Tuesday, 13 December 2011

Musings from the rabbit hole

The neighborhood I find myself in during my daily visits to BlogLand consists majorly of:
youth
perfect bodies
richness
love
fecundity
wealth
abundance
smiles
music
an ideal of what we want or could have or what's sexy and in

I suppose my attraction to these blogs lies in their flawlessness, the idea that life can be only sweetness and light. They serve to build what fantasy I may feel like I need to escape from the not-so-perfect aspects of my life at any given moment, taking me away to a world where everything is Indian summer warm, effervescent, romantic, and timeless. As if I could be stuck forever in amber rays of some dreamy sunset meadow. 

But I've grown tired of this fantasy.  Where are the other neighborhoods?
I want to see more:
rawness
age
making it
tears
resilience through ache
love that's not just on a wedding day
strong women, not just models or moms or women looking for a perfect outfit
men taking a role other than that of Man or Worker

...there will be other things to look for (and links) as I contemplate this shift in exposure to something other than blog fluff.

On a more, erm, nerdy note, I found some interesting content about an artist named Mary Jane Ansell who paints portraits. Although I wouldn't consider myself an art critic by any means, I find there's something about the content of some of her paintings that is pretty captivating. I think it's the eyes.

"Girl Reflected," 2010

In some ways, her work reminded me of John Currin's portraiture. I suppose it's the fact that I don't know of a lot of popular portrait artists. 

There's something strangely attractive about Currin's paintings. As a woman and sortof academic feminist (that is, more a feminist of paper or in mind I think), there are certain things that come up when I see his works: revolting, absurd, maddening, grotesque, beautiful, haunting, weirdly sexy, sad, darkly funny. On the other hand, some of his stuff just really grosses me out, and those aren't here. Oh, art.

"Thanksgiving," 2003

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