this is a snapshot from the mobile blogger (aka my celly-cell) of the vegas xmas lights on certain blocks in south philly. not the best photo of them, but perhaps i'll get a pic with my awesome camera.
finally checked out Ellen Harvey's Mirror exhibit at the PAFA. it was really cool, but hard to describe. here's part of the artist's statement:
Brooklyn artist Ellen Harvey uses video projection, faux-finishing techniques and mirrors hung salon-style in a site-specific installation. Mirror is a stunning contemporary installation throughout the historic landmark building addressing its High Victorian Gothic architecture, aspects of works in the collection and the pedagogical tradition of copying art.
In Harvey's conception, that future doesn't look very rosy. Mirror, a four-panel line engraving on plexiglass of the building's interior, envisions a crumbling ruin, with broken balusters and vegetation sprouting in the cracked masonry.
Mirror is both historically acute and self-conscious about its origins. Besides the four 12-by-9-foot panels, each in a corner of the rotunda, the installation includes a large video projection that shows Harvey engraving panels (not those on the walls) and two smaller monitors that depict her drawing images of two earlier academy buildings, one of which burned.
so basically, she took the foyer part of the PAFA building - which if you don't know what High Victorian Gothic architecture looks like, check out this photo - and recreated by etching it into the dark colored mirrors, so that when she lit them from behind, the etched parts glow white. but what she did was totally destroy the foyer and show it being overgrown by nature...weeds, trees, rocks...taking over the human definition of art. the details she included are amazing and i had to stand up close to really see everything she included. what i took away from it was no matter how we define what art is or what beauty is, nature is always going to win out...taking over what we've created and inserting its own art and beauty.
also got to walk around the reading terminal....the oldest indoor farmer's market in the us. picked up some awesome food and drinks that i can only find there. damn those amish and their tasty baked goods.
and i'm reminding all of you to check out the two new photos on the photo blog....two today because i forgot to post one yesterday. duh. and when i post the mummers photos, i'll include a little background into that spectacle, because as an outsider, i never understood the whole thing either.
and to anon. who posted a comment yesterday about resolutions and writing....you're damn right. i've just got to plunk my ass down and write...and not think about the plotline and story that i already have in my head or think about the philospohy behind my writing or what direction my voice and style should take....to just let my fingers start clicking the keyboard, let the story develop organically and let the characters create lives for themselves, instead of me playing god and deciding ahead of time what's going to happen. stop being a structured, rigid writer and open up to whatever the muse sends me. scary, scary, scary, but very necessary.
current mood: pensive
current song: some stupid entrance music on smackdown
glad to be of help......
you said what i was thinking very late the other night, so thanks for articulating it.
i have been told I can be helpful like that.... but the words and thoughts were still all yours... i just reminded you you already thought it.... i am good at finding good quotes when necessary