I had never heard of Arthur Pinajian before I read the Telegraph’s article, but I find myself fascinated with his art. Pinajian lived through two world wars and the great depression, born in 1914 during WWI and surviving until 1999, the end of the century. (1) Kurt Vonnegut’s novelic work “Bluebeard: The Autobiography of Rabo Karabekian,“ actually retells the story of Pinajian’s life, whose real life was really very private. (1) He was one of the great heroes of WWII, but he soon surrendered weapons for more artistic tools, when he began as a comic book artist for Marvel (3). However, Pinajian found himself more readily drawn to the abstractionist style of art and he eventually move to Long Island, fading into obscurity for the remainder of his life. (1) Pinajian another of the many artists more appreciated upon death than during life, and thousands of his paintings remained buried in garages and boxes until as late as the last decade. (2)
Typically, I am not overly fond of abstract art, in fact I don’t particularly like the painting shown in The Telegraph’s article. However, in several of his works, Pinajian successfully pulls together both abstraction and realism. I appreciate how his works depict landscapes through simple brush strokes and vibrant mixed colors. He utilizes the coloring beautifully to depict contrast and depth, without losing any of the meaning which I feel so much abstract art does. Here are my particular favorites:
I first ran across this lovely little poem about a year ago, and it really resonated with me. Life and school were starting to pile up; and people kept reminding me that it was time to figure out precisely what I wanted to do with my life. Everyone wanted answers as to “what I was going to do”, “where was I applying”, “where was I going?” I had no idea; well that isn’t actually true. You see I went to law school with the idea that I could work with an auction house specializing in fine arts. I have been having a love affair with history for years, pretty much since my first history book on the ancient Greeks. This continued through my undergraduate years, and it was supposed to be part of my employment plans. But then the financial crisis hit, Sallie Mae loans started getting higher and higher, and the jobs scarcer and scarcer. That high-paying job at the New York law firm dealing with Insurance fraud started sounding a little nicer. Suddenly, I wasn’t so sure what I wanted to do. I had already been so caught up in school and making sure that my laundry and dishes stayed done that I hadn’t read a history-based book or article in nearly two years. Did it really mean that much to me?–Wouldn’t the monetary reward of a big job be enough?
But that was when God used my world to step in. Radio stations, news articles, Facebook posts, even those little Pinterest pictures friends sent me–everything around me was suddenly saying: “Stop.” and “Live!” Heck YOLO! was showing up everywhere. And I came to the realization that it’s true: You only get one chance to enjoy the world. I don’t care how you depict life after death (or the absence of it), you only Continue reading
I long ago promised that I would relate my wonderful, awesome adventures cross-country this past labor day weekend. Labor Day weekend, always one of the great highlights of any college student’s life, was particularly exciting to me this year since I also had Thursday and Friday off and I was off to visit family for a BBQ. A five day weekend, BBQ Pork Steak, Baked Potato, Grilled Veggies, and Home-made Ice Cream and Fudge Sauce–the weekend was definitely offering great potential 🙂 My Aunt and her husband were hosting the BBQ at their cabin down in Illinois; having traveled the same road dozens of times in the past, the trip can get kind of boring at times.
Now you have to understand that I wasn’t going to be alone on this trip; my mom was also going to be riding down with me. My mom and I together are pretty awesome. We love taking the roads less traveled and heading off Continue reading
Um. . . Yeah. I kind of went on a cooking spree. But who can blame me?!? Woke up this morning to a cold, wet day, and so far it hasn’t improved to any great extent. Still cold, damp, and dismal. I started with the idea of warming up the house a bit by using the oven, but ended up getting a little carried away. So I ended up making:
It was just going to be the Casserole (chicken was more of a throw in for lunch thing), but then I needed to use up some apples that were starting to go bad. Thus the Apple Pie. But I’ve kind of been in a artsy mood recently and felt the urge to decorate so I ended up making some cookies while the pie dough chilled. 😛 Anyway, here is a picture of my yummy cookies!
Neon food coloring–I love it! 
Lol, I accidentally dyed my band-aid. 
My decorating tools 🙂 
Yum!!
I have been horribly amiss, and I must officially apologize to all of my readers. I promised you an update some time ago on my visit to Door County Wisconsin and I didn’t update. I now must run away and hide in shame . . . (disappears with hanging head) Okay, I’m back! with the long ago promised post about all the awesome things I got to experience at Door County. I already hit on some of this before in my “I’ve arrived“ post on the trip up there, but for clarity’s sake I’ll touch on some of it again. The trip up there was actually kind of my idea since my family was caving into my desire to check out the Great Lakes. Despite living in the midwest area for most of my life, I’d never had the chance to check out the Great Lakes and it was on Continue reading
You know how you always have that one class that you just can’t stand? The professor has now changed the rules on our research paper three times, gone back on what they said before, and assigned extra work, emailed us for meetings the night before. Then last week she/he calls us in for a “cannot miss”/”must-be-there”/”amazing-opportunity” to hear a guy speak in class and spent the entire last half of it explaining to him how they doubt everything he says because the prof. can name a small town in Missouri that doesn’t match his general conclusion. 0_0 So, I of course do NOT want to go to class tomorrow. Do you think one of these excuses will get me out?
We’re Off to Door County, WI!
My mom’s birthday pretty much rocks! Not just because it’s the birthday of the most awesome person ever (Seriously, I got the best mom possible); although that’s pretty sweet. 🙂 I’m also excited because it’s vacation time! See, my mom and her sister have birthdays one week apart (Sept. 27 and Oct. 6) and there is always one weekend in between. To celebrate, , my mom, my aunt, and I go on vacation to somewhere cool over the weekend. Continue reading
“She was free in her wildness. She was a wanderess, a drop of free water. She belonged to no man and to no city” ~ Roman Payne
Language Translation
Deceptively Blonde 