A Winter Solstice shot by Jim Johnson from the plains near Hecla, South Dakota
18 73% 28% 0mph windroseWNW bar 29.87 steady windchill17 Winter Solstice
Winter began at 12:08 AM this morning
A bit of refinement on the arts and literature ideas from yesterday. The overarching idea is this: some works of art included literature, usually poetry but not always. In those instances it is clear that for the artist the written material had critical importance to the piece, otherwise, why include it? In other instances, the image or sculpture gives form in print, painting or three-dimensions to a specific moment, either in story or in history. Again, for the artist the textual base for the piece has to inform the work, so knowing the work, especially as it was known in the artist’s time and to the artist seems as important as understanding the piece itself. Also, painting and sculpture and prints were never the only art form of their day; insteady they existed in an artistic milieux that not included fellow workers in the plastic arts but also poets, novelists, musicians, architects. We often see reference to architecture in art history books, but very little reference to literature. This last point becomes even more important as we move into the impressionist era and beyond when artists often wrote proclamations, began to intentionally blend their work with poetry and some moved into performance.
These are ways in which literature is important to the field of art history and therefore our job as docents. The use of other books, about artists and movements and particular works, is another intersection between art and literature.
A light snow. The snowblower moved out of the garage with its usual growl and eagerness to eat snow, then throw it. Temperatures have begun to trend down again after a brief warmup. I’ve done some additional moving, but I think today, certainly tomorrow will see the end of the bookcase/exercise equipment reshuffle. That means I’m ready to move onto learning about hydrponic gardening and planning the vegetable gardens for next year. Looking forward to it.