by Marty Coleman | Jul 21, 2013 | Photographic Sunday |
Dallas Museum of Art
Over the 4th of July long weekend Linda and I went to visit our daughter, Caitlin, in Dallas, Texas. We had a lot of things planned for the week, including some time I reserved for myself to go museum hopping. I was planning to drive over to Fort Worth and see the Amon Carter Museum of American Art which I had never seen before, but time constraints directed my choice to the Dallas Museum of Art which I also had never seen before and was much closer to Caitlin’s apartment.
The fact that the museum was free all summer helped in that decision, as did the special exhibition, ‘The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece’. There had recently been an exhibition at my hometown Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum of Art on the same general topic which I loved, so I thought I would continue my education in that area by taking in this exhibition as well.
Two Structures – Museum Muse #1
The Museum as Muse
I have been doing a series for many years now called Museum Compositions. I also photograph people quite often and frequently refer to the person I am photographing as my muse. I realized while putting together the images this morning for this post that one of my most compelling muses of all is the museum. Not a specific museum, but all museums. No wonder of course since they aren’t called museums by accident. They house the muses. And to me the house it self is a muse. I am compelled to explore, discover, reach for, secretly find, the perfect composition within the walls of the museum.
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‘Two Dark Muses’ – Museum Muses #2
Finding the formal and the casual creates a perfect moment for me.
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‘Muse and Design’ – Museum Muses #3
The people within the museum are also my muse. It is the relationship of the living to the historic, the flesh to the stone, the real to the ideal, the moving to the static, that excites me.
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‘Phallus and Look’ – Museum Muses #4
And sometimes the relationship between human and object is found within the art itself.
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‘Muse and Vortex’ – Museum Muses #5
You know how a wildlife photographer will tell you he or she has to wait for a long time to get the perfect shot of that animal looking just the right way? It’s the same for me in a museum. I am looking for the location, the juxtaposition of elements in space, of content in relationship to each other. But I am also waiting for the moment the living muse passes by. The moment when they are in perfect relationship to the space and art. I love that moment. I am a hunter of that.
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‘Muse, Man and Boy’ – Museum Muses #6
Compositionally I look for the highest level of formality. I am driven to find the perfect division. In half often, sometimes in thirds. I am looking for a rigorous balance of visual weight.
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‘Muses in Red and Green’ – Museum Muses #7
The mystery of the Museum Muse is that they inspire but they are not known.
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‘Muse at Work’ – Museum Muses #8
Splitting images exactly in half, either vertically, horizontally or both, allows me to fragment and unify the image at the same time. I love the simplicity of the compositional device, and the discipline it takes to find the the composition keeps me pure in focus.
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‘Beautifully Filled Space’ – Museum Muses #9
This quote embodies the root idea behind my compositional efforts.
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‘Dream and Image’ – Museum Muses #10
Contemplation that is embodied in the composition of the image and in the people in the images attracts me.
‘Muse and Waterfall’ – Museum Muses #11
The adrenaline of having to explain myself pumps at moments like these.
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‘Muse on Muse’ – Museum Muses #12
This moment of seeing the living and created muse so blended was sublime. I felt she was taking a photo of herself.
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‘Yellow Muse’ – Museum Muses #13
He split the scene in two and at the same time brought the two sides together. I love when that visual moment occurs.
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‘Ancient Greek And Muses’ – Museum Muse #14
One of my favorite things about museums is how you can see through from one space to another. I like finding the formal composition while seeing through to new spaces.
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‘Formal Muse’ – Museum Muses #15
Sometimes for me the image can be devoid of a human and still be filled with humanity. I found the formality of this visual composition so strong I didn’t think any living thing would enhance it.
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‘Wall Piece and Muse’ – Museum Muses #16
I like when images defy gravity and sense, much like life.
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‘Sleeping Muse’ – Museum Muses #17
Storytelling with art, people and no words is a recurring phenomenon in a Museum.
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‘Male and Female Muses’ – Museum Muses #18
I loved finding the refined and the rough together. As well as the real life muses partially seen, as if in a De Chirico painting.
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Muse with Red Purse – Museum Muses #19
The anonymous woman, reserved but stylish, silhouetted against the grey, was as beautiful as the artwork. Finding them together made both more beautiful to me.
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Muses Coming and Going – Museum Muses #20
Everyone in a museum is a Muse. Everyone and everything is art.
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Here are more ‘Museum Compositions’ posts
Museum Compositions – June 2013
Museum as Muse – Dallas Museum of Art – July 2013
Bouquets in Dallas – Dallas Museum of Art – November 2014
Anonymous Eyes – Dallas Museum of Art – November 2014
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© 2021 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
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by Marty Coleman | Jul 18, 2013 | Buddha, Making Mistakes - 2013 |
Truth: Making Mistakes #5 appears today.
