Fine visual art

[evolution]

Paintings, sculptures, ....

Discovered & was looking at various Wes Hempel paintings. I really enjoy the classical style overlaid with homoerotic images, feeds my desires with a timeless style & quality. Could easily sit in my lazy chair studying his art for quite the while.

Wandering about I stumbled across a website selling some of his works & browsing discovered this sculpture. I'm curious to hear what other people see. Truly art falls in the eye of the beholder & our individual history tints the lenses we see through. I see a penis, but I also see a dinosaur. What do you see? Same, a rock & wood glued together, something else?

https://www.1stdibs.com/art/sculptures/abstract-sculptures/john-van-alstine-cudgel-2012/id-a_625632/

 

[ronin001]

Natural organic and sharp shape intersecting with the inorganic spherical shape, Set against and opposed to a man made conical / sharp and man constructed sphere

 

[evolution]

Interesting. I seem to be averaging the components into a whole, whereas you are seeing the specific components of the whole.

 

[ronin001]

Mechanical minds, tend to analyze all the components of a subject as they pertain to its whole

My excuse

 

[evolution]

Okay, let me post a Wes Hempel - Gravedigger. Curious to see what you see in this:

 

[950483]

Paintings, sculptures, ....

Discovered & was looking at various Wes Hempel paintings. I really enjoy the classical style overlaid with homoerotic images, feeds my desires with a timeless style & quality. Could easily sit in my lazy chair studying his art for quite the while.

Wandering about I stumbled across a website selling some of his works & browsing discovered this sculpture. I'm curious to hear what other people see. Truly art falls in the eye of the beholder & our individual history tints the lenses we see through. I see a penis, but I also see a dinosaur. What do you see? Same, a rock & wood glued together, something else?

https://www.1stdibs.com/art/sculptures/abstract-sculptures/john-van-alstine-cudgel-2012/id-a_625632/
View attachment 600085

A cudgel is not a tool, it's a weapon. I think what he is saying is that violence is a natural, innate, human urge. There is a tactile, ergonomic quality to the natural form in this piece that makes me feel compelled to grasp it.

 

[950483]

Okay, let me post a Wes Hempel - Gravedigger. Curious to see what you see in this:

View attachment 600966

Something about the young, strong, vital, stepping on, or usurping the weaker, ageing male? There is a threat of violence. Thorns in the foreground. There is a show of strength, capability and dominance in their attitude and demeanor. They think they're badasses . There is a look of comedy terror on the face of the marble head on which one of them is standing . They probably invented sex and drugs and also know absolutely everything .

 

[evolution]

Something about the young, strong, vital, stepping on, or usurping the weaker, ageing male? There is a threat of violence. Thorns in the foreground. There is a show of strength, capability and dominance in their attitude and demeanor. They think they're badasses . There is a look of comedy terror on the face of the marble head on which one of them is standing . They probably invented sex and drugs and also know absolutely everything .

Wow. I have to think on those.

 

[950483]

Also, notice the way that even though the background is a grey, dismal, and gloomy graveyard, full of death and decay, the young men seem to be illuminated by a shaft of sunlight.

 

[evolution]

I missed the sunlight bit, but did notice that sneakers & a shovel don't go together.

 

[AlteredEgo]

Also, notice the way that even though the background is a grey, dismal, and gloomy graveyard, full of death and decay, the young men seem to be illuminated by a shaft of sunlight.

This was the thing that stood out to me too.

If this thread is still alive when I return from vacation, I will contact my favorite visual artist and see if it would be okay to post an example of, and links to her work. I saw that the original painting for a print I bought from her about 15 years ago is back on the market. I can't afford it right now, but oh how I wish I could. No one has ever walked past that print for the first time in my home without immediately responding to it. These days, it hangs in my bedroom with two originals from a different series by the same artist. I bought the other two paintings because, and this will sound silly but, I felt like the woman in the print wanted the women in the paintings for company.

If you Google "Jealous Gloaming" I'm sure you will find the painting. It's no longer my absolute favorite of the artist's (Jennifer Marrus) but it was at the time my favorite that was available as prints and lithographs.

Regarding the sculpture in the OP, I see the impossible temporarily made corporeal. I see a grace period, the time just before it all falls apart. But I also see triumph, making balance where there should be none. It's really cool.

 

[alcor972]

I felt like the woman in the print wanted the women in the paintings for company.

 

[twoton]

Re: the sculpture that looks like a penis. I see a penis.

Re: the picture in the graveyard. I see too young, poor white kids digging graves as a summer job in rural America. The one in back is headed to college on a wrestling scholarship. The one in front is headed to a two-year technical school to learn framing/carpentry.

 

[ronin001]

The Future not only is built on the backs of the past. It burys it as well

 

[950483]

Re: the sculpture that looks like a penis. I see a penis.

Re: the picture in the graveyard. I see too young, poor white kids digging graves as a summer job in rural America. The one in back is headed to college on a wrestling scholarship. The one in front is headed to a two-year technical school to learn framing/carpentry.

How the hell does it look like a penis? . I'm not going to look at your photos.

 

[twoton]

How the hell does it look like a penis? . I'm not going to look at your photos.

It's got a massive head, a curvy shaft, and a ball hanging by a thread. Isn't that what a penis is supposed to look like?

 

[AlteredEgo]

How the hell does it look like a penis? . I'm not going to look at your photos.

I agree that the sculpture is phallic. Also, sadly, to my memory there are no penii in TwoTon's gallery. Pair of beautiful shoulders though.

 

[950483]

@AlteredEgo @twoton . The piece is called 'cudgel'. Do you think there is any inference or implication that the penis is a weapon?

 

[185248]

Paintings, sculptures, ....

Discovered & was looking at various Wes Hempel paintings. I really enjoy the classical style overlaid with homoerotic images, feeds my desires with a timeless style & quality. Could easily sit in my lazy chair studying his art for quite the while.

Wandering about I stumbled across a website selling some of his works & browsing discovered this sculpture. I'm curious to hear what other people see. Truly art falls in the eye of the beholder & our individual history tints the lenses we see through. I see a penis, but I also see a dinosaur. What do you see? Same, a rock & wood glued together, something else?

https://www.1stdibs.com/art/sculptures/abstract-sculptures/john-van-alstine-cudgel-2012/id-a_625632/
View attachment 600085

What this sculpture represents to me is that it is a fine line between pleasure and pain....

 

[185248]

Something about the young, strong, vital, stepping on, or usurping the weaker, ageing male? There is a threat of violence. Thorns in the foreground. There is a show of strength, capability and dominance in their attitude and demeanor. They think they're badasses . There is a look of comedy terror on the face of the marble head on which one of them is standing . They probably invented sex and drugs and also know absolutely everything .

Hahaha, made me smile. We are all ageing. When viewing art we all view it from personal perspective in different decades. Each generation invents for the next, wisdom comes from learning how to use invention and creation. With every new invention though we seem to recreate the same outcomes.

I'm wondering why? Perhaps we need to create a new creator of outcomes

Wisdom is in short supply apparently, which in my book, places it above all else.

By the way.....sex gets betterer the more wisdom one gathers and passes on.