Preservation through Paint

Herb Kawainui Kane was raised on the Big Island of Hawai`i and in Wisconsin. After graduating with a masters in art at the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago and having a successful job as a graphic designer in Chicago for fourteen years, Kane decided to move back home to Hawai`i to become what he always wanted to be, which is a painter of the Hawaiian culture and history. He believes, “I'm different than artists today who want to express their personalities. I want to express the personality of the subject.” Despite what he feels or what he does in his paintings, I don't think it is possible for an artist not to include his own character in his paintings.
Kane has made huge contributions to the Hawaiian community. He not only designed the Hokule`a in 1986, but he was the first captain of it and sailed it all the way to Tahiti and back using just the stars as navigation. This proved that the Hawaiians were not just lucky to come across this island, but they were skilled. Because of this achievement, Hawaiians everywhere were impacted. They became proud of who they were and wanted to learn more about their ancestors and history. Kane only did this for that reason, because he cares about the Hawaiians and wants to make sure they have their impact on history. After this, Kane decides to continue his preservation of Hawaiian history and culture through paint.
Kane is known for his realistic artwork that depicts the Hawaiians very detailed and truthfully. In the painting of the event of Captain Cook's death, Kane went to the area where it was recorded Captain Cook died and studied it carefully. He read accounts of the incident from Cook's crewmens' journals to get an accurate view of who killed him and where. Besides all of that, Kane looked at the tide charts and went all the way back to that exact time and day in the 1700s to find out how high the tide was at that moment. He put so much detail and truth in not only this painting, but all of his paintings. When looking up the history of Kane's paintings, Kane is revealed as a dedicated man who cares about his culture and I think this is depicted in his paintings.
With that in mind, although Kane says he doesn't attempt to put his character into his paintings, I think it is apparent that he does. Only someone who really cares would put that much work and detail into it. Even trying to put yourself into the subject's shoes is putting a little of yourself into the painting because you are the subject. His choices of what to paint, which is about Hawaiian history and culture, shows that he is a Hawaiian preserving his culture, which is a depiction of his character. Being a Hawaiian probably affected his choices in life, but they are for the better for the Hawaiian society. Kane is a very hardworking and honest painter and that is depicted in his paintings.

Prompts:
Do you agree with Kāne’s beliefs that the essence of the subject is more important than the artist’s personality being portrayed in his/her artwork?
Despite what Kāne says about only portraying the subject’s personality, do you think his feelings and character was expressed in his paintings or the way he does his paintings?
How do you think being raised in Hawai`i and being a Hawaiian affected Kāne’s decision to become a painter and historian of Hawaiian culture and history?

Response to Vreeland's Olympia's Look

I liked this short story of Vreeland’s better than The Yellow Jacket. I thought she portrayed Suzanne Manet’s character very well. Throughout the story the reader notices Suzanne Manet’s growth from a jealous wife, to an understanding wife. In most of the story, Suzanne is a somber widow with unanswered questions. She is dying to know which of her late husband’s models that he had affairs with were, and questioned his love for her. She shows complete bitterness towards all his models, and a tinge of revenge. When she is obligated to talk to one of her husband’s models, who was asking her for money, she breaks out in rage at her going through every detail of his death and last few weeks of his life. As she does this she realizes that what Edouard had with these women was nothing to what he shared with her. Those girls were pure infatuation and lust, nothing more. Edouard always stayed with her through thick and thin and in times of need looked toward his wife. He loved her for her soul, as the story states, even if she wasn’t a beauty like all his models. As Victorine put it, they only “collaborated”, or gave eachother what the other needed. No feelings or emotions, just business. It was at that moment, as Suzanne was yelling at Victorine, did she realize this and began to feel a little foolish for sharing information Victorine did not truly care about. Suzanne developed an understanding of Edouard’s relationships with the models and realized they were all foolish young girls and him just a man, and the love she always felt for her husband grew.
I think the two passages that really explain Suzanne’s character are very similar. They both show how she doesn’t act unless given an opportunity to. For example, in the story, when she sees Edouard slip Helene the letter, only then does she decide to actually take the letter, even though she has always suspected him of affairs. She then puts the letter in a spot where she hopes he’ll see it and wonders whether or not he’ll bring it up. She never took action and just asked him, she just hoped he would say something first so she could then bring up her feelings. Also, in another part of the story, she gets a letter from Victorine asking for money. It is only because of this does she go to see Victorine and spill her guts about how she feels about all his affairs. She never would have done it on her own, she needed a reason to, and Victorine’s letter was the reason. Basically, these passages showed that Suzanne was afraid to conflict others without some kind of support or evidence. In a way, that is good that she waits for evidence, but instead of living in doubt and depression, she could have just brought it up to her husband in the first place and just talked to him, without needing evidence, because if he loved her he would care more about her feelings than anything. Instead, she made herself suffer and waited for an excuse to blow up in the end. But she learned from her mistakes and took action, finally, but going against Edouard’s wishes and not paying Victorine for something she felt Victorine didn’t deserve. These two passages really captured Suzanne’s character well. In general, this is a very good historical fiction. One would wonder how Suzanne really felt and reacted to Edouard’s affairs, if she ever knew they existed.

