A review of Mary Ann Tharaldsen’s Art Movie. Part One

There are so many “First off” things I can say about my ex-wife, Mary Ann Tharaldsen, and her apocalyptic Art. I have narrowed it down to three.

1. I love Mary Ann
2. She has a highly evolved sense of humor
3. My ex has an uncommon love for fresh two by fours

Now, let me mention my terrible character flaw. In order to bring order to my chaotic life I have foisted my need for calmness on those around me, especially those I love. The second biggest mistake of my life was being critical of the chaos I found in Mary Ann’s living room when I first enter there. Along one wall was salvaged pieces of wood, and freshly scented two by fours. I didn’t understand this was a work of art in progress. I should have taken a picture, and let it be.

“The Smithsonian will want a record of this.”

In the kitchen of the Victorian we rented, was THE ARTIST’S LOFT. I was impressed that a woman had built it. Mary Ann showed me her tools, many of them big manly electrified Black and Deckers. How could M resist this name? Words like Chanel No. 5 was not in M’s vocabulary. She owned a level.

M majored in architecture at Cornell. Her goal was not to be a WOMAN architect, or a WOMAN artist. If M has anger, it is at being typecast on a stage that automatically reduces women down to second class size. You can see in her video she is in command of The Stage. This is a resurrection, a healing, as her hands conduct the Orchestra of the Dead. Then, here come her laugh! This is the chuckle of a Mad Person who was determined to threaten normal folks the way crazy male artists threaten people. M was keenly aware how she rubbed people the wrong way.

Our ceilings were ten feet high, and if you climbed into the loft there was an attic of some kind with a cupboard door that opened into the living room. This was the Childrens’s Treehouse where Eric and Britt dwelt. I never climbed up there, I never mounted THE STAGE M built in the middle of the kitchen that rained down children while one was eating on it. There was no longer room for a normal kitchen table. This was a mobile made of two by fours, a jungle gym. The biggest mistake our family made, was we worried about being average. We were being watched. Need we ever wonder why?

In the video I found on the internet, M mentions she did a sculpture. In back of her along the wall, are fresh two by fours lined up like extras on a movie set, or, balletrinas waiting to dance on stage. These boards are Mary Ann’s props that are in a state of suspended animation. Something is going to happen with this lumber. In front of the lumber is M’s LOST ARTWORK that I have never seen! She never told me she was an APPOCOLYPTIC ARTIST. I have never beheld such chaos, such destruction, such madness and despair. Here is M’s Black Swan Song unveiled at last. But, is it too late? Did the world end as she knew it, a long time ago?

The LAST MESSAGE we exchanged on Facebook was full of hope that we might take up our relationship again, but, when she added this extension of the deal “No drama!” I just had to remind her what Judge Boutillini said just before he un-cuffed me from his desk.

“You’re just a victim of circumstances?”
“I was just an extra, Judge!”

In this photo I snipped from Youtube, we see THE LIVING WORK OF ART IN ACTION that I title;

‘The United States of Armageddon – with Old Stove’

You can’t go wrong with this All American title. What M has done in the fine example of Stage Art, is, rip-off Jasper John’s American Flag, with bulls-eye, and Grant Wood’s ‘American Gothic’. It is no mistake that M’s paintings up against the wall look like an American flag, but, instead of a hopeful field of stars (that can no longer be seen thru the pall of the nuclear winter) we have a the Wooden Stripes of Hope, being, we can rebuild after the ‘End Times’ if we have fresh two by fours – and employ clean lines. No more bullshit next time!

Did Jaspar invent minimalist art, or, just finalize it? In this photo we behold this truth. This genius has summed up what modern man is all about, the making of Absolute Nationalism with Glorified Church and the means to destroy it all so the Savior will come and save us – with a Fresh Start. Here is the God-head of Western Reconstruction. For dropping this atomic bomb on the Art World, Jaspar was given a Tiny-tot chair to sit in because he has taken away the talking-points of gallery dealers, and the critics, who needed a way to humiliate him because this is what they do – on the sly!

I will try not to do this in my review because Mary Ann may be the most humiliated artist of all time, and this may not take in the truth she is a woman, a mother, and the ex-wife of several men. Famous male artists are not required to be married, or take care of any children. M had to go to work to support herself and her children.

I have never seen these damaged works of art, never knew they existed. What they reveal to me, is, this artist tried to SAVE THE WORLD with HER art. The key word here is “her”, because, women are not allowed to try and save the world. The question here, is, does Mary Ann employ a secular philosophy to do this thing, or, has she borrowed from the church? I knew her as an atheist, but she could be a secret Christian Appologist.

