June 19...free-form writing.
Woke up last night to the sound of two animals fighting. One was definitely a cat, but not sure what the other animal was. Either way...the cat lost. Sounded like a baby crying as it tended to its wounds.
Had a bit of trouble getting back to sleep and woke up at a very early hour. I am currently experimenting with how much coffee I can drink without getting too jittery. Cup #2 is doing a nice job right now. I started using Splenda in my coffee instead of sugar...I like 'Sugar in the Raw' the best, but I gotta watch the waste line...bikini season and all :-P
This writing is a much needed reprieve from compiling spreadsheets, making sales calls, and responding to emails...it's nice to relax for a few minutes.
Speaking of sales, I recently received a copy of some of Anthony Robbins' material from a good friend who owns his own company. He said it's been very helpful on his road to success, so I feel the strategies will assist me in my career with Lares!
I'll be spending the weekend mornings reading/listening and will keep you posted on my progress!
For now, I am on the couch...laptop living up to its namesake...watching the US Open golf tournament on TV...enjoying just being for a bit.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
College Writing
I wrote this about three years ago as an assignment in a college writing class. Now self published via blogspot for the world to read:
Waking Before Hitting Ground
The screen is blank in front of me and I am breaking into a cold sweat. I wonder if Salvador Dali ever sat in front of a blank canvas and wondered where to begin. I have so much insight into the life of Dali, yet I am having trouble developing a concrete idea between the relationship of seeing and knowing. How did Dali know that when someone saw his paintings, they would know the meaning? Did he care? I suppose I shouldn't care so much about whether or not the reader can derive meaning from the words scribbled onto this parchment. As long as I know what it all means, then that's all that matters, right? That is art! That is exactly what Salvador Dali created when he painted "El Somni."
A midnight blue-sky fades to white on its way to the pitch black Earth below, setting the background of "El Somni." In the forefront, an intriguingly strange image steals the focus of the painting. Beneath a dissipating moon is the profiled head of a sleeping man, its shape held by eleven crutches of varying length and position. One long crutch holds the forehead in place using the earth as an anchor, as another keeps the chin and lips from dropping to the ground. If the crutches were all removed, surely the head would turn into an amorphous mass.
Black, brown, and tan in color, the top of the head is bald and resembles a sand dune. A furrowed brow gives the appearance of deep concentration while pink, chapped lips are in need of a cold drink of water. A disproportionate nose juts out over the lips, shielding them from the rays of a rising sun. Oddly, a black cloak is draped where an ear should be found and the black rear end of the massive head looks like a half-deflated balloon, draped over the U-shaped end of a crutch.
A white and brown-specked spaniel leans on a crutch to the left of the profiled cranium. The dog looks elderly, worn-out, and emaciated. Human emotions of contempt and fatigue are evident in the dog's face as it looks at the sleeping head. Without its crutch, the dog would most likely succumb to the warm, sun-lit ground below for a nap.
With a bathrobe and a headdress of some sort, a figure walks slowly away from the dog. Hands in the robe's pockets, the figure looks at the hills in the distance and takes note of his/her long shadow. Perhaps he/she is walking toward the rowboat that is in the background.
Lastly, a small town that resembles an Italian villa stands alone in the background in the right periphery of the painting. As with most villas of its size, the largest and most central building is the house of God. The church is surrounded by white steps and structures, a green hilltop, and black rocks. The brick church, which dwarfs the other buildings in the villa, is the color of brick that has endured centuries of harsh rain, blazing sun, and relentless wind.
Initially, Salvador Dali's "El Somni" feels as if one is looking into the dream of a stranger, yet the images are eerily familiar. The images portrayed seem to mix both the dream world and reality.
The head appears soft and almost as vulnerable as human beings are when asleep. After a long day facing the harshness of reality, the dream world seduces and holds the subconscious. As a crutch holds steady a person with a broken leg, the dream world gives the brain a retreat from the nuances of the physical world. Possibly representing reality, the head is shrouded in the darkness of night. Senses are deprived of any stimulus allowing the being to sleep, uninterrupted.
