Thursday, December 10, 2009

 

Circles

I wake up spritely on tuesdays, because that's the day the New York Times has its science section. I know absolutely nothing about science. I consistently failed physics and chemistry in school. I once tried to pass a physics exam by writing 'nitrogen oxide' for every single answer, certain it must be right eventually. I find I get the most writing inspiration from the science section, precisely because I am so lost. I end up wandering onto strange topics that spark something stranger. They are also great lateral thinkers, the NY Times science writers. Below is the link to an article about circles in nature, inspired by a Kandinsky retrospective going on at the Guggenheim right now. The painting she mentions, 'Several Circles', is one of my favourites. It gratifies me that a science moron and a science genius can find common ground in a painting. It usually hangs at the Norton Simon in Pasadena, the most consistently inspiring museum I know.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/science/08angier.html

ps: What's your favourite painting?

Comments:
I love the work of Dutch painter Ans Markus.
It's extremely realistic and breathtakingly beautiful.
Her zodiac paintings are really popular over here in the Netherlands...

http://www.ansmarkus.nl/english/zodiac.html
 
I like the article. Liked the painting also, reminded me of that missing Welsh man and his perfect circle obsession - (was it Gogh who before him went mad for such a thing alsO?).
Nooo, don't ask such a question, reg: fave paintings! Changes every day for a mind like this, err... ahm...

I've always liked Odilon Redon.

1. Because I like its expression, and believe it to look similar to yours truly... (ride that narcissistic wave maaaaan!)

http://virgo.bibl.u-szeged.hu/wm/paint/auth/redon/redon.cyclops.jpg

2. An inspiration of sorts for the character of Gregor Samsa? Makes me feel odd...

http://www2.udec.cl/~miaguile/Aranuela/Crying-spider-Redon-1881.gif

xSx
 
Gregor Samsa...as in "The Metamorphosis"?? LOVED the story!!!

Fav painting...hmmmmmm...many...many...the one I found the most mesmerizing - seeing it in the flesh so to speak - was "View of Delft" by Vermeer...truly baffling.
Love van Gogh's "Starry Night"...
 
Great article. Circles = balanced and not balanced. Aren't we all? Balanced and not? I'm stuck now trying to paint Alexandra Leaving. Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving, say goodbye to Alexandra lost. Do not choose a coward's explanation. What color is that? I like real faces in paintings. Real bodies. Not popular, I know. Not mod. Not cool. But true to me.
 
For me Farid Benyaa


http://www.farid-benyaa.com/
 
Typically I dislike classical paintings and portraiture- it feels as though something commissioned by some rich dead fella lacks the resonance of much of the art over the last hundred years.

This is my exception:
http://danspears.com/images/T600-Delaroche-Martyr.jpg

La Jeune Martyre by Paul Delaroche- it looks rubbish online and in posters, but if you see it at the Louvre, it's absolutely transfixing.

I love that when I first met one of my dear friends Susy, we found out that we'd both had the exact same reaction to the painting and had stood in front of it for about an hour.

At 16 I was totally indifferent to science- now I'm a science writer for some of the most exciting research on the planet- and I have all the zeal of a convert. I still don't understand it, but I do understand the need to make people care about it and it's not a bad way to make a living.

Over the last month I've worked on press releases on cannibals in Papua New Guinea, proof that women could become male by removing one gene and what could have been the biggest HIV prevention trial in history.

It was a great day when I realised that all those stuffy science teachers I had at school had blown the wool over my eyes and that this stuff is far more creative and personal than I was led to believe.
 
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Emma
I have a fascination with the world around me. I think that's why I studied Science.People think of Science as a measured thing but it can be really creative.A Scientist investigates what they've imagined. What's more creative than that?

My favourite painting is by the mad, red head Van Gogh "Crows in the Wheatfield". (The crows are me).

One thing is for sure, there is no beauty like the beauty of the world around us. Sometimes if you look closely enough, through a microscope the ugly can suddenly be beautiful.

Check out Thrush "Candida".

http://publications.nigms.nih.gov/biobeat/05-09-20/05-09-20-03.jpgty.

Check out cancer cells.
http://bigteaparty.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/VaL/Dividing_Cancer_Cell_small.jpg
 
Hello Emma, love your blog.
I'm an artist, so my favorite works fly on the wings of my current obsessions, but pinned down, I would have to say Francisco Goyas 'the Dog' from his Black paintings never fails to touch me.
 
I have not read this blogs in months and months and finally am catching up... I just had to comment because two of your posts are directly related to things I have been discussing with my fellow MA students. One is a comment about how much we should consider the artist's intention in art works, the other is this about Kandinsky. My favorite painting? Gustave Caillebotte's The Floor Scrapers. No one who knows me believes this when I say it because I am completely obsessed with ancient art and archaeology, it should be the Alexander Mosaic from the House of the Faun. The only artist that gives Caillebotte a run for no. 1 is Amedeo Modigliani.
 
Cafe Terrace by Vincent VG! I love deep blue so much, it looks beautiful in this. And the lights from the cafe magically blend into the street and sky :) Et les étoiles petillent...
 
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