Dropped in to see a friend yesterday, local sculptor Harry Burk, to photograph his heritage barn for a future pencil sketch and he showed me the latest piece he is working on which speaks to the mortality of mankind. He began working on it before Covid19 but it fits in perfectly with the times and I hope he will let me photograph the finished piece and post it on one of my art sites. As I walked around his old swayback barn and photographed it, I thought about his sculpture and about Harry and I and his barn. Harry is limping now and I need a cane to get about and his barn is splintered and caving in and ready to fall. We are all getting old. Went for my daily constitutional the day before and as I was resting on the park bench a father and two preschoolers on bikes with training wheels passed by. The girl peered from behind her father’s legs fearfully and the boy stared at me unabashedly as only preschoolers can. Thought it was because I was white or because of my white hair and moustache, the family being black. The father commented in explanation that his children seldom saw “old people.” Gave me an idea what a museum piece must feel like. Last Saturday I did a live instructional video in which I commented about the old masters. Da Vinci is long gone and for many today his name unknown, but his art lives on in museums and even television commercials. His subject passed on 450 years ago and few know her last name, but Mona Lisa is a familiar face still today. Made me think about today’s trend to decapitate statues and topple them, these great pieces of art, and to eradicate names of people whose opinions are now out of favour. I thought about art and artists and the legacy they leave behind them and how important that legacy is, and I thought about the work of historians and genealogists, my other hat, and the value of the research they leave behind. We are living in different times today where artists and genealogists matter more than ever and mankind’s mortality is even more in danger and I am thankful to be part of it.
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AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
November 2020
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