In which a group of graying eternal amateurs discuss their passions, interests and obsessions, among them: movies, art, politics, evolutionary biology, taxes, writing, computers, these kids these days, and lousy educations.

E-Mail Donald
Demographer, recovering sociologist, and arts buff

E-Mail Fenster
College administrator and arts buff

E-Mail Francis
Architectural historian and arts buff

E-Mail Friedrich
Entrepreneur and arts buff
E-Mail Michael
Media flunky and arts buff


We assume it's OK to quote emailers by name.







Try Advanced Search


  1. Seattle Squeeze: New Urban Living
  2. Checking In
  3. Ben Aronson's Representational Abstractions
  4. Rock is ... Forever?
  5. We Need the Arts: A Sob Story
  6. Form Following (Commercial) Function
  7. Two Humorous Items from the Financial Crisis
  8. Ken Auster of the Kute Kaptions
  9. What Might Representational Painters Paint?
  10. In The Times ...


CultureBlogs
Sasha Castel
AC Douglas
Out of Lascaux
The Ambler
PhilosoBlog
Modern Art Notes
Cranky Professor
Mike Snider on Poetry
Silliman on Poetry
Felix Salmon
Gregdotorg
BookSlut
Polly Frost
Polly and Ray's Forum
Cronaca
Plep
Stumbling Tongue
Brian's Culture Blog
Banana Oil
Scourge of Modernism
Visible Darkness
Seablogger
Thomas Hobbs
Blog Lodge
Leibman Theory
Goliard Dream
Third Level Digression
Here Inside
My Stupid Dog
W.J. Duquette


Politics, Education, and Economics Blogs
Andrew Sullivan
The Corner at National Review
Steve Sailer
Samizdata
Junius
Joanne Jacobs
CalPundit
Natalie Solent
A Libertarian Parent in the Countryside
Rational Parenting
Public Interest.co.uk
Colby Cosh
View from the Right
Pejman Pundit
Spleenville
God of the Machine
One Good Turn
CinderellaBloggerfella
Liberty Log
Daily Pundit
InstaPundit
MindFloss
Catallaxy Files
Greatest Jeneration
Glenn Frazier
Jane Galt
Jim Miller
Limbic Nutrition
Innocents Abroad
Chicago Boyz
James Lileks
Cybrarian at Large
Hello Bloggy!
Setting the World to Rights
Travelling Shoes


Miscellaneous
Redwood Dragon
IMAO
The Invisible Hand
ScrappleFace
Daze Reader
Lynn Sislo
The Fat Guy
Jon Walz

Links


Our Last 50 Referrers







« Lesy on Rich Kids, Publishing | Main | Evo-Bio of Music »

September 18, 2003

Sculpture and the Inner Child

Michael:

My feelings about sculpture seem tied up with my inner child. The other day a little boy came over to our house with a pair of Hulk fists. (I don’t know what the official brand name is.) They are enormous foam-rubber fists, which are hollowed out inside so you can reach in and grab onto a handle embedded in the rubber. They also have a noise-making module in there, so you can slam the fists against things and get a “Hulk smash!” sound effect and a Hulk-like roar. The roar and the smashing noise were pretty entertaining, but I immediately fell in love with the fists as sculptures.

I was just tickled by the way the Hulk fists show how a clenched hand turns from a sort of irregular two-dimensional shape into a series of semi-abstract masses defined by squared off planes.

The Hulk fists also instantly reminded me of Michelangelo. Not that any of Old Mike’s sculpted figures have clenched fists (that I remember), but somehow the designer of the Hulk fists, by working on over-life-size scale, by giving the suggestion of great muscular power and by exaggerating the shapes into slightly abstracted masses has managed to work the same vein of ore as did the Tuscan Titan.

I also think the exaggerated qualities of the Hulk fists and of Michelangelo's sculptures send my brain into a state of heightened perception that reminds me of early childhood; just being around Michelangelo's scuptures usually puts me into a kind of dreamstate.

Michelangelo, Moses, 1515

If memory serves, you once compared the experience of looking at Michelangelo sculpture to being a small child looking (with awe) at the size and muscularity of adults. That line pretty well sums up the experience, for me at least, of playing with the Hulk fists. It also seems integral to the experience of looking at most sculpture I really love. Go figure.

Cheers,

Friedrich

posted by Friedrich at September 18, 2003




Comments

And to think that what sends me into dream states these days is Hindu art featuring women ...

Are you one of those weird art students who really loves working on hands? I'm like everyone else in my advanced-beginner class, dreading attending to the hands and feet. I keep hoping that there's a secret recipe book out there somewhere that'll pass along all the cliche'd basics of how to draw 'em. Maybe I should look in "How to Draw Comic Book" books instead of high-art things...

Posted by: Michael Blowhard on September 18, 2003 2:27 PM



Actually, that's exactly where you should look. Pay close attention to the planes and where they break (i.e., at the knuckles and the wrist.) Also, ahem, practice a lot. That's not hard to do, as you always have a "model" hand with you everywhere you go. Drawing hands is a great way to pass time on the phone.

Posted by: Friedrich von Blowhard on September 18, 2003 4:28 PM



re: heightened perception...

Do any of y'all have a weird emotional response to using binocular (stereoscopic) instruments such as ViewMasters (tm) or double-microscopes?

Apparently my eyes are naturally set a bit closer than average, and so the perspective afforded by binoculars gives a bit more view on each side than I usually get. Objects are "rounder" or "deeper" thru the lenses than they are in life, and so -- somehow -- seem more vivid. To which I feel myself responding as if granted a God's-Eye-View into mundane reality.

But is this uniquely weird to me, or do others
get that?

Posted by: Pouncer on September 19, 2003 1:01 PM



I've never gotten much of a kick out of binoculars, but I do like view masters (stereopticons). I've long suspected that I enjoy the latter because they often put their two cameras far further apart that any two human eyes--pictures of the pyramids were taken with the cameras many yards apart, giving far more dimensionality to the image than any person could see with their naked eyes. (I believe the 3-dimensional effect from binocular vision peters out at a distance of around 30 feet.) I've often wanted to experiment with such exaggerated three-D effects--actually with 3-D movies generally, which I never figured out how to do, as a practical matter.

Posted by: Friedrich von Blowhard on September 19, 2003 6:09 PM






Post a comment
Name:


Email Address:


URL:


Comments:



Remember your info?