Saturday, September 20, 2014

JMW TURNER"S WORK: Unfinished?!

"Might not be finished." (Gratuitous, "I told you so!" ahead)


  Narrator, Alistaire Sook suggests in this Telegraph UK Video that JMW Turner's work, "Norham Castle, Sunrise," might not be a finished painting. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. Why?   

                      Because I TOLD YOU SO! :D
                                 (Gloating is an unattractive habit of mine.)
VIDEO

   The sentiment is repeated in the article from the same page by 
Ju Zhang, "...new exhibition at Tate Britain, Late Turner - Painting Set Free looks at the way that Turner's health and his increasing infirmity may have affected the way he painted in his later years. It asks us to look hard at the paintings and question whether they are as the artist intended, or whether some that we most love are simply unfinished." JU Zhang
FULL ARTICLE:    Click Here


   Exactly, and that's why I get the urge to finish the works of the early impressionists. No, I wont touch them. Darnit! Yes, I do have that much of an ego, and it irks me, because they had more talent than they used. At least that's my perception, and it's apt to be wrong, but....why stop?

   Since I'm on a opinion roll.....Enjoy this image of
 "Norham Castle, Sunrise," by JMW Turnercourtesy Wikimedia Commons,while I rev it up. 
"Joseph Mallord William Turner 062" by J. M. W. Turner - The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Mallord_William_Turner_062.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Joseph_Mallord_William_Turner_062.jpg

   Nobody seems to like hearing that I think early impressionism was a matter of unfinished work (Wonder why? ;) ), and of course I wouldn't dare touch the pieces, but seriously. Blurry underpaintings are lovely all on their own, and I'm not the first to think so. 

   That little group of artists (The first Impressionists) who I think didn't want to finish their paintings got them in the Salon. I see what I see, and I think it was a con. Turner, however wasn't. His work was thorough. I look at the above work, and I can tell it's Turner by the beginnings of "his" light, but I'm left waiting for the finish. In fact, if it were a finished piece, I might have named it, "Cliff Hanger." I can't be sure what, if anything happened.This particular piece may have been the result of a sudden eye disorder, or he left the work before finishing for some reason. It's undoubtedly beautiful, but finished? No, I don't think so. 

    Caviat: If you are in an art class, and questions come up on a test regarding this work, insist that it *is finished, and he did this on purpose. (Roll your eyes in private.) Also the Impressionists were, "Geniuses" (at more than just telling others what they were supposed to like in art.) #KeepAntacidsHandy Throughout art history, new movements have made great breakthroughs and set the establishment on it's ear. It's my opinion that it needed to happen, and I'm glad the Impressionists came along for that reason. I think we may have gone too far though, throwing the proverbial, "Baby out with the bathwater." I'm of the feeling that all art is needed past, present and future. Even Impressionism has been set aside with the company of Realism by the likes of Post Modernism and Op Art. Change is certain and of it's own comfort. Like music, dance and any other art form painting must surely change as new materials and technologies as well as new minds develop with new social systems play into their artworks. I may romanticize the ARC (Art Renewal Center), and that's fine, but there is a richness to the totality of art through the ages. 

   Keep in mind, I love the Impressionists, and I do think they were geniuses of their craft. I also loved The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. What can I say? I think they pulled a, "Fast one," (Just like every other new art movement or new take on a mouse trap. And who's to say that isn't what I or any other artist is doing? Trying to invent ways to create our own, never done before, niche, or at least to do what was done before but better?) I have a soft spot for cons, magicians, alchemists and angels, and as and artist, I'm a little of all of these things even if only on a canvas.

  Turner, Constable and Church were some of favorite landscape artists. To say this one holds such significance is to spotlight one of his lesser works, and we all have them. Somewhere beyond the grave, I'm sure he wishes he'd finished this one.
There! I said it! :p

tina jones

  If you'd like to see a really cool site on Impressionism, check this out: Impressionism.Orghttp://www.impressionism.org/

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Response to, "Why Women Aren't Crazy" by Yashir Ali, with Admiration and in Cooperation Toward Solutions

The article link I'll post was most moving. Far from a list of how men are wrong, or how women are just nuts, this is extremely insightful! Man or woman, I'd encourage anyone to read it. 
Here's "Why Women Aren't Crazy." by Yashir Ali 
from, "The Good Men Project"
Click Here! (Like you mean it.)

