I’ve started on Ms. Celerent’s assignment. Note to self: don’t put this stuff off. A half hour per day is plenty. Trying to pack two or three sessions into one gets really creepy.

So…I finished the Physics reading, grabbed my tablet and stretched out to study the painting. Okay, so I cheated just a little. Went to Wikipedia to see if there was anything I was supposed to see. Well, three figures at a lunch counter, not talking to one another…isolation and loneliness a common emotional tone in Hopper’s work.

Probably can’t get away with saying that. Too much like a Wikipedia article, better to just let my eyes float over the surface of the image. Oddly shaped building; seems to be flat-iron shaped, with the lunch counter more like a triangle than a square. Must be a squeeze for the counter guy to get into the serving area from the narrow end.

Light. I guess I slowly noticed the light, which was different colors. Mostly greenish on the sidewalk outside the coffee shop, probably due to being filtered through the shop window. You can just make out the faintest wash of yellow, a reflection of the color of the coffee shop walls, and two long shadows cast by an inside pillar and the window seam. Where is the light in the coffee shop coming from? What is the counter guy doing? His mouth seems to be open…is he talking to the couple?

Can’t quite figure where the light in the slanting light in the store window across the street is coming from. There is a cash register on the counter, invitingly left in full view through the front window. At least I think it’s a cash register. Sometimes it looks like a very large white cat.

I must have really got into the “seeing” mode. I don’t believe I fell asleep but I’d spent almost two hours looking at this picture. Somehow the more I looked the more I felt pulled into the image. Odd, but not unpleasant.

……..

Later. Quick note. Dreamt about Nighthawks and woke up needing to take a quick look to check on something. Must have been a cat, because it wasn’t there any more.

(To be continued)

It began here, with a no-problem Fine Art course that promised to be kind to my GPA.

Fine Arts 106 Spring Semester

Course Title: Seeing Art

Instructor: Barbara Celarent, MFA

The course is designed for the student who is not a Fine Arts major. It is intended for students who want to develop their skills as appreciative viewers of fine art and in the process learn to see the world around them with greater clarity and understanding.

In this digital age we are accustomed to a bombardment of flashing image streams, the impact and meaning of which depend on what amounts to a film-strip velocity. Seldom do we concentrate on a single image in the strip of images.

In this course we will spend the semester looking at works by such American painters as Edward Hopper, Grant Wood, George Bellows and Winslow Homer. (For image sources and complete list see my website: http://www.University.fa106.edu)

Assignment One Image: Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks.” This may be familiar to some students as it is frequently satirized. Some of you may have this on your laptops already as one of the provided desktop images. If not see the source list on my web site.

1. Spend at least 1/2 hour each day looking at the image. Keep a journal each day of what you see, what puzzles you, what emotions, if any are aroused in you; and what you actually see. Don’t just glance at it; let yourself be drawn into the picture. Try not to “make up” some story for the picture, simply look and describe.

2. E-mail or hand in your journals once a week.

3. Your final grade depends on these journals and a term paper to be discussed with the instructor.

There will be no final exam.

So how much of a problem could this possibly be?

(To be continued)