Because we were Man & Wife, Mary Ann is kin to the men in this work by Heironymus Bosch who was employed by the church to render apocolyptic images. The Wedding Feast at Canna has been severely damaged and altered due to Iconagraphic Wars. Pieces of it were chopped off in order to get it to fit I a niche. The dancing dog was painted over an image of Pope Adrien, and I suspect our kindred, Gottschalk Rosemondt.

Mary Ann made some brilliant marriages, but, made a huge mistake in marrying Chuck, a right-wing upper-crust hot-shot San Francisco attorney who took my ex to the cleaners – with the help of his partner. Chuck was conducting Cultural Warfare against this brilliant artist before we met. Tharaldsen gave up her art that got put in storage where the roof leaked. I beheld this damage when I saw her large portrait of her friend, Mimi Farina.

If I am not mistaken, my ex is saying she was married to David Seidler the producer of ‘The King’s English’. This puts Tharaldsen at the epicenter of a very prestigious Cornell group. M was married to Thomas Pynchon, the good friend of Richard Farina. I can almost hear their discussion as the Soviet ships carrying nuclear missile, steams towards Cuba – the Bulls-eye of the Apocalypse.

Who can change the course of the End Times? The Kennedy brothers went to Harvard and gave America the idea that highly educated college students could change the world – and end the Cold War – by offering a better, more clean, and constructive CHOICE. These brothers, and Martin Luther King, were put in the bulls-eye of dark destructive men ‘The Anti-Artists. The End Times takes away ALL choice, but the choice to choose Jesus. Human Choice is so dirty and highly cluttered. Here is Hiroshima, and the attack on the World Trade Center. Ground ZERO! 911 is the work of a minimalist.

Target stores hired commercial artists to render a iconographic symbol, make a brand for our modern times – washed clean of our most lofty ideals. Gone is the cross and the swastika. But, there still is a rising, but, doomed sun – with Doomsday Eclipse! The days of owning free will, and being able to elude our fate, is over. Might as well go shopping.

On one of M’s paintings she wrote these words “NO PEACE”. America must rid itself of the idea there must be TOTAL WAR, before there can be peace. Appocolyptic writing came about when Judaic apologists could no longer employ a jumble of chaotic words, allegedly from God, to explain why there is such a thing as HUMAN HISTORY that was growing ever more indifferent to God. Mary Ann’s greatest sin, is, she is a very intelligent, and highly educated, Humanist. Many men want to see her fail.

The person that has helped M get her work back in the light, understands this is a historic event, but, she and M can’t quite put their finger on it. In this still-pic these two women pose like bookends and wave their hands over the dead who reach up to them.

“Save us!”

Take note the saviors make the infamous sign of the M that we find in the Grail lore Dan Brown exploited. Here is Poussin’s mysterious masterpiece that allegedly has educated folks identifying the tomb of Jesus, who for a little while, was a peace-loving hippie. Is this dude about be reborn as a Holy Jihad rages in Babylon? That M could stand for Mary Ann. But then, maybe not.

Jon Presco

Copyright 2014

In an audio statement posted on the Internet, the spokesman for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria announced the restoration of the 7th-century Islamic caliphate, a long-declared goal of the al-Qaeda renegades who broke with the mainstream organization early this year and have since asserted control over large areas spanning the two countries.
The move signifies “a new era of international jihad,” said the spokesman, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, who also declared an end to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, as the group had called itself.
Henceforth, ISIS will simply be known as the Islamic State, in recognition of the breakdown of international borders achieved as a result of the group’s conquests, he said. ISIS’s chief, an Iraqi known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, will be the caliph, or leader, of the new caliphate, and all Muslims worldwide will be required to pay allegiance to him.
The proclamation is a powerful challenge to al-Qaeda’s chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who also claims supremacy over the global jihadist movement. Zawahiri repudiated Baghdadi early this year after the Iraqi leader rejected repeated al-Qaeda directives to adopt a more inclusive approach toward other jihadist groups, and it is unlikely that he will agree to bow to the authority of the proclaimed new caliph.

