“Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye” by Rudolf Arnheim

Picked up this bad boy at a used book sale. It is a little older, the second edition (the one I read) was published in the 1970s and you can tell just from reading it. For example, there are continual references to how “children and savages” interpret art versus how civilized adults interpret art, which is really not politically correct.

It is also presented as a combination of art and psychology, but it really heavily leans towards the art side of things. Very few studies are presented and cited, meaning that this book would never be taken seriously in the scientific world. It primarily relies on the reader’s intuition and memories when looking at art, meaning that most of it is intuitively understandable and the rest is kinda questionable, depending on your art experience and opinions.

To be honest though, because of its slightly different approach to art, I thought it was a really interesting read. The author goes through several different aspects of art, from form and color to dynamics and movement, and explains why we see what we see and will usually take a couple paintings as examples and go through those more in depth. Like I said, most of his evidence is anecdotal, but he clearly spells out what he is thinking in a way where if you don’t agree with him, you at least see where he’s coming from. I found it fascinating.

This book seems to be useful primarily from a media critic point of view where it helps you to think about art and how to analyze it rather than how to make it. Would definitely recommend if you are seeking a new and thought-provoking perspective!

This Is Beautiful: Making Art

The creative process doesn't seem to get enough credit. To me at least. It doesn't matter what you are working on or what you are making, going through the process can be soothing and intrinsically rewarding in its own right. It helps to take your mind off things, or to take your pain and turn it into something gorgeous.

Make some art! Fill the world with things you find beautiful!

“The Eye of the World” by Robert Jordan

This is the first book in a celebrated fantasy series (there’s twelve books total). If I remember correctly, Jordan died before the series was finished and one of his proteges had to take over. Which is really not a job that I would ever want. But to discuss this first installment.

My main issue with most fantasy series is they tend to fall into the same sexist tropes that they supposedly get from medieval history. The women are damsels in distress who need protecting. They’re healers if anything. The men have to act honorably and fight for justice. The main character is nearly always some young boy from a farm who is chosen for greatness and at first is really excited but then realizes that the stories are false and death is real or whatever. You get the gist.

And the thing is that this book does fall into a lot of these tropes. But it has a ton of redeeming factors to it as well. We know the tropes, I’ll just get into the good stuff.

First of all, this world is elaborate to the extreme. It maintains this perfect balance of giving you enough information so that you can follow it while still dropping hints about other aspects of its lore to lose you at points. Which makes for a really effective immersion in this universe that you are put in.

Just seeing the amount of thought and care that Jordan put into the book makes up for some of it, but he also has put in the effort to combat some of this sexism with his interpretation of the magic in this world.

The main wielders of magic are known as the Aes Sendai, a group of women who have the ability to control the One Power. Now there’s also a lot of shit where everyone hates the Aes Sendai (OF COURSE they’re female and you can’t have likeable powerful females [/sarcasm]) but I think they’re really cool. All of the Aes Sendai that the characters come into contact with are cool and even most of the male characters who help the adventurers like them. And honestly I can get behind a gang of magic-wielding women.

Then there’s also the characters. Each character has such a tightly woven arc to them. All of the original characters from the small farm go on completely separate journeys that are all crucial to getting them to their end destination. And since the point of view jumps around, you can see each transformation as it happens. It is all very well-written, with no extra events and nothing missing.

So yes, this is a fantasy series filled with bad tropes. But it’s the best version of them that I have read yet.

This Is Beautiful: Spring!

Oh man I may be calling it too soon but I think that spring has finally sprung! The season of change and rebirth is finally here!

I'm not sure what it is, but there's a change in the energy as soon as the days get sunny and warmer. I start to remember days from college where I'd spend my afternoons wandering around campus in the nice weather without all of the responsibilities that I have now. There's also the fact that the sun is now out a lot so there's less seasonal depression going around now.

Change is in the air, and it's finally here!

“The Cruelest Month” by Louise Penny

This is the third installment of the Inspector Gamache series by Penny. While I did enjoy it well enough, I get the feeling that I am not long for this series. Every book feels similar, and the problems that I had with the various books (while small) don’t really seem to be going away. Allow me to explain.

First of all, there’s Gamache himself. He just feels like such a Mary Sue to me. What I mean by that is, he doesn’t really have any faults. His weaknesses are like, he’s noble, he’s loyal, he’s too trusting, which aren’t really faults at all. Everyone seems to love him, his assistant adores him as though he was his father, and Penny often mentions how he has an easy relationship with Clara Morrow, one of the people in Three Pines. He just doesn’t seem like a human character, and more of an idealized deity.

Related to that is the town. All of the crimes happen in Three Pines, which is always described as a sleepy, half-hidden town. But in just a few years, there have been 3 murders there (as in the 3 books). Is no one going to comment on this?! It’s just so unrealistic for a small town to do this, and of course that means that there’s several characters who are recurring and therefore definitely did not commit the crime. And also the description of the police officers in the town is always about how they appear to be living pretty well while working on this case. Every other detective novel has them killing themselves to solve it, but here it goes into detail about the lavish meals they eat in the town and the free time they have to chat with like everyone and go to the Morrow’s dinner parties.

This last point I’m slightly mixed on. Every book by Penny has been littered with literary allusions to the Bible and poetry and other works. I can see why book lovers love the series, and I appreciate them too. The thing is, they nearly always come from Gamache, which doesn’t really serve to deepen his character in any way. A detective with the time to be reading and memorizing all of this doesn’t seem like much of a detective to me. At the same time though, I do like that tone and style. So I don’t know.

