Wolfgang Laib, Milkstone

This to me is phenomenal. Beauty and purity. When this work is complete it appears to be a minimalist slab of white marble. But there is a layer of milk that sits on top of this marble. I can't fully articulate it but it speaks to me on a deeper level.

Issues

I am a basket case.

Crazy

I am crazy in love. I can think of very little else. More than anything I just want to be in his arms. My bed feels empty when he's not here.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Stills

I absolutely love this photograph by Cindy Sherman. She depicts herself in most of her photography. This one is totally subversive. I love it because even though she is presenting her practically nude body, you can't help but look at her face and she's not even facing the viewer. Her gesture and the reflection in the mirror direct our attention to what is important here.

Update-- The more I look at this, the more I love it.

High Points

"So many high points on this last leg.
I can wait to recount them;
It seems like nothing's happened
Until I share them with you."

from Dashboard Confessional's "Shirts and Gloves"

I've always identified with this quote to an extreme. All things that happen in my life I feel like I need to share with those that I love. I couldn't keep a secret about myself if I tried.

Right now I'm sitting on some great news and even though I've told people, I feel this great anticipation about the fact that I still haven't told John. I feel like it hasn't happened because he doesn't know about it.

Struggles

Semiotics
–noun (used with a singular verb)

1.	the study of signs and symbols as elements of communicative behavior; the analysis of systems of communication, as language, gestures, or clothing.

2.	a general theory of signs and symbolism, usually divided into the branches of pragmatics, semantics, and syntactics.

Phenomenology
-noun

1. A philosophy or method of inquiry based on the premise that reality consists of objects and events as they are perceived or understood in human consciousness and not of anything independent of human consciousness.
2. A movement based on this, originated about 1905 by Edmund Husserl.

These concepts I'm still trying to work out. I struggle with them. I try to keep an open mind but I'm still not sure why I should care. I can't see them making any kind of greater difference. Shouldn't we, as art historians, do more than analyze paintings in terms of signs and our own experience with the works?

Keith and the Girl

KATG.com

I listen every day. I am mildly obsessed. This is endless entertainment and a voyeristic view onto the life of a couple who are open, honest, and always hilarious. Tune in and you won't be disappointed.

P.S.-- Not for the faint of heart.

Come What May

The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return...

I think this is one of the greatest love stories ever told. The finale is truly spectacular, spectacular. Again, I cry when I watch it. It is also one of the most visually stunning movies that I've seen. Decadence at its finest.

To Do List

1. Indian Art Test
2. Mass MoCA application
3. Eakins Readings
4. Medieval Progress Report
5. Grade Exams

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Perfect Lovers)

This work appears so simple but it moved me to tears this summer when I saw it at the Wadsworth Athenium. The idea of two people moving through life in unison is extremely beautiful. One of these clocks will eventually fall behind the other until it stops. When I viewed the work, the two clocks were no longer in sync and this reminder of death contributed to my emotional response to the piece. Felix Gonzalez-Torres' work is extremely personal and this one in particular is a response to watching his partner die of AIDS and his fear of time passing. I truly love this work and the metaphor that Gonzalez-Torres is able to portray through simple objects from our own day to day.

Leaving

Every time he leaves it seems to get harder...

The boy

So, today I was morbidly thinking about what would happen if something happened to him. The reality is that I probably wouldn't even find out. No one knows that I exist, that I'm such an important part of his life. I wouldn't get a phone call. I know that this is all unlikely and that nothing will happen to him (I don't think I could cope if something did), but this all makes me wish that he told people about us. I wish that he was as excited about us as I am. That he felt the same need to shout it from the rooftops. Or at least felt the same uncontrollable urge to bring me up in conversation constantly. I just can't contain my love for him. It is all consuming and I can't help be reminded of him with every topic of conversation. Why isn't it the same for him?

Testing

Not sure yet how I want to use this but I thought I'd put something out there. Mostly just for me, self exploration...