In the background, it is a bright, summer day. Serenity and warmth allow the brain to relax and forget the troubles of the conscious world. The robed figure may, perhaps, be an old girlfriend or boyfriend returning to the bedroom after a long, hot shower for a session of lovemaking. The dog may have been a childhood pet, long since gone from the realm of the living, but existing forever in dreams. The Italian villa may not even exist, save for this dream, or perhaps it is where the subject of this painting spent childhood summers on the Mediterranean Sea.
The images appear as in a dream, connected in some way, but with no transition from one to the next. The figures in the painting are detailed, yet blurry, as is often the case in a dream. "El Somni" seemingly attempts to capture the journey of the mind as it gives in to sleep and moves into a completely different state of being.
Not quite convinced that I had truly captured the meaning of "El Somni," I found myself at the local library with a list of books found on Google. I began reading George Orwell's book, Dickens, Dali & Others: Studies in Popular Culture, which houses a very insightful essay entitled "Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali." This essay takes a deeper look into Salvador Dali's autobiography The Secret Life of Salvador Dali (Pub. 1942).
Orwell highlights "some of the episodes of Dali's life, from his earliest years onward. Which of them are true and which are imaginary hardly matters; the point is that this is the kind of thing Dali would have liked to do." (1) For example, one of the most insightful episodes is when Dali describes his first meeting of his future wife, Gala. He claims to be tempted to push her off a cliff, and feels as if she wants him to do something to her. After their first kiss, she confesses that she does not want Dali to make passionate love to her, but to kill her!
According to Orwell's essay, Dali is disappointed by her confession, since it is what he wanted to do in the first place. Dali freely admitted necrophilia - the obsessive fascination with death and corpses, an erotic attraction to, or sexual contact with corpses - and images of skulls, corpses of animals, and dead faces occur fairly frequently in his paintings.
Another source of Dali's influence was the great works of art created by the Greeks. Dante: La Divine Comedie is a book which depicts numerous Dali paintings that were influenced by Greek mythology. Dante: La Divine Comedie does not detail in writing how Greek mythology influenced Salvador Dali's works, but it is quite apparent by viewing prints such as "The Apotheosis of Homer" or "Leda Atomica." But not all of Dali's mythology-inspired paintings are in his most recognized style.
Dali's personal style that he is most renowned for is surrealism. Utilizing the psychological theory of Dr. Sigmund Freud, "surrealism explores the world of the subconscious that is only visible in dreams." (2) Dali's most recognized surrealist painting; Persistence of Memory (1931) depicts melting clocks in a desert wasteland. To create these visions, Dali utilized the paranoiac-critical method, a phrase that he coined and defined as "a spontaneous mode of irrational understanding experienced by entering alternate levels of reality." (3) Dali would reach these alternate states of reality via two methods: Sleep deprivation and hallucinatory drug use.
With this insight into his life and the sources of Salvador Dali's creativity, the message of "El Somni" becomes much more apparent. Knowing about his obsession with death and corpses, when I look at the sleeping man in the painting, I can't help but think that he isn't sleeping at all. He is deceased. The crutches are holding his inanimate face in place so his loved ones may recognize his soul-less body. When rigor-mortis sets in, the crutches can be removed and the face will hold its shape. A common myth is that the soul of a man is removed through the back of the neck - exactly where the black cloak of Death is resting in the painting. In fact, the entire head looks as if it is having the life drained from it.
The images in the background of "El Somni" are clearer now, more than ever! I feel a rush of excitement - as if I've just broken a code of some kind! Dali's influence by Greek mythology never impacted my view of "El Somni" before this moment. The robed figure in the background is Charon - the ferryman of the River Styx. The River Styx is a mythological crossroad between the world of the living and the realm of the dead, called Hades. One would face a giant, three-headed dog named Cerberus, who would allow entrance into Hades after one successfully crossed the fiery River Styx. Cerberus is portrayed in "El Somni" by the brown-specked spaniel that leans on a crutch.
