RE: Crappy/Krappy

DEAR LIST,
    Allow me to presume to provide some alternate perspective.
1) My friend, Edie, a musicologist, was at University with John Cage and
Soulima Stravinsky (Igor's son) who was dedicated to composition. They were
constantly at odds. She said that the abrasion of their ideas was her
greatest inspiration. Hmmmm, sounds like this list!
2) I just finished reading MICHELANGELO AND THE POPE'S CEILING. I was
captivated! It appears that Mike was so enthralled with special colors only
available from the monks in Florence that he traveled home from Rome to buy
them. You're right! He didn't discuss it with anyone...he just took it
deadly seriously and did it!!! So please don't tell me technique isn't
important. Do tell me that shooting your mouth off about it IS UNIMPORTANT!
3) It seems that Mike's first fresco was pretty lame...by his standards. By
ours, it is damned good. His last few were so good that even Raphael was
shaken out of his socks and changed his style to be more passionate like
Mike's. Of course it was more about the writhing flesh and musculature of
the tortured bodies but, READ THE BOOK, and you will see that Mike made LOTS
OF MISTAKES and used LOTS OF THE SERENDIPITOUS RESULTS to make what we all
toss off as, "Oh, yeah, the Sistine Chapel".
    Again, READ THE BOOK. It is a tour de force look into an artist's mind,
struggle, and work. I know we have come a long way since the renaissance
but, damn, that boy could paint!
    A few months ago I read the Bio of Picasso by O'Brien (same fellow who
wrote the Aubrey/Maturin series). Again, Picasso was a MAGNIFICENT
representative painter before he took off into his other worlds. I used to
think he imitated other styles until I read this book and realized that he
ESTABLISHED them and OTHERS copied HIM. One incredibly telling chapter is
how he spent a few seasons learning etching from a master print maker then
went his jolly way and produced his usual genius. Then he worked with a
master potter and, again, after learning the medium, went on his way. If
you read this book you will realize that talking about it, even on this
list, is rather curious when people like Picasso and Michelangelo would be
busy DOING THEIR ART rather than talking about it in either technical or
aesthetic terms. Of course, the contribution above contradicts my previous
statement. Oh, well...
    "Curiouser and curiouser" Alice Liddell
                            CHEERS!
                                BOB
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Dalyvoss@aol.com [mailto:Dalyvoss@aol.com]
  Sent: Monday, January 03, 2005 8:41 PM
  To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
  Subject: Re: Crappy/Krappy Rant: Answer

> (((John Cage!)))

                      Hah!

                      Small problem: John Cage is (quietly) considered to be
a charlatan by every
                      serious performing musician I know (myself included).
To wit, his 4' 33"
                      for piano.

                      Don Feinberg
                      ducque@mindspring.com

  My husband, a serious performing cellist, heartily agrees.

  dalyvoss.com/paintings
  Susan Daly Voss
  lower upstate NY
Received on Mon Jan 3 21:24:30 2005