(This space intentionally left blank.)
"She who used to be the beautiful heaulmière" by Rodin
Anyone can see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl she used to be. A great artist can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is . . . and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be . . . more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo see that this lovely young girl is still alive, prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart . . . no matter what the merciless hours have done. Look at her, Ben. Growing old doesn't matter to you and me—but it does to them. Look at her!
- Heinlein
And this one is one of my wife's favourites - "Return of the Sun", by Odd Nerdum (what a cool name).
I feel ya.
But she's more than just good art denouncing bad art; she's a symbol for every woman who ever shouldered a load too heavy. But not alone women - this symbol means every man and woman who ever sweated out life in uncomplaining fortitude until they crumpled under their loads. It's courage... and victory. Victory in defeat, there is none higher. She didn't give up... she's still trying to lift that stone after it has crushed her... she's all the unsung heroes who couldn't make it but never quit.This poor little caryatid has fallen under the load. She's a good girl - look at her face. Serious, unhappy at her failure, not blaming anyone, not even the gods... and still trying to shoulder her load, after she's crumpled under it.
Reminds me, Tolkien did his own art for his book covers, but it was scarcely published. Shame. I like when illustrations are by the author. It feels like a better window through their eyes.
Indeed, and some of it was on special display at the Bodleian in Oxford a couple summers ago, which was probably the best moment of my entire life. I took secret pictures from under my jacket. EDIT: I think my favorite cover of Sil is one of the landscapes: http://home.agh.edu.pl/~evermind/images/TN-Silmarillion_cover_2004.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TwF6F_SPijY/UW4acCWS-mI/AAAAAAAAFXE/Mc5tLt1Bdqs/s1600/the+silmarillion%281%29.gif but most of all because I like to believe it shows Cuivienen, though it's more likely the Western Sea.
Bonnie Buchanan, Dai Lu Village It's by a personal friend, a classically trained abstract artist, from time she spent in a minority village in the mountains of China. I love the symbolism, and the brightness, and the mountains. Everything about it, really. Her earlier work isn't my favorite, because it's usually dark, at least in a literal sense. I don't know how much the symbolism follows the literal, but her more recent work feels happier to me. If you like it, she sells on Etsy, and takes commissions.
I don't have a favorite, but as for visual art, I enjoy both Brett and Edward Weston's photography. Here is Edward's 1930 piece titled "Pepper"
Any work from The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti series by Ben Shah. He was an artists that worked for those that no government wants to listen to any longer. He was the US American Diego Rivera; born abroad but believed this is where the voice of life could be spoken loudest.
Nighthawks... Love this painting. Love Edward Hopper's works.
It's just so perfect. There's so much attention to detail. It's the embodiment of creativity.