Monday 25 February 2008

Watching people - in the street & on the screen

The sun is shining and Brimful of Asha is playing. Always good.

A sunny day is perfect for people watching. In the last few days I've done a lot of this... after learning about primate communication it's particularly enjoyable to imagine people as orangutans or chimpanzees. This is most satisfying with touchy-feely upper-class girls - much grooming of themselves and others, lots of public affection and flirting, plus as an inverted snob I get much personal enjoyment out of viewing them like this... Much of their verbal communication seems to be ape-like too - mating calls, chattering, whooping and phatic noises at their most irritating. Ha, I can be like this too, I know, but it is still super annoying.

"I see the worst in people.."
"I look at people and I see nothing worth liking.."
Not me at all actually (most of my people-watching is positive curiosity rather than making pashmina-wearers into pongidae) but quotes from There Will Be Blood that I went to see last night. Amazing film... Some really beautiful shots, a great mixture of slow-moving visual interest and faster, tense action, a wonderful soundtrack with very selective use of sound, Daniel Day-Lewis' fantastic moustache... It was easy to laugh at his character as he shouted at those that aggravated him, but at the same time it was a desperately sad situation/film, and painful to watch his relationships crumble and his life fracture. Day-Lewis has just won an Oscar for his performance & well-deserved I think.

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My dad sent me this quote last night:

Picasso said:

What do you think an artist is? An imbecile who, if he is a painter, has only his eyes, if he’s a musician has only his ears, if he’s a poet has a lyre in each chamber of his heart, or even, if he’s a boxer, just muscles? On the contrary, he is at the same time a political being, constantly alert to the heart-rending political events of the world, taking his own complexion on them. How would it be possible to dissociate yourself from other men; by virtue of what ivory nonchalance should you distance yourself from the life which they so abundantly bring before you? No, painting is not made to decorate apartments. It is an instrument for the offensive and defensive war against the enemy.

I'm not sure if I would see my illustration or photos as an instrument of war, but I guess I am influenced by events of my life and my own reflections on "events of the world"... hmm will think more about this.

I am SO excited about my photos arriving tomorrow or Wednesday...

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