Jul 28, 2020

26. My paintings & The Exhibition In...


 The Windy day Of My Life 
 Painted by Shalom ISORUBLOG
Oil On Canvas, 60.64 cm × 45.5 cm, 2014

🌹 When I was a teenager, a puberty,  I used to want to be an enviable painter whom everybody admires... Because, that time, they looked fascinating and extraordinaire in my eyes.

True be told, I liked to draw and paint to some degree/partly, for I wanted to get a job that I can "work alone", so that I thought that painting work would be appropriate to me... 

But, I thought, if one has not much money, then he could not be a painter the same as musicians... Thus, becoming a painter seemed to be impossible to me, not because a talent first but because a money first...  For painters have to spend much money to purchase painting stuffs.

In fact, the expense of exhibition, including the cost of painting-frame, in galleries will be heavier than above matter, even though online-galleries permeate nowadays...
Even so, there is no any warrant/guarantee whether such a painting is sold in galleries or not, but rather it is identical with a "spending", which there is no a practical profit.

Anyway, admiring a painting in galleries or in museums will improve the impression of paintings than viewing a photographic painting indirectly. Plus, If one wants to buy a painting (if it is not cheap), then he will want to directly buy that paintings after reviewing in galleries.

Well, time elapsed, I taught myself how to draw and paint, having said that, I'm not a talented person to paint, for I sensed/perceived the fact through my painting work...

What I have learned through "self-teaching" is, this: after all, every learners have to be their own teacher.  Because, teachers are not oneself, what is more regrettable is,  they don't even teach everything that they know, which says, their "know-how",  for its know-how or knowledge are their means/method of making a "living", so that if they teach everything that they know, then they are likely to be underestimated from learners vice versa...  And their fountain of knowledge will be also dried up... then, no one will want to seek the dried fountain to quench a thirst...

A self-study might let learners learn something object more unforgettable and more plentiful, though there might be a limited boundary to fully achieve it, for the direct experience that learners learned without teachers enhances/increases their power of memory, whereas the indirect experience that learners learned from teachers is likely to easily forget...

In addition, self-teaching is time-consuming method...
Even so, I think that there is "no easy way" for learning, whatever it is, but rather, there should fail and be frustrated for the result over and over again... and should withstand and overcome all the troubles, too...
The more it is painful, the more it might be worthy like this example;  the deeper the valley, the higher mountain, or the pure gold is refined  through the furnace...
By the way, who would want to undergo that difficulties?... Hence, people might want to learn from teachers, which might be an easy way to learn in some ways. That being said, it is not meant that learning from teachers is "unnecessary"... What I want to say is that ultimately, learners cannot rely on them...

People may know this fact; our lives should be independent... Learning might be the same as it... 
Even little birds must leave from their mother-birds and the nests like people leave from their parent after being an adult ...

But yet, ironically, after having a new family with a marriage, people depend on their new "family" again like family is only the best refuge... This phenomenon seems to stands out in Asia. For generally Asia still pursues a collectivism, whereas the US and Europe chase an individualism...

At any rate, today, family-centered conception is getting weaker, for people don't even get married, so that "birthrate" is also inactive...

In my personal opinion, the world population should be "decreased" rather than now,  an increasing world population causes many problems, such as: an environmental pollution, a food shortage, a rat race, a lack of resource...etc., furthermore we people live with lots of livestock on the earthㅡpeople want to endlessly eat "meat" therewith. 🐃🐂🐖🐄🐓...

That livestock are the factor of a food shortage... Because , people feed that livestock with hundreds of millions of tons of crops to butcher, while Africa people cannot eat a handful of corn... And that thousand upon thousand livestock also pollute the environment as much as people do... 

Well, I often read news comments, it seems like people no longer want to give birth, because living itself is painful in this world... They often say, " I don't want to hand my poverty down to my children. My poverty is enough to have suffered alone." ... and  some who cannot even get married due to money grieve over their ill luck through that comment section...

I don't want to say which one is better or correct between a married-life and a single life. I might just want to say there are two aspects like so...

Today, the world's economy looks more sluggish with the coronavirus pandemic, so that children who have to be independent from their parent seem to be more harsh... Anyhow, poor children should cultivate the wilderness alone, unless their parent are the rich...

The way that that children have to go is never easy, and this world is never an easy opponent/rival...  That being said, there might be another way that they can live like this proverb; "Live with your gums, if you don't have tooth"...

Well, I couldn't learn painting expertly, even if I wanted to be a painter at one time/at one point,  for no one could support learning painting... However, some of famous painters also taught themself how to paint...

There are thousands of informations how to paint today, and a great number of painters have been advertising their own painting sales via a social media or an online galleries.

 When I didn't know what the painting was and what the painter was, l just dreamed to exhibit my some paintings in a gallery. I didn't even know that my paintings were "crappy" that's why I dreamed to display...
However, such a dream came true in my life for the first time, and it will never happen again...
The exhibited painting was only "one", not many but only one, in Paris and Lyon, France. Both were a group exhibition, firstly it was displayed in Lyon, and then in Paris.

There was a story that I was able to exhibit in France.  I think that it was like a "miracle"...  Maybe 3~4 years ago, I read an advertisement of international art exhibition(Art Fair) which held in France.

Before it happened, I have dreamed to exhibit my painting in "Paris", not other place, before I die, even though I could not visit in France in person...  I still cannot afford to visit other countries...

France is well known for art and cultureㅡ especially, paintings might be their fadeless pride. So, people might  admire art works like this ; " An immortal masterpiece..."  Thus, I applied the exhibition via email with the application forms (including my simple profile) and some photos of my paintings.

