art hung by different artist on the wrought iron fencing, watched the entertainers who paint themselves silver and gold and pretend to be statues, and I had watched the tarot card readers real in their clients for a promise of a glimpse of the future.  So I was tried and ready to sit while my friends kept walking and looking.  I sat down at the counter, order a cafe au lait and watched the waiter take care of other tourist.  It struck me as I looked at the minimalist diner and bare whiter that white tile walls that it looked like Edward Hopper's(click) painting...Night Hawks...people in a diner at night.  See what you think?  But if you go to New Orleans, by all means go and eat at Stanley's...it is well worth the visit!

Stanley's  French Quarter  photo Elizabeth Gordon

Night Hawks by Edward Hopper  from google image

Stanley's  French Quarter New Orleans  photo Elizabeth Gordon