Author Topic: How has your understanding of art changed?  (Read 9251 times)

Offline serious crayons

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How has your understanding of art changed?
« on: November 09, 2006, 03:55:40 pm »
We've spent months analyzing the artistic aspects of the movie and story. Discussing symbols and subtexts and subtle details. So I'm wondering, has this experience changed your appreciation and/or understanding of other art -- or perhaps affected the way you are creative in your own life?

I feel as if we've taken the equivalent of a graduate seminar in film and/or literature. Have you find other places to apply that knowledge? (In this case, I'm talking about applying it in a creative sense, not in the sense of deciding to make a change in your love life or whatever.)  Although most people practice some form of creativity, I realize not everybody's creative outlets can easily absorb the lessons of BBM (it might not be readily applicable to gardening or pottery, for example). But most people read, watch movies, go to art museums. How has your outlook changed? I don't mean, how has BBM ruined you for all other movies. I mean, what do you look for in movies now that you might not have noticed or thought about before?

For example, I have tried to glean ideas from Annie Proulx's writing to use in my own work. If I'm writing something that seems a bit sentimental, I now think, "No problem! I'll just put in a scene of someone peeing on a small child!"  :laugh: ... Kidding. But I do feel as if I've learned lessons from her. Maybe I would know to use "sweet, salty stink" rather than "sweet, salty fragrance" now.

And seeing how incredibly complex and subtle and beautifully designed the movie is, I look for those nuances in other art now. Often fruitlessly, it's true, and I'm probably more impatient than I used to be when I don't find them. But it's nice to know where to look. I've seen several good movies lately, and I think I actually liked them even better than I would have because I could notice things I might not have before.




Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: How has your understanding of art changed?
« Reply #1 on: November 09, 2006, 10:38:31 pm »
I agree with you. I now demand that my own work, and all that I read, stand up to the standard set by Annie Proulx and Brokeback Mountain!! I don't waste my time on anything that doesn't have a chance of at least echoing it.
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Offline nakymaton

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Re: How has your understanding of art changed?
« Reply #2 on: November 09, 2006, 11:46:51 pm »
I now demand that my own work, and all that I read, stand up to the standard set by Annie Proulx and Brokeback Mountain!! I don't waste my time on anything that doesn't have a chance of at least echoing it.

Me too. Unfortunately, that has contributed to my already bad problems with writer's block.  :-X  I won't write anything except in private blog posts or on message boards. Good thing that I don't make a living writing, unlike some of you.

Sometimes works that went through 60 or so revisions are dangerous models...
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Re: How has your understanding of art changed?
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2006, 02:10:13 pm »
One person recently compared the shots of Alma at the Riverton kitchen table to Vermeer. Lovely food for thought.
Yes, I can see that! Where is that comparison, I missed it! Another thing about Vermeer and the other artists of his era is that they were the first ones to paint everyday scenes and in that way they were like Proulx whose subjects are rural uneducated everyday people. Also, Vermeer painted still lifes frought with symbolism. One thing I would like to do sometime is look at the movie paying attention to everything that's on the table and the counter in each scene. From what we have noticed already, (i.e. Wonder Bread) I'm sure it would be enlightening.
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Offline Penthesilea

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Re: How has your understanding of art changed?
« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2006, 04:47:36 pm »
Yes, I can see that! Where is that comparison, I missed it! Another thing about Vermeer

Lee, there was a thread about settings inspired by Vermeer's work. From my memory:
For example the Twist house: the pale light, the faint colors, the washed-out white. There was also an interview with a crew member from BBM, someone connected to the cinematography and/or locations research. He said that the resemblance between those scenes and Vermeer was deliberate, not by chance. That they used Vermeer as inspiration.
And there were pictures either added or linked at this thread, to compare the settings of the Twist house with matching Vanmeer paintings. The resemblance was unmistakable.

But for the life of me I can't remember where ti find this thread. I even don't know if it was on BetterMost or imdb. I'd like to re-read it, too. Maybe someone else remembers it?



Edit: (four weeks later - duh, I'm not very fast  ;))

There's a major mistake in this post. The artist I was referring to was Hammershoi, not Vermeer. The settings were inspired by Hammershoi's work. Interestingly, Hammershoi is also called "The Danish Vermeer" (according to German wikipedia).

