Friday, January 29, 2010

Art Is Everywhere

Art is not always thickly brushed swaths of oil paint on canvas, wrapped in gilded frame.

It doesn't have to be the finest piece of chiseled alabaster or hand blown glass from Italy.

Art can sometimes be as simple as the world around you.



Don't believe me?

I rather like this shot I snapped while riding the 44 bus to the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.


Know what it is?

I call it Curve.

It's the central, accordion part of an extra long bus with two segments. This stretchy section helps the bus round corners more easily.

This little vestibule has four seats facing inward, two by two, as opposed to frontward like the other seats. I love the way the folds of the wall fan out where the round, turntable-like floor and the bus meet.

Art is everywhere.

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Kate's Random Musings by Kate the Great is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

3 comments:

Jenny K said...

The picture of the articulated bus is really beautiful. I'm glad you can find art in the unexpected.

I realize not many people have complained, but I would like you to reconsider changing your RSS feed. This is the first time I've clicked through to your post since you've shortened it. It's frustrating that you force your readers onto your site. If I want to leave a comment, or click through old entries, I'll come. I promise.

Pleeeeease change it back?

xoxo Jenny

Unknown said...

Kate,
The bus picture is gorgeous! But what a lovely description as well ("this little vestibule..."). It's art on many levels: the objects, your photograph, and your prose. Bravo! Thank you for highlighting our outing, and illustrating the message so poignantly.
Cheers,
Molly

Colin Talcroft said...

The only definition of "art" I have ever heard that seems complete--that is, that seems to work no matter where you apply it--is that art is "the making special of something." That may seem so vague as to be of only modest usefulness, but it's actually quite powerful. It can help to explain why we are moved by so many things--from a wet flower petal made transparent by rain or the slightly misaligned folds of an envelope to people spontaneously dancing in the street, a framed drawing, sound ringing in the air, or a lone voice crackling over a dramatically lit stage. All that is required is that our attention be called to something special, different, something worth noticing. It need not be intended as art--I would argue that much art is serendipity enshrined. All that is required is that someone has noticed it and pointed it out.

I love to look at the worn paint and re-painting of lines and symbols on the playground at my child's school. Not many people stand around looking at the patches of pigment or photographing them the way I do, but there they are. Art. I remember once in college sitting in the Fine Arts Library (appropriately enough), studying, watching raptly the girl sitting at the table next to me as she one-handedly braided her own hair without ever looking up from her book. Performance Art. Taxi drivers in New York City, stopped, doors open, half out of their cars (noses virtually touching), lunging at each other, gesturing, shouting. This is drama of the best kind. Gallery art, too, is art--often sublime--but we probably miss more art than is in all the galleries of the world on our way to work everyday. Art is truly all around us. All that is required is noticing it and a giddy game of show-and-tell. That game, too, is Art.

Thanks for sharing