Skip to content →

Category: artists

Maira Kalman and The Pursuit of Happiness

Published January 31, 2009 by cgerrish

Maira Kalman

I’ve loved Maira Kalman’s work for many years. Her paintings and illustrations are so entwined with the everyday life of the mind. They illuminate and bring out the joy and humor in life as it unfolds around us. Kalman’s blog on the New York Times site is a perfect combination of complex and simple technology. It brings us paintings and illustrations as commentary, as another part of our daily conversation.

Angel by Maira Kalman

Kalman’s blog entry on the Inaguration of Barack Obama features 16 or 17 paintings from her experience of that day. I watched the event live on television and listened to the various commentators attempt to interpret the significance of the day. For me, Kalman seems to have captured it perfectly, not just the event but the life around it.

While photography allows us to capture the visible world with a great deal of ease, the paintings and drawings of Maira Kalman capture much of what is invisible. Technology did a superb job of capturing the event and distributing it around the world in real time. The paint brush, pencil, and palette of paints was perhaps a little slower– but it got to the heart of the matter.

Comments closed

Human Factors

Published December 21, 2008 by cgerrish

Someone asked, looking at the statues in the Greek and Roman section of the Met, why there were so many bodies without heads, and heads without bodies. Turns out there was a time when Christians took a fancy to knocking the heads off of statues. Power shifted, paradigms shifted– Christianity moved from the margin to the center; from a form of atheism to the primary form of theism.

There’s a particular humanity and sense of personality that is still transmitted from these faces. A connection is still possible, even across the centuries. These artifacts, even with the ravages of time, radiate meaning. Contrast that with the digital artifact, once corrupted– it becomes unreadable.

Imagine a culture that encoded all of its artifacts in digital media. Then think about a power shift where the new authority erased the digital artifacts of its predecessor. It’s difficult, if not impossible, for power to imagine its end. We assume that what exists will continue to exist. What tools will the archeologist of the future require to unearth the digital culture that we’re creating today?

3 Comments

Andy Goldsworthy: The Spire

Published November 10, 2008 by cgerrish

The Spire - Andy Goldsworthy

This afternoon I took a drive over to the Presidio to see Andy Goldsworthy’s sculpture called “The Spire.” Kenneth Baker of the SF Chronicle described it:

“Spire” consists of 37 steel-armatured cypress tree trunks, felled as part of the Presidio’s re-forestation program. The structure’s core sits below ground in a metal sleeve enclosed in a massive reinforced concrete base.

The project isn’t complete yet; it is still under construction, fenced off and surrounded by bulldozers and other heavy equipment. Even at this stage, it’s an impressive site. A spire generally sits atop a building as a kind of ornament. Goldsworthy’s Spire sits on the earth, among trees both young and old. Wikipedia describes spires:

Symbolically, spires have two functions. The first is to proclaim a martial power. A spire, with its reminiscence of the spear point, gives the impression of strength. The second is to reach up toward the skies. The celestial and hopeful gesture of the spire is one reason for its association with religious buildings. A spire on a church or cathedral is not just a symbol of piety, but is often seen as a symbol of the wealth and prestige of the order, or patron who commissioned the building

Goldsworthy says that he hopes he can give this single spire some company in the near future.

One Comment

A Long Now Moment: James Turrell’s Roden Crater

Published November 3, 2008 by cgerrish

James Turrell

Sometimes it’s important to view time in bigger chunks, to look at projects as something monumental. James Turrell’s earth work sculpture Roden Crater was started in 1979 and will be open to the public in 2011.

This silent film gives a peek inside the project. The visuals are impressive.

The Roden Crater strikes me as one of the new wonders of the world. Makes me smile that we mortals are still capable of this kind of thing.

2 Comments