Annotated Bibliography on Piero della Francesco and his work, "The Duke and Duchess of Urbino"

"Piero della Francesca." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 02 Feb. 2009 .
This article contains information on Francesco’s life before and influences on his painting style. Francesco’s mature style of frescoes and geometric form. He painted a lot for the Duke of Urbino, such as the Duke and Duchess of Urbino. His work was recognized as influential for the renaissance period of art. The people who affected his life and style were mentioned in the article along with his most famous works of art. His efforts relating to math and art were greatly explained. His treatise on painting is portrayed in the article. Considering that a lot of information on Francesco cannot be found, this article is very informative. The article is very organized and separates it into pre-mature style, mature style, and after his painting career. His influence on other artists was also pointed out. This article is also useful in finding related books on the artist, as there is a whole section dedicated to that.

Jones, Jonathan. "Diptych of the Duchess and Duke of Urbino, Piero della Francesco (c1472)." The Guardian (2002). 2 Feb. 2009 .
This article contains specific information on the artwork done by Piero della Francesco called The Duke and Duchess of Urbino. A very brief description of Francesco is given in the article. The two subjects of the painting are explained. The context of the painting and why it was done was also explained. It is learned that the painting is done in commemoration of the Duke’s late wife. The distinguishing features of the painting were also described, such as the small details and why they were painted that way. The painting description is put more into depth and meaning. It is described to be spiritual and very Christian like. This is very useful in specifically analyzing the portrait of the husband and wife. More is actually learned about the subjects of the painting than the actual artist.

"Piero della Francesca." Mark Harden's Artchive. 03 Feb. 2009 .

This article focuses on the style that Francesco painted. His brilliant mathematician skills were explained in his treatises, and his art contained more math than most artists can begin to understand. His paintings were described as very geometric and he always used a lot of light and brightness in his painting. His paintings were always described to have an unfinished look. His most controversial works during his time were explained, along with Francesco’s outlook on pleasing others. This writing is useful in learning about the type of paintings Francesco did and how he did them. His style is outlined more specificially in this article.