The Comfort Mistake
It seems to me that the search for truth often times is a search to justify one’s comforts and prejudices. It ends at the most convenient location, in other words. That seems to me to be a mistake. If we want to be satisfied, truly satisfied, we have to pursue beyond both of those things.
Religious Truth
We have some good examples, not in the discovery of an absolute and final truth, but in the courage to continue the search. A number of religious leaders and congregations over the centuries showed great courage by walking the road of truth as far as they could. In many cases it turned out their truth wasn’t (and isn’t) accurate. It could even be seen as a mistake. But the best of them were sincere and committed to the journey.
Scientific Truth
Equally courageous were the scientists who dedicated their lives to walking that road of truth. Some were excommunicated, some were shunned, some were killed. But they knew the road they were on and were seeing it to the end. Just as in the religious journey, the scientific journey also had (and has) truths be discovered later to be inaccurate. It could even be seen as a mistake. But the best of them were also sincere and committed to the journey.
The Road of Truth
The truth is the road of truth demands effort. You can’t cruise down it in a BMW on cruise control. You can’t take a bus down it, or a train on the tracks next to it. You can’t fly over it. You have to walk it, explore it, commit to it. It’s a long journey that everyone has to take by themselves. You can stop and read, stop and sleep, stop and contemplate, but it would be a mistake to not get up again and start down the path. And the farther you go, the more you realize you need no facade, no fancy clothes, no money, no glass house. Just you naked in your search on the road of truth.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by the Buddha
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by Marty Coleman | Jul 17, 2013 | Making Mistakes - 2013 |
I deem it a success that today is ‘Making Mistakes’ #4!
The Wrong Mistake
Yogi Berra, the famous baseball player and manager has a great quote. While explaining why his team didn’t win he said, “We made too many wrong mistakes.” I turned that around to come up with my quote today. Yes, you need mistakes in life to grow and learn, but they have to be the right mistakes, not the wrong ones. How can you tell the difference? It’s not easy, but it has something to do with risk, as fuzzy as that sounds.
Over a Cliff
When I lived in San Jose, California, there was a big news story in 1983 about Dennis Barnhart, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who worked for years and years to make his company, Eagle PC, a success. He finally did it and took the company public. As a result he was an instant multimillionaire and decided to reward himself by buying a Ferrari. He then took the Ferrari for a spin along the curvy mountain roads above the valley. He was alive and free and had made it! He then made a mistake and went over a cliff to his death. He made a wrong mistake.
Into the Wild
The book ‘Into the Wild‘ tells the story of a young man, Chris McCandless, who wants to truly live out in the wild, on the edge. No fall back, no plan B. And he does. He goes off to Alaska and proceeds to live just like that. He is successful until he misidentifies a certain plant as being ok to eat that actually wasn’t. As a result he died alone in the Alaska Wilderness, his body found 2 weeks later by some hunters passing through. He made a wrong mistake.
The Bad Divorce
I remember talking to a friend about my divorce once. I told him that my unwife and I are now at peace with each other and what happened. That we are thoughtful, kind, forgiving, supportive and helpful towards each other as often as circumstances allow. He responded that he had wished his mother had been able to do that after his parents divorced. She had not, but instead had held on tightly to every anger, every slight, every fault and every failing of her ex-husband. She had spent well over 30 years since the divorce focused again and again on her anger and hatred of him and his mistakes. She had not let go and not moved on. She made a wrong mistake.
The Wrongest Mistake
What do those three examples have in common? In all three, people died. ‘Wait a minute, no one died in the third story!’ you say? But what would you call being held and tortured as prisoner of a mistake (yours or someone else’s), in a prison of your own devising, for the rest of your natural life?
To compound a mistake by condemning yourself forever has to be the wrongest of mistakes if you ask me. So, while it is important to avoid wrong mistakes that might kill you, it is even more important to avoid the wrongest of mistakes, the mistake of condemning yourself to death while still alive. Don’t make that mistake.
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Quote, drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | Jul 15, 2013 | Franklin P. Jones, Making Mistakes - 2013 |
I have enough experience to know that ‘Making Mistakes’ #3 is here today.
Why Do I Always…
Do you ask that question? You know, the one that ends with “end up with the wrong guy?” What answer did you come up with?
I don’t ask myself that exact question. But I do wonder why I repeat the same mistakes more than once. It’s not that I never learn, it’s just that it takes more than one experience to learn. Even if I can see that next mistake barreling down the highway at me, I still sometimes avoid getting out of the way until it’s too late. Do you, or did you use to, do the same thing? Why is that? Why does it take so long to learn from our mistakes?
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Drawing and questions by Marty Coleman
Quote by Franklin P. Jones, 1908 – 1980, Philadelphia reporter, public relations executive and humorist
“Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.”
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