By
Mark Doty
This was a pretty good little book that is half an
art essay and half a personal memoir. The prose is a little too elitish
and dense to be perfect, but it's pretty close to what I really love
art for. Glancing at a painting, you might appreciate the subject (I
like lemons!) or the craftsmanship (that looks just like a real
lemonny lemon!) But studying a painting intensely, regardless of your
knowledge of art, always forces our thoughts in to introspection. The
author slides his subjects effortlessly, from an examination of 17th
century Dutch still lifes to his hobby of collecting antiques to loving
his grandmother's peppermint candies.
There are a few fascinating metaphysical inquiries that he brings up, which are always my favorite part. Nothing we see in the world is permanent, to the extent that if I look at a tree, one second later the light will be slightly different on the same tree. But a still life is a captured moment. The author also describes how still lifes at their core evoke privacy, secrecy and intimacy, and how they can remind us of our own mortality.