Looking over my old posts - This one has some good stuff, and some funny - 'Ramblings' is my word for today, May 11, 2010

Ramblings

Today I plan to ramble.  Hopefully not too long or too uninterestingly.
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Boasting:

Below is a quote, quoted in my art newsletter.  I thought it quite correct.  It is what I have observed and how I've felt when I found myself bragging.  It's not a fun way to be or feel.  Understanding this ought to make us a bit more compassionate toward the boaster.

Bernard Berenson - From the Hope category:

"Boast is always a cry of despair, except in the young it is a cry of hope." (Bernard Berenson)

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Simplicity:

If we call someone a simpleton, or we tell them they are being simplistic we intend to be insulting or maybe we are trying to encourage deeper thought. 

However, sometimes simple is simply beautiful.  Life lived simply is better.  And of course, 'life's simple pleasures are best'.  No, I haven't been eating beans.  If you look back at my last couple of posts, I've been taking 'time to smell the roses' and the peonies too.  I've been fortunate enough to stroll along the beach, watch waves kiss the shore, and enjoy a visual feast as the sun set behind the beach houses, sand dunes and those cute little fences along the dunes. 

We need these respites, but might it be even better if we could live more simply all the time.  Why don't we?  Well, if you find the answer, let me know and I'll do the same.  I hear tell a book has written about the subject, at least once. 

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Art:

What is it?

I think it's like beauty, in the eye of the beholder.  My art newsletter again has caused me to ponder this.  In a recent letter the author described going to an art gallery and hearing the docent give a lengthy and in my opinion, dreamy, description of a painting, which consisted of some broad stripes of solid color.  Well, going back to the above topic of simplicity, it was that, but why was it art?  The docent told what the artist had been thinking and it was deep.  Really, it was, deep stuff.

I once owned a small 'ego gallery'.  That's an art gallery in which the artists pay for space on the walls to hang their work.  We did sell many paintings, some I thought were wonderful, and some with the shadows going in the wrong direction from the light source and objects in front bigger than those in back, I didn't think were too great.  My point you ask.  I used those dreamy, imaginative descriptions of the art and the artists to sell the art, and generally it worked.  Those words didn't make any painting, or sculpture or drawing art. 

I owned that gallery for three and a half years.  I have been paintings and drawings since I can remember, and I haven't any real clue, what's art and what's not.  All I have learned is sometimes people can make beautiful images, and other people will lay down money when they see that beauty.

(In case you think that's all there is to it.  Some also want to buy things they think will become more valuable in time.  And, they could care less if it's beautiful or horrid or down right disgusting!  More difficult than figuring out what is art - what makes humans act the way the do?!)

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May your ramblings take you to beautiful places and friendly people.