civilized ku # 2155 ~ Easter

Easter ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen

environmental self-portrait

Action figure ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenThe effete Canadians call their museum stores "boutiques", except for the "boutique" at the Canada Science & Technology Museum where it is called the "scientique".

That cultural reference aside, as Hugo and I were perusing the stuff on offer in the "scientique", I espied an Albert Einstein Action Figure and thought, "What sentient and thinking person wouldn't want such a figure?" So, I purchased one. My only disappointment was that it didn't include some miniature chalk and a small blackboard. I mean, really - what the hell else would Albert be doing, action wise?

However, my disappointment was much mitigated when Hugo opened the package and declared, "Grandpa, it looks like you." Upon my inspection of the figure, I must admit that he has a point. That point has since been seconded by quite a few others. Although, to be fair: a) I only look like that on a bad hair day or, on many occasions, first thing in the morning, and, b) the figure does lack my ultra-chic $1,000 eyewear.

All of that said, my current dilemma centers around the question of whether I should keep the figure next to my computer as a constant reminder of my innate genius-ness, or, do I rubber cement it to the dashboard of the wife's car as a constant reminder of how lucky she is?

civilized ku # 2154 ~ sortie

Parts ~ Aviation & Space Museum - Ottawa, CA • click to embiggenSven W asked: Are you working on a series of images with "Exit" signs?

my response: No. However, since you asked, I couldn't resist making the above picture.

civilized ku # 2149-53 ~ how sweet it is

Parking garage / Canadian Museum of Civilization ~ Gatineau, CA • click to embiggen
Totem poles ~ Grand Hall / Canadian Museum of Civilization - Gatineau, CA • click to embiggen
In Search of the Canadian Car ~ Canada Science & Technology Museum - Ottawa, CA • click to embiggen
The Military Technology Collection ~ Le Breton Gallery / Canada War Museum - Ottawa, CA • click to embiggen
De Havilland D.H.80A Puss Moth seaplane ~ Canada Aviation & Space Museum - Ottawa, CA • click to embiggenOne of the advantages of traveling to Ottawa, mid-week during the first week of April, for a Canadian museum crawl is the nearly complete absence of museum goers. If I stated that we saw 100 people (total, for all 4 museums we visited) - 40 of whom were in the IMAX theatre, I might, in fact, be overstating the actual count.

It was as if we were given the keys to the museums in order to let ourselves in and keep out all others. It should go without stating, this is the way to visit a museum - no lines, no crowds, no hassles. Just peace and quiet and wandering around at will. And, you can have any parking spot your heart desires.

Nice.

PS for scale, re: the totem poles, look for Hugo lurking amongst them. And, those things, some of which are over 100 years old, are stunningly beautiful / impressive.

civilized ku # 2148 ~ Canadian good times

Sidewalk Closed ~ Chelsea / NYC, NY • click to embiggenHugo and I had a fantastic day in Ottawa. We expect more of the same tomorrow.

Update on Friday, April 6, 2012 at 09:07PM by gravitas et nugalis

Featured Comment: John Linn wrote: "The sky, the Javits Center and the so called "Silver Towers" down the street and in the background look very strange... almost like a painted background. Must have been unusual light that day?

To which Sven W (no link provided) responded: @John: the background might have been de-saturated / reduced contrast, to help emphasise the foreground.

my response: Sven, you're skating on thin ice by even suggesting that I would do such a thing. Shame, shame (tongue in cheek wise).

On the other hand - John, you're right on the money, unusual light wise - that's one of the reasons I made the picture.

civilized ku # 2147 ~ on the road

Civic Center buildings ~ Saranac Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenHugo and I are off to Ottawa (Canada) for our Grandpa & Grandson Skip A Generation All-Male Spring Break Annual Road Trip. We're going to hit some Canadian national museums, maybe Parliament, and our hotel's indoor water park.

Unlike most of our New York State neighbors (near and far), we don't head south because Real Men go north.

civilized ku # 2146 ~ whimsical juxtaposition of commonplace objects

Chopsticks and carrots ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenIt is not an uncommon occurrence, upon the death of a prominent or near prominent picture maker, that notice is given on one photo blog or another. However, that was not the case upon the death of Jan Groover, a picture maker whose work has rather fallen out of fashion, and nearly out of view, in an era of near fetishistic preoccupation with Conceptual Art, photography division.

One of Groover's - she began as a painter - mottos was "Formalism is everything". For those unfamiliar with Formalism, it is "the concept that a work's artistic value is entirely determined by its form — the way it is made, its purely visual aspects, and its medium. Formalism emphasizes compositional elements such as color, line, shape and texture rather than realism, context, and content. In visual art, formalism is a concept that posits that everything necessary to comprehending a work of art is contained within the work of art. The context for the work, including the reason for its creation, the historical background, and the life of the artist, is considered to be of secondary importance"(from Wikipedia).

The flip side of the Formalism coin is the concept of Conceptualism - art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns ... In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art (from Wikipedia / Sal LeWitt).

IMO, Groover's pictures, especially her most well known still life work, occupy a somewhat middle ground, albeit most certainly tilted toward Formalism, between the two extremes. Without venturing into a long theory laden essay, suffice it to state, there was obviously a driving concept behind Groover's work. In the constructing, lighting, and making (with the all of the control of a large format view camera) of her still life pictures, Groover did not create her Art without malice of forethought, so to speak.

John Szarkowski, who believed that "a work of art lives and has its meaning exclusively within the chalk-lines of its own playing field, not the journals or saloons in which it is discussed", wrote (at the time of Groover's exhibition at MOMA) that he was "interested in her work because she is so fastidious about excluding from her art any overt reference to autobiographical, much less confessional, materials .... her pictures were good to think about because they were first good to look at." I have always appreciated Groover's work, ever since I encountered it in 1980, for exactly the same reason, re: "her pictures were good to think about because they were first good to look at" - a notion which is one of the driving concepts in the making of my own pictures (see here and here).

Some might see some kissing cousin similarities between Groover's still life pictures and my the life in my kitchen pictures. Others, I am fully aware, might not. However, and IMO, despite the obvious differences - such as, Groover's still-lifes are carefully constructed and orchestrated whereas mine are mostly "found" (although, I am not opposed to the minor shifting about of some of the objects in my found still life scenes) - what I believe to be their overarching similarity is this concept ...

...the apparent whimsical juxtaposition of commonplace objects suggests a rethinking of our relationship to the physical world and its portrayal via the image.*

At least, that's how I see it.

*a phrase borrowed from Lesley M. Martin, as penned in describing the work of Sam Fells (aperture 205 / Winter 2011)

civilized ku # 2145 ~ exit

Exit ~ Chelsea / NYC, NY • click to embiggen