   Refreshing! This man, Yashir Ali,  is being, "emotionally naked," and I find that to be one of the greatest, most admirable strengths in men. This isn't the time to list a man's errors. It's a cue to listen with compassion. Often I find that men in my own life will address what may have been bothering me when I give them a little time to talk. Listen without forming a response. Just hear him, as you'd hope he'd do for you... This is written by a man to other men, and it's compassionate. 

   I wont have the insight into men that another man might, but what I do know is that it usually hurts men deeply to think they've hurt a woman. Sometimes when things are pointed out (even if she is considerate, and asking for an easy change in behavior) so she wont be hurt, physically or emotionally, he can feel so emotionally naked that he can go on the defensive to avoid his own pain at being told he hurt her, that he can transfer that pain back to her by writing off her feelings as, "overreactions," or sometimes, he can simply run...
    
    Women, on the other end of this, learn that to say anything to a man of what they did that hurt us (and sometimes other females) can trigger them to insult us, or in more aware moments, we can learn the terrible error I once believed:  that we just have to be stronger than men, take the brunt of the pain silently, and never point it out to them, because they just can't handle it without shutting down (which hurts us more, and seeing them in pain isn't worth it to us, exactly like it is to men when they see our pain..It can be unbearable in the moment.) 

   This is the equivalent of when men joke about it always being their fault, and smoothing things over with admitting that whether it is or not..This is how women do it: in silence, and it's the same thing. We teach each other these things, and form these habits together, because they work for a short period of time, or they seem to while building very destructive walls between ourselves and the person we want to be closest to. At the writer says, "It's heartbreaking." .... 

   This is for women and men who care deeply about each other. Most of us have had serious conditioning since childhood to avoid being, "The bad guy," and sometimes we're simply wrong, we can admit it, and make amends, and the world wont end. It just might be a new beginning. 

   Me? I'm very often wrong, in fact, I may be now, but tears or saying, "That hurt," have never meant there was something fundamentally wrong with me, in fact they often mean something is very right. Pain is supposed to hurt. That's our cue to grow. By the same token when a man needs time to respond, it doesn't mean there is something fundamentally wrong with him. 

   The other may grow with us, but if they don't or can't yet, we'll still be o.k. I'm often at fault, but I'm not always, and often who is to blame isn't nearly as important as stepping up to mend each other, and finding that often the other will join us. 

Owning it daily, Me.

tina jones

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Humor: Light Summer Snack (Creepy Alert! Nasty! Not Recommended for Sane People)

Summer: 
   
Last night I went outside to enjoy the night air which was a lot like being slapped with a hefty slice of bologna that had laid in the floor after a bloated dog licked it and walked away.

     I saw the familiar site of a small green blinking light. A few blinks, and it hesitated then a few more, and I smiled at childhood memories of catching fireflies. They are all too few now. I scurried off to get my camera wondering if I could catch that little green light against the darkness. It was still there when I returned...almost exactly there. I recorded video for a few seconds. It went up slightly, dropped slightly and blinked off and on.

 I sank heavily when it occurred to me it was trapped in a web, and the quote "What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly," circa Morticia Addams came to mind. I sighed and wondered if some spider's tummy would be blinking after consuming it's catch. There are times when the words, "Courageous" and "Foolhardy" are interchangeable, and this seemed as good a time as any. 

    I raised the flash, aimed into the blackness, waited for the tiny green light to blink, I clicked, and the flash went off. For a fraction of a second I saw what I can only describe as the ugliest arachnid I've ever had the chance to view. I'm not talking horrifying. The guy was just hard to love. 

   Not even if he were ingenuitive enough to turn the firefly around and use it as a flashlight....You couldn't even have dunked this guy in Aramis and made him pretty. No. It was that bad. Obviously, the poor bastard had been working out. He looked like a plucked Autumn Turkey but with no legs, rather 8 short, bony wing-like appendages. It labored furiously wrapping it's prey while the little light went off and on. I hoped he wasn't scared.


  I headed inside, and looked at my camera screen in confusion. What does the spider do when blinded, because the light suddenly goes off? Feel it's way around in the dark! That's what! Tormented by this firefly that keeps flicking the switch. Rude, I tell you! And you know that firefly was laughing it's glow-in-the-dark butt off! Off all the thoughtless.....That Turkey spider was  NOT going to feed himself out of thin air. I wondered if he freaked when the lighting bug wiggled. I felt so bad for him that I thought about shooting them both with bug spray just to end it all, but he was so freaking huge, one fall and he'd have taken that corner of my porch off. 

