Ah! I was thinking of a wooden palette at first but I think this is more interesting---because it's been prepackaged (and thus manufactured for fun).
I like the meta-ness of putting paint back on a palette.
So what happens after you choose a type of weather? Do you paint a whole picture like that---that is, do you just touch brush against board and it automatically fills up with sunshine, rain, etc.? Do you paint your face to reveal your mood? Or do you paint the air around you and change the adjacent weather?
Ooh, a wooden palette--I didn't even picture that until right now! You bring up a good point in that this does suggest a product, while a wooden palette would have seemed like the paint was placed there by the artist.
I think the way it functions can be determined by each viewer. So, yes, it works in all of the above ways and maybe more. I come to this conclusion based on three things:
1) I can't decide, 2) Sparking contemplation is enough to make me happy, and 3) I think that this is all about being given a choice (symbolically?) in something that we have no control over in reality. It follows that exactly what a weather palette does should also be chosen by the viewer. Leaving it open to interpretation hopefully causes some kind of pause. Heh. Or maybe I'm taking this too seriously.
I like #3---choosing the unchoosable. I hadn't thought about that. We can sort of choose the weather now---with controlled greenhouses, or air-conditioning, or getting on a plane and flying to a different climate. But having more choice may actually erode us. When everything becomes easy, we atrophy. I'm not trying to glorify struggle---I'd like the minimal amount possible!---but there's something about having to work for something---and *accepting* what you cannot change---that I think makes a person stronger, more resilient, better.
Ah! I was thinking of a wooden palette at first but I think this is more interesting---because it's been prepackaged (and thus manufactured for fun).
ReplyDeleteI like the meta-ness of putting paint back on a palette.
So what happens after you choose a type of weather? Do you paint a whole picture like that---that is, do you just touch brush against board and it automatically fills up with sunshine, rain, etc.? Do you paint your face to reveal your mood? Or do you paint the air around you and change the adjacent weather?
Ooh, a wooden palette--I didn't even picture that until right now! You bring up a good point in that this does suggest a product, while a wooden palette would have seemed like the paint was placed there by the artist.
ReplyDeleteI think the way it functions can be determined by each viewer. So, yes, it works in all of the above ways and maybe more. I come to this conclusion based on three things:
1) I can't decide, 2) Sparking contemplation is enough to make me happy, and 3) I think that this is all about being given a choice (symbolically?) in something that we have no control over in reality. It follows that exactly what a weather palette does should also be chosen by the viewer. Leaving it open to interpretation hopefully causes some kind of pause. Heh. Or maybe I'm taking this too seriously.
I like #3---choosing the unchoosable. I hadn't thought about that.
ReplyDeleteWe can sort of choose the weather now---with controlled greenhouses, or air-conditioning, or getting on a plane and flying to a different climate. But having more choice may actually erode us. When everything becomes easy, we atrophy. I'm not trying to glorify struggle---I'd like the minimal amount possible!---but there's something about having to work for something---and *accepting* what you cannot change---that I think makes a person stronger, more resilient, better.