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Monday, May 02, 2005
A Matter of Perspective
The painting intrigues me.
Muted colors. A living room. Broad expanse of carpeted floor. Art deco stuffed furniture and sleek coffee table. Above the sofa, a large painting of a lone woman looking out a window. Nobody in this room.
On the floor, in the foreground, a model railroad set.
The train is a commuter. Predictably, a few automobiles sit parked nearby. Several little people walk from the train to their cars.
What?! This is no toy train!
I suddenly feel like Gulliver waking up in Lilliput. Though I'm not tied to the ground, my sense of proportion is all haywire. Perspective now shimmers like heat waves rising up off summertime pavement.
Glancing again at the larger scene, I recognize the painting on the wall. It's Edward Hopper's "Hotel Window." Not much help there. Whatever key it holds to unlock the mysterious mood only multiplies the mystery.
Ineffably immobile, all of Hopper's human figures seem frozen both by their circumstances and deep within themselves.
(His most familiar painting "Nighthawks" has been copied to represent James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis Presley hunched at the counter of an all-night diner. This could be heaven, or this could be hell!)
So now I'm wondering... Which is the real world? Or is it all of a piece, both big room and tiny depot?
I suppose we must each decide for ourselves.
If the real world is the lonely empty room, then we're as good as dead. If the bustling station's commuters really are coming home at last, then it's life we're all about.
Long ago, Moses wrapped up his farewell address to Israel this way: "I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life for you." (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)
Me, I'm siding with life. See you at the station!
posted by Jack Buckley at
10:11 AM
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