Comments on: A Day at the Museum Contest

By: Betsy Pugel

Betsy Pugel — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:50:24 +0000

It’s not just the paintings of people looking back at me, it’s the still life paintings that get me…aren’t you freaked out by the beady eyes of some potato staring back at you from it’s pastoral beginnings?

By: Chris Brown

Chris Brown — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 11:48:12 +0000

I think I would pose for a nude oil painting because it is a great art form. I would NOT pose nude to be painted all over with gold paint because I don’t want to die like that girl in Goldfinger. And I wouldn’t pose for a paint by the numbers kit because it demeans art. And I would not pose for a jigsaw puzzle because I believe the jigsaw cutting would probably hurt. I would pose for a Polaroid picture if they developed it extra fast – I get fidgety. Do I get the job, Mr. Da Vinci?

By: Denise (Nash) Downing

Denise (Nash) Downing — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:37:47 +0000

Q#2: I did not used to think so, but I have a 2-year-old now, and she sees things that I miss. The pictures that we have in the house are smiling at her, or reacting to whatever she is doing, and she talks to them whenever she wants to. In her world, a photograph can hear the sound of her footsteps, her laugh, and see the color of her dress. Since art is really whatever you see in it, if you believe that portrait galleries are full of paintings who receive and react to us as we pass through, then they are.

ps. I do not live in the area so I cannot come to the show or the lunch or anything, but I wanted to enter this contest because my sister asked me to.

By: Nicholas Michael Bashour

Nicholas Michael Bashour — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:38:13 +0000

Contemporary views of nudity often tend to sexualize it. That has not always been the cause in history, and certainly not in art. While artists can use nudity to depict lust and sensuality, they also use it to portray innocence, vulnerability, vitality or even death. In that regard, posing for a painting in the nude can be difficult and challenging, but it can also be ultimately rewarding if the artist and model connect on a level that allows the artist to successfully portray and incorporate subtle qualities of the model into the overall theme of the painting. So would I do it? Yes, definitely.

A successful artist is one who can guide the viewer’s imagination with the imagery while leaving enough wiggle room for the viewer to add his own interpretation on the piece. So, when I’m at a museum or an exhibit, I don’t necessarily think that the paintings are looking back, but that they are each telling their own story without “breaking the fourth wall.” The ones that are looking back are the paintings where one of the subjects is looking directly at the viewer. When I’m looking at these paintings, I focus on the eyes. Similar with face-to-face interactions, the eyes can express a multitude of emotions and the great artists utilizes that to make their subjects tell a story and converse with the viewer. Van Gogh was a master of telling stories with his eyes in his famous self portraits.

By: Cyle Durkee

Cyle Durkee — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 06:34:09 +0000

I would pose for a nude painting only if I was convinced there was the option of having the painter fall hopelessly in love with me and then spurning him in order to make a wonderful dramatic theater piece.

I do think that the oil paintings are staring back with with thoughts of the painters filtered through the physical paints and facial form of the those they are painting. Crazy…I know.

By: John C. Bailey

John C. Bailey — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 21:07:15 +0000

Pose nude. Yes. One individual, one surface, every color in the spectrum, a surface to which they are applied. That singular cerebrum, that soul, those hands expressing impressions untold. Whether essential or abstract, an image for the ages, capturing a moment in time, begging the question of my beingness & that of my descendants: “Do you think this picture makes my (his) ass look fat?”

Are the pictures looking back? Yes. Undoubtedly. What are they saying? “Stop it. Why are you staring at me? What?! Wait. Does this picture make my ass look fat??!!”

By: Ric Andersen

Ric Andersen — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:09:33 +0000

The paintings looking back might be thinking, “I’m glad the patrons aren’t nude.”