Yes, in fact.
A two month toil refinishing the bathroom is coming to a close and its time for that finishing touch. This led us to a round of boutiques. One was Flower Child, an emporium known for its selection of leg lamps. It is a warren of clutter and I had to pull out the camera.
This first is a straight shot. Eye fatigue is a common condition at Flower Child.
I may have mentioned that I’m trying to get a handle on GIMP, a shareware image manipulation program. As is my wont, I stamped, sampled and bucket filled about here.
This figure will look good on the radiator.
The plethora can cause altered states. The Flower Child influence made me a pushover for this Mexican mescaline cat that I ran into soon after. This a fine example of a particular intersection of art and perception.
I ask you.
Jay,
Going to shops is not my strong point. Looking at your photos, I realize why.
Being married to a minimalist, I am slowly beginning to appreciate his aesthetics.
Birgit:
Granted there are few minimalist shops, so one’s option s are limited.
Your minimalist husband: do you mean that he is terse and laconic, or that he is an artist involved in minimalist objects?
Jay and Birgit —
I visited our new Ikea store for the first time last week. Now there’s a contradictory place for you — minimalist style with over-the-top amounts of stuffand people and baby carriages and piles of boxes and bags and chairs and napkins — all the way to the ceiling. I had to go home and take a nap.
Sometimes I like the cornucopia-ish sense that one can get from something like Flower Child. It seems to me to be overflowing with energy and human spirit. At other times I can only deal by turning away and finding a single object (a fire plug? a ledge along a store window?) to focus on. The excess makes me want to run screaming from the scene. Contradictory, indeed.
Jay, The last image — what is a “mescaline” cat? A form of beading? An animal species? Something out of a drug delirium? I ask because in my post I mentioned “Be Here Now” (so glad to have been able to educate Steve) and something about this cat reminded me of Carlos Castenadas (forgive the erratic spelling), another of the 60’s gurus. I never understood a thing he said.
Jay,
Not in speech but in material objects. Given a choice, he prefers absence of clutter.
With respect to art, I like his input but sometimes, I do not agree with him.
Birgit:
Clutter is a great place to visit, but one wouldn’t want to live there. Is your husband an aficionado of things Japanese?
June:
The Ikea catalog presents a world of Scandinavian reserve, but as I remember, the Pittsburgh Ikea had a very messy lunchroom.
Is it Ram or Carlos who you don’t understand? As for the beaded jaguar, it is a Huichol Indian product and one of their stock motifs. It is said that the vivid colors and patterns are influenced by exposure to peyote (mescaline).
June:
By the way, if I could resurrect Cezanne from the dead and get him back in fighting form, then I would take him and his kit to Flower Child and have him go to. He would encounter either a heavenly or hellish welter of possibilities.
We are fond of things Japanese Traditional.
Poor Cezanne. Wouldn’t you rather Matisse?
June,
That’s the same thought that came to my mind. I associate Cezanne with more subdued and natural colors.
Birgit,
I think I have some tastes in common with Troels.
Guys:
Actually, my dream encounter with Cezanne is somewhat morbid in my anticipation of the smoke that would come out of his ears. “iss Thees a moteef? Is thees a steel live? Where do i seet to thees? Alors!”
But we could be equally unkind to June, inviting her over for off-hour sessions in the store. But I’m sure that versions of Flower Child flourish in such a place as Portland, and provide prolix profusions of equal or greater profundity.
As for Matisse he would just go all Fauve on us, bypassing the steak for the sizzle.