Waking up from sleeping in on day four of spring break, it was, as expected, a dull and rainy Thursday. Wiping the eye boogers off my eyes and popping in a fresh pair of contacts, I look outside and wondered if there was anything happening that day or why the hell I even bothered to wake up. Got up and walked to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, and, ’light bulb’, why not do that English thing where you had to go to a museum? The blog assignment said to look at a piece of art, so why not visit the Cincinnati Art Museum? Called up a couple of people, texted away, and received nothing I wanted to respond to, so basically, nothing was happening on that grey afternoon nor was anyone down to roll to see some paintings, and such. I proceeded to take a long shower, put some clothes on, google some directions, and off I went.

            From the many I could have chosen, the piece of art that stood out to me was not the largest nor was it the best looking one. It was small and abstract, and it hung on a fairly secluded corner of a room in some exhibit I cannot exactly remember. It may have been something about the olden people of Cincinnati, I could be wrong. The painting is called, “Sketch for Chimney Corner”, made by a dude named Henry Mosler. It did not have a caption or a description, so what it really was, was up to the viewer; which made it more interesting to me.

            To describe what the painting was, the image is about a man and a woman hanging out near a fireplace. To me, the painting looked like a sketch, but with brush strokes. It almost resembled a distorted image from a dream or a blurry picture taken when the camera was moving. This is one of the factors that interested me to this piece.

 On the left side of the picture, the woman, had the traditional puritan woman look where she wore a long blue skirt that covered her legs and a white top with a hood. She is sitting down and it appears that she is weaving something on a small wooden table. Across from her was the man and he had the classic blacksmith look. He wore brown pants, possibly khakis, a white long sleeved shirt with the suspenders over his shoulders, and he also had a matching brown hat, maybe cowboy style. He appears to be sitting down on a stool with his right foot rested on the same table where the woman is weaving. He also appears to be smoking with his right hand, most likely an old tobacco pipe or a cig. While seeing this in front of me, the image, in a sense, was moving or played a short clip. The fact that the painting had no caption, what they were doing can be up to the imagination.

            Another reason why this stood out to me the most, besides that fact that it was bizarre and different, is it gave me a quick snap shot of what life was at home back in the day. Again, the painting toyed with my imagination. The distant past, really anytime before I was born, is a time I wonder about, so seeing this painting struck my interest nerve.

The couple featured or created may be ending their day or be hanging out inside on a cold day, so what was shown could be just what they do indoors. Thinking about this is another reason that kept me interested. The woman could have just stayed at home all day cleaning all sorts of things, taking care of a couple kids, or could be making soap - who knows? On the other hand, the man could have been working some laborious job and after along day maybe visited a pub; so maybe when he got home he wanted to hang out with his wife and smoke a cigarette since he was feeling a little tipsy. 

In conclusion, this particular image spoke to me in a sense that it made me imagine about what could be happening. Since the picture was distorted or blurry, I had to further use my imagination to “enhance” the image in my mind so it would make more sense to me. Also, now that I have thought about it, life back then seemed really dry and boring, so I don’t think I would want to hang out in that situation in the painting. Really after that conclusion hit my mind, that was what made me move on to the rest of the museum. I also liked how this image was tucked away in some corner, so there is a chance that not many people have paid attention to it. Overall, the Cincinnati Art Museum was not disappointing at all, maybe one day ill go back when they finish the other exhibits.