Awesome awesome awesome

In the story, Apollo, god of prophecy, sees the youngCupid, god of love, playing with his bow and arrows and remarks, "What have you to do with warlike weapons, saucy boy? Leave them for hands worthy of them."[1]In retribution for this reproach, Cupid wounds Apollo with a golden arrow, causing him to fall in love with the nymph daughter of the river God Peneus. Cupid additionally wounds the beautiful nymph Daphne, with a lead arrow, thus insuring she would not be wooed by Apollo's advances. (In fact, the arrows power was so strong that Daphne forthwith refused all of her lovers.) Regardless of her father Peneus's requests for a son-in-law and grandchildren, Daphne begs to remain unmarried and he grudgingly consents.Apollo, struck with the golden arrow of love, pleads with Daphne to fulfill his desire. Daphne, repulsed by the idea, begins to flee. Even as she runs, he is more captivated by her beauty. Apollo grows impatient and soon, sped by Cupid, gains on her. With slower speed and failing strength, Daphne cries out to her father just as Apollo captures her. Not a moment later, Daphne's skin turns to bark, her hair leaves, her arms branches, her feet roots, and her face a treetop. In only a moment, Peneus protects his daughter by turning her into a laurel tree. After the transformation Apollo still embraces the tree. He cuts off some of her branches and leaves to make a wreath and proclaims the laurel as a sacred tree.

Bernini's sculpture captures Daphne's transformation with intense emotion and drama by portraying the different stages of her changes. This calls for interaction with the sculpture by walking around it, as there is not just one optimal viewpoint. For instance, seen from behind Apollo, Daphne's human figure is obscured, leaving only the tree elements in view, so walking around the sculpture gives an impression of the metamorphosis taking place. The interlocking components and chiaroscuro create more narrative, reflecting foundations of Hellenistic Greek art.
Also during the Hellenistic period was the androgynous depiction of Apollo. He was slender, young, and had a feminine hair style, all of which are portrayed in this sculpture. Part of Apollo's iconography is the laurel tree and the wreath, originating from Ovid's story and illustrated in Bernini's work.
Although Apollo preached "All things in moderation" and was known to control his emotions, this sculpture clearly reveals him desperately pursuing love in vain. The failure of getting Daphne hints at Apollo's many failures with love in general, including being unable to win a maiden and his lovers' fidelity.      From Wikipedia-
Before you lambaste me about including this from Wikipedia, which I generally do not credit with being a reliable source, let me say this. I did some research on this particular piece as it haunts me. The fingers and delicacy of Daphne turning into a tree is one of the most incredible pieces of work in the world-to my mind. The delicate parts are generally attributed to a sculptor named Giulano Finelli who apprenticed to Bernini. Following this piece Finelli left the Bernini studios to pursue his own career. The busts her produced later are indeed quite fabulous but does not compare with the passion of the Apollo/ Daphne. This piece is generally in the Borghese Gallery (http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/edafne.htm )in Rome but I think at the moment it is in Ottawa on tour. Worth the trip I think, although Rome is nice too...If you enjoy myths you may want to check out this site which has a global perspective on gods and legends. www.pantheon.org

Happiness Can Spread Among People Like a Contagion, Study Indicates (The Washington Post, 05 Dec 2008, Page A8)

SO, DON'T WORRY

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Happiness Can Spread Among People Like a Contagion, Study Indicates
By Rob Stein
The Washington Post
05 Dec 2008

Happiness is contagious, spreading among friends, neighbors, siblings and spouses like the flu, according to a large study that for the first time shows how emotion can ripple through clusters of people who may not even know each other. The study of...read more...

Tech Tags: The Washington Post newspaper Washington & The Nation

Effects of light I

Depth, or the lack thereof

As someone who is absorbed about concepts of seeing and paying attention to what we see I have begun to take a great interest in light. Daylight, dusk, foggy light and all the rest that we get up here. To that end I have chosen to create a little blurb about my light; thoughts which may or may not be light hearted. Today a fog had rolled in. The whole area was washed in grays which might’ve been gloomy if it were not so lovely. One distinguishing factor was the absence of depth. I noticed that another morning as well where there was so little depth because of the light and the fog the scene

outside the window appeared to be two dimensional, like an abstract painting. It was an ahah moment. When you look at an image that an artist created and your mind goes, oh, I see it! I understand what this is saying. 

Today I took some pictures, but it was interesting that my camera, a digital Nikon 40 refused to focus on what I wanted. It would focus on closer objects but when I took the island with the tree it would fade out of focus. I can only surmise there was too much atmosphere in the way. I took a few pictures and here is what I got

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I thought of some of the fall pictures that I took and how it appears as though you can see for miles. Look at the difference here with some pictures from the same area of the river, a little higher up. Late afternoon.

An artist, wanting to make a strong/dramatic piece of communication,would include a stronger light source. building in more contrast -obviously. In creating a lesser amount of values (lights and darks) you create less dimension, more flatness. This is what is happening on a foggy day. The light dissipates all around before it falls on your object. The stronger and more focused the light the more your object is viewed in three dimension. Thus, to my students, push your darks farther, or not, depending on what you want to do. Here is a link to Leonardo da Vinci's thoughts on the matter

http://www.geog.scsb.edu/-jeff/115a/history/davinci.html

I wax capriciously about how hard it must be to see if you are in the Arctic and bad weather blows in. How would you see an otherwise plain three dimensional landscape? What creates depth when the light on the terrain is flat? The same could be surmised with an ocean far from shore. What about the science fiction books I have read where the space travelers are so disoriented as there is nothing in their experience to match what they are observing or give clues as to what it is. So much is up to our minds to analyze what we are looking at in fractions of seconds, assimilate it and recognize it. Perhaps we miss so much by taking the gift of sight and light for granted. Which way is the “right” way to see the world and is one day more correct than another? It pays to be open minded and alert for changes in the world. Slow down and see. It’s quite an enjoyable thing to do. The other day with the fog in the view to the bay was a two dimensional painting,  a day later it was a scene from an 18th century romance landscape. How can you not be affected by light?

I want to continue to post photos of how the light changes our perception. Perhaps I will also do some paintings of foggy landscapes. They probably won’t sell....

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.  ~Aaron Rose