Response to another post -

I'm already going to get less sleep than I need tonight, so I'll hold off on my comments about our visit to Judson Memorial Church, which I greatly enjoyed, but I wanted to respond, before I forget, to Phil's bit about Eric Cartmill's presentation.

I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation based on the merits of the performance, but completely agree with the sentiment that focusing too much on the possibilities of a work takes away from our ability to appreciate its realities. Furthermore, while it is particularly tempting to assess the narrative potential of Hopper's paintings because his subjects are so prosaic, let's not forget that all art is ambiguous, whether it wants to be or not.

Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" is probably the most grossly misinterpreted thing in the history of art of any kind. In general, writers, musicians, painters, filmmakers, and artists of all other kinds choose to leave their work open to interpretation, but people have misinterpreted Frost's work so badly from the day of its initial publication that the poet himself actually took explicit pains to publicly declare his fans wrong. In spite of his efforts, the misinterpretations prevail even today.

Don't get me wrong - I like the openness of Hopper's work, but not only is it all too easy to forget what it is by focusing too heavily on what it is not - it is also too easy to overlook the fact that all art has a beginning and an end, and therefore a lost time before and after. Songs and stories might give ten minutes or ten years, where as a painting might give one infinitesimally small fraction of a moment in time, but there is always missing context for us to wonder about. Most artists, I presume, are aware of this, as I'm sure Hopper was. That is why I second the argument that there is undoubtedly some value in what Hopper, or any other painter for that matter, is trying to show his audience, and it is important not to neglect that.

That being said, it can be fun to imagine, and I have to say that I was absolutely blown away by some of the stuff that people have done for these "windows" projects; and I've been in an unusually cynical mood these last couple of months, so I think that's saying something. Seriously, some of that stuff has really just been incredible. Okay, Judson stuff later. 'Nite.

--Jonny