Friday, February 8, 2019

Speaking of love -- here's something!


Breakfast at the Skylight Diner, NYC
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 30 inches
Barbara Muir © 2014
(available!)
I wrote this description a few years ago when I exhibited this
painting Breakfast at the Skylight Diner the first time I was
in the Carousel du Louvre exhibition in the Louvre, Paris.  A wonderful
part of sharing love in my happy marriage, is sharing meals.  We've just
finished a candlelit dinner talking and laughing with each other
as the winter wind howled outside, rattling the windows.

The description for the Louvre show (slightly edited)
Part of the pleasure of a static image in a world of constantly 
moving images is that it lets us stop for a minute. Maybe grab a 
coffee, eat a strawberry, have some toast and marmalade, smile
at one another with sheer overwhelming pleasure at the magnificence 
of life. I've been thinking about still life, and how sensual it is.  How
images of the moments of our lives shimmer in memory when we work on 
recording not just how that moment looked, but the feeling of delight 
we had being there. Everyday objects and rituals are quite beautiful 
– and in this case breakfast -- my painting Breakfast at the Skylight
Diner NYC. 

As an art student I was drawn to Claes Oldenburg's large public sculptures
 based on daily life, featuring -- a typewriter eraser, a spoon holding a 
cherry, or an ice cream cone crashing into a building.  If [when] I keep 
going on with this series, the food will turn into characters and start to speak. 
What would it say? "There I was under a beautiful stainless steel lid, when 
suddenly I was right out in the open, and a couple was staring at me as if I 
was a work of art!!!" That's how a perfectly served breakfast strikes me.  
It's a work of art, like a vase of flowers, or a beautiful room.  Breakfast is 
served, and I defy you to look out the window and concentrate on anything else. 
This breakfast was so memorable, and brilliantly delivered to our table, 
that it had to be writ large.

Have a planning for, and eating a beautiful breakfast day

4 comments:

  1. Lovely story about painting, Paris and love...and breakfast! Thank you. The picture is wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much Judi,

    If you know anyone looking for a beautiful breakfast scene please let me know. It deserves
    a new happy home.

    XOXOXOXOXO Barbara

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sweet story, Barbara! Beautiful painting! By the way, if you ever get the urge to see the typewriter eraser again, we have one of them here in Las Vegas. His original is in Washington, D.C., but the one here is cool. He has another one in Seattle. Happy Saturday!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Candy,

    Thank you so much! I would love to visit Las Vegas one day to see that eraser,
    and Cologne, Germany to see his dropped ice cream too.

    Have a great Sunday.

    XOXOXOXOXO Barbara

    ReplyDelete

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