Monday, January 9, 2012

Blog Post No. 200: A Shaggy Dog Story

As our lives and experiences change, our relationship to to art can evolve as well. To use myself as a ready example, Mary Cassatt's amazing drypoints of mothers and children didn't resonate with me emotionally until I became a parent. When I was younger, it was not, of course, the art that was at fault; I just wasn't ready for it.
Sale 2254 Lot 19
MARY CASSATT 
Looking into the Hand Mirror.
Drypoint on cream laid paper, 1905. 209x147 mm; 8x5 7/8 inches, full margins. A very good impression. Breeskin 202. 
Estimate $1,200-1,800
Sold for $1,300
http://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=2254++++++19+&refno=++648166&saletype=


As a direct consequence of parenthood, I now find my life has been altered again, mostly for the better, by the addition of a new puppy, the first I've had since my childhood. Minty is a maltipoo, a mix of a maltese and a poodle. Here she is:

Minty

As you might have gathered, I spend a lot of time musing about cartoons and illustrations. With the new dog, I find I am reminded these days of a classic Peter Arno cartoon:
Peter Arno, The New Yorker, April 8, 1944, Page 23
As it happens, I had the opportunity to buy the original art to this maybe 25 years ago, and I passed. You know, you simply can't a buy every wonderful thing that comes along. Today, of course, the old gag has an immediacy it didn't have before. I liked it back then too, but now it has personal meaning. Sometimes life can change what's important and relevant, and this allows you to see things from a fresh perspective.

More people seem to be seeing this blog from a fresh perspective.  When I evaluated the blog at the time of my 100th postthere were only 70 page views per day over the previous month and I had only five followers. Now, at Blog Post No. 200, the daily page view count is about 250 and the number of followers ten, none of whom have ever met me in the real world. The blog's readership increased sharply this past week with the unfortunate passing of Ronald Searle and the 100th birthday of Charles Addams, but I suspect things will slow down now as the world gets back to its usual routine. Incidentally, with the surge in new readers this week, none elected to become followers of this blog.

Peter Arno, The New Yorker, April 8, 1944, Page 23

Peter Arno, The New Yorker, April 8, 1944, p. 23
Image added January 1, 2014


Peter Arno, Man in the Shower. New York:  Simon & Schuster, 1944.
Image added January 1, 2014



Note:  My last post of 2011 about Peter Arno is here.

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2 comments:

  1. Keep blogging, please. I visit often and really enjoy your posts very much.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the encouragement, UM! I have no plans to stop blogging at present.

    ReplyDelete