Stellan Skarsgård in the movie, "Goya's Ghosts" playing painter Francisco Goya.
Ray and I love art, artists and movies/books about artists, so when I tripped over this poem by Billy Collins, I just had to post it because it paints such a vivid, fun word picture of Goya's unique self-portrait. I discovered the Goya movie while surfing around the 'Net and just ordered it for Ray for Christmas because my sweet sister sent us an Amazon gift certificate for Christmas. It looks like a fabulous movie and has great customer reviews at Amazon.
Ray's favorite artist is Vincent Van Gogh and mine are (tied) Amadeo Modigliani, Hieronymus Bosch and Francisco Goya. I also love Edgar Degas's dancer paintings. Oh, and the amazing Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keefe are also blissfully divine! Well, I really love hundreds of artists, but those are my current top favorites.
I wish you all Love, Blessings & Peace---And please continue to pray for our beautiful Renee......
Who is your favorite artist(s)?
By Billy Collins, "Sailing Alone Around the Room", page 30
In most self-portraits it is the face that dominates:
Cezanne is a pair of eyes swimming in brushstrokes,
Van Gogh stares out of a halo of swirling darkness,
Rembrant looks relieved as if he were taking a breather
from painting The Blinding of Sampson.
But in this one Goya stands well back from the mirror
and is seen posed in the clutter of his studio
addressing a canvas tilted back on a tall easel.
He appears to be smiling out at us as if he knew
we would be amused by the extraordinary hat on his head
which is fitted around the brim with candle holders,
a device that allowed him to work into the night.
You can only wonder what it would be like
to be wearing such a chandelier on your head
as if you were a walking dining room or concert hall.
But once you see this hat there is no need to read
any biography of Goya or to memorize his dates.
To understand Goya you only have to imagine him
lighting the candles one by one, then placing
the hat on his head, ready for a night of work.
Imagine him surprising his wife with his new invention,
the laughing like a birthday cake when she saw the glow.
Imagine him flickering through the rooms of his house
with all the shadows flying across the walls.
Imagine a lost traveler knocking on his door
one dark night in the hill country of Spain.
"Come in, " he would say, "I was just painting myself,"
as he stood in the doorway holding up the wand of a brush,
illuminated in the blaze of his famous candle hat.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Let me ask you something, what is not art?" ~Author Unknown
"Art is spirituality in drag." ~Jennifer Yane
"Painting is silent poetry." ~Plutarch, Moralia: How to Study Poetry
"Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen." ~Leonardo da Vinci
"Art is the stored honey of the human soul, gathered on wings of misery and travail." ~Theodore Dreiser, Life, Art, and America, 1917
"The artist's world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep." ~Paul Strand
