[Wednesday] Illusions

[hector_styles]

One specific genre of illusion art draws my interest, so much so that I have beautified the walls of one of my guest bedrooms with framed prints of the artwork. True, many people do cling to life too much to be able to appreciate the aesthetic, but my guests, on the contrary, delight in a memento mori, a veritable et in cubicula ego, so to speak.

Comments

[campjesus]

That is so fucking cool.

[hector_styles]

I'm quite fond of Dali's rendition as well, perhaps more so because of its contrary nature - living flesh shaped into a symbol of death. I neglected to include it originally because of its photographic nature unlike the above drawings. Some people are quite delicate about that sort of thing.

[campjesus]

About naked people? Yeah.

I love Dali and everything he stands for. Who did those drawings, though? I've never seen 'em before.

[hector_styles]

Personally I find nothing whatsoever offensive about the body.

Dali was a true visionary. But the first drawing was created by American artist Charles Allan Gilbert, and as far as I'm aware, that was his only darker piece of work. The other two above have unknown or anonymous creators. Perhaps it smacks of pride on my part, but if I were the artist, I would eagerly attach my name to either masterpiece.

[campjesus]

The third one looks like--a political cartoon? Propaganda? (My French isn't very good.) So probably they didn't want it to get back to them. Dunno about the second. Maybe the artist's name just got lost. Or maybe they were afraid what people would think. You know how it is.

[hector_styles]

People as a whole spend far too much time worried over others' opinions. True, there are some who are confident enough to avoid this. But those who aren't surely waste days - perhaps weeks or longer - of their lives fretting over outside forces. It's a pity, really. I do hope you don't fall into that category.

[campjesus]

I don't know, I think it's smart to work within other people's, like, perception of you. Because if you don't care at all what other people think, you're probably gonna end up miserable and dead. But you're right, it can be, like, limiting.

[hector_styles]

Dead, hm? Well, I suppose if someone has a particularly scandalous secret, I agree that the details of one's life should be kept hidden from the majority. And that person's life isn't the only one at stake - often the bearer of these secrets is willing to kill to protect them as well. I must admit it makes me envious of clergymen in their cassocks, sitting within confessionals and being entrusted with dark secrets of those who come to beg forgiveness.

Though I can't imagine the general population possesses secrets of that gravity, of course.

[campjesus]

Most people's secrets are tiny and boring, but everyone would flip their shit if they knew about them anyway.

... that's a technical term, 'flip their shit'.