Artsy Jokes

[Steve Craighead]

Back in my college days I had an art history class with Richard Brettell, the Impressionist scholar. He told us a joke about Renoir, who in his latter years had very poor eyesight. Renoir, if you recall, did a lot of paintings of nudes in a very very soft manner. So, one day after many years of painting without glasses, his wife convinces him to get a pair. Upon seeing his paintings for the first time with his glasses he turns to his wife and says, "Sacre merde, il est Bougereau!!"

O.k. well, its not Jay Leno, but it got a chuckle in the class.

[Steven Sweeney]

I know there's a cartoon thread around here somewhere, but it's hiding from me . . .

Anyway, this actual facsimile of an exchange just this morning between me and my housemate, whose name truly is Mona Lisa.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Steven, you made me chuckle! Does this mean you are working at the easel again?!

[Steven Sweeney]

Not very actively, Enzie -- though I did purchase an oil painting yesterday, so I'm at least trying to stimulate the arts economy. It was a nice little winter scene, by my former instructor, none of whose work I had previously owned. It looks very nice in the dining room, even as winter begins to set in at this latitude.

At surface level, the little Far Side cartoon is amusing, but I also find interesting the underlying message, about perspective. To his dog, the Great Master's paintings are of no particular interest. If the guy can't remember to toss some kibble in the bowl once in a while, of what use is he?

Too, outside our spheres of interests and influence, we're essentially unknown and "useless" -- not meant in a pejorative sense, but in the sense that, to the taxpayer who needs accounting assistance in April, our work won't help, or to the motorist stranded on a mountain trail when the tie-rod falls off his F-150, the fact that I paint isn't of much value.

It's a useful exercise in humility, I think, to occasionally take note of the fact that it's not the case that the whole world is watching what we're doing here, unless of course they're waiting for dinner or some mechanical assistance underneath the truck. There are myriad ways to live masterfully.

Now I have to go feed Mona.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Very true Steven!

[Michele Rushworth]

Ah...perspective! (And not the kind that makes railroad tracks meet at the horizon.)

My middle school age kids give me a healthy dose of much needed perspective every day, much like the dog in the cartoon. They don't give a hoot about my commissions, whether I'm meeting with any important people next week or whether I won a prize somewhere. If I'm not also making dinner and driving them to soccer, none of the rest matters!

[Carol Norton]

After reading all the above contributions to this subject from the dog's point of view on, others will see the connection between the quote below to the discussion.

David Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D.... from one of his tapes,) "In the world of idiots, you're a genius, but in the world of geniuses, you're an idiot."

I guess, if you are looking from the dog's point of view and haven't filled his food bowl, no matter how masterful your portrait is, you're an ........IDIOT!