Art Bomb-2/13/2015 My Favorite Things, Jules Breton

Aleathia says:

Yesterday Michael told me he was thinking about things.  Specifically thinking about how he could not tell anyone who my favorite artist was or who my favorite band was.  This disturbed him as it made him feel like he doesn't really know me, or wouldn't be able to prove to others that he did.  He quizzed me on his favorites and I was able to rattle them off quite easily.  This did not make me feel like I knew him better or loved him more.  It was just information stored.

I look at art and any sort of artistic mediums (movies, books, art, music) as a very personal but evolving love affair.  The artist I loved 10 years ago may not steal my heart today.  The same goes for music.  When I was a kid I loved Metallica....now you couldn't pay me to listen to them.  The experiences in my life shape the sorts of visual and auditory media that I enjoy.  There are a few that stick through all time and maybe those are my "favorites".

Michael thought maybe I was just more complex than him and that it why it wasn't apparent what my favorites were.  I explained that I do a lot less sharing than he does.  He speaks of his love affairs in all these various media and I rarely bring them up in conversation.  I never feel like I need to.  I don't feel like they would change the way he loves me or influence the day.  He and I are so very different and that is what makes us a great match.  He consumes things.  He devours them completely and unabashedly where I choose what I look at and listen to based on moods.  Knowing who directed something or who played guitar on such and such a track does not sway my feelings about the piece. I enjoy things at face value.  I enjoy them because they make me feel something even if I am unable to put into words what those feelings are.

There are have been pieces of art that have made me cry when I have seen them in the museum.  Not many have done this really.  There is one piece I saw when I went to Chicago Art Institute that blew me away.  It was tucked in the corner, but when you approached it the light changed.  When you walked backwards away from it, it changed again.  It struck me as odd that I loved it so much because it was not from the time period of painters that I usually enjoy, but the painting brings me so much joy.  I have a copy of it (postcard size) by my desk.  It always enlightens my spirit.  I may have posted it here in the past.  It is hard to say.

"Song of the Lark" by Jules Breton

This representation does not do the painting justice.  You have to see it to really appreciate the texture and light quality of this painting.  If you are in Chicago you should stop by and enjoy it.

Art Bomb-6/13/2014

Aleathia says:

Sometimes in life there is a painting or two that punches you in the face when you least expect it.  In the summer of 2011, I was walking through a museum in Chicago with my friend.  It was crowded with tourists and people huddled in groups for tours.  We rounded the corner and this is what we saw:

It is French painter Jules Breton's "Song of the Lark".  I had never heard of him before.  I am sure I had never seen this painting either, but it took my breath away.  In real life when you are standing at a distance from this painting there is something all together haunting about the darkness of it.  The idea that she has worked until the sun is dipping over the horizon in the distance makes you empirically tired.  We walked closer to the painting slowly and as we did this the light of the sun changed in the background.

We must have looked like freaks walking forward and backward 10 times as the painting changed with every step.  There are few times in my life that I have cried in a museum.  This was one of them.  It is such a beautiful painting to behold, so simple and pastoral, but deep with meaning.  It is one of my favorite paintings since seeing it in the flesh.