Snow Day!

Nashville loves its snow. That’s why whenever they even get a hint of a mixed flurry, all schools shut down. Recently, we had a catastrophe in the eyes of most Nashville citizens, a whole…. inch…. of snow. Well of course this means that there’s no possible way for me to get out of the house and out into civilization. So what did I do with my day off of school? I read my art history textbook for five hours! Two chapters and 16 pages of notes later, I was finished with 300 years of art history. Through my five-hour trudge through the difficult realm of the history of art, I became enlightened by the works of Van Eyck and Weyden while my friends were ruining their brain cells by playing in the snow. Through all of this enlightenment, my favorite piece of art was the Les Trés Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (The Very Sumptuous Hours of the Duke of Berry).

A book of hours is a book used for reciting prayers. It usually consisted of things such as an illustrated calendar, penitential Psalms, and devotional prayers. The most famous part about this book of hours is its calendar that represents the 12 months with alternating scenes of nobility and peasantry and seasonal tasks. January shows the Duke at a dinner festival, almost appearing Godlike because of the fire that illuminates as a halo around his head. October depicts the labors of a sower, harrower, and washerwoman. Instead of being unhappy about their work though, they seem happy to be doing such work for the Duke. This book of hours shows an increased interest in naturalism as well as narrowing the gap between the integration of religious and secular themes.

My main attraction to this piece of art is how much work was put into something for one person. These incredibly detailed pictures were put together all for the personal use of the Duke. It’s also interesting that this book of hours portrays the donor in such a high light. I guess the Duke needed his self-confidence boosted? Nevertheless, I love the concept of this exquisite book that is used for one’s own personal and private prayers and I wish that I could see what the pictures that go with the other 10 months look like.

Dave Matthews

Anyone that knows me well is very aware of my obsession with Dave Matthews. I can probably name every album and every song on the spot without any help. It’s a sickness, I know. Last time I counted I was able to play 43 Dave Matthews songs on guitar. Nevertheless, the point is… I recently found out that Dave is also a talented artist as well. I was browsing around at guitar center last week and found a signature Dave Matthews Taylor 914ce that I played for probably nearly an hour. The neck had an intricate design done by Dave in honor of Leroi Moore, who was the saxophonist for the band before he passed in 2008. Through further investigation, I found more piece of art done by Dave Matthews.

My favorite is definitely the cover art for DMB’s most recent CD, Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King. The work depicts a large festival going on in downtown New Orleans. It is very Mardi Gras-ish with the people on top of the float wearing masks and many people in the crowd wearing beads. This Mardi Gras theme is also continued with the use of much purple and green throughout the drawing. My favorite part about the piece is the gigantic face of Leroi Moore plastered right in the center with “The Groogrux King” (a nickname given to him by the band) pieced around it. If you’re a DMB nerd like myself and have caught yourself watching concerts on DVD in your bed at night, you can see the personality of Leroi coming out through this drawn face. Intense and always having a good time was the way that he spent his time on stage.

I was very surprised when I found out this unknown talent of Dave Matthews, unknown to me at least. I’ve always just thought of him as a man that puts down all his thoughts on paper and then puts on the best concerts you will ever see. It’s cool to see a second way in which he lets his emotions out. In a way, it makes me want to become an artist as well. I think I’ll pass though. I can’t urge on this obsession any further than it has already gotten. I think I’ll just stick to learning all of his songs on guitar.

The Floor Scrapers

I recently visited the Frist Center for the Visual Arts to hear an art lecture on impressionism, which actually ended up being an hour-long talk about how fashion influenced the paintings of those times. Not very interesting to me… but… informative. The best thing that came out of the night was getting to actually see the impressionist paintings that the Frist had to display. With nearly a 100 paintings by Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pissarro, Morisot, etc… the one that caught my eye the most was an exquisite piece of work by Gustave Caillebotte entitled “The Floor Scraper.”

Caillebotte was inspired by laborers working on his home to begin working on this piece of art that portrays three men scraping up the wood off of a hard wood floor. The accurate portrayal of the men’s muscles and torsos along with the depiction of the working class during this time period show that Gustave was a realist. His primary focus in his artwork was to show things as they would really be seen in the real world. What attracted me to this painting while walking through the exhibit was not the accurate depiction of the people though, but how Gustave is able to paint the scraps of wood that have already been torn up. It is almost as if you can see each individual scrap among the hundreds that are piled upon each other. The pristine detail in this painting truly makes it a masterpiece.

It amazes me how people are able to paint things that look so realistic. As I walked through the hallways of paintings that night, I had to look closely at some of them to make sure they were not actually photographs. The fine detail that is put in to these pieces of art makes them appear as if you are staring at real life. Some of the paintings are so overtly large that it makes me wonder just how long the artist spent on it to get it finished. I know that I would have nowhere near a sufficient amount of patience to be an artist. Nevertheless, I recommend everyone go down to the First Center to partake in the joy that I found while looking through all of these paintings. No one will be disappointed with what they see.