In the Neighborhood!

Claude Monet said these things and Christie’s used them to narrate a video of his Waterloo Bridge paintings.

“A landscape does not exist since it’s appearance changes at every moment.”

“What I want to reproduce is what lies between the motif and me.”

“It is only the surrounding atmosphere that gives subjects their true value.”

“I want to grasp the intangible.”

“All I did was to look at what the universe showed me, to let my brush bear witness to it.”

What Monet saw depended on the place at which he stood and the moment at which he stood there: the angle, the light, the amount and quality and quantity of mist and smoke in the air between him and the bridge. What was intangible was the consciousness he brought to that place in that moment: his mood and intelligence and values and concerns, the totality of his unique and continually evolving self. So too is it with the photographer. Knowingly or not, fully aware or magnificently ignorant, spontaneous or studied, the photographer seeks to use his skill with the camera in harmony with his post-processing abilities to show to others not what was there but what he’d been shown as he saw it.

Published in:

Spirituality

on March 20, 2021 at 4:29 pm Comments (13)
Tags: Artywork

Something Different

It started a little more than a week ago with this, Bobbie reading AARP Magazine. Quickly it progressed to this:

—– Original Message —–
From: “Richard Goldberg” <richsgold@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 9:58:33 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Something different

This is not to notify you of a blog posting. Rather it is an invitation to you to participate in writing a blog entry.

Here’s the challenge: Write your autobiography in 6 words–no more or less.

Send them to me by reply email. I’ll collect them and publish them in the blog–without comment. If you want to be posted anonymously, say so and I will do so. Otherwise I’ll identify you as you choose to be known.

This is not a contest. It’s just something to think about for a minute and then do. You’ve got a week to reply. Deadline is June 30th.

Here are two that have already been submitted:

“Kim, Dave, Mike
Tom, Richard, Nurse.”
–and–
“Last chapter yet to be written.”

I look forward to reading yours.

Goldberg

Here are your replies roughly in the order received. Thank you.

**********************************************************

Don’t move
That’s it
Got it!
–anonymous

“emerged, awake, soon asleep, no matter”
(just) mark

born,died,reborn,live,die,reborn
–anon please

Alix always wanted to be beautiful.
–Alix Lorance

a happy being being happy being
–Christy Wang

Family, children, grandchildren, relatives, students, friends.
–Dorothy Quirk

I arrived, I saw, I parented!
–George Kaplan

Blessed with family, children, loves. grateful
–anonymous

“Life lessons for irreversible mistakes? Fair.” –Jack Beaton

My life story line is introspective.
–Karen Kaminski

Married (twice), skiing musically with kids.
–Jim Kimenker

pretty good thus far: still breathing.
–David Mintz

Fifty years, nothing more than this.
–Anonymously please

friend, father, teacher, musician, recovering addict.
–Terry McGovern

Watching for glimpses of the sun.
–Nadia Huntley

“without: sight, scent, sound, touch, -hollow.”
–You may sign my moniker to the above—DW

I came, I putzed, I left.
–Fred Rosenberg

“Will the fortune teller be right”
–Mary Smith

“never say you are too old.”
–David Straite

“I am always at the beginning…”
–Sheldon Blitstein: Quoting the Buddha on his 80th birthday

work hard & keep going
–Norm Cagin

wife, mother, sister, daughter, student, love
–Connie Kaminski

amazing, underachieving, grateful, adventurous, and everchanging!!
–Luis Rosa

Born, educated, drugged, friend, jailed, recovery.
–Juan Dones

Born. Grew. Aged. Not dead. Yet.
–Bill Kinloch

Miracles continue to happen to me.
–Evelyn Tirado

i don’t know where i will be in the future?
–Eman Evans

Six word autobiography: too arbitrary, short.
–John Craig

Woman, Wife, Musician, Cyclist, Humanist, Friend.
–Joan Harper

Married. Happy father. To be continued.
–Ezra Beaton

bill’s smile seen on dead raccoon!
–Bill Miller

Kim, David, Mike, Tom, Richard, Nurse.
–Bobbie Goldberg

Wow! It really isn’t about me.
–RSG

Mostly learning experience at times enlightening.
–Olga Stebeleva

creative chaos broadcasts green heart’s smile
–mjf

Me, Mom, Dad, Deb, David, Bill
—And —-
I am, I am, I am
–Denise Connors

person, soldier, engineer, husband, father, grandfather
–Ron Kaminski

Always learning, sometimes growing, rarely satisfied. –Wayne Wright

Sometime confused and wet, but happy! — Dan Monahan

Once Sierra Leone refugee living happily! –Yandouba Monahan

Always learning, sometimes growing, rarely satisfied. Kim Calcasola

Still loosing hair and gaining weight. –Jim McAslan

I came, I saw, I conquered. –Lew Brown

Published in:

Reader participation

on July 1, 2009 at 8:50 am Comments (3)
Tags: Artywork

Better late…?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Published in:

Artywork

on January 18, 2009 at 12:50 pm Comments (3)
Tags: Artywork

OK world, smile at the camera!

