Roccu accurately expressing my feelings about today ....

I adore her! I needed this smile today.

Videography as an Art Medium

In an art class that I took, I was introduced to several short art videos. I found all of them really interesting- I used to love going to museums and looking at all the 'art', but I really didn't think much about the different mediums or ways that a piece of work could be created, seen, or even changed. Even with some practice, feel like I am not very accomplished at nor do I understand much when it comes to artwork or artistic technique. I know what I like and what moves me..and I have found those reactions to many pieces of artwork created in many different mediums. I hold no illusions that when I draw, my artwork looks like the concentrated scribbling of a six year old with dinosaurs that smile like people and cats shaped like bowling pins. Artwork created with video isn't something that I have thought of as artwork, but these three videos changed my perspective on that. They really helped me to conceive new ways of seeing, technology and how mixed together they can create significantly different pieces of artwork as opposed to other mediums. So I thought I would share my thoughts on three short films with links attached.

"MUTO" - I thought this video was amazing. I found myself so drawn into the images that near the end as the 'man' is breaking open his head, I felt like I too needed to open a space into mine to understand more information. I couldn't figure out how the man swallowed the paper or found myself trying to decide how the artist came up with his different ideas for the drawing. I found my head moving to follow the 'man/spider/diamond/etc' as it moved across the screen and at one point, my cat Roccu who was sitting next to me seemed to find the images/sounds interesting as well- she stood up and moved her face close to the screen and then tried to pat it.

"The City Lights" by White Stripes- another medium that I had never considered much. For the first parts of the video, I kept trying to understand why the canvas was dripping and kept dripping liquid and that some of the image would disappear as more was created it was only near the end of the film that I realized with was a finger drawing on wet glass. I think I found that the most compelling of all the art I looked at this week because I really kept being pulled in trying to figure out the 'trick'... and even when I learned the trick it still seemed like magic to me.

"Take on Me" by Aha- I originally saw this video when I was a teenager and only now recognize how fundamentally different it was from other music videos from that era. It is hard to describe the way it felt to realize that the images created in this short video and knowing it took almost 3,000 rotoscoped images to fully create the images shown suggests a staggering amount of work- more than most music videos have ever attempted to accomplish- certainly not all... Michael Jackson's Thriller comes to mind as an example of throughout artistic design.

Do any of these videos create a strong reaction within you? What was your favorite? How do you feel about the way the artwork was created? What are your thoughts....

Grief

Someone once told me that grief hurts so much because it is love that has nowhere to go. The love you have that you want to share is trapped inside you and escapes through your tears and the shaking that those tears create in the rest of your body. Most days I am doing well. I have so many wonderful things happening and I have so much to point to with gratitude and joy. But some days, I find it harder to focus on the good things. I found myself sitting with Bug today watching different pieces of the Harry Potter films and thinking about my grandparents. I thought of my grandmother laughing, serving turkey and gravy to everyone with a dishtowel tucked into her apron. I thought of the look she would get when she would look at me- like I was an amazing treasure in her eyes. I thought of my grandfather and how just a few months ago, I was able to sit next to his hospital bed and hold his hand. I could feel the warmth and strength in it... and also the fragility. When I left to return to Maine I cried, because I was worried it was the last time I would see him alive... and it was.

I have spent much of this evening thinking of both of my grandparents who I didn't get to spend enough of my time with and lost so much time with them that I dearly wish I could have now. So sometimes, I find myself sitting quietly in the dark with the tears running so quickly down my face that everything is a blur and my glasses are too coated to afford vision. And while I sit and pray and feel desperately alone in my grief, I hear the small soft sounds of cat paws. And within a few minutes I am no longer alone. I have Mina glued to my side like coconut oil and Minion's comforting weight upon my lap. I listen to Roccu sitting on the top of the couch behind me, purring fit to burst. And for that moment, the darkness seems to ease and I no longer feel alone. No, I didn't have enough time with my grandparents and I regret that very much. But I am also grateful because I was given more time with them than I might have gotten. Grief is a process and I know I will work through it, but for tonight it holds me in its grip and I will embrace it until I am able to feel the peace enter my heart again. I know I will see them both again someday, but for now that feels like 'some day' too long.

Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight... Got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight - Barenaked Ladies