All the Leaves are Brown

Andrew Wyeth, 1964 (Baltimore Sun story by Patrick Walters, The Associated Press)

Andrew Wyeth, lover of gray and brown, the sere and the lonely, master of alone-ness, as well as lover of models, has joined the great tempera painting in the sky, a curtain blowing in from an open window.

Wind from the Sea, 1948

At 91, he straddled the uncomfortable gap between low-critical and high-popular acclaim with a certain amount of "whatever," and like many other male artists, did exactly what he wanted to the tune of financial success. His wife took care of the details and didn't sweat the secrecy. In the end, the work exhibits peerless technique in the service of subject matter that veers at times towards the reproducible, and yet still strikes a transcendent chord at least part of the time.

Winter, 1946

"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure in the landscape -- the loneliness of it -- the dead feeling of winter."

Vampires Shmampires

Le Manoir Diable, Georges Méliès

The vampire has been fanging on our collective necks since 1896 with the first appearance of a man transforming into a bat in Méliès two minute fantasy-comedy Le Manoir Diable, followed shortly thereafter by the publication of Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1897. One hundred and twelve years later we are still being stalked by the pallid, otherworldly creatures. Is it a coincidence that as the world seems to becoming a darker and more unpredictable place that the vampire is once again reasserting his hold on our attention? Twilight, True Blood, and Let the Right One In all depict vampires as not only having the savage unquenchable need to drink human blood, but also as having an irresistable charismatic appeal. Why are we feeling the need to fall in love with something that wants to kill us?

The Wikipedia entry on Stoker's Dracula cites themes of imperialism, xenophobia and use of technology to achieve results. Hmm. Sound familiar?