Friday, May 15, 2009

Reading a painting




Drat it all, tragically I mean "photo." What an inferior art form!! To paint...sigh. (Note: not a plea for art lessons. You can't polish a dead pig eye, as the ol' saying goes.)

But back to what I was saying. Do we read paintings from left to right or from right to left? I don' know about you, but I read them from left to right. The first painting says to me, "Whoooooshhhhh!" Its mirror image, the second photo, says "THUNK!!!" Launching vs. landing. Left to right, both.

Artists of the world: Set me straight.

9 comments:

timekeeper said...

The first one is superior. Why? Is it the way our brains are wired?

Mike Bailey said...

Yes.

I mean no.

No, yes.

Definitely yes. Most definitely yes.

What's your question?

Technoprairie said...

I think the second one is more dramatic.

Mike Bailey said...

The bad blood begins!!!

Technoprairie said...

Ah, but you don't know the power of the first borns!

timekeeper said...

or the last born's power of attention grabbing....LEFT IS BETTER! LEFT IS BETTER!! MOM!!!

Mike Bailey said...

All right, let me explain something here to the first-borns.

Timekeeper just engaged in a classic latter-born mode of expression that first borns rarely recognize and, even less frequently, do: self-deprecation.

For those latter borns fortunate to make it to adulthood by escaping the fraticidal impulses of their first-born sibling, their job is to undo the tyranny that comes so naturally to first borns and to create a more beautiful, artistic, truthful world based on the free play of the mind unfettered from the lust for maintaining dominion.

Let me say this: 'tisn't easy, but we do what we can.

You're welcome.

middle child said...

Can't you guys just get along? I think both pictures are very pretty.

Mike Bailey said...

awwwww....middle child, how could we have forgotten you? i guess the same way mom and dad did.