In the last three days I have developed a new interpretation of Salvador Dali's "El Somni." By knowing more about the background and influences of Dali, I am able to see new meaning in his art. Knowledge impacts how the mind sees and interprets the outside world. You may look at the love of your life and see the person of your dreams one day, but if you know that they have committed adultery, you may see them as a disgusting and vile person the next. This principle applies to art, as well. When I first viewed Dali's "El Somni" I accepted that it depicted the mind's journey into the world of dreams and peace, but it is really analogous to Death's visit.
______
1. George Orwell, "Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali," Reynal & Hitchcock, 1946
2. Frank Weyer, Salvador Dali - Life and Work, Konemann Publishing, 1999
3. Albert Field, The Official Catalogue of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dali, Dali Archives Ltd., 1996
A midnight blue-sky fades to white on its way to the pitch black Earth below, setting the background of "El Somni." In the forefront, an intriguingly strange image steals the focus of the painting. Beneath a dissipating moon is the profiled head of a sleeping man, its shape held by eleven crutches of varying length and position. One long crutch holds the forehead in place using the earth as an anchor, as another keeps the chin and lips from dropping to the ground. If the crutches were all removed, surely the head would turn into an amorphous mass.
Black, brown, and tan in color, the top of the head is bald and resembles a sand dune. A furrowed brow gives the appearance of deep concentration while pink, chapped lips are in need of a cold drink of water. A disproportionate nose juts out over the lips, shielding them from the rays of a rising sun. Oddly, a black cloak is draped where an ear should be found and the black rear end of the massive head looks like a half-deflated balloon, draped over the U-shaped end of a crutch.
A white and brown-specked spaniel leans on a crutch to the left of the profiled cranium. The dog looks elderly, worn-out, and emaciated. Human emotions of contempt and fatigue are evident in the dog's face as it looks at the sleeping head. Without its crutch, the dog would most likely succumb to the warm, sun-lit ground below for a nap.
With a bathrobe and a headdress of some sort, a figure walks slowly away from the dog. Hands in the robe's pockets, the figure looks at the hills in the distance and takes note of his/her long shadow. Perhaps he/she is walking toward the rowboat that is in the background.
Lastly, a small town that resembles an Italian villa stands alone in the background in the right periphery of the painting. As with most villas of its size, the largest and most central building is the house of God. The church is surrounded by white steps and structures, a green hilltop, and black rocks. The brick church, which dwarfs the other buildings in the villa, is the color of brick that has endured centuries of harsh rain, blazing sun, and relentless wind.
Initially, Salvador Dali's "El Somni" feels as if one is looking into the dream of a stranger, yet the images are eerily familiar. The images portrayed seem to mix both the dream world and reality.
The head appears soft and almost as vulnerable as human beings are when asleep. After a long day facing the harshness of reality, the dream world seduces and holds the subconscious. As a crutch holds steady a person with a broken leg, the dream world gives the brain a retreat from the nuances of the physical world. Possibly representing reality, the head is shrouded in the darkness of night. Senses are deprived of any stimulus allowing the being to sleep, uninterrupted.
In the background, it is a bright, summer day. Serenity and warmth allow the brain to relax and forget the troubles of the conscious world. The robed figure may, perhaps, be an old girlfriend or boyfriend returning to the bedroom after a long, hot shower for a session of lovemaking. The dog may have been a childhood pet, long since gone from the realm of the living, but existing forever in dreams. The Italian villa may not even exist, save for this dream, or perhaps it is where the subject of this painting spent childhood summers on the Mediterranean Sea.
The images appear as in a dream, connected in some way, but with no transition from one to the next. The figures in the painting are detailed, yet blurry, as is often the case in a dream. "El Somni" seemingly attempts to capture the journey of the mind as it gives in to sleep and moves into a completely different state of being.
