Today I spent some time really looking at our painting up close. There is a figure, female I believe, on a horse. The horse seems to be facing forward and to the side at the same time. The figure seems to be facing the viewer, coming toward the front of the painting or across the poppy field. The plow on the horses is so faint it doesn't give a clear depiction of which way the horses and rider are really facing. If you take it from the tails the horses are facing away from you and if you take it from the arm and face of the figure they are coming your way. The reason I got so close was because there is a black blob on the right, all alone. LaValle said she didn't know what that was, so I looked with my nose a few inches from the paint. It is actually green and I think it is a tree bent in a wind storm. This tree gives the water an even faster flowing feeling.
When you get close to a painting it is like you enter a new world, each little square inch becomes a whole new painting. Sort of like sentences in a wonderful book. Or lines of poetry. Each one taken on it's own is worth a moment of contemplation and as a whole you might give it hours.
Speaking of hours, this week I am taking a stab at reading Ulysses, a book " in which the author takes both Celtic lyricism and vulgarity to splendid extremes." if you've read James Joyce please chime in now and give me some advice, let me know I should keep slogging through. It is not an easy beginning.
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re: Ulysses
You will need to gird your loins and commit to slogging through. It is not in any part easy but in all ways worthwhile once you're done. Each chapter is composed in a different literary style and so builds as you move ever onward and upward. Do not give up. Reading it requires a regimen and once finished you will be ever grateful for the advice of this stranger. I do envy you this new and wondrous experience. That which is worthwhile is always difficult to come by, my father always said. Get back to me when its behind you. Enjoy.
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