Random Musing No. 1

The human eye has a range of 120°, mostly peripheral vision, compared to the camera’s typical 200° or more. That is why the figures sometimes seem distorted at the edges of a photograph. We make up for this seeming deficit by moving our focus (in movements called “saccades”) around a scene to build up a gestalt awareness of its appearance.

A painting, curated by human intelligence, is superior in every respect to a photograph, except for how long it takes to make it. If cameras took three hours to create the exact same image as they do now in a split second, there would be no question as to which medium people would choose when they needed an image recorded.

Goya and Wyeth

I went to the Goya show at the MFA the other night. Oh my God, what a brilliant, tortured man. On the plus side, as far as my personal ego goes, I got to get up close to most of the paintings for a good look (museum guards hate me), and his handling of clothes and drapery, I’m happy to report, was clumsy at best. I just don’t think he was that interested in it, an attitude I can completely understand. However, on top of all the other superlatives one could care to bestow on his art, I was especially surprised and impressed by his use and depiction of light. Astonishing, modern and even cinematic in its intensity.

 

Then I went to the Jamie Wyeth show, and I was eaten up with envy. Not at his artwork; I found that rather banal, technically proficient in the Brown Gravy style but not extraordinary (the same criticism I have of Andrew), nor particularly insightful, but of the apparent ease and leisure to do whatever he wants provided by his famous name. Shit, I wish I owned a private island off the coast of Maine. I wish I could afford to buy Rockwell Kent’s house on Monhegan. Then I could paint eight foot canvases of pumpkins too. Small of me, I know, but that’s how I felt.