Saturday, November 28, 2009

To travel to heaven . . .

Today is the birthday of William Blake (November 28, 1757 – August 12, 1827), poet, painter, and printmaker.

Ancient of Days (God as an Architect)
William Blake
1794
relief etching with watercolor
23 x 17 cm
(9 x 7 inches)

British Museum
London, England


"What has reasoning to do with painting?" - William Blake

"Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death." - William Blake

"The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist." - William Blake

Blake image source (1)

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

To seize the light . . .

Today is the birthday of Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (November 18, 1787 – July 10, 1851), artist and chemist. He is best known for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography.

"On January 7, 1839, members of the French Académie des Sciences were shown products of an invention that would forever change the nature of visual representation: photography. The astonishingly precise pictures they saw were the work of Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851), a Romantic painter and printmaker most famous until then as the proprietor of the Diorama, a popular Parisian spectacle featuring theatrical painting and lighting effects. Each daguerreotype (as Daguerre dubbed his invention) was a one-of-a-kind image on a highly polished, silver-plated sheet of copper. . . . From the moment of its birth, photography had a dual character—as a medium of artistic expression and as a powerful scientific tool—and Daguerre promoted his invention on both fronts." quote source (1)

"I have seized the light. I have arrested its flight." - Louis Daguerre

Daguerre image source (1)

Thursday, November 12, 2009

For contemplation . . .

Today is the birthday of François-Auguste-René Rodin (November 12, 1840 – November 17, 1917), better known simply as Auguste Rodin, sculptor.

The Thinker, a bronze and marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin is one of his most memorable works. It depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a powerful internal struggle. It is often used to represent philosophy. There are over twenty casts of the sculpture in museums around the world.


"The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms. Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him." - Auguste Rodin

"The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation." - Auguste Rodin



"To any artist, worthy of the name, all in nature is beautiful, because his eyes, fearlessly accepting all exterior truth, read there, as in an open book, all the inner truth." - Auguste Rodin

"Art is contemplation. It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there divines the spirit of which nature herself is animated." - Auguste Rodin

The Thinker image source (1)