totems

Monthly posts, apparently.

So at the Blanton again today seeing the Francisco Matto exhibit for the second time. It got me thinking about totems--his are weirdly thrilling for such simple things. The wall cards talked abut totems in general as "objects that serve as material links to spiritual realms." Maybe these actually do.

I want to think more about totems so I put this here as a placeholder to remind me.

flying

On the BBC podcast "Best of Natural History Radio," I heard David Attenborough say

Flying is a very energetic business, much more so than walking or running, and birds don't fly unless they have to. Indeed, they stop doing so if it's safe to do that. The process has happened in recent time on islands where there are no ground predators. So cormorants on the Galapagos and rails on Central Pacific islands have stunted wings that are no longer big enough to get the bird into the air.

But I would tweak the perspective on that and say, not that you don't fly unless you have to, but that you can't fly, unless you have to. I like that juxtaposition of wretched necessity and flying.

decorate the frame

Saw a painting at the Blanton yesterday, now I don't even remember whose, where the frame was strangely carved and painted to complement the piece. It is a small (or sometimes large) thrill to me when the frame is made and finished this way, not just in painting.