Here are two examples of Hammershoi's paintings. In both I see the same bleakness as in the Twist ranch interiour. And it struck me that in various paintings of Hammershoi empty chairs are around. Think of the Twist kitchen. Many empty chairs there. Another similarity to H.'s paintings.




« Last Edit: December 07, 2006, 04:08:05 pm by Penthesilea »

Offline coffeecat33

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Re: How has your understanding of art changed?
« Reply #5 on: November 11, 2006, 12:22:21 am »
I'm not sure if my understanding of art has changed, as my educational background is art and art history. However, I think BBM jump started creativity for me. For example, I hadn't written fiction for a long time and now have written BBM fan fic. I'm more aware of "trimming the fat" from my writing, to make it a little more sparse and stark. I have got crazy with the search for photos (mostly of Jake) and am learning to manipulate photos (see the Performance thread or Shades of Grey).

I'm glad you posted this. It reminds me of a painting that is replicated in the movie. As soon as I find the photos I will post them on this thread.

Leslie / cc33

Offline coffeecat33

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Re: How has your understanding of art changed?
« Reply #6 on: November 11, 2006, 01:05:56 am »
Okay I found it. This sky shot is shown right after Jack & Ennis set up camp for the first time.




Below is a painting by Frederick Church, Twilight in the Wilderness, 1860. It hangs in the Cleveland Museum of Art.



Text from "Sister Wendy's American Masterpieces":

"Some paintings seem to bear their nationality on their faces. Church's Twilight in the Wilderness could only, I feel, be American. Church specialized in works inspired by the sheer vastness of the American continent.  Here, he painted the east coast: his own Maine.

"What I find fascinating is that everybody who looked on this magnificent scene . . .  seems to have a different interpretation. Some homed in on the eagle, up there on the left, and saw a symbol of American power. Some noticed where the branches cross, and saw a suggestion of Christianity. Others, noting the absence of human beings, claimed the pines as our surrogates - standing tall and strong, as the frontier expects. I must say that the pines most evident are somewhat twisted and scruffy, which gives the landscape a remarkable air of conviction; this is no ideal place, but truly what Church looked down upon. The one interpretation that I find sustainable hinges on the painting's date. In 1860, the menace in the sky would have been all too real. The Civil War would soon break out, and the blood-red tide would spread throughout the land." (from Cleveland Museum of Art website)

Offline Brown Eyes

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Re: How has your understanding of art changed?
« Reply #7 on: November 15, 2006, 11:26:59 pm »
Heya Katherine!
Yay for a nice thread!  ;)  Well, I don't make art of my own anymore (sad to say).  But, as some of you know, I work in the arts and I also went to grad school for art history. So, I think about art a lot.  And, I can still honestly say that probably no work of art or film, or very, very few other examples, have ever impacted me so strongly as this film (I quite like the story, but truly it's the film that knocked me out originally... I saw the movie before I read the story in any case). I'm also so engrossed in the world of visual arts that the fact that film is a visual medium tends to speak pretty strongly to me.  I'm often able to look at art in a very, very detached and analytical way (and that's a major side effect of art history at the grad. level.  I can write a really good paper about a painting that I hate.), but this film was and is the opposite. I both like/ love it and I want to pick it apart to see how it works intellectually.  It was able somehow to strike me on a profound emotional level and still engage with it on an intellectual level (as happens all the time here in Open Forum).  In terms of how we've analyzed the film, one major term that comes up all the time - ambiguity- is really important to me.  To me the best art is always ambigous, leaves questions unanswered (or un-answerable) and makes the audience work.
« Last Edit: November 15, 2006, 11:52:48 pm by atz75 »
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Offline coffeecat33

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Re: How has your understanding of art changed?
« Reply #8 on: November 16, 2006, 12:58:20 am »
Ambiguity is a word I like to describe art as well. What kind of work do you do?
Leslie

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Re: How has your understanding of art changed?
« Reply #9 on: December 12, 2006, 01:38:09 pm »
Thank you penthesilea, for that edit. Those paintings by Hammershoi definitely are reminiscent of the Twist setting. BTW, is penthesilea an art term like pentimento is? (Remember the movie, Pentimento?)

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