Happy Birthday Johnny Cash!

Today would be Johnny Cash's 77th birthday. In honor of that, I encourage you to check out this music video of his cover of the song Hurt written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. I am not sure when I first saw this, but it moved me then and it still moves me now. I love reality in art, and this definitely is redemptive reality.

Cool stuff: my version

Was wandering around the blogs I like to frequent and came across this post from Random Musings. I always enjoy what she has to say, and her name is Rebecca, so she must be cool ;-) It seems like I wrote just yesterday and it has already been almost 2 weeks... YIKES!

Cool stuff:

• Thunderstorms that crash so loudly they make me jump... even if I have my earphones in.
• Changing the hem on $0.80 pants from the thrift store and having cute office wear.
• A best friend who will sit and listen to me verbally process my relational experience without yawning once.
• Thumb-wrestling with an extremely intelligent man and considering it just as fun as deep conversation.
• The fragrance of clothes fresh from the clothesline.
• Anything that combines mushrooms, spinach and good cheese.
• Standing in front of A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat with someone who has never seen it before.
• Living over a year without a car.
• Working with interesting people at a job that really only requires 35 hrs a week from me and still pays me a livable wage.

There is always more that could be added. I am hoping to have a book list/review post in a few days. Just finished Chesterton's Orthodoxy and am in the midst of Till We Have Built Jerusalem by Philip Bess.... an interesting collection of essays on New Urbanism and its ties to the sacred. So much to think about (and write about)-- so little time!

So beautiful it takes my breath away

Like all electronic images, this one, I am sure, does little justice to the original. I just read an interview of Makoto Fujimura by Tim Challies and had to point you that way. I originally heard about Fujimura via an article in World Magazine that highlighted the collection of paintings he did post 9/11. After visiting the Centre Pompidou in Paris I realized that abstract art can speak to you in ways that representational art can't. Anyway, I think it's worth the read and I hope to some day make it to NYC so I can take in the art in real time.

Been Thinkin'

I don't write often on this blog. Definitely not as often as I think of things to say, but I wanted to post this quote as a reminder of some of the important things that we don't think about but which should inform every moment of our living:

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The Jeff Wall Exhibit

My few faithful readers are a due a new installment and something besides a narcissistic rambling, so I decided to write about a recent cultural experience.

The Art Institute has free evenings from 5-9 Thursday and Friday all summer. Well, there are posters all over the city for the Jeff Wall retrospective that they have been running and I was intrigued. Friday night I made it in for about an hour before I had to catch the bus to small group.

First, one should never go to a public exhibit on a free evening on a holiday weekend. One is bound to run into MANY unappreciative tourists who seem bent on viewing as many objets d'art in the shortest time possible, whilst commenting on the general lack of excitement such a viewing incurs.

Second, it is always valuable to find an exhibit that will place viewing benches in front of artwork that you are actually interested in meditating on as an escape from the trampling hordes.

Third, one should remember that, no matter how much longer one dawdles in front of said artwork, attempting to escape the press, the hordes will invariable run one down, hence the rapid pace people make through such exhibits.

In all honesty, it wasn't really that bad. I was just kicking myself for not taking the opportunity to get down there sooner, since I live a whopping 1.5 miles from the Art Institute--a straight shot north up Michigan from the apartment.

Jeff Wall is an amazing artist. I read in one of the catalogs that he only creates about 5 images a year... not much for a photographer and a risky proposition for an artist at any time. But those 5 images are intense, to say the least. The link to the Art Institute website does not begin to give you an understanding of his artwork. I am including a few links that give a slightly better sense, but even they hardly do justice. His pictures are printed on film and mounted over a lightbox, basically huge transparencies, and almost without exception they are large and imposing.

Here are links to a few of my favorite images:
A Sudden Gust of Wind
The Invisible Man
Some Beans and Octopus

There were other images that I would have including if good links were available. If you are in the Chicago area before the end of the month, I encourage you to take a look at the exhibit. Thursday evenings are still free and the exhibit is free.

I wanted to make some philosophical reflections on Wall's artwork, but I hardly know where to begin. Photography is an interesting medium. There is a feeling of reality, authenticity in photography that makes you think you are seeing the truth. A moment, caught in time, lies suspended before you in the gallery. Wall's work often looks spontaneous and dramatic, as if he had the magic touch and just saw the moment as it happened. Reading a bit about him, however, revealed that he was the master of manipulating the image; that he spent countless hours digitally blending 100s of images to create one masterwork. No wonder he only did 5 pieces a year!

One that I did not include in the list is called A Flooded Grave. I could not find a good link for it, so this one will have to be adequate. It is an image of a recently dug grave that is filled with a plethora of sealife. The setting is so mundane that the appearance of a grave full of starfish and anemones seems reasonable, until you take the time to think about it. In each image there was the opportunity to think about the complex machinations that were necessary to create a seemingly natural moment. This sounds so flat on the page, but it was a very rich experience.

The Jeff Wall exhibit reminded me yet again of why I am so interested in art and why I wish I were a much more skilled contributor. Excellent art provokes a thoughtfulness and contemplation that is not generally available in the world I live in on a daily basis. I need to take more time out to meditate on them. It might prompt something really beautiful in my life.

Isn't it amazing that we belong to a Creator God who would pour so much ability into His frail creations that we might begin to act and work in His image as creators as well?