According to one premillennial Christian interpretation, the Messiah will return to earth and defeat the Antichrist (the “beast”) and Satan the Devil in the Battle of Armageddon. Then Satan will be put into the “bottomless pit” or abyss for 1,000 years, known as the Millennium. After being released from the abyss, Satan will gather Gog and Magog from the four corners of the earth. They will encamp surrounding the “holy ones” and the “beloved city” (this refers to Jerusalem). Fire will come down from God, out of heaven and devour Gog and Magog. The Devil, death, hell, and those not found written in the Book of Life are then thrown into Gehenna (the lake of fire burning with brimstone).[7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_apologetics

In the 2nd century, apologetics was both a defense and an explanation of Christianity,[9] addressed to those who had attacked it, but also to those yet to form an opinion, such as emperors and other authority figures, or potential converts.[10] The earliest martyr narrative has the spokesman for the persecuted present a defense in the apologetic mode: Christianity was a rational religion that worshipped only God as “the supreme ruler of the cosmos”, and although Christians were law-abiding citizens willing to honor the emperor, their belief in a single divinity prevented them from taking the loyalty oaths that acknowledged the emperor’s Genius or divine aspect.[11]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Et_in_Arcadia_ego

While the phrase “et in arcadia ego” is a nominal phrase with no finite verb, it is a well-formed construction because substantive and copular verb omission is perfectly acceptable in Latin. Pseudohistorians unaware of that aspect of Latin grammar have concluded that the sentence is incomplete, missing a verb, and have speculated that it represents some esoteric message concealed in a (possibly anagrammatic) code. In The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln, under the false impression that “et in arcadia ego” was not a proper Latin sentence, proposed that it is an anagram for IT! ego arcana dei, which translates to “Begone! I keep God’s secrets”, suggesting that the tomb contains the remains of Jesus or another important Biblical figure. They claimed that Poussin was privy to this secret and that he depicted an actual location. The authors did not explain why the tomb depicted in the second version of the painting should contain this secret while the distinctly different one in the first version presumably does not. Ultimately, this view is dismissed by art historians.[who?]
In their book The Tomb of God,[6] Richard Andrews and Paul Schellenberger, developing these ideas, have theorized that the Latin sentence misses the word “sum”. They argue that the extrapolated phrase et in arcadia ego sum could be an anagram for arcam dei tango iesu, which would mean “I touch the tomb of God — Jesus”.

In the visual arts and music, minimalism is a style that uses pared-down design elements.

Minimalism in the arts began in post–World War II Western Art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Donald Judd, John McCracken, Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin, Robert Morris, Anne Truitt, and Frank Stella.[1] It derives from the reductive aspects of Modernism and is often interpreted as a reaction against Abstract expressionism and a bridge to Postminimal art practices.

Minimalism in music features repetition and iteration such as those of the compositions of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and John Adams. Minimalist compositions are sometimes known as systems music. The term “minimalist” often colloquially refers to anything that is spare or stripped to its essentials. It has also been used to describe the plays and novels of Samuel Beckett, the films of Robert Bresson, the stories of Raymond Carver, and the automobile designs of Colin Chapman. The word was first used in English in the early 20th century to describe “a 1913 composition by the Russian painter Kasimir Malevich of a black square on a white ground”.[2]

Contents [hide]
1 Minimalist design
2 Minimalist architecture and space 2.1 Concepts and design elements
2.2 Influences from Japanese tradition
2.3 Minimalist architects and their works

3 Minimal art, minimalism in visual art
4 Literary minimalism
5 Minimal music
6 See also
7 Footnotes
8 References
9 External links

Minimalist design[edit]

This section possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (May 2011)

The reconstruction of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s German Pavilion in Barcelona
The term minimalism is also used to describe a trend in design and architecture wherein the subject is reduced to its necessary elements. Minimalistic design has been highly influenced by Japanese traditional design and architecture. The work of De Stijl artists is a major source of reference for such work: De Stijl expanded the ideas that could be expressed by very particularly organizing such basic elements as lines and planes.

Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe adopted the motto “Less is more” to describe his aesthetic tactic of arranging the numerous necessary components of a building to create an impression of extreme simplicity by enlisting every element and detail to serve multiple visual and functional purposes (for example, designing a floor to also serve as the radiator, or a massive fireplace to also house the bathroom). Designer Buckminster Fuller adopted the engineer’s goal of “Doing more with less”, but his concerns were oriented towards technology and engineering rather than aesthetics. A similar sentiment was industrial designer Dieter Rams’ motto, “Less but better” adapted from Mies. The structure uses relatively simple elegant designs; ornamentations are good rather than many[dubious – discuss]. Lighting, using the basic geometric shapes as outlines, using only a single shape or a small number of like shapes for components for design unity, and using tasteful non-fussy bright color combinations, (usually natural textures and colors) and clean and fine finishes also influence a structure’s beauty. Sometimes using the beauty of natural patterns on stone cladding and real wood encapsulated within ordered simplified structures along with real metal produces a simplified but prestigious architecture and interior design. Color brightness balance and contrast between surface colors can improve visual aesthetics. The structure would usually have industrial and space age style utilities (lamps, stoves, stairs, technology, etc.) neat and straight components (like walls or stairs) that appear to be machined with equipment, flat or nearly flat roofs, pleasing negative spaces, and large windows to let in much sunlight.

