Remember this painting at the top? The scene has been reimaged at home
Jilly wrote a silver linings post on Saturday, and we were all so cheered up by it, we decided to do more. We all could use a little extra shot of happiness, right? A splash of fun? A drop of joy? Or at least, comfort. Not bad news.
So I’m pitching in today with this entertainment post, links to three things I enjoyed last week, coming to you from the art world. First off, maybe you think you can’t make art. You’d be so wrong! The Getty Museum of Los Angeles asked people to post photos of themselves recreating their favorite works of art based on objects they had at home. What they did was amazing and hilarious. Check out the results.
Think you can’t learn how to paint from a video? Donna Fenstermaker teaches painting here in northern California, and she’s posting short tutorials for her students. I love this one about how to look at color. Even if you’re not inspired to move color patches around, her voice is pretty soothing.
Finally, 20 Dutch musicians from the Rotterdam Philharmonic stayed home and played together the “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. That just never gets old.
Have a good week, everyone!
Eight Ladies Writing 
I love that “re-creating artworks” idea. I’ve seen a number of them online recently and they’ve all been great. The facial expressions have been priceless.
I haven’t seen the “Ode to Joy”, but I did see (hear) a marching band yesterday that played together via Zoom. It sounded fantastic! I wish I could find the link.
The symphony was especially interesting because it really brought home how that piece grows increasingly intricate as each instrument joins in.
Thanks for this!
What’s even more shocking, Jeanne, is Beethoven wrote that when he was completely deaf. This piece makes me cry every time. It’s so hopeful and full of light and power and passion. *sniff*
I love that piece of music. I once memorized the Schiller poem—the German original—that the chorus sings to this piece of music, and to my shock, I still remember it. I sang right along on this piece. I totally get all this singing at home that we’re seeing online these days!
I’m not sure how many of you have seen Dear Evan Hanson (my niece raves about it), but this was particularly entertaining (and touching) to watch…the cast did a virtual sing-along to one of the songs from the musical for the James Corden show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_10msPMEick
I haven’t seen the show, but I enjoyed this piece. I was thinking when I watched all the musical groups performing alone together how technology has made this so relatively simple. Years ago I saw the “performing alone together” concept done at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where the musicians were each in their individual houses many time zones apart, and they had video and audio, and then as you moved around the installation, you heard that instrument more than the others. Also, you got the vibrations through the floor of the museum, I don’t know how they did that. (Well, unless it was an earthquake.) But my point is that the exhibit notes talked about how hard that had been to do, to sync everything up. Now I guess you plug in Zoom and you’re off to the races. Thanks for another fun diversion!