Kansas Horizons and the Windy Ocean Ride

      Living in Kansas, one thing there is a lot of is wide open sky and flat land. Below is a picture from one of my long bike rides in northeastern Kanas. By bike I mean bicycle, a mountain bike really but I use it on the road a lot. Being between earth and sky, feeling the wind push and pull you, which is a constant daily moving force in the Kaw River Valley; gives one a feeling of connection with the earth. A peace found in the spirit and body, a kind of calm as you look over the horizon and see nothing but endless earth and endless sky. I have felt this same feeling being in the ocean and looking at the horizon, and feeling the waves push and pull. Here it is the wind that pushes and pulls, and the ocean in any direction is at least 12 hours away.
      I used to fight the wind when I started taking long bike rides, foolishly cursing and shaking my fist at it as if it would respond or correlate to such a small meaningless being like myself. The wind does not listen to me or anyone else, it is a great equalizer. It's ever shifting invisible energy pouring over every animal in the same degree, more or less, depending on where you stand on the earth in any given moment. In Ken Burns' film about The Dust Bowl (which ravaged farmland with endless tidal waves of dust and wind in the 1930's) they speak of this same kind of - bending one's self to the will of the wind, the wind will of course never bend it's will to yours, thus the wind is the great equalizer.

"For what is it to die, But to stand in the sun and melt into the wind,"

-Kahil Gibran 

Photo: Ed Tajchman 2015, © all rights resrved.

Views of Kansas City

I have two sets of images to share with you today. The first set are photos taken by me, (slightly altered with my digital magic), and are views of the downtown River Market area of Kansas City. (Images are property of me, Ed Tajchman). You can see the Mighty Muddy Mo (the Missouri River) in the last one there.

Photos are by Ed Tajchman ©2008, all rights reserved.

This second set of photos takes us inside the city for a much closer view. These are some works of art on the sides of buildings, what one might call murals or graffiti. These works are copyrighted by the artists that created them. I use them here in fair use, (lo-resolution photos for critical review/news). The lion face I know is done by a local artist who calls himself "Scribe". If any of the artists want to be identified, they can email me, (link is on the sidebar).

Digg It!

Artist Spotlight: Watercolors by Derek McCrea

The Artist Spotlight is a new feature here at Modern Art Quotes. In this first installment in the series, Modern Art Quotes is proud to present the artwork of Derek McCrea.

Eerie, Derek McCrae

"I use brilliant tropical colors to represent impressionistic forms in art. When I create a piece it adds a sense of well being and balance to my day, and to my life. I have painted for over 25 years and always will. when I take a hiatus from painting I feel a void and creativity fills that void."

Derek McCrea
US Army Infantry by Profession....
Visual Artist by Choice.

Thanks for sharing Derek, and well said. You definitely have a unique style, great composition and great color use. Watercolors are my favorite medium to work with by far, so I can appreciate good washes when I see them. The tree paintings are by far my favorites from his gallery.

Chills, Derek McCrae

Claude Monet on Landscapes and Light

Monet of course was one of the founders of the impressionists, which subscribed to the doctrine of expressing one's perceptions before nature. The idea that light and the moment could define a color more accurately than the object's 'actual' color is not only genius but revolutionary. You can see the progression from solid people and objects with fairly conservative color in his early work to the famous impressionist style in his later work. He is truly a master and a founder of modern art. Here is a quote from Monet on landscapes:

“For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value.”

-Claude Monet (1841-1895)

Here in Kansas City we have the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum, and one of the most valuable pieces in the collection is Monet's Water Lilies (<--click to go to their site and see the painting). To see it up close is truly breathtaking, it's huge (200.03 x 425.45 cm), and gives me an appreciation and understanding of the man's work I did not have before seeing it. (One of the first paintings I saw has a young artist that truly affected me).

It was originally designed to be part of a 12 painting set (3 paintings each on 4 walls of one room) but are now in various parts of the world. How great it would be to collect the works from all the museums they are in and put them into one exhibition, (that travelled to all the museums that had ownership, at least).