OK, I’m in love with little digital point-and-shoot cameras, and tonight it feels right to post a few new snaps. The influence of Bruno Moyen’s New York City: a state of mind on this, my first effort in about 35 years at re-seeing the city, will be apparent to those of you who’ve seen the book or the website (www.brunomoyen.com). He used indoor film to record outdoor images, then took things further from the land of simple reportage in the darkroom. For me Google’s Picasa was the tool for making a similar trip.

Thanks to those of you who made it down this far. For those who are curious about locations all the exposures (do we use that word for digital?) were made on Manhattan’s west side, from 125th Street down to 76th. They were all made on the same day, so something was really working for me.

I hope they work for you.

Published in:

on March 3, 2008 at 10:51 pm Comments (1)
Tags: Artywork, City Life

BEAR HUNTING AS SEEN BY THE BEAR

Staring at myself
reflected in a subway window.

My thought, smiling:

It took me 65+ years to create this
and it’s not finished yet.

The image “https://goldberg.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/on-the-train.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Published in:

Artywork

on October 18, 2007 at 10:13 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Artywork

2, maybe 3 poems

2, maybe 3 poems, depending on how you see the first two, which are maybe one. The last (I say ‘last’ so I don’t have to get into a 2 v. 3 controversy) just (I word I’m currently fond of) fell onto the keyboard when I was actually hoping to go in another direction altogether. Right now that other direction escapes me.

Should you enjoy these, please let me know. If you don’t, I’m ready to hear that too.

Be well!

POEMS 8/10/07

Workday’s End

Biking home

across the narrow, pedestrian bridge path

through slow, dense, honking traffic

up and down a hill to the bike path along the river–

this cool, quiet place

right now beyond time.

**************************

Bobbie–

Pedaling home along the river

The rush and substance of my day’s work

dissolve into the warm breeze and thoughts of you.

*****************************************

Last night, waking periodically

from the irregular agonies

climbing up and down a pain column

extending from jaw to solar plexus

yet reassured

by a reputable authority

after scientifically verifiable testing

that my heart was not at all involved,

this occurred to me with a crystal clarity so rare as to be truly noteworthy:

(Hear me now!) The Difference (note the perhaps extravagant use of the capital D!) is really simple and for that matter bipolar:

that the things of this material world pass more quickly as they are used more frequently. They wear down. They wear out. They are, in two words, used up.

The things of this idea world, however gain strength with use. The more often we think them the stronger they become.

But now, in the gray, overcast quiet light of midday,

(meditation over, email checked, Bobbie out at a movie, the cats both littered and fed) I’m not so sure. The stronger an idea becomes through repetition the more– and I hesitate (but not really) to use this word–

the more real it becomes.

And the more it’s repeated into acceptability

[Trusting authorities was once a novel idea]

the more susceptible to challenge,

to attack, to diminishment,

to dumbing down, acceptance

and–yes–disappearance.

Beyond even make-believe

All the way back to non-existence.

Although, it occurs to me just now

Non-existence may only be

where things hang out

waiting to be discovered…

. . .

(25 years ago I had to smoke reefer

to think this way.)

Published in:

on August 10, 2007 at 5:05 pm Comments (2)
Tags: Artywork, Poetry

Drinking, Drugging & Drawing

Back in the very early 1980’s, although I didn’t realize it at the time, I was approaching the end of 25 years of a lot of intoxication.

(By the way you can click on each drawing to enlarge it. Sometimes it takes a lot of scrolling to see the whole image.)

More and more of my feelings were finding their way into consciousness, sometimes disguised, sometimes not.

Bar life hadn’t changed but I had. The clown in front of the tequila, weed in the wallet, mouth filled with clever bar talk, had morphed into a character where he was once a participant. Even more disturbing, an ever-growing part of me had found a way to stand away from the bar, observe and even make remarks about my nightly performances in this land of I’d-rather-be-elsewhere-believe-me. Sometimes it was cute. Sometimes it was worse.