I did rather like the ending though. Spoilers ahead, if you care, skip to the next paragraph otherwise. Nichol is finally redeemed in a satisfying way, and they wrap up the Arnot drama from the previous book. All of which I enjoy. So the strange thing is, I do kind of want to read the next book in the series, even though for the majority of the novel I was kind of unhappy with it.

So we shall see what happens. I may pick up the next one, I may not. Either way, it’s a well-written series, it just has a few fatal flaws that tend to compound on each other after a while.

This Is Beautiful: Making Music

OH MY GODDD my band had its debut gig Friday night and I could not be happier about it! It went super well and it was so fun, I honestly had the time of my life. Since it was our debut as a band, I expected it to be a little rough, but it went smoothly and a lot of my friends want to be our groupies now. :) I'm so glad I joined this group, being able to be part of the music making experience with others is a wonderful, beautiful thing, because together we make such better art than we ever could separate.

“Hiking With Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are” by John Kaag

Nietzsche was the first philosopher that I read that I felt like I connected to, somehow, mentally. I felt as though he was articulating something that I had felt for a very long time while reading The Birth of Tragedy as an undergraduate. Which is not an uncommon sentiment among adolescents, his nihilism is very popular among the younger philosophy crowd.

In this memoir of sorts, Kaag describes how when he was in college he went on a Nietzschean pilgrimage to Basel, Switzerland to walk in his footsteps for a time. He then makes the same journey as an adult, with his wife and daughter alongside him. In doing so he describes how his interpretations of Nietzsche have changed over time, and how his life has changed in general from the two trips.

This isn’t so much a book about Nietzsche’s work than it is about the people who read Nietzsche. As such it’s for a very specific demographic, which just happens to include me. Kaag does include explanatory segments about Nietzsche’s life and works, enough so you understand the ideas at play here, but he doesn’t go into any extreme philosophical depth. As such it’s very accessible, or if you are me and haven’t read these works in a while, it makes for a good recap. I get the feeling though that if you have picked up this book, you know who Nietzsche is and what he’s done.

But Kaag’s main point here is that Nietzsche is not just for the young nihilists looking for a reason to abandon the world, his thoughts take time, years in fact, to truly make sense and mature in your brain. There is a depth to Nietzsche’s words and deeds that cannot be fully comprehended unless you have lived a little bit, have some experience outside of the book. Which is what makes Nietzsche really cool, in my opinion, there is some practicality to it. Some application to the outside world.

This book made me want to read Nietzsche again. And not just the works that I’m familiar with, like everything, to get a sense of the man behind the thoughts. And to travel myself to Basel and see what it is like, get a feel of what was surrounding Nietzsche as he came up with concepts like the eternal recurrence and wrote certain books. And this is really an ode to his life and his philosophy, so Kaag really hit the nail on the head here.

This Is Beautiful: Laughing

How do we learn how to laugh? It's not an aspect of development that I think people really study that often. And yet somehow everyone's laughs are so unique to them. Could be a snort, chuckle, guffaw, any number of terms for it exist.

And the great thing about laughing is you can't actively laugh and feel terrible at the same time. It forces you to focus on the present and on this emotion taking control of your entire body for that brief period. Not to mention the whole range of positive psychological effects that it has.

Find something that makes you laugh, and make sure that you laugh plenty every now and then. It's good for you, and it'll make others feel good too.

“Spinning” by Tillie Walden

I first found Tillie Walden through her online comic On a Sunbeam (which is also really good). I knew that she had recently finished a memoir graphic novel about growing up as a competitive figure skater. I thought that I’d be into it because I grew up as a ballet dancer, and never thought that any of those ballet movies really captured what I found that sport to be like. She described this book as her telling her own story, for similar reasons.

It’s a hefty story, with a lot of interweaving lines throughout it. There’s how her family moved from New Jersey to Texas, her coming out as gay, picking up art, being harassed by her SAT tutor, and being bullied. It never quite feels like too much though. If anything, the immense amount of side-plots make it more realistic. A lot happens in middle and high school.

I really like her art style as well. The characters are portrayed simply, but with defining characteristics. The panels aren’t all crazy shapes, making it a pretty easy read. The dynamics of figure skating aren’t overdone with swirls and lines, but you can still make out the action inherent in the panels.

I would highly recommend it! It is a graphic novel so it is a relatively quick read, but the drawings are graceful and the story is wonderful. And do check out On a Sunbeam as well, that one’s online for free!

Variations on a Theme: Studying Music

Tried to do songs, that didn’t work so you’re just getting a few album recommendations.

1. Dustin O’Halloran “Piano Solos Vol. 2”

This is a beautiful collection of solo piano pieces. It’s super relaxing to listen to, and the composer/performer did the theme song for “Transparent” as well!

2. Thenewno2 “thefearofmissingout”

This is the band that Dhani Harrison, George Harrison’s son, was part of for a while. It’s got a really interesting sound, electronic and mesmerizing.

3. Of Monsters and Men “My Head is an Animal”

This is such a good album. Of Monsters and Men has a very soothing sound with the vocals floating gently above the background music.

4. Jack Johnson “To The Sea”

It’s an oldie, but this album is still so good! The general vibe of Johnson really calms you down and makes me think of relaxing by a sea. Despite it’s chill vibe, his music still maintains a beat to keep you on track!

5. Jake Shimabukuro “Gently Weeps”

This is one of the best albums that I own. Shimabukuro got his start through a YouTube video of him playing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” on a ukulele and his virtuosity is apparent from the start. This collection builds on that to showcase all of his abilities with a uke in his hands. Since it is the ukulele, it naturally is pretty chill and is excellent music to have in the background.

That’s a short list, but that’s all we got for this month. Tune in next time for Breakup Songs!