shadyfitnessclub

8.02.2010

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

--Robert Frost

Harald Sohlberg

Harald Sohlberg, En blomstereng nordpå (Flower Meadows in the North), 1905.

Harald Sohlberg, Storgaten Røros, 1904.

Harald Sohlberg (1869-1935) was a Norwegian Neo-romantic painter. The "psychic vibrations" of his landscapes attracted the admiration of Lawren Harris, a member of the Group of Seven, when he and J.E.H. MacDonald (also of the Group of Seven) attended an exhibition of Scandinavian art at the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo in 1913.

The paintings at this show portrayed the Scandinavian landscape as both rugged and mystical. Drawn to this particular conception of the landscape, The Group of Seven began to incorporate Scandinavian themes in their paintings of the Canadian landscape.

P.S. The paintings accompanying this post are not meant to serve as evidence of the rugged Scandinavian landscape...I just like them.

7.31.2010

I was at work and decided to visit my go-to site for pornography, The Senior Times, but it was blocked! My heart was filled with disappointment.

7.26.2010

Dead chicken

J.W. Beatty, Ablain-St. Nazaire, 1918, oil on canvas, CN 8102, Canadian War Museum

At work I read a biography by Dorothy Hoover on J.W. Beatty (1869-1941), a Canadian painter who excelled in the genre of landscape. Here is a shocking excerpt I came across: "At the age of thirteen he was expelled for putting a dead chicken on the teacher's desk."

Getting expelled for putting food on your teacher's desk is just ridiculous. I mean, imagine it's Good Friday and all you really want is to give your teacher a dead fish, but you can't--you'd get expelled.

I hate her

Today I overheard a loud girl say into her phone, "She seriously walks like a man. Why does she do that? It's so annoying...I hate her."

I shot her a disapproving look to let her know that I didn't appreciate her crazy attitude.

In hindsight, the look may not have been all that successful considering that my furrowed brow--which was emanating disapproval--was hidden beneath my bangs.

I hope she didn't think I was admiring her visage.