Thomas Hart Benton

The artist's life is the best in the world, if he can get through the first 40 years.
--Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975)

I NEEDED to hear that after an emotionally and physically exhausting day!

PS. The NYC public library is gonna be the death of me. I picked up 18 new dvds today (for free)... mostly art & history documentaries. :-)

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Benton, Thomas Hart, regionalist American painter, known for his vigorous, colorful murals of the 1930s, mostly of rollicking scenes from the rural past of the American South and Midwest. Benton was born in Neosho, Missouri. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and then spent three years in Paris. Living in New York City after 1912, Benton turned away from modernism and gradually developed a rugged naturalism that affirmed traditional rural values. By the 1930s he was riding a tide of popular acclaim. Benton returned to Missouri, taught at the Kansas City Art Institute, and continued to paint both panels and murals. His mural in the state capitol in Jefferson City (1935) stirred protests because of its open portrayals of some of the seamier facets of Missouri's past. Benton's most famous student was Jackson Pollock, who studied with Benton at the Art Students League in New York City from 1929 to 1931.

People die at 21

"In this country, people die at 21. They die emotionally at 21, maybe even younger now. For those of us who are lucky not to die at 20, we keep on going. And my responsibility as an artist... is to help people get over 21."
--John Cassavetes

"The films are a road map through emotional and intellectual terrains... that provide a solution to how one can save pain. As people, we know that we are petty, vicious... violent and horrible. But my films make an effort to contain the depression within us... and to limit the depression to those areas that we can actually solve. The resolution of the films... is the assertion of a human spirit."
--John Cassavetes

myspace.com/john_cassavetes

The more I read and learn about the life and thoughts of filmmaker John Cassavetes, the more I feel a deep, personal and intellectual connection to his ideas and feelings about life and art. For many years, I've been saying that people graduate from college or high school, and put themselves out to pasture. They stop growing emotionally, intellectually, socially, etc... I've lost a great many acquaintances and potential relationships from my youth because of this. They stagnate, and I keep moving. They take jobs, make money, and pursue the standard path of consumption and possession. I seek answers, meaning, resolution, beauty, inspiration... I'm not saying it's easy, but I don't think life is supposed to be. Mine has never been.
-Carletto

Le notti di Cabiria

This is the cutest video of the happy couple at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15, 1957, promoting Le notti di Cabiria. You'll have to go to the link, since I cannot embed the video in the bulletin:

Federico Fellini et Giulietta Masina

It's only about 37 seconds long. But worth it, if you're a fan!