I finally saw one of the many touring Van Gogh shows.
It cost $40 for a 33 minute presentation which I watched twice.
Impressionists and post-Impressionists are my favourites. Van Gogh in particular.
That said, I wouldn’t go again. BUT a 3D virtual reality wearing a headset would be cool, I would think.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Mike — originally from New Brunswick — has lived around the world. Speaks 5-6 languages. Started as a gymnast and coach. Moved into teaching Physical Education.
But is today an Art teacher at a private school in Madrid.
He lives in the neighbourhood of the major Art museums.
Mike and I have been friends for decades. I really enjoyed a recent chance to visit. Catching up on his philosophical world view and recent Art. He’s currently exploring painting on stained metal. One example:
He’s still sculpting, as well.
Mike works a lot in digital media with his kids at school.
Recently he did some commercial work — major art pieces for Cruise Ships under construction now.
Check his Instagram: sissonsart.
I was much affected seeing David in Florence when I was a teenager.
Ever since, sculpture has been my favourite art discipline from the past.
Unveiled 1504.
Leonardo da Vinci was the great master at the time. Michelangelo the young upstart genius. it’s said the two were very competitive.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Though I’ve visited many of the best art galleries and museums around the world, I’m not actually much of an Arts buff.
What I like most is sculpture.
Also the Impressionists and post-Impressionists (Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, and Seurat.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Jerry Saltz won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2018.
Since 2006 he’s been senior art critic and columnist for New York magazine.
Astonishingly, he was a long distance truck driver until age-41.
One of the very LAST words I’d use to describe myself is artist. Yet even I found this book useful in my quest to become a more artistic video creator.
Click PLAY or listen to an excerpt on YouTube.
I’ve never really got into short stories. Nor Chekhov.
But I was convinced by Phillip Pullman that this short story is a masterpiece.
You can listen to it on The Guardian.
Chekhov’s genius lies in the way he manages to convey with such apparent effortlessness a profound sense of the mystery of beauty, and of the sadness of those who observe and think. The narrator of this apparently inconsequential tale fixes on exactly the right details, from a myriad of possible ones, to strike at the heart. It’s a masterpiece of minimalism.
A schoolboy is accompanying his grandfather as they drive in their carriage along a dusty road across the steppe on a sultry August day. They stop for refreshment at the house of an Armenian friend of the grandfather. The boy, the grandfather and their Ukrainian driver are all struck by the beauty of the Armenian’s daughter.
Some years later, now a student, the boy is on a train that stops for some minutes at a country station. He gets out to stretch his legs, and sees a girl on the platform talking to someone in one of the carriages. She is very beautiful.
It’s about as spare and empty of plot as a story could be; two impressions that barely even amount to anecdote.
Like Waiting for Godot, it’s a story in which nothing happens, twice
Who has not fallen in love at first glance of a stranger?
6 months ago I still had a low opinion of those trying to make a living on YouTube.
It seemed a juvenile race to the bottom. I did not watch any of the top YouTubers. Not even my friend’s son, Cody Ko, who has 5 million + subscribers.
BUT — even then — I did follow a few favourite vloggers on HIKING and TECH.
Fact is, young people on YouTube and now TikTok are in the midst of a video editing revolution. Most future great film and TV directors are currently doing their own thing on social media.
Peter McKinnon, for example. In this fantastic 7 minute edit he pays tribute to the art form.
McKinnon is as skilled at video editing as anyone.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Every tourist visits Prague Castle.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, it’s the largest ancient castle in the world, sprawling across the hill above Charles Bridge.
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Built and expanded over hundreds of years, it’s an architectural Frankenstein.
At the start was a memorial to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Very interesting.
It takes a few hours to tour walking top to bottom. For a quick first look. The highlight is the Cathedral of St Vitus.
The main nave is massive.
Our very enthusiastic guide insisted that the BEST museum in Prague was here in the castle – the Lobkowicz Palace.
Original manuscripts from Mozart and Beethoven as well as the oldest and largest privately owned art collection in the Czech Republic.
As we stood outside the front door a distinguished gentleman entered. And returned. It was Prince William Lobkowicz himself, who grew up in Boston. He gave some gifts to our guide saying he had never overheard any other more accurately description of the collection. Our guide had tears in his eyes. It was an emotional moment for him.
The tour finishes with a walk downhill to the Charles Bridge.
An excellent half day.
