Years ago a well-intentioned soul introduced me to Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. “You’re creative” they said as they pressed the book into my hand. “You’ll love her.”
Sadly I never did have a wild and passionate affair with her book, but I did read it, and even attempted the two activities she recommended - Morning Pages (three pages, written in longhand, first thing every morning), and the Artist’s Date (a weekly block of two hours spent observing, experiencing, and sensing).
The Morning Pages part of the experiment didn’t last long; my finely honed night owl tendencies (thank you higher education!) were simply too entrenched. Morning Pages soon became Afternoon Pages, then regressed to just-before-bed-while-the-cat-tries-to steal-the-pen-and-pouts-pages.
Apparently Morning Pages were not my thing.
The Artist’s Date was something else altogether. Taking time out each week to do something that would feed my creativity was something I could really get into, and did. In the past decade I’ve visited the usual art galleries, museums, gardens, and heritage buildings, but also taken spontaneous meanders in neighbourhoods I didn’t know and talked to people I might not have otherwise met. All different, all interesting, all cherished.
For the past couple of years I’ve been spending a quiet hour or two at the Vancouver Art Gallery whenever possible. With only the occasional quiet murmur of another patron and my own footsteps to keep me company, I’ve had the chance to see art work that sometimes leaves me puzzled, sometimes dazed, but always like I’ve been in the presence of something more.
My current favourite is the TruthBeauty exhibit, which has taken me ages to work through. I’m blaming it on Oscar Reyjlander (an example of his work, “Homeless” dated 1860, is posted above) and Frederick H. Evans (a British photographer with an amazing ability to make the mundane ethereal). I know little about both and have only recently started researching their contribution to the art, so I won’t even try to give a summary of who they are here. If you are interested in learning more, you can go here, here, here or there.
Sadly TruthBeauty – Pictorialism and the Photograph as Art, 1845-1945 closes April 17th, and once it’s gone, the chance of seeing these small wonders first hand and up close is gone too.
Posted by Janet on April 4, 2008 at 9:31 am
What a sad picture. Makes me wonder what happened to that poor little boy and whether the photographer stopped to help him or just snapped the pic and went about his business.
Posted by barbie2be on April 4, 2008 at 3:08 pm
that picture is so beautiful. it almost made me cry. how desolate that poor child must have felt.