How much do people care about art?
This is the first question that came to my mind when I walked into the auditorium where a 90 minute session on 'Art Appreciation' was being held. I was hoping to gain some tips on understanding what make a painting great . By a long shot, I was also hoping to implement the knowledge I gained into taking better photographs. I have very little in my portfolio about which everyone can be consensually proud.
And the reason for that thought to cross my mind was that there were only 4 people in the audience. Speaker and organisers combined, there were 3 others!Had the organisers known the answer to the above question, maybe they would not have booked a 250-size auditorium for the event. Before the lady started talking a couple of men walked in, but we still did not have enough people to need a mike for the talk.
Probably, I am one of those who use their left brain more than they use their right and would like to know what it means to be able to use the latter one better. This is probably why I began to take photography seriously. In my endeavours, I have been able to take technically good photographs, aided by a great camera, but have failed to undestand why some photographs would be deemed good, while I thought they were pretty simple and vice versa . It has probably more to do than just the interplay of the five elements of a fine picture. Undersanding that is one journey that will never end.
About the session itself, apparently, I had misread the agenda. THe speaker,CH,spoke eloquently about Indian art, its brief history and about the position of Indian art in international market, about the contemporary masters, established painters and the upcoming artists. CH no doubt did justice to her day's task. She touched upon a subtle point about buyers of art today. She clarified that, in India, as has been seen overseas in the past, a lot of people buy a painting for same reason why they would buy a piece of land; ROI. While a true connoisseur would buy the painting for it's appeal, value and the feeling it invokes in her, and let the painting grow on her, many current buyers do it because they can see the painting fetch more dollars for them over the next few years. That's it, more $$$.
I had never really thought seriously about art investment, obviously because I do not have the money. So, when CH began talking about how to go about buying a painting, I had to overcome a lot of force that wanted me to walk out of there. But I stayed.After all, if I left, she would lose a seventh of her audience that evening!
2006-04-21
2006-04-07
Earrings of surprise:
'Close your eyes and be like that until I tell you', I said when my wife,S, told me that we were going shopping this weekend, for a new pair of ear-rings. Ten seconds later, feeling a lot like an all-powerful genie, I dropped a gift-wrapped box from Swarovski in her lap. I had been planning to place it under her pillow, but I could not have asked for a more opportune moment to surprise her.
Eager to know what prank I was playing on her, S suspiciously open the blue box with a red bow. An unforgettable wave of surprised and happy look spread on her face when she saw a pair of gold plated clip-ons glittering inside the square package.
On an impulse I had wanted do something unusual to surprise her. She had had no idea that I had been to the Swarovski on my way back from work, already later than usual, or how I had sneaked the gift behind the TV in the living room. When she had called up earlier in the evening I had mentioned about 'something urgent that had come up' that had held me up.
What suprised her doubly though was the fact that she had been thinking about new earrings only that evening, and she had not yet told me about it. While I had on my own had decided to surprise her with...new earrings.
While I dismissed this as a happy coincidence, my wife interpreted her 'had been thinking about the earring all evening' as a premonition of sorts. Taking the middle path, though, one can also look at this as a first example of 'Principle of Synchronicity'in my life . By saying this, I am not referring to any of the psychic abilities that I completely doubt I will ever develop. I am only referring to incident as 'two events happening simultaneously, without a cause, but joined by a meaning.' which by the way is what principle of sychronicity tries to explain.
But what is the meaning of this for S and me?
I am trying to figure it.
'Close your eyes and be like that until I tell you', I said when my wife,S, told me that we were going shopping this weekend, for a new pair of ear-rings. Ten seconds later, feeling a lot like an all-powerful genie, I dropped a gift-wrapped box from Swarovski in her lap. I had been planning to place it under her pillow, but I could not have asked for a more opportune moment to surprise her.
Eager to know what prank I was playing on her, S suspiciously open the blue box with a red bow. An unforgettable wave of surprised and happy look spread on her face when she saw a pair of gold plated clip-ons glittering inside the square package.
On an impulse I had wanted do something unusual to surprise her. She had had no idea that I had been to the Swarovski on my way back from work, already later than usual, or how I had sneaked the gift behind the TV in the living room. When she had called up earlier in the evening I had mentioned about 'something urgent that had come up' that had held me up.
What suprised her doubly though was the fact that she had been thinking about new earrings only that evening, and she had not yet told me about it. While I had on my own had decided to surprise her with...new earrings.
While I dismissed this as a happy coincidence, my wife interpreted her 'had been thinking about the earring all evening' as a premonition of sorts. Taking the middle path, though, one can also look at this as a first example of 'Principle of Synchronicity'in my life . By saying this, I am not referring to any of the psychic abilities that I completely doubt I will ever develop. I am only referring to incident as 'two events happening simultaneously, without a cause, but joined by a meaning.' which by the way is what principle of sychronicity tries to explain.
But what is the meaning of this for S and me?
I am trying to figure it.
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