This morning I saw Jason arrested on St. Jacques Street. He’s a large man, blond hair, bushy beard, wearing a white loose cotton tunic style top that was falling off the shoulder. He looked like Jesus’ older brother. A group of the homeless men regularly panhandle from cars at the stoplight coming off the highway into this part of the city. A new-ish fancy condo is also at that corner, and the tenants regularly call the police to remove the beggars from that corner. Sometimes Jason can be loud, but he is very articulate and obviously educated. Some people see his size and booming voice and body language and find him frightening. Continue reading
Tag Archives: the sacred and the profane
Manet, Whistler, Colville, Courbet, Bonheur, Constable, Turner
When you are learning to paint, you often “copy” from photographs or famous paintings. Later, you paint from life. Add your imagination and years of painting, and sometimes you notice the original influences coming through.
I always drew and painted animals instead of people. The more unusual the animal, the more interesting to me. Patterns and markings also absorbed me for some years. The Okapi is a relative of the giraffe but lives in jungles, such that white people had not known of the animals until relatively modern times.
The fetishization of exotic species means they are desirable: alive for zoos and dead for natural history museums. My “Olympia” is on display but directly gazes back at the spectator with dead eyes.