The Pen and Camera | Collecting My Thoughts On All things Art, Cinema, and Literature

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Reflecting on Frédéric Bazille’s Art and Legacy

Painter Frédéric Bazille is not an impressionist household name in comparison to luminaries like Degas, Gaugin, Monet, and Manet, but longtime art connoisseurs know that he was part of the original group of artists within the movement and that he participated in the first of eight exhibitions as a founding member. Bazille had close ties to his fellow artists and even shared studio space with Renoir. His artistic output and influence, however, were severely limited due to his untimely death during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. He was only 29 when he perished on the battlefield.

Two of his paintings speak to me.

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Art and Intellect: A Brief Look of De Ribera’s “Euclid”

In this 1635 oil painting, Spanish Baroque painter Jusepe de Ribera introduces us to an imaginary snapshot of a life shaped by wisdom and hardship, that of an ancient Greek philosopher. The subject could be Pythagoras, but he is more likely Euclid, who wrote his famous treatise on “Elements.”

What do we see? Who are we meeting?

Euclid emerges from the shadows. His forehead is crumbled. His eyes marked with wrinkles, signs of a life lived in intensity. He seems worried, but the lips beneath the unkempt beard purse upward into an exhausted but proud faint smile. His hands hold open a notebook for us to see, a manuscript of sorts. Perhaps he has handwritten it, or perhaps it came fresh off the printing press, which would account for his dirty fingernails. Perhaps, however, as the tattered clothes indicate, he is a learned beggar. In this work of art, dirtiness symbolizes devotion to intellectual pursuits. A man of true science, De Ribera tells us, isn’t a polished intellectual noble.

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Unraveling the Art and Morality of “Lot and His Daughters” in Gentileschi’s Painting

You can’t tell me that in the course of painting “Lot and his Daughters”, Orazio Gentileschi didn’t once think of his own daughter Artemesia, who is famed for her own artistic prowess during the Baroque period. In fact, I speculate that he painted his fraught relationship with her into this painting.

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Spiritual Strokes Beyond Belief: Da Vinci, Caravaggio, and the Sacred Mary – Jesus Duo

My recent domestic travels over winter break brought me to San Francisco’s Legion of Honor, Seattle’s Museum of Art, and the illustrious museum row pair of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Frick Collection in New York. These visits, coupled with my weekly docent training at the Getty Museum, where the second half of our days transpire in shared contemplation of art, fully immerse me in a fantastical and sometimes deeply spiritual world. I amble in many hallowed halls of museums, sometimes alone, but often with colleagues or willing loved ones, and now, finally, after many days of exposure, art created long before I walked this earth, uncovered a revelation that I did not think would apply to me: religious paintings are profoundly transformative.

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Who Knows the Master of Saint Cecilia?

Embarking on my second teaching practicum at the Getty—a departure from the grandeur of a mid-18th Century French bed in my first assignment—I find myself floating into a Renaissance painting titled “Madonna and Child,” dating back to 1290-1295. At an initial glance, it seems to be a rather typical church piece, the kind that might tempt you to casually stroll past in a museum due to its ubiquitous and overdone subject matter. In my secular life, untouched by the dominance of any particular faith, I pride myself in maintaining a healthy aversion to valuing a woman’s worth based on the status of her virginity or perceived purity.

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A New Adventure at The Getty

My youngest daughter, now a proud two-and-a-half-year-old, has recently embarked on her daycare journey. With this milestone, another part of my mind has liberally dislodged itself from the all-encompassing realm of 24/7 parenting, and instead is mercifully reorganizing around my individual passions and interests. Suddenly, I have time — time to explore new avenues, daydream, and immerse myself in art again. It’s a welcomed shift, allowing me to engage in conversations with grown adults, free from the constant demands of replenishing milk bottles and band-aids.

Being a parent has sparked a desire to venture into the realm of arts education, in addition to my professional filmmaking pursuits. Last year, I began to lecture at various colleges on filmmaking, and I have since made the decision to delve into academia more extensively this year. Because why not? I have the graduate degree and the industry experience to go with it. Wish me luck. I appreciate the good vibes sent my way.

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The Comeback – ELLA BERMAN

The Comeback by Ella Berman

The pandemic keeps me at home, but it’s the fires raging across the west coast that force me to stay indoors. I select books that keep me from feeling like every day is groundhog day. I read books to temporarily escape the disasters within the disasters within the disasters. It’s practically fall now. 2020 creeps past us in a figurative and literal haze.

So let’s time-travel to an (only) slightly simpler time. We don’t go too far. We back up by one year, when our collective consciousness, shamefully, had not yet grappled with racial injustice; when the news cycle was not yet littered with Covid-19 death counts; and when watching The Kardashians was seen as nothing more than mindless, yet relatively harmless reality tv salad. Let’s go back, just for the duration of Ella Berman’s novel “The Comeback”, to a time when #metoo was at the forefront of our twitter feeds.

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Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers – MARY ROACH

I don’t know about you, but this year my death anxiety crept up on me like a colony of ants that wriggles its way over an unassuming child’s arm sitting in a meadow.

Instead of dealing with it the way I usually do, which is by reading books on spirituality, I went straight for a comedic, factual, and rather unself-helpy take on what happens with our physical bodies once we die.

Lifestyle, Literature, Writing Craft/Creativity 0

The Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness & Open Your Heart – PATRICIA DONEGAN

Poetry is one of those genres that’s been hard for me to get into. I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s because I’ve tried to live the past few years with narrative clarity. Poetry, much like lyrics to certain songs, leave so much to interpretation that it requires a certain type of patience to look between the lines and find meaning. Continue Reading “The Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness & Open Your Heart – PATRICIA DONEGAN”