Believe it or not, this Carl Larsson picture of a girl fishing over a railing is one of the most evocative pictures that I own. Over the years I've gotten cartloads of ideas by staring at it. One of the things that appeals to me about it is that there's only one human being and one deck in the scene. If lots of people had a deck fronting the water the view would be spoiled. In this case only one does. The viewer is like a king enjoying a scene that only a handful of other people will ever see.Now obviously this is just a fantasy because with the population being what it is not even a king could afford to keep a vista like this to himself. But fantasies don't have to make sense. For example, what's the best seat in the house if you're going to out to hear a symphony orchestra? Is it in the middle of the first row? Not really. When you think about it, isn't the best seat one that would be next to the conductor? And wouldn't it be better to lie down than sit down? The best seat is a cot next to the conductor.
What would be the best place for a table if you're going to eat a reataurant meal? By the window? Not really. For me the best place would be right in the middle of the crowd rushing to and fro in the main room of a giant big-city railroad station. I like to see effective people in a hurry. I like trying to imagine what their lives must be like, and while I'm doing that I wouldn't mind a thick, juicy steak and some good wine at a well turned out table with impeccable linen. Of course no one would take notice of me. But that's my fantasy. Maybe you'd like to dine on a mesa or in the womens' dressing room of a supermodel contest.
What's the best place to put the desk that you like to work on? In a big, cushy office? Maybe, but I prefer to be outside in the tropical jungle - minus the heat and bugs. I don't mind monkies and cheetas on my filing cabinets. I think I'd like hearing tropical birds and listening to the gurgling of a near-by stream. I'd like dappled sunlight on my papers and the ozone smell that preceeds a tropical thunderstorm, which by the way wouldn't get my papers wet.
So that's why I like the fishing picture. It's all about possibility and thinking about what you really want, instead of what you'll settle for. Once in a while what you really want turns out to be what other people would really want too, and once in a while ...well, you know the rest.
16 comments:
"One of the things that appeals to me about it is that there's only one human being and one deck in the scene."
What about the little boy on the right side fishing in his boat? Or maybe i am confusing that with a floating log. I personally would like to live on that farm behind the lake and live a humble life in the country.
What about the little boy on the right side fishing in his boat?
Silly david gemmill, it's obvious that Eddie painted himself into the picture! It's so fake! I can't believe you were fooled.
As for that Sasquatch guy in the center of the island...
I love this post. I hope I can come up with a worthy "best-place" of my own to add. It's tough to beat a cot next to the conductor. (Coffee-spilling hilarity there, btw.)
The little girl's chapeau has a thing for the giant mutant radish growing on the island.
My mistake! The little box I was writing in cut off the fisherman and didn't resolve the island very clearly.
The point I was making still holds up though, at least I hope it does.
She is looking at some srange building that is enticing her to go on an adventure!
Well, in a restaurant the best place to enjoy is in the corner. This way one can see everyone and everything going on without being in the way- plus it's good Feng Shui if you can see it all!
The perfect office place of my dreams is in some abandoned withering castle in a cool windy climate. There would be an expansive view of endless fields with a single road leading into a forest in the far distance. I like yours too Eddie (especially the minus heat and bugs part haha).
I really enjoyed this post! It has made my usual drudge of a workday more thoughtful!
Spelling Error On My Part!!!
Correction: strange!!!
Wow Eddie! You sure know how to look deep into a painting and assign a personality to an otherwise simple scenery.
A jungle would be an excellent workplace. There is no monotony associated with tropical rain forests...you could make new discoveries each day. There would be few people-related nuisances. And there would be plenty of time to be reflective.
Like other commenters (claartje & Louisa the last), I have not seen any trends or convergence in the human form that cannot be explained or accomodated by external resources and the physical environment. You would theoretically expect sexual selection would cause an increase in 'youthful looking women' and 'mature looking men,' however, I have not seen this trend. This shows that how humans select their companions is very complicated and multifacted.
Hey Eddie! I started a blogspot account to talk about crap that I like! You inspired me to do so.
Hmmm-I've always found the idea of people from the past looking or being "different" from ourselves fascinating..sga and Louisa the Last, I'm in the middle:
I collect old photographs, vintage clothes, read biographies and diaries and memoirs written 100-100 years ago, and I've come to the conclusion that we've been fooled into believing that people back then were different-looking.
In minor ways, they are--the lack of makeup, the constricting clothes, the need to NOT smile and be natrual but "freeze" for photographs, and lastly the quality(or not)of the photography of the time(its lighting and retouching).
But I have also lately found snapshots of people in the years 1900-1910 where the contemporary look of the faces and attitudes is shocking in its modernity...I should post some, sometime. Girls/women in the full regalia of 1900--corsets. hats, high collars--wrestling and laughing and falling down in the snow like a 16 year old snowboarder would do today, and suddenly they look totally current.
There was, however(and this to me is where Eddie's painting comes in, the feelings it inspires)a vast difference in the input of a person from 1900 vs. today: no music save live music, homemade or professional, real music; no movies, no TV, but live theatre, ballet, parades, constant parties, real decoration(as it was cheap to beautify homes), a love of nature even for city folk, a closeness with the natural world, and the world of the pure imagination in books, one of the only forms of personal entertainment. A little girl could amuse herself fishing, picking up shells, rocks, flowers; they could still do that and sometimes do, but obviously not as often.
So that lack of all the stresses of modern life is to me obvious in those old faces, and what also makes them seem apart from us now; even in dirt-poor kids(many didn't know they were "poor" after all--or if they did it was hardly a unique lifestyle). That has been lost, and that's the missing strangeness in the faces of those old photos.
Cableclair: Nice Dutch name! use it anytime you want! The cat you put up was unreal. It looked like it had eyes of glass!
Spizz,: I just got "Are You My Mother?" from the library.....*
David: That color picture Marlo did of you was hilarious!!! I was going to ask Marlo if I could reprint it but maybe I should ask you too!
Louisa: What you said about pure ethnic types was interesting and probably does account for some of the differences. My guess is that people were also different in other ways. They were more certain about things, more class conscious, and may have put more time into sculpting their public personalities. There were lots of finishing schools, elocution classes, dancing and musical lessons, even etiquette classes. It must have been fun to be at a party with those people because they took such pains to make thenselves interesting.
Kali: I just went to your blog! Nice format and I like what you said about films. I have a copy of Vertov's "Kino Eye." Isn't that the same as "Man With a Camera", just with a different name? I have a couple of Dryer films too but I've never seen "Joan of Arc" all the way through. Show it to John or Mike and invite me along!
Jenny: We must have been posting at the same time, and we even made some of the same points! Hey, you've gotta dismantle your word verification. My browser won't put up the latest version of your wiggly letters and if I can't see them then some other people must be having the same problem. When I asked Steve about it he said "Well of course you probably need to update your Java script pointlet reader on the double X astivised platelet protector modulater..." I couldn't understand a word he was saying.
" I just went to your blog! Nice format and I like what you said about films. "
Thanks Eddie!
"I have a copy of Vertov's "Kino Eye." Isn't that the same as "Man With a Camera", just with a different name?"
I think you're right!
" I have a couple of Dryer films too but I've never seen "Joan of Arc" all the way through. Show it to John or Mike and invite me along!"
Well if Mike will trust my judgement again, and if it wouldn't bore John- you are where the fun is at Eddie!
Spizz,: I just got "Are You My Mother?" from the library.....*
What took ya so long?! :-D Make sure you are wearing footie pajamas when you sit down to read it.
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