Slow Jams

There seems to be nothing original left that can be created in the world of art. Everything is a copy or a different representation of something already done, which should not always be taken as a negative thing. My favorite piece from David Choe’s Slow Jams collection is a perfect example of an artist taking something already created by another artist and making it their own.

Acrylic on Canvas - 1999

This piece is mainly a play at Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s painting At the Moulin Rouge. Toulouse did this painting in a time where Symbolist painters were trying to change the world of art from the mundane and create things that were different.

Oil on Canvas - Circa 1892

David Choe does the same in his piece, although it may seem contradicting since he is actually using Toulouse’s work as a basis for his, but he is trying to portray the same meaning. To create something that does not need to be aesthetically pleasing for everyone, but to capture a feeling. In the painting the color scheme and the techniques are the same, but if you look carefully at David Choe’s painting the people are different, more from his world. David Choe has put himself in the painting; he has used Toulouse’s perspective to illustrate his world. In an article by Todd inoue, David state’s that, “I paint what's close to me. All I portray is my life, my friend's lives, my parent's lives." He is expressing that he paints what he feels, what is in his life.

David Choe is not the first to take someone else’s work and make it his own, it has been done by Marcel Duchamp, and his representation of the Mona Lisa; Yinka Shonibare and his “Revenge of the Slaves” and “Gay Victorians”; and countless others. I was an art major for many years and took countless art history classes, and there was always a constant. Everything is a representation of your world. People can look at the same painting or work of art and feel different things, describe them in totally different ways. Artists use other works of art to inspire them, so it does not make you a better or a worse artist to use someone else’s work and make it your own. It just makes you an artist, just be honest about it.

Black

How do you survive when the world you live in is darker than black? Black is a movie that brings this fear to a brighter light. Michelle McNally, played by Rani Mukerji, lives in this world; where there is no seeing, no hearing, and mostly not being understood, after an illness at age 1. She creates chaos in her world and of those around her. Her father is about to send her to an insane asylum when Debraj Sahai, played by Amitabh Bachchan, becomes the unlikely hero. He brings light and knowledge in to Michelle’s world as he teaches her how to “speak” and to “hear” in his unique and persistent way. In the end the teacher and student end up changing roles as the teacher gets Alzheimer's disease. Michelle teaches the her former teacher how to live again.

Black has won 14 awards, including the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. Black was directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who not only directs, but is a producer and a writer.

(Video Clip)

This movie was inspiring and helped me to realize again that there is no obstacle that can not be overcome with persistence and patience. The visuals were more beautiful, I believe, with the thought that Michelle could not see them, but only feel them.