The Mirage of Matisse

We went with my parents today to the Museum of Modern Art's visiting exhibit on Matisse. This probably demonstrates my woeful lack of art history skills, but I had no idea that Matisse was such a revisionist in his art. And no, I don't mean that he revised the rules of what 'art' was (although he did) -- what I mean is that he literally painted over and over on the same canvas. He'd move people over slightly, create background and then change it, and in some cases complete scenes that he would then entirely paint over. A prime example of this is the 'View of Notre Dame.' The picture on the left is the original painting; the one on right is the final version. The new version paints over the old with a blue background, but glimpses of the original are still faintly visible.


At first I found this painting annoying - the first one seemed much more detailed and more 'interesting,' at least in the obvious sense that there was more going on visually. But as I perused through the multiple gallery rooms of Matisse's work, I began to appreciate his desire to keep improving and keep molding his original canvases. If I was an artist, I probably would have tossed the canvas and started over, but Matisse recognized that a piece of art is a journey, and each phase should be appreciated and remembered rather than covered over completely or thrown in the garbage.

This seems much like life to me. We often hear it described as a journey, but it is also not that simple... not that linear. I think we are all much like Matisse's canvases... colorful and flawed; people who learn and change and continue through life. But through it all, we retain memories and traces of colors from our previous stages/experiences.

The pitfall of looking at Matisse is that at first you only see the top layer. You have to look closely and really carefully inspect the work to see the layers of paint underneath. This cursory "I glimpsed and what I saw on top must be all that's there" attitude is unfortunately common, and a recurring pitfall among both politicians and the media/reform bills surrounding the financial crisis. The easy thing to see is Wall Street -- blame the fat cat bankers who only cared about profits and drove the country into the ground. Well, yes, bankers certainly hold their share of blame. But underneath this obvious scapegoat are myriad other parties at fault hiding behind the bankers. The mortgage issuers who earned commission per loan and didn't care who they issued them too. The people who took out the loans, knowing they wouldn't be able to afford the payments. The lawyers who wrote wording for the mortgage contracts that was so complex and convoluted that no one could really understand what they were signing. And even partly the government, who put LIBOR near zero, essentially offering the banks free money to use however they wanted (and use it they did). So are the bankers to blame? Partly, yes. But like Matisse there are many more hidden factors at play.

Britt Scripp Scones

A couple weeks ago Chris and I were in Southern California for vacation and spent the last couple days of our trip in San Diego at the Britt Scripps Inn (pictured on left), a home from the 1880's renovated into a nine room B&B. The place was great... individualized service, and each room had its own unique decorating theme. We were in the carriage house, a freestanding house in the yard converted into a room with a french country decor. But by far the highlight of the stay (for me at least) was the made-to-order breakfast, which began each morning with a different scone course...not to mention the fresh squeezed OJ in crystal juice glasses, personalized menus, and cute tables for 2.

On our last morning there, I found the chef and asked for the scone recipe. Afraid it was a secret family recipe, I was ready to grovel and offer to name a future child after her, when I was shocked to hear the recipe came from the Joy of Baking online! The one listed is chocolate chip, but another morning we had a blueberry with white chocolate chip version that was awesome too. For those adventurous in the kitchen, the recipe is here:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/SconesChocChip.html

I've never seen buttermilk in a scone recipe before, so perhaps this is its secret to greatness??

I have a secret dream of one day opening a small store that is half bakery, half bookstore. Yes, I know e-readers are the new thing (full disclosure: I have a kindle and love it), but nonetheless, the dream lives on. Anyway, I have now added these scones to my imaginary baked goods inventory. (Maybe if I sell kindles the business will actually be viable?) In the mean time, however, I'll keep my current job as an investment portfolio/accountant type. Maybe I can be like Clark Kent, accounting/financing during the day and popping out at secret moments to save people's lives with a much needed slice of apple pie...


A few other pictures of our California escapades:

Flour, Eggs, and Financial Regulation

I feel sort of ridiculous. I usually think of bloggers as falling within two buckets: those who are blogging as a job, and those who are blogging to update friends/family on Unusual Escapades or Grand Adventures. I am neither of those. And having read blogs of friends in Teach for America, serving the poor in St. Louis, and generally solving the world's problems for little to no money, I realize people generally have little motivation in reading about my life - that while perhaps marginally interesting one cannot really compete with the "how-I-single-handedly-saved-an-African-village-from-drowning-by-teaching-free-bridge-weaving-classes-to-indigenous-people" stories.

However, I am going to ignore all of that, and write about what I find interesting - namely, at the moment, finance, baking, and living life in the current locale of the big apple.

So stay tuned ... at least you'll never know what you might find here next! :o)