Not quite convinced that I had truly captured the meaning of "El Somni," I found myself at the local library with a list of books found on Google. I began reading George Orwell's book, Dickens, Dali & Others: Studies in Popular Culture, which houses a very insightful essay entitled "Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali." This essay takes a deeper look into Salvador Dali's autobiography The Secret Life of Salvador Dali (Pub. 1942).
Orwell highlights "some of the episodes of Dali's life, from his earliest years onward. Which of them are true and which are imaginary hardly matters; the point is that this is the kind of thing Dali would have liked to do." (1) For example, one of the most insightful episodes is when Dali describes his first meeting of his future wife, Gala. He claims to be tempted to push her off a cliff, and feels as if she wants him to do something to her. After their first kiss, she confesses that she does not want Dali to make passionate love to her, but to kill her!
According to Orwell's essay, Dali is disappointed by her confession, since it is what he wanted to do in the first place. Dali freely admitted necrophilia - the obsessive fascination with death and corpses, an erotic attraction to, or sexual contact with corpses - and images of skulls, corpses of animals, and dead faces occur fairly frequently in his paintings.
Another source of Dali's influence was the great works of art created by the Greeks. Dante: La Divine Comedie is a book which depicts numerous Dali paintings that were influenced by Greek mythology. Dante: La Divine Comedie does not detail in writing how Greek mythology influenced Salvador Dali's works, but it is quite apparent by viewing prints such as "The Apotheosis of Homer" or "Leda Atomica." But not all of Dali's mythology-inspired paintings are in his most recognized style.
Dali's personal style that he is most renowned for is surrealism. Utilizing the psychological theory of Dr. Sigmund Freud, "surrealism explores the world of the subconscious that is only visible in dreams." (2) Dali's most recognized surrealist painting; Persistence of Memory (1931) depicts melting clocks in a desert wasteland. To create these visions, Dali utilized the paranoiac-critical method, a phrase that he coined and defined as "a spontaneous mode of irrational understanding experienced by entering alternate levels of reality." (3) Dali would reach these alternate states of reality via two methods: Sleep deprivation and hallucinatory drug use.
With this insight into his life and the sources of Salvador Dali's creativity, the message of "El Somni" becomes much more apparent. Knowing about his obsession with death and corpses, when I look at the sleeping man in the painting, I can't help but think that he isn't sleeping at all. He is deceased. The crutches are holding his inanimate face in place so his loved ones may recognize his soul-less body. When rigor-mortis sets in, the crutches can be removed and the face will hold its shape. A common myth is that the soul of a man is removed through the back of the neck - exactly where the black cloak of Death is resting in the painting. In fact, the entire head looks as if it is having the life drained from it.
The images in the background of "El Somni" are clearer now, more than ever! I feel a rush of excitement - as if I've just broken a code of some kind! Dali's influence by Greek mythology never impacted my view of "El Somni" before this moment. The robed figure in the background is Charon - the ferryman of the River Styx. The River Styx is a mythological crossroad between the world of the living and the realm of the dead, called Hades. One would face a giant, three-headed dog named Cerberus, who would allow entrance into Hades after one successfully crossed the fiery River Styx. Cerberus is portrayed in "El Somni" by the brown-specked spaniel that leans on a crutch.
In the last three days I have developed a new interpretation of Salvador Dali's "El Somni." By knowing more about the background and influences of Dali, I am able to see new meaning in his art. Knowledge impacts how the mind sees and interprets the outside world. You may look at the love of your life and see the person of your dreams one day, but if you know that they have committed adultery, you may see them as a disgusting and vile person the next. This principle applies to art, as well. When I first viewed Dali's "El Somni" I accepted that it depicted the mind's journey into the world of dreams and peace, but it is really analogous to Death's visit.
______
1. George Orwell, "Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali," Reynal & Hitchcock, 1946
2. Frank Weyer, Salvador Dali - Life and Work, Konemann Publishing, 1999
3. Albert Field, The Official Catalogue of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dali, Dali Archives Ltd., 1996
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