Response to “Children of the Screen” by Hannah Baylon

In the movie, “The Gods Must Be Crazy”, two different societies are exposed, the Bushmen and the civilized man. Both are human, but go about their human lives in totally dissimilar ways. As the movie states, the Bushmen adapt to their environment while the civilized man adapts the environment to him, melting metal to form cars, forming concrete sidewalks as paths, and planting gardens in only certain spots if space is available. But what is so great about being civilized? “Sophisticated” humans have only made their lives harder. By constructed a new environment that is “supposedly” easier to live in, they are sentencing all their future generations to more and more education in one direction of trying to become more urbane. Most humans have come up with the idea that the only way to be happy is to make a lot of money, and in a way, that is true, because of what society’s standards have set up for us. People who try to advocate for what they believe in, something different, a better way to live, support for coexistence, whatever they see fit in their eyes, are put in jail, beat to death, and exiled from their home country. According to Hannah Baylon, life has become so intricate for the civilized man that the only way to escape from that is to read, watch t.v., shop, or do anything that can give us a break from reality and that’s not extremely wrong, considering today’s lifestyle. Unfortunately, the media has taken advantage of people’s breaks in front of the t.v. and without noticing it, people are being brainwashed by today’s greedy businessmen of the media. People are beginning to think what they need is more video games, clothes, and a bigger house. We’re losing ourselves in this hedonistic world, and someday our culture may actually fully become capitalism, which is a type of economy, not a way of life. People need to learn what our society is doing to us, and see who they are as individuals, not as another product on the assembly line of life. We should look at our past and ancestors, our history and culture; was there anything wrong with what they believed in and did? Agreeing with Hannah Baylon, we should stop trying to adapt the world to us, and try to become one with the world and nature, as we were meant to do.
Who says that being civilized is better anyway? Since when is being civilized more refined and clever? Personally, we seemed to have degraded in the sophistication level. The human souls have depreciated. For instance, in “The Gods Must Be Crazy”, the Bushmen are not civilized in the way we define it, but their hearts are pure. They don’t even have a word in their language for guilty. When the coke bottle was introduced to them in the beginning of the movie they experienced feelings of greed, selfishness, and shame that they have never experienced before. They were truly a happy people with well-behaved children, a hard-working, cooperative, small society, love and care towards each other, and no desires for materialistic things; as such things were not available in their world. They survived on what they needed. The civilized humans, on the other hand, have developed greed along with modern inventions. Things are available to some that are not to others, causing jealousy. People wonder why there is war, hate, and murder in the world and it is exactly because of the act of trying to become civilized and trying to spread that supposed “knowledge”. Learning and expanding our knowledge is not bad, but the way we use our information is what shows our true intentions.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Dorian Gray is a handsome, intriguing young man. At the age of around 22 he decides to hire Basil Hallward to paint a portrait of him done with a small statue of a cat that is supposedly an Egyptian god. Basil Hallward is fascinated by this young man and doesn’t feel himself as he paints the portrait. His friend, Lord Henry Watton is also captivated by what he says about Dorian Gray and insists on meeting him. Hallward, for some reason, opposes to that idea, but Watton luckily gets his way. As Gray is getting his portrait finished, Watton blabs on about youth and old age, not realizing the impression he is making on the young Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray takes his words to heart and decides to take advantage of his youth as much as possible and have no regrets. He makes the wish that his portrait would get older and he would keep his youthful look forever. Gray is so swayed by Watton that he’s even bold enough and willing to give up his soul in order to maintain his youth. Unfortunately, his wish is granted by the Egyptian god statue of the cat, although he doesn’t realize it yet. Gray’s demeanor changes as he is convinced that beauty and pleasure are of the utmost importance. He starts going to bars trying to live up his youth as Watton says. He meets a beautiful woman and falls in love with her. Watton convinces him to make her feel guilty for not staying at his place late. Slowly, Gray becomes more heartless. He asks her to marry him, but a week later tells her to not contact him ever again. She is heartbroken and commits suicide. Before Gray learns of this he looks at his portrait and sees that it has aged. There are stress marks on the face that were never there before. He doesn’t believe it until he checks it again the next day. He realizes that his wish may have come true and that his soul is being displayed in the portrait through a now visible sneer. He decides to make things right with his love to undo the destroying of his soul, but then Watton comes in telling him the grave news. Gray feels no remorse for her death. He spends most of his time traveling to dark places and taking part in wicked things, but always ends up back at home because he is afraid someone will sneak in and see his portrait. Everyone notices that he doesn’t age and they start to spread rumors about him. The only one whose love still remains for him is Hallward’s niece Gladys. He transforms into a detached, dispassionate, troubled young by looks, old man. Nothing affects him and he doesn’t feel regret or guilt for the things he has done, as Watton told him to do. As he destroys his soul it becomes more visible on his portrait, but never on his face, but this doesn’t bother him because he knows that no matter what he does he will always be beautiful.
In one of the next and best scenes, Hallward comes to visit Gray. This is between the middle and the end. Hallward asks to see the portrait so Gray decides to take him up to see it. As they walk up the stairs the Egyptian cat statue is at the bottom of the stairs on the table facing them. It is almost as if the cat is watching. They enter the room where the portrait is covered in a sheet. What is interesting is that the portrait is placed in Gray’s childhood room, which is ironic because the very picture that was supposed to capture his youth is only showing his age and experiences and damage of his soul. Everything in the room is full of childhood innocence, while the portrait is the most grotesque and disturbing thing possible. It just doesn’t fit in the room. When Gray reveals the portrait to Hallward, the scene changes from black and white to color, so that every detail of every sin is shown more clearly in the picture. Hallward is appalled, yet he can still recognize the painting he made for Gray. Gray suddenly feels hatred towards Hallward, for it is him who put this curse of the portrait on him, and following Watton’s hedonistic advice, he decides to fulfill his desire for revenge and stabs Hallward to death. When he looks back at the portrait, blood forms on the hands, representing Gray’s most recent sin. He hits the light on the ceiling on accident and it swings back and forth, revealing and unrevealing the dead body with Gray standing over him. In a way this explains Gray’s life. His soul and actions are hidden by his youthful, good looks, but whenever he goes back to the portrait he is always reminded of who he really is. This is my favorite scene, because it really captures the depth and meaning of the story.
After Hallward’s death, Gray blackmails an old friend to get rid of the evidence. He then goes off to one of his dark places again, and there is his old love’s brother. He recognizes him by what the others call him and runs after him to kill him, but Gray explains that he can’t possibly have been involved with his sister or he would not look the age he is now. The brother believes him and lets him go. A woman and man explain to the brother that Gray has not aged for twenty years, and desperate to get revenge the brother follows Gray back home. Unfortunately, the brother dies by an accident, and Gray, afraid that this will also be on his portrait, decides to change his immoral ways. Gray had fallen in love with Hallward’s neice, but he told her it would be a sin to marry her. He felt that it would only make him more wicked. He went to check the painting to see if his changed ways had reverted the portrait at least a bit backwards, but when he looked at it he saw it had only gotten worse. He decided the only thing he could do was destroy it, so he pulled out the knife he used to stab Hallward and stabbed the painting in his heart. Instead of the painting becoming destroyed, Gray found that his own chest hurt and he fell on the ground dead. The painting slowly returned to the painting it was twenty years ago, and when everyone saw Gray’s corpse, it was unrecognizable and monstrous.
The movie was a story of a man who only believed in the pleasures of life. As you saw, it only brought him misfortune. Life is not about being beautiful, materialistic, and only having fun. There is much more meaning than that. There are morals that people have to follow, or guilt and hatred will overpower their souls, making them evil. People can run and hide from their wrong-doings, as Dorian Gray did through his portrait, but it will always come back to haunt you, as Gray’s portrait also did. Fulfilling your own desires is selfish, if the feelings of others are not taken into consideration. Life is not about being beautiful on the outside; it is about being beautiful on the inside.

