Thursday…September 3rd….More Noise From the High Desert….

Cezanne’s “Pyramid of Skulls”

Cezanne is by far one of my favorite painters…he painted many still-life with just small little tweaks in them that consciously we don’t see…in his painting…”Still Life with Apples”…he painted the apples from 6 different perspectives causing a level of tension that the viewer could sense but could not really digest completely…left the audience a bit uneasy…uncertain about the work…

the idea behind this painting is far more involved than a stack of skulls…done in a painterly manner….with absolute perspective…it is really about the concept of “Memento Mori”….a Latin term that says “Remember you will die”…something to alert the viewer of their own personal mortality…remind them that life is not forever…there is such a philosophical notion to that idea of Memento Mori….of death…of life…what each is…what each isn’t….what we do now to prepare for then….

this reaffirms….the notion that time is short…life is short…so wasting time is in essence…wasting life….and I’d bet if we all had the date and time…of our death…we’d be doing things a whole lot differently…dying….less and living a great deal more….or maybe not…I’m sure there are those that “wouldn’t change a thing”….and that’s fine as well…as what matters is what each of us does…that makes us better…and it may take a life time to be exactly what you want…….

Euell Gibbons – 
– We live in a vastly complex society which has been able to provide us with a multitude of material things, and this is good, but people are beginning to suspect we have paid a high spiritual price for our plenty.