23: Define Art

November 13, 2019

Since I never made it to galleries, and when I did I felt as though I shouldn't be there, I never saw much art throughout my teens and 20s. I never interacted with art. Even the word was fairly meaningless to me. I never thought about artist interpretation, or style, or choices. I thought people were born with a talent for deciphering the hidden messages behind the paint; you either got it, or you didn't. Some people understood art. I didn't. I assumed it was because art was not made for someone like me.I've always liked certain pieces -- I like Monet's studies of the Thames and the Houses of Parliament for eg. -- but I've only ever used them as Facebook headers, or phone backgrounds. I felt guilty about this. Like somehow I should be appreciative in a more respectful way.I've decided I was wrong. If the most accessible way I can be inspired by great artists, and express myself through their work, is through a photograph of a painting on Instagram, then that's what I'm going to do. Looking at and trying to understand art has become something I do every day now, because of Instagram. I've gone from thinking art was unfathomable and for other people to enjoy, to appreciating it every time I scroll through my updates.There are gatekeepers at the entrance of every possible hobby, but when I look at paintings on my phone and get lost in the intense detail, or the beauty, or the abstraction, I feel like I've been shown in through a side entrance. In front of the non-judgemental glare of my phone screen I can soak in the textures of brushstrokes, or spend a moment experiencing deep feelings about light. Here I can learn and look and experience without feeling out of place.(Kindof related, huge coincidence: This week I saw that the National Extension College announced they will be running an online History of Art A Level starting in January 2020. I signed up immediately.)Other Stuff:

Ashley Rodriguez at GBH shared this by Victoria James at Eater on how the lack of diversity in wine buying is affecting the industry and, ultimately, pushing more diverse winemakers further into obscurity.
This thread introduced me to Fayum portraits of Egyptian mummies and I have been transfixed ever since. (More on them here.)
Sorry but Rod Stewart was on the cover of Railway Modeller magazine with a ridiculously intricate model train city this week. I'd been talking about model villages a lot this week, so I found it really weird for this to be trending this week. "I find beauty in what everyone else sees as ugly - rugged skyscrapers, beaten-up warehouses, things that are very run down."
This piece by Hollie Stephens about McSorley's Old Ale House in New York has compounded the issue that I need to go to New York.
"In Star Trek I saw a future worth investing in" -- a really, really, REALLY great piece about how Star Trek has been saving fans' lives and giving people hope for decades.
From the Ladybird Shell Guide, 1955: “Between the mild days, November frosts strip the coloured leaves of the shrubs and climbers of the Headrow so that all the fruits of early winter show more vigourously against a paler sky”
This review of "Tropical Malady" by Tash Aw for his new column on Asian cinema in the Paris Review is especially fascinating to me because he talks about how confusing it is that forests to him mean danger, but in Europe, they are places of "manicured... rustic pleasure".
The first paragraph of this really hooked me, because it's so completely different to my own experiences of beer. It might be about bar food in the Bay Area of San Francisco, but it shows what we could have in the UK and Ireland too. Or what we might want to avoid.

My stuff:I was shortlisted for the British Guild of Beer Writer's Long Live The Local award for writing about pubs this week, which I am very chuffed about. I thought this week I might share the pieces I put forward in my submission to be considered for this prize.

Fayum portrait of unnamed man, artist unknown. More reading: John Berger on the nature of Fayum paintings.