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.

Panhandlers Show at the Democracy Center

If you are in Cambridge on June 6th, please come to my showing of Panhandler portraits at the Democracy Center. The Democracy Center (45 Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA) has very kindly offered to provide a venue for the paintings, on very short notice. The Democracy Center is engaged in an interesting project of its own—development of an urban farm to provide fresh organic produce for the homeless population of Cambridge.

The show will be up for only a few days–it’s a community center, not a gallery–and then the paintings will go to the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington on permanent loan, so this is your chance to see all the paintings in Massachusetts. The opening should be fun, and I’m hoping to put on a big feed for the local homeless folks.

I’m trying to raise the money to frame the paintings properly using Kickstarter, and every little bit helps. Please make a donation of as little as a dollar, and pass along this link to your friends:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/539195276/portraits-of-the-cambridge-homeless-community

Thanks, and I hope to see you there!