Attempted Bloggery: 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 post, there 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.