   No, I just let them be, as disappointing as it was, and I wont be posting a photo. It's still ages, before turkey season, and I don't want to get the stuffing vs.dressing people all worked up. 
mmmm Sage... :)

tina jones

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Sentences that End in Lilts and Other Mysteries

I'm not sure why leaving my house should turn into a neighborhood event, but it does every Spring. Oh, I leave my house all of the time, but once the weather warms, the locals become restless, and begin to socialize the unsuspecting.

"It begs the question." What an annoying cliche (as if one were more annoying than the next).

I'm bothered by statements that end in a lilt. She was one of three neighbors that descended on me yesterday. All nice people, and I, mid conversation with a guy with a tow truck, had been "rescued" inadvertently by local, kind, Elderly Guy on Wheels who'd gotten local, Kind Elderly Lady who was busy overseeing what tow truck guy was doing to my battery...(Yeah, let's breathe a second.) I only mention, "Elderly, because it makes me, at merely pushing 50, feel more useless than usual. Then again, I've never felt, "Usual."

  The Lady with the lilt at the end of her sentence said, "We never see you out?"She'd pulled her car over and lilted over the top of her sleeping daughter at me. I was really quite occupied, but I stopped for the lilt that, to be fair, had come after her clearing fence repair with me, and I didn't mind they needed to be on my property of course, but then I got the lilt. "Good!" I thought. My plan to not be seen is working! I really don't care about being seen, but they seem to have a curious habit of connecting the seeing with the talking.  Still, I recognized the lilt as a cue to that dark, dreadful social, "Norm" called, "Small talk."

Now, the next morning, I realize this should have been interpreted as, "I'm hoping you'll babysit my kid." as she came last year asking if  her daughter might play with my "little children," but she'd mistaken my grandchildren for my own, and didn't succeed in sending her child in my direction then. Not realizing it, I was still stuck with, "The lilt."  I was on the spot. Three neighbors plus Tow Truck Guy waited. I was supposed to give her an excuse for not being seen that was overtly friendly rather than honest, so I said, "Well I have a weird neighbor (I managed not to add, "Not unlike yourself"), and if I go out, she shows up." She answered, "Oh, I'll bet I know who it is." Which is the same thing she'll say about me to the next person she lilts at, but I had a car to deal with. 

   She left, and for reasons unknown to me, I ended up hugging nice elderly guy on wheels. I told him I had to go with the tow guy and pay him. He asked what I was going to pay him for getting help. I said, "I already hugged you." He said, "Well, it has been a while," and I answered, "I could do a little dance," whereupon I commenced to, "Shake it" in the middle of the street. 

  After getting a laugh out of the locals, I shook kind elderly lady's hand and crawled in tow truck guy's vehicle. It all ended with me escaping down the road to be deposited at an auto parts store where I procured a new battery, did some shopping and came back home, getting in my house without being seen? (<---Lilt)

   I think that qualifies as my socializing for the year. I'm spent.

tina (mysteriously unseen) jones

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Flat Romance: Humor for Single Women

From time to time, I get a little nostalgic. I have some lady friends who feel it sometimes too. 
I thought it might be time to revisit the ghost of romance past, just to freshen my memory. I also thought it would be a fun idea to do it loosely to the tune of, Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance." <--link

 Sing-A-Long! :) (I'm just enjoying (haha!) the memories. For those who want reminded why we're single. Oh, and I can't sing.) Hit it!


FLAT ROMANCE

Whoah, oh oh oh oh oooh ..... Oh oh oh oh.. oh oh ohhhh,

 Caught in a flat romance! (repeat)

He wants my house.
...would like my car keys.
He'll take anything, as long as it free. 
He just wants hugs. (what?)
O.k. and way too many drugs...(Uuugh)

I know that he likes golf......
and remote controls
Recliners....
strange magazines in the stall.
He wants more cash.....
Oh hell, now he's stole my stash!.

(Bridge)
Needs understanding,
can't hit the pot when he pees...
He'd like some wings. (Yeah, yeah, yeah! Hot Wings!).

(Crank it up, and break into Dance!)
Insults my jeans, and he can't button his pants!
I don't need another flat romance! (Whoa oh oh oh oooh!)
Farts are the only time that I see him dance!
I don't need another Sap romance!
(Blah, duh, blah, duh, blah, duh.... Blah, duh, blah, duh, blah duh, blah).....
Lock the door now! (Blah, duh, blah, duh, blah...)
Lock the door now, (quieter) now, now, now.....

You're welcome! <3
tina jones ;)