Minimalism and science fiction may have contributed to the late twentieth century futuristic architecture design and modern home decor. Modern minimalistic home architecture probably led to the popularity of the open plan kitchen and living room style by removing unnecessary internal walls

Luis Barragán is another exemplary modern, minimalist designer. Minimalist architectural designers focus on the connection between 2 perfect planes, elegant lighting, and careful consideration of the void spaces left by the removal of three-dimensional shapes from an architectural design. More attractive minimalistic home designs are not truly minimalistic because these use more expensive building materials and finishes and are larger.

Contemporary minimalist architects include John Pawson, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Álvaro Siza Vieira, Tadao Ando, Alberto Campo Baeza, Yoshio Taniguchi, Peter Zumthor, Hugh Newell Jacobsen, Vincent Van Duysen, Claudio Silvestrin, Michael Gabellini, and Richard Gluckman.[3]

Minimalist architecture and space[edit]

The term ‘minimalism’ is a trend from early 19th century and gradually became an important movement in response to the over decorated design of the previous period. Minimalist architecture became popular in the late 1980s in London and New York,[4] where architects and fashion designers worked together in the boutiques to achieve simplicity, using white elements, cold lighting, large space with minimum objects and furniture. Minimalist architecture simplifies living space to reveal the essential quality of buildings and conveys simplicity in attitudes toward life. It is highly inspired from the Japanese traditional design and the concept of Zen philosophy.[citation needed]

Concepts and design elements[edit]

The concept of minimalist architecture is to strip everything down to its essential quality and achieve simplicity.[5] The idea is not completely without ornamentation,[6] but that all parts, details and joinery are considered as reduced to a stage where no one can remove anything further to improve the design.[7]

The considerations for ‘essences’ are light, form, detail of material, space, place and human condition.[8] Minimalist architects not only consider the physical qualities of the building. Moreover, they look deeply into the spiritual dimension and the invisible, by listening to the figure and paying attention to the details, people, space, nature and materials.[9] Which reveals the abstract quality of something that is invisible and search for the essence from those invisible qualities. Such as natural light, sky, earth and air. In addition, they open up dialogue with the surrounding environment to decide the most essential materials for the construction and create relationships between buildings and sites.[6]

In minimalist architecture, design elements convey the message of simplicity. The basic geometric forms, elements without decoration, simple materials and the repetitions of structures represent a sense of order and essential quality.[10] The movement of natural light in buildings reveals simple and clean spaces.[8] In late 19th century as the arts and crafts movement began to be popular in Britain, people valued the attitude of ‘truth to materials’, with respect to the profound and innate characteristics of materials.[11] Minimalist architects humbly ‘listen to figure,’ seeking essence and simplicity by rediscovering the valuable qualities in simple and common materials.[9]

Influences from Japanese tradition[edit]

See also: Japanese architecture

The idea of simplicity appears in many cultures, especially the Japanese traditional culture of Zen Philosophy. Japanese manipulate the Zen culture into aesthetic and design elements for their buildings.[12] This idea of architecture has influenced Western Society, especially in America since the mid 18th century.[13] Moreover, it inspired the minimalist architecture in the 19th century.[7]

Zen concepts of simplicity transmit the ideas of freedom and essence of living.[7] Simplicity is not only aesthetic value, it has a moral perception that looks into the nature of truth and reveals the inner qualities of materials and objects for the essence.[14] For example, the sand garden in Ryoanji temple demonstrates the concepts of simplicity and the essentiality from the considered setting of a few stones and a huge empty space.[15]

The Japanese aesthetic principle of Ma refers to empty or open space. That removes all the unnecessary internal walls and opens up the space between interior and the exterior. Frank Lloyd Wright was influenced by the design element of Japanese sliding door that allows to bring the exterior to the interior.[16] The emptiness of spatial arrangement is another idea that reduces everything down to the most essential quality.[17]

The Japanese aesthetic of Wabi-sabi values the quality of simple and plain objects.[18] It appreciates the absence of unnecessary features to view life in quietness and reveals the most innate character of materials.[19] For example, the Japanese flora art, also known as Ikebana has the meaning of let flower express itself. People cut off the branches, leaves and blossoms from the plants and only retain the essential part from the plant. This conveys the idea of essential quality and innate character in nature.[20]

MA is manifest in Japanese living architecture, garden design and flower arrangement (Ikebana). However, far from being just a spatial concept, MA is ever-present in all aspects of Japanese daily life, as it applies to time as well as to daily tasks.[21]

Tanforan Cottages