Wednesday, July 22, 2009

A touch of Insanity...A Muse...An Inspiration

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges-Pierre Seurat.

I could sit for hours contemplating this wonderful work. Did you know the artist, instead of brush strokes, used small points of paint to create the whole of the painting? Seurat was a pointillist. Incredible, huh. All those people are just a group of dots put together until a person appears....imagine the patience needed to complete the work.

Where to even start. The focal point appears to be the small child in white, but is that where he started painting? or did he do the grass first, then add the trees, water, and people at the end? I'm intrigued, always have been.

I think about it and the artist sometimes as I work on a story. Stringing words together to make sentences. Ideas go from paragraph to paragraph, scene to scene, chapter to chapter. I occasionally get frustrated because the words won't flow or my fingers take a break at an unexpected time leaving me with (l;ahliha). Yep, frustration, but you know I have a delete key and backspace to correct my errors, but Seurat had to think through each point before it was placed(I would guess) in order to keep out major flaws.

That takes dedication and a touch of insanity.

Take a look at the painting again. If one man can focus himself to create that baby out of points, I can surely finish another chapter/scene/sentence, (onahafnh) finger breaks included. :)

4 comments:

  1. That is utterly amazing. I think the dog and cat in the bottom corner are my faves.

    Ever since I seriously began writing and doing a little artwork, yep, there is a little insanity involved in the process, or the obsession to create, even one word at a time.

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  2. Obsession is a very good word for it. I also have found that it is hard to separate myself from the need to create. Words, jewelry, music I have to do it.

    The dog and cat are amazing, as is the monkey next to the lady in front...I have to wonder if that person really had a pet monkey, or if it really is a monkey! LOL

    My favorite is in the middle to upper left corner...the woman looking out at the lake with her arms crossed over her chest and the umbrella. There is a story there that I would love to write. :)

    I was introduced to this painting in a high school humanities class when we watched the broadway production of Sunday in the park with George, starring Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters. It was incredible.

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  3. "broadway production of Sunday in the park with George, starring Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters. It was incredible."

    WISH I'D BEEN THERE!

    There is a story there. You have a fantastic eye for detail. I was looking as the sailing ships, more obvious, and thinking... there's a story there, along with the entire scene, as if the heroine is watching it all.

    Creativity at whatever I'm doing, or doing an art/craft piece of some kind, has always been an obsession with me, too.

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  4. "WISH I'D BEEN THERE!" LOL...I should clarify, I saw it as a movie of the Broadway production, but dang, the real thing would have been beyond incredible!!

    Oooh the ships and the whole of the work from a heroines POV would be a good one too. :) More inspiration, I love it!

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