Thursday, July 20, 2006

This isn't about the cat

I think that personalities and personal expression are banned at my new(ish) workplace. I’ve only noticed a couple of other people with photos of loved ones or pictures up at their desk.

In any event, I decided to stuff that unwritten rule and have lobbed a few things up at my 'work' station.

To go with my deliberately provocative photo of TheLovelyWife and I in suits and ties and my figurine of comicbook guy, I have wall calendar featuring the art of Edward Hopper (not my first choice, but when one decides to buy a wall calendar in May, the choices are limited to this kind of thing or 12 months of Bichon Frise or freaking Anne Geddes - shudder).

ANYWAY, July’s picture is this somewhat pensive piece:



I’ve been staring at it for a while, and it may be a reflection of how disinterested I am in the subject matter of my work at the moment, but I’ve been trying desperately to determine whether it is morning, or evening light that is streaming in through the window. I thought I'd be all clever and use my skills of observation to work it out.

At first I thought it was morning light, but then I thought, no, the bedclothes are undisturbed. And to me, that orangey mellow light is reminiscent of about 5pm on an autumn afternoon – sort of just hanging there and making everything a little luminescent. You know, that is the best time of year for sunsets…

But then I thought that can’t be right. If it was autumn, she’d be cold just wearing that slight dress and with the window open.

And then I thought, so maybe it is morning after all. But it seemed too yellowy for the morning light, which is typically a whole lot clearer and a bit more pinky, if you know what I mean. The light in the picture lacks the specific crispness of morning light.

Unless of course the painting is of one of those some horribly skanky, humid summer mornings – you know what it’s like in February when the humidity barely subsides over night and the morning is a just a cruel hangover of the dense and oppressive evening you’ve just endured.

It was at this point that I suspected I might be thinking about it too much (and no doubt by now you think I've written about it too much, if indeed you've read this far), and I turned back to my work.

That lasted about 5 seconds before I turned back to the calendar and reconsidered the subject’s face.

It can’t be morning I thought, the subject looks as though she is wearing make-up. So maybe she’s just come in from a long day at the rat-races, slipped into something more comfortable and is taking in the cityscape whilst pondering the wastefulness of recent tax-cuts, or wondering how long before George Bush nukes Iran, or something like that.

But then, I thought that it probably isn’t make-up, that the boldness of her features is probably just a reflection of Hopper’s sometimes stark painterly technique.

And then I really thought I was thinking about it too much.

So I forgot about it for a while.

And then something happened to make it clear that I really do think about things too much. And also that I don’t pay attention to detail as much as I probably should.

I happened to look just slightly below the picture on the calendar, below the fold, and there it was, in small print:

Morning Light
Edward Hopper
1952 Oil on canvas


In this picture you might be able to see just how ridiculous it was that I missed it:



So much for those clever 'skills' of observation.

This kind of thing really gets me down.

5 comments:

Enny said...

Before I got the end of the post I woulda picked morning light - I didn't think about it as hard as you, but base it on the fact the light is so bright white/yellow on the wall.

Zoe said...

So how's Tobias?

JahTeh said...

Totally sucked in by this whole post.
I kept thinking what bedclothes? I can't see the window reflection. Then a look at the face and it was, 'He's left her, the creep'. It is a real think piece and if you mention Anne Geddes again, I'm never coming back.

Anonymous said...

what have you got against Bichon Frise?

Anonymous said...

Just trawling through your archives and think this may be one of the best posts I have ever read.

Sorry to get so much enjoyment out of your misery and hope it does not dredge up bad memories!