April 23, 2008

But is it Art?







No, I don't think so...

Just wanted to share my final art project, a little self-portrait I titled
"Imagination Amok: Things in the Past that probably didn't really happen versus Things in my Future that probably will never occur"
(copyright 2008 3BoysProductions, all right reserved, except of course for the images, ideas, and other creative parts that were obviously stolen borrowed from their original sources. Much thanks to ya.)


*other boy questions I've heard ad nauseam this past week include: what's a prostate? who's that girl? can I have a credit card? where's Mommy? promise me you'll never smoke again for the rest of your life.... what's a prostate again?

11 comments:

twobuyfour said...

I think it looks great. And it looks just like you, too.

What IS a prostate?

Mr. Nauton said...

You're too young to know... but only for 2 more months! Ah, the 40-yr old physical...

Slim said...

That's awesome! I'm impressed. It's entertaining and captivating...I like art that you can look at several times and stil find something new.

So...is that going to replace the landscapes over your bed?

And...would you like me to analyze that for you? It could be a lot of fun ;-)

Mr. Nauton said...

Um, no it is not going over the bed... there are enough scary things that surround our bed, usually at 4am on a weekend, and even attempt to climb up into it, that I don't need to add anything...

Analyze away! I replaced the picx to try and get the collages clearer, not sure it helped...

Anonymous said...

I'm digging the marble-losing visual metaphor/reality of the piece--nice touch. And a belly laugh for your music contrasts: Eddie Vedder vs Barry Manilow! What a musical celebrity death match that would be! But it certainly is a shock to realize the music you loved best is played on classic rock stations, or that David Byrne is closer to 60 than 50, or that kids really aren't joking when they say they don't know any Beatles songs.

One of the blessings/curses of life is that we only get one to actually live. I think we tend to look at the wonderings and what-ifs, the maybes and if-onlys through very rosy glasses.

Alternate titles: "regret and fear"? "now and later"? "am I really turning 42 any minute now?" Shakespeare wrote that there were seven stages in a man's life. How many stages do YOU think there are?

Signed, Paloma Anna Picasso-Freud

Mr. Nauton said...

hey, I still got 3 hours and 19 minutes before the ol' 42... and it takes me that long to catch my breath. Then again, you are a bit older than I am, so don't start countin' grey hairs...

I do look at some of my what-ifs, some more often than others, but never in a "damn, that would've been so much better" -- can't complain about where I am and what I've been blessed with... most regrets are for peopple I've hurt, not for my own losses, but that's a post of a different color.

As for Willie & the Stage Hands (speaking of classic rock allusions), that's something to think on... (Dr. Picasso-Freud should lead to a joke, something about "sometimes cubism is just cubism" ...or maybe not)

Mr. Nauton said...

and yes, those are the want ads... Sea World is hiring!

Anonymous said...

I wasn’t talking about regret regarding life choices in terms of relationships—but macro choices, could’ves and should’ves like I could have been a brain surgeon, or famous actor, or taken that summer internship or even (as your art implies) been the “bad boy” or “cool dude”…think less Groundhog’s Day and more Back to the Future. I remember walking around campus in college thinking with awe, “I could be ANYTHING.” But I’m not a brain surgeon now, or an actor. I love my life, too, but your picture made me look back at moments of choice that I didn’t even know were choices and wonder about all the Me’s that never got expressed.

Signed, the Me Who Made the Cut

Mr. Nauton said...

I would say choices involving relationships are the "macro choices" -- I certainly wouldn't trade Family & Friends for a opportunity to go farther in a career... that's why I never stressed about going back to school, I knew I could be Anything at Anytime -- although I wouldn't mind coming up soon on 20 years of teaching, or retiring from the big budget films to run a small theater in Idaho, but that's not the way it shook out...


"then & now" would be the better title... there is some fantasy on both sides, but there's also the real struggle to let go of things a 42 (who told?) year old shouldn't/can't do, and an even bigger fear of what's looming like a big wave and there's no way I'll be able to hold my breath long enough to come out the other side... in fact, there ain't no coming out the other side, except towards the bright light...


signed, The Only Me There Could Be

Anonymous said...

I totally (DUDE!) agree that relationship choices are macro in terms of importance, but in analyzing them, they seem to become what they are because of micro choices -- what we say or don't say: all those words or silences that shape a relationship, generally unconsciously, which is why They say that positive relationships require effort (and sometimes what I'm calling macro choices, big visible conscious choices like turning down a promotion because it would mean less family time). And COULD I write a longer or more convoluted sentence?

Careers and stuff like that seem to me to be shaped more in terms of those defined macro choice moments, such as choosing a local college or a major or moving across country or what have you.

And contentment is a lovely and godly trait/gift/feeling/choice. I can be content and still wonder what might have been without getting all wistful or mooney. For instance, I chose a local school instead of a far away one. What if I'd gone away instead? My grandmother met another fellow on the way to America to reunite with her maybe/possibly/probably future husband. Boat Man was sweet on (almost not my) Grandma...Talk about a macro choice!

"Only Me There Could Be..."? If you believe either in predestination or determinism, sure. But I'm just not sure at all. We have some genetic traits, and maybe we are to some degree fundamentally what the DNA dictates, but the DNA does not dictate all of life's circumstances and we make choices that lead to different outcomes. Even though there IS that insistently consistent light at the end of that tunnel...

So your picture is about letting go? But why give up your truck or surfing? OHHHH--or is it about the 42 year old (Yah!! On the money!!) dealing with the limits of an ageing body? Cuz I am not letting go of my fun stuff until I break something. :-)!!

Signed, Long Convoluted Sentence Writer Who May Have Learned To Write More Tersely at a Different College

Mr. Nauton said...

As a matter of fact I did break something, an elbow bashed below 205 lbs into the parking lot, but what made me vow not to give up the board or the truck or beating the boys at anything and everything was Dr. Chuckles, younger and tanner Dr. Hilarious F. Chuckles, saying repeatedly "It's 'four-tee' not 'four-teen'" as he prodded and squeezed... but that's neither here nor there (then nor now?)...

Maybe because I'm not a brain surgeon, and don't have the DNA or parental units or whatnot to ever become one, but I guess I tend to view what most people call life-altering choices, the college and career and even how one sees and presents one's self to the world, as the minor decisions in comparison to what I feel is really important. (...how was that for a crappy, convoluted sentence?)

Those choices that lead to going away to school and marrying your Grandmother on a boat can only be made after you've made the more important, although sometimes more subtle and less conscious, choices about who you are and how you treat yourself and others. We focus on the college and label it the big decision because it's most visible, bold embossed letters across your hoody, but doesn't cheering for Banana Slugs or Aztecs pale in comparison to the choices to say, or not say; to act, or ignore; to share, or not make the effort?

I know I'm not making any sense; sat at dinner tonight with a successful business man and several elementary school teachers -- "one of these things just doesn't belong here", but at a wedding you can't always choose your dinner partners -- He was gracious and funny and respectful, They were bitchin' about not getting coffee, and about kids in class, and administrators, and parents... can't judge by 2 hours with a bad DJ, but who made the better and more important decisions in life? He has stock in a huge company, makes more than any 4 of our salaries (and you can toss out mr nopaycheck here), and obviously placed a higher value on the relationships he had with those around him than everyone else.

My point... hmmmm, I'm supposed to have a point? I think I lost it back around my 2nd piece of cake... sorry.

"Only me" because no matter what "me" came out of all those choices, God's or mine or random circumstance's, at this very moment is all I can be.

signed, Not Sweatin' the Small Stuff and Johnny Cash Said It's All Small Stuff and His Voice is a Gravel Pit Deeper Than Mine