3. When I talked to Rena I thought about Art Nouveau a lot and what made that feel modern. I have a great affinity to Art Nouveau, especially as a young kid. I wondered, what person to me does that now and makes it modern or something of our time, without necessarily using the now to talk about it. I showed the artist who I deem to be this pillar of the time and he's not pretty well known. His name is Donato Giancola and he is a wonderful fantasy and science fiction artist. He takes Art Nouveau and its natural forms and unnatural forms and makes his own unique style and worlds that speak volumes to me. I think he knows the world so well that he can improve or change it so it makes sense in his art. As Baudelaire put it, "He began by looking at life, and only later did he contrive to learn how to express life. The result has been a striking originality, in which whatever traces of untutored simplicity may still remain take on the appearance of an additional proof of obedience to the impression, of a flattery of truth." What Baudelaire explains though, is the "mystery" artist paints his world around him. In my opinion, Giancola also paints the world around him but in a way that reflects the fantastic and hopeful (sometimes not) future or future past he wants for humanity. What I love is how in his science fiction work natural forms are everywhere within the unnatural metal and hyper technological settings. Its as if he's is telling the viewer to not forget nature in the coming years, especially in his integration of that giant tree into the city scape in the fourth one down. My favorite piece out of all of these and his other works is the second one down which is a book cover for a novel called, "Finger Pointing Solward," which is in fact unpublished. When I first encountered the artwork, I had no idea that the title was not his original title and thought it completely abstract and obtuse. But perhaps the woman is looking to the sun, because she is gazing where the light source seems to be coming from. In any case, the beautiful abalone type shell surroundings seem like the inside of a shell (ha!), like a cocoon or organic capsule of some kind. The woman seems to have been just awakened by the man behind her. There is a newness to her and her white garment is so simple, clean, and yet in its softness it is modern. How did she live in that tube she is coming out of? That doesn't matter! She is important and she is beautiful, something like a baby, but fully grown. There is a story here and I wish to know it, but there is nothing solid about the novel to go on by either online or anywhere. I feel like she is myself, coming from this slumber and in between action and inaction. She is in transition and she will stuck that way forever. (I don't think I be in transition forever, but just feel like we relate to each other) It is so rich and yet its richness tells me little of what I'm seeing. Perhaps it is for the viewer to make their own connections and conclusions. This woman is rising up to something and she could be anyone. And with Giancola as my inspiration, that to me is modern.
Sorry about the weird setup. I couldn't manually move the photos down for some reason, so I had to paste the other part down and its layout is all screwed up and unfixable at the moment.
1. I talked to some old friends and my significant other about modern life and this is what came about:
(Siris is 26 and was currently playing a role playing game on her computer while she was on the phone with me)
Me: What is modern to you?
Siris: Well...Not much separates us from our ancestors. The tools are better but we've just upgraded some things to make living easier than it was in the past. This modern age isn't wholly defined yet. Just kinda thinking about what it wants to be. Like maybe it'll be the greenest age, in terms of environmental concerns and practices in how we, you know, help out. We're trying to be that future we saw as kids. But it is going to take a while to get there. So...oh, dude, I gotta go. I have a dungeon raid in like 5 minutes...
(Alexander is 16 and was playing a game of Starcraft (a sci fi game) while we were on the phone - kinda a trend here)
Me: What is modern to you?
Alexander: Dude, technology. All the way. You think about Japan and all those kick ass robots they're making. And how their phones are, like, 10-20 years ahead of ours. I can't wait for my own mecha suit. I mean though we want to stay...human, you know what I mean? If the robots become self aware, like in Terminator, we are totally screwed. So, we have to make sure that doesn't happen and make sure we stay human in the process...does that make sense? I dunno.
Me: Yeah, it makes sense.
Alexander: Okay...Shit!
Me: What?
Alexander: I just lost my second base. Sorry, I can't concentrate right now. Talk later?
(Rena is in her 30's and its not her real name but her screen name. We used an online chat to talk.)
Me: What is modern to you?
Rena: I think about the 1920's. Stuff like Art Nouveau and how we (laughs) became modernized.
Me: I mean, today's world. The now.
Rena: Oh! Um...Does it have to be something good about it?
Me: No, doesn't have to be.
Rena: I think our world is broken. You got hunger, the economy as it is, wars, hate, all this nasty stuff going on. We as a people say, "Yeah I wanna fix this" but it doesn't seem like much has happened that fixes anything. Perhaps we'll fix more in time. There is a light of hope, but I think a lot of people ignore it. I mean, I look to today's art to feel like everything will be all right. A lot of it can be ugly but it strives for...to be something greater than itself. I mean, I'm talking about the good art here. Sometimes it warns us, scolds us, or just wishes for us to do something better. Perhaps. I think. Did you want to talk about something else?
(James is 17 and we used online chat to talk)
Me: What is modern to you?
James: Metal! LAWL, I'm kidding. But kinda not. Hehe.
Me: So what defines modern life to you?
James: Modern life is like where I live and stuff. I feel like I'm growing up in this fucked up place and I have to get out of it. And if I could I would make it better. Like I watch the news sometimes. And it just freaks me out. I feel like I have no control over anything except what I do, like personally. I'm scared of the real world outside of high school and probably even college to. I feel like something bad is going to happen to me and pretty much everyone. Its like everyone is holding their breathe or something.
Me: Um, thats a little all over the place.
James: Hehe, sorry.
Me: No that's cool. Anything else about modern life?
James: Hmm...I watch some TV other than the news. Like reality shows. They're crap but so many people are into them. Sooner or later, they're gonna go meaner and nastier and we're gonna not know what, like, monster we made. People act like cause humans are smart, or some shit, that they won't let bad things happen. But I think people are mostly stupid, especially the powerful people and things are going to get pretty fucked up before they get any better...Is that okay?
(Dillon is 22 and my significant other. This was face to face)
Me: What s modern? What defines modern life to you?
Dillon: The recession.
Me: Huh? Really?
Dillon shrugs.
Me: What about our moment now?
Dillon: I guess...Well...You know how they were trying to pin a name on our generation? Like Generation X or some shit? Our "generation" has no identity. Like its lazy.
Me: Shiftless?
Dillon: Yeah and like I dunno.
Me: Faceless too?
Dillon: Yeah, its not like this collective of people like the 70's were about the hippies and 60's about the baby boomers or something. Our generation has no name. The world feels all jumbled and a mish mash of stuff that doesn't make sense. Almost like we haven't found a purpose yet.
Me: We'll find it in time.
Dillon: We better. Or there won't be world left to use...This is depressing. Are you hungry?
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