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Praetorium Honoris

Saturday, February 25, 2023

Art and Life

Winter Landscape by Peder Mørk Mønsted
(Source)
A friend of mine posted that opening painting on Facebook the other day. It made me stop and think.

I've been there, not that exact place, but many just like it.

I remember the cold air upon my face, the smell of the air in my nostrils, and yes, even the taste of the air in my mouth.

I can hear the winter birds chirping and flitting from bush to bush. The painting sets a mood, a scene, which I feel deep in my bones. The painting sings to a part of me that remembers being a kid, with no worries, no plans, only the capacity to enjoy each new day. Regardless of the weather.

It's sunny, but it's cold. The painting feels like late winter to me, most of the cold and the snow is behind those folks in the painting. Spring isn't far away, but far enough that they know there is still much to endure before they feel the warmth of spring.

Art should evoke a pleasant feeling, it should sing to something deep inside of you. At least that's how I feel about it.

We have much to endure before spring comes again.

And I'm not talking about the weather.

We live in troublesome times.



18 comments:

  1. Look out any of my windows and you'll see that scene after the thirteen inches that floated down this week. Troublesome times Sarge? That's an understatement.

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    1. Troublesome yes, take everything you hear with a grain of salt. Both ends of the spectrum have an agenda. I already had to delete one comment today from one end of the spectrum. Chap proposed to lecture me and rant and rave. He wants to do that, he should get his own damn blog. All that being said, yes, it might be an understatement.

      Thirteen inches? Dang!

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    2. Sorry to offend. Nice picture, looks like the turkey and deer tracks in my orchard.

      Delete
  2. At least, the power is still up. In the Midwest, we have to act like Texans in a storm, the next drop of cloud dust could shut us down.

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    1. Well, at least in the Midwest folks are used to dealing with that kind of thing. Doesn't make it any less of a problem though.

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  3. Sarge, completely agree with the statement on art.

    Snow was novel enough to me growing up that it is novel to me now - to be fair now (like then), I do not have to live with it constantly.

    My sense is we are heading into heavy seas with an inexperienced and feckless command structure at so many levels. Those do not make for radically successful outcomes.

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    1. You're right about the command structure, woke idiots, damned near every one.

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  4. One of my earliest memories was a scene very much like that painting, albeit without the trees. It had to have been either Montana or North Dakota. I distinctly remember the tracks in the snow as well as the snow covered quonset hut roof. I don't think Mom and Dad enjoyed either of those assignments much, not much to do there. But us kids had a blast. Thanks for the reminder.

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    1. My one trip to North Dakota (Minot, why not?) I did notice a serious lack of trees.

      OTOH, Louisiana seems to have an overabundance of trees.

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    2. On the eastern side of ND, there trees. A few planted around farmsteads, but almost all planted in a few regular narrow rows between fields as windbreaks after the 1930s. In winter, they mark the edges of mile-square farm fields sleeping under the snow. There is a simple stark beauty, as somber and austere as an old Lutheran Church service.

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  5. Great piece of art. Speaks to me, too, although more if it was a pickup truck than a horse making the tracks.
    Too nice to spoil with any politics, there's enough of that if we want to get depressed.
    JB

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  6. The sparrows and juncos were flocking around the bird feeder this morning. The red wing blackbirds (2) and the starlings (5) were looking pretty fluffed up and lost, as if someone had tricked them into coming this far north in February....like it was supposed to be warmer and greener, or something. I get the feeling that I am not the only one who has been enjoying the "warm" winter we have been having here in Upstate NY.
    Currently there is only about 4 inches of hard packed icy on the ground and just a mist of "cloud dust" (I like that and I'm stealing it) falling down. Supposed to get about an inch more today, and again tomorrow, and then some big ol' Nor'easter is supposed to barrel in from Little Rhody....maybe....shall have to wait and see. I'm good if you don't want to share Sarge...just saying. ;)
    Very pretty opening picture up top, and yes, it does look like a late winter picture to me also.

    Suz

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    Replies
    1. I swear I heard a robin the other day. We do have some that stay here year-round but they tend to stay in the deep woods until the weather warms up. It did for a while, had some hyacinths pop up. They are regretting that already!

      It's snowing as I write this, I'll try and keep it along the coast Suz. Try ...

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  7. We definitely have to find our way through the troublesome times, both as country and individually. Mental toughness and focusing on what is good for the latter, but I'm not sure how to help the former. Although a change in leadership in a couple years could go a long way!

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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