Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Art - spontaneous and laborious

Here are pictures of two kinds of art I saw while on Cape Cod. "The Shell Tree" is sponatneous, "folk" art. It may be known to only a handful of people, perhaps it was "made" by one person or a group of persons. It stands on a beach that is public but is not well known -- yes, such beaches exist even on over-populated Cape Cod. It is a dead tree which has been festooned with broken couch shells, the sort that can be found on the beach, probably early in the morning before visitors come so the tree was probably fashioned by a local person. It has weathered [and possibly been restored after] at least three years of storms. We do not know when it was made, maybe quite some time ago. To walk along the inside path of the beach, on the calm side of the dunes, and come upon the tree makes one feel connected to the art making impulse that is perhaps our genetic inheritance from those distant ancestors who left pictographs on cliffs and painted deep inside caves. It is a glorification of the beauty the sea strews on the sand with the tides. The shells remain tinged with a delicate pink inside. The beach is wondeful but this tree has made is a truly special place.
I am not a good photographer and so this picture of a highly reflective piece of glass art made by Patrick Todoroff, my daughter's husband and artisan ofGlass Graphics is a differnt kind of art. Carefully thought out, each piece carefully chosen and cut and fitted together. A grand, complex wall hanging, just one of the many designs he has made. I wish I had been able to find a way to photograph it to show it's fascinating and complexity.

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