Who is that Person?

These two people look like they are getting married, but it looks like an arranged marriage. The fact that they are getting married seems apparent because she is wearing a veil and he seems to be wearing something very ritualistic and proper. They look like they are of upper class because of her pearls and their clothing. They are also pictured above the whole landscape and town as if they own it all. It is also more common for upper class to have an arranged marriage compared to lower class. It also seems like an arranged marriage because when two people love each other and are about to get married they usually have looks of joy on their faces and are ecstatic on their wedding day, much unlike this couple.

The woman has a look of content. She has a slight smile and therefore seems slightly happy in an almost forced way but not too forced. She is probably partially happy because she is marrying into money. The forced part seems as if she is saying, 'I'm going to be stuck with him forever so I might as well try to look at the bright side and be happy.' She is looking at him as if trying to get some kind of response and trying to sense what he may be thinking. She is trying to be as optimistic as possible and is hoping for a good marriage. She looks content for now, but only because she doesn't know him as a person, since she is probably meeting him for the first time. In the future she will probably not be very happy.

The man does not seem to even be looking at the woman. He is looking above her and his expression seems to be, 'Let's just get this over with.' There is no smile on his face, just a look of boredom. The marriage to him appears to be a chore. It is expected of him to marry by his family and his people and so he's just doing it. He barely glances at her and seems to feel about her as if 'she'll do, I guess'. The man seems like a very dutiful person and is only doing this so he can create an heir and so on. He has no interest in her whatsoever and in the future she'll probably feel very lonely and unfulfilled. He doesn't appear to be very loving and talkative. They will probably not have a very connected relationship. Being a man, he will probably not be bothered by this, but the woman will probably suffer and maybe even have an affair. He will probably ignore his wife and she will feel as if something is wrong with her.

In the end, both will not be very happy because there is no love between them. They will probably never share each other's feelings and thoughts and their life together will always be awkward. Although they both have all the money they could ever need and want, she will learn that money cannot buy her happiness, which is what made her happy on this wedding day, the fact that she was marrying into more money.