nitebird art

saturday began for me with my usual visit to jen’s place. she offered on the rocks dedicated to her father and also mentioned that she has been ‘reallowed’ to offer her parody nightpenguins. apparently cafepress, through which she sells her penguintoons as posters, etc., had briefly concluded that she was actually selling edward hopper’s nighthawks. this sent me on a day reminding myself about hopper and the work and today you see the results on rosh hashannah which begins the jewish new year 5770.

i first discovered edward hopper during the early 1970's while living in new york and new jersey. i think i most hooked on to the sparse, big city and east cost reality including people who retained the precious anonymity i felt when i was there. neither i, nor they, needed to tell the story - or be judged for it - unless we felt like it. later i learned more officially about about the artist.
the chicago art institute, which houses nighthawks, describes hopper somewhat succinctly:

‘although trained as an illustrator, Edward Hopper spent five years studying painting under Robert Henri, a member of the Ashcan School of painters who focused on the gritty realities of the city. The Ashcan School influenced hopper’s style, though he tended to depict not the chaos of urban living but the sense of urban isolation.‘

and in an introduction to a hopper exhibit

'Edward Hopper (1882–1967), creator of art that novelist John Updike described as "calm, silent, stoic, luminous, and classic," is one of the most enduring and popular American painters of the 20th century. His paintings have been celebrated as a part of the very grain and texture of the American experience.’

nighthawks has been described as iconic and one of the most recognized american art works. it’s the cover art on my most recent american painting survey find. it also appears to be the most ‘covered’ image in art since the mona lisa. check out wikipedia and nighthawks revisiting and revisited.
one way or another nighthawks took over an even more special section in my when i found out something new in the immediate post 9/11 days. hopper painted nighthawks in 1942, the year of my birth and the year after the japanese pearl harbor bombing. apparently hopper began the painting immediately after the attack. it symbolized a generally dazed american public and perhaps the thought of an attack even on new york. i sent out an email to whomever which is now lost so today i’m happy to try the blog way of keeping my discovery around.

p.s. that's van gogh's night cafe trying to take over the art spaces at the top; sorry the real nighthawks is so small.

st penguin's day - irish notes

my claim to 'heritage' happily includes ireland and the irish. i put heritage in quotes to differentiate myself from the ubiquitous oklahoma nonindian claim to 'indian heritage'. i did not grow up in any way irish and my claim to a relationship with things irish comes from consuming and enjoying ireland as delivered to me in books, movies and sounds. i do not choose to insult the irish by claiming i are one whether or not i may have an ancestor who was in fact irish.

my penguinista friend jen [see her link to the right] gives me a chance to prepare for st. patrick's day with some words and a pic that combines two of my loves - penguins and the irish - without claiming i am of penguin heritage.

first a moment in the catskills with my lost new york friend tom hoffman and his family. when bernice and i travelled to new york with our new van and 6 children back when, tom and kathy took us to an 'irish festival' . the festival is like a number of summer tourist drinking events nomiminally dedicated to an indentifiable group. this one however also includes first and later irish expatriates. they demonstrate the absolute angsts of being irish and of being a hyphenated american [cf. american indian.]. they fervently sang 'give ireland back to the irish' and then were just as loud when the song was 'god bless america'. they have escaped - but can not escape - the agony of the 'troubles', the 200 year long reaction to great britain's claim to own ireland and its people. . there is an interruption to the violence but within the week there has been more. i mention all this in part to recommend one of the most beautiful and sad short stories i have ever read: frank o'connor's 'guests of the nation'. it is the story of two new ira recruits assigned to guarding two captive british soldiers who they are ultimately ordered to kill after all have interacted as people. it obviously speaks to the sadness of war - implicitly it also speaks to religion as the basis for war and conquering between neighbors. i couldn't find it online but i unabashedly recommend the story for real reading.

in more modern times 1972's 'bloody sunday' united rockers from both side of the pond to sing against the british in ireland. u2 and beatles john and paul all sang out and in fact it was paul who wrote the first song the irish americans were singing. i'll close with his version of the song and a recommendation that you read wikipedia's account of bloody sunday that gives a capsulized history of the day and the troubles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1972)