Blue

Bloutcher
Where Art, Life and Leadership Collide

Blue

I was in NYC for a business meeting last Friday.  Before the meeting I slipped into the Museum of Modern Art. Here are some of my notes.
Orozco, "Barricade":
 HANDS!!  My hands!  Over sized--reaching for more than able to hold

 Matisse, "Still Life after Jan Davidsz de Heem's 'La Desserte'" (1640)
      He began working on the canvas again, 22 YEARS LATER, "adding everything I've seen      since." He uses the word "seen," not "learned."  22 YEARS LATER!!
Matisse, "Woman on a High Stool"
   There's heaven in the levitational space between woman and stool.

 Matisse, The Red Studio
     All over red--sense of spacelessness
     No hand on grandfather clock--timelessness
     Defining the nature of being in the creative state--beyond space and time

 Van Gogh, The Starry Night
   Tree/foreground darkest blue
   Town and hills medium dark blue
   Starry night sky appears almost light blue
   Blues upon blues, vastness in a small painting, firmament within structure.

 Cezanne, Well Mill Stone-Cisterne
   Dancing network of innumerable brushstrokes

 Monet, Water Lily
   Meditation, not painting
   On the surface brush strokes revealing depth upon depth
   Layer upon layer--serenity evoked one gesture at a time

 Some observations:

• Each time I look at a familiar painting I discover something new
• "Mistakes" made, evidenced and built upon
• Arriving at unity through disruption
• I sometimes think I want to paint like Whitman writes poetry--everything in

At my business meeting an executive wore a soft cerulean blue shirt and yellowish tie.  At the end of the meeting he caught me smiling.  I told him he reminded me of Van Gogh.  He smiled back and said "I see."