Edward Hopper Scene
I want to be a painter, working in oil, shuttered away in a solitary studio, alone, sparked by dreams of a Vespa and the road. When work and life intensify my head goes to secret places. Some days it’s a question of ride or work.
Resorting to my secondary scooter parking space earlier in the week when the usual space was teeming with othersand began the walk to my office. Looking at the Vespa stand amidst the Penn State campus scene I couldn’t help think it was a view Edward Hopper may have appreciated. And from there my mind was off n the races.
So it’s been these past couple weeks. Distracted or consumed. Both stifling any desire to blog. This entry is a test of self will. Took days to create this drivel…
Busy, Noisy, Cluttered
The title refers to the thought patterns in my head and not the engineering shop that I chose to park next to. I’m hoping for a clearing soon. Perhaps another ride in the morning to see if I can break free and feel a little more fluid. The sweltering heat and humidity of late isn’t helping though.
Tomorrow is another day.
Ride on to victory!
If you worked in oil instead of film (or it’s digital equivalent), you wouldn’t have anytime for riding. You would be spending most of your “free time” locked up in your studio. I really like the first photo. Almost as much as the photos of the Vespa with the solitary tree.
You’re right about the time commitment for painting. There would be very little riding in my life if I were a painter. It’s one of those things best left a dream.
Not sure what it is but I’m drawn to that first picture as well. Made it with my iPhone as a quick snapshot in response to what I saw. Everything just seemed perfectly stitched together.
I read your Hopper reference and skeptically thought, “Well, let’s see about that…” (apologies!!). But you were absolutely correct. It does look like a painting by Hopper. Think it’s the perspective as well as the overall composition of the image.
I will not doubt you again. 🙂
There’s something about it that echoes the themes Hopper seemed to chase. I don’t often see those direct correlations out in the world. Now I’ll have to find a Warhol, or maybe a Da Vinci!
Please do!
Consider it added to my to do list.
I think all art is time consuming.
The exception that may prove the rule are those flashlight sketches Picasso could do.
I’m thinking of tackling some serious writing and that will be a major time commitment.
You know what they say, “if it were easy, everyone would do it”.
Art is consuming — time just being one of the meals. Thanks for sharing the images Gjon Mili made with Picasso. They took me back to the early 1970s when I first saw one in an Andreas Feininger book titled “The Photojournalist”. Mili’s portraits of Picasso was an example.
Good luck with your writing project. It’s more challenging than people appreciate and usually can’t until they undertake one themselves. I have three books in my head I want to write. I keep saying I’ll start when I retire but that’s just crazy. What if I never retire? I think I’m just resisting the hard work ahead.
Sounds like the dog days of summer are working on you.Maybe a pic of a grandchild or dog might cheer you/all of us up.Peace and safe riding.
John — the dog days are definitely chewing on my riding and writing soul. Granddaughter has been away on vacation and the dogs have been too energetic. Or something. Have a couple of posts in the works though…
I hear ya Steve, still trying to beat a mostly heat-induced case of riding ennui myself!
Ennui — exactly right. The heat and I don’t do well together in terms of action and accomplishment. Reaches out to riding as well. Was on the road today and it was hot. Most of the time I was wishing I was home in the AC…
Steve: The perspective of that curved sidewalk does seem to echo Boulevard of Broken Dreams, and on top of that, I’ve had Hopper on my mind a lot of late for reasons I can’t quite fathom. (Andrew Wyeth, too.) I know a few full-time artists – friends and clients alike – who are having a hell of a time on the creative plain the last few weeks…they’re all blaming the heat. So it’s not just us. 😉
I’m having creative and general cognitive dysfunction the last few weeks, an extension of the last few months which have found me and Sig. Other momentarily displaced from our house as major renovations have continued apace. The intense heat of the last week and a half certainly hasn’t helped, and I still have to make a twice-to-thrice-weekly foray up to NYC for my tech gigs. Haven’t been on Melody for some days, although I’m going to do the Ride-park-ride routine to catch the train to Gotham tomorrow…and I still have to reschedule the re-taking of my road test.
‘Tis been a helluva Summer…but somehow I’m managing to enjoy most of it. When life pitches a curve ball, swing for the fences anyway.
And, as an example of my heat-addled brain, the title I meant for Hopper was Nighthawks; >Boulevard, of course, was Gottfried Helnwein’s much-later riff on Hopper’s famous work. Time for sleep…
Nighthawks… love that painting.
The heat must be responsible for the general malaise that seems to have engulfed everyone. That, or perhaps the earth is passing through an energy field that has affected our collective minds…
Hope a relaxation in the weather gets us both on the road again.
Work and Ride. The best of both worlds.