Oddly(miraculously), the gallery in Paris approved my painting to display, but typically galleries don't easily approve to exhibit for an amateur who don't have career of exhibitions or "art" academic degree/credential like me...
I was rejected twice to exhibit my painting in domestic galleries due to that reason, probably... What was more important is, my paintings might have been "crappy" in their eyes, too...

Usually, galleries want to exhibit painter's several paintings to make money, because, almost all exhibitions are not free, so that each one of paintings becomes an income for that galleries by which they can charge the rental cost from painters. Besides, what if that paintings are sold, then galleries receive some commission by selling once again...

This exhibition in France was not free either, applicants had to pay a rental fee or entrance fee for the exhibition.
Despite, applicants/painters have to rival with many other applicants, and if galleries don't want to permit displayingㅡ even though painters pay the expenseㅡ then, applicants cannot exhibit in that galleries.

Even so, I don't know about private/solo exhibition well, for I have never displayed a solo exhibition in a gallery.
But, in general, if it is a group exhibition, then each of galleries differs in what they want to displayㅡas I see it,  typically galleries don't like a fine art-style, but prefer a chic and cold "modern painting" in my country.  

I applied only one painting to the gallery in Paris, amazingly, they approved my painting, I still think it is "unbelievable" that I was able to exhibit in Paris, Lyon, France.

After getting the permission, I sent my painting through post office delivery service. The delivery fee was not much expensive as much as I supposed. The cost was around  
$ 40~55ㅡ I don't remember the exact amount...

While I was paying the charge in front of the counter,  the post office staff looked exciting, looking at my painting-package on which it was written the address of Paris, France.
The delivery was like " I " was about to go Paris , though I was not able to go in France in practice... At that instant, I was exciting too...
After ending all exhibition, the gallery in Paris sent some of photos and advertised images that they displayed my painting in Paris and Lyon through my email account as they contracted.
These are the displayed photos some of them;
The Gallery In Paris, 2017
The Art Fair In Lyon, France, 2017.
The Art Fair In Lyon, France, 2017
Image By The Gallery In Paris 
The Gallery In Paris, France, 2017
After seeing all the pictures that they sent, at the precise moment, oddly I felt ashamed about my painting that was displayed in Paris and Lyon...

How petty my painting was in the art fair which was displayed along with other painter's paintings all over the world, though it was a small partition in Lyon!  After that, I decided to stop painting in some ways...

First, I taught myself how to paint a watercolor on paper, it was very difficult to control a water amount on paper, water painting itself is very picky as well,  besides watercolor cannot retouch the mistaken coloring in contrast with an oil painting... Because, the brush-touch and its coloring are colored on paper as it is, which cannot cover by using a transparent water.

Watercolor is transient/momentary and uses an accidental spreading effect on paper, so that if painters mistake to color, then they have to redo, this arouses an irritation...

There are manifold watercolor papersㅡ canson, fabriano, arches...etc. and all these things have a different feature each of them... In general, such a paper is not a paper, but is a kind of cotton... for a cotton itself sucks up water very well.
This is the conson that I have now ;

Image : selfie
Made in France
So, painters should know how to control a water amount with the paper's(cotton) traits including other factors ㅡ brush-touch, mixing colors, its coloring, and other varied techniques, etc.

A watercolor is necessary for emphasizing a transparency with that techniques, if not, the painting looks dirty... But I couldn't do it well, after all, I gave it up... 
This is one of my watercolors as not an expert painter ;
< For A Minute > 44 cm × 37.5 cm  Painted by Shalom  ISOURBLOG
Watercolor on arches , 2012

And then, I taught myself how to paint by using oil colors on the canvas. It was also not easy to handle all the things, there were lots of difficulties of how to color... I couldn't even know how to "vividly" blend colors and how to "diversely" brush and how to utilize various oil painting mediumsㅡthere are diverse oils: sunflower, poppy, turpentine, a volatile petrol, and gesso(usually uses to apply on the canvas before beginning a painting), etc. I don't even know all of them...

For this reason, my oil paintings always turned out a dark painting, not because a dark hue itself, but because my awkward techniques to blend colors and to brush which might have misused diverse oil painting mediums.------

Moreover, an oil painting smells like a gasoline and every time painters should wash the oil-stained brushes with a laundry soap after coloring. I did not like it...

In conclusion, I didn't even know the basic course of oil painting, but rather, first I should have imitated other famous painter's painting before creating my own art-style not as an expert painter... I did not do it. For I didn't wanted to imitate other painter's painting...

It might have been my failure and arrogance that I did not imitate other painter's paintings first in order to learn how they blended colors and how they brushed... etc.

... After all, I stopped painting with a desperation and futility... and I no longer paint, now just some of my paintings that I painted back then were piled up in a corner... But, when I become the old, I may restart a painting to kill time... That day, If I paint again, I would like to teach myself how to paint through an imitation work, a basic course, step by step, then I may find out how to effectively blend color and how to diversely 
brush through... something like that...
This is some of my oil paintings and acrylic painting on the paper(arches cotton) ;
< Longing For The Melody> Painted by Shalom ISOURBLOG
Acrylic On Arches 90.9 cm × 72.7 cm, 2013
<Abstract Composition> Painted by Shalom ISOURBLOG
Acrylic On Wooden Panel 53 cm × 45.5 cm, 2015
< The Outcast > Painted By Shalom ISORBLOG
Oil on Canvas 65.1 cm × 50 cm, 2015
In plain words, acrylic colors are like a new product to redeem a defect of water color and oil color, thus, simply put, it has a half-and-half feature of water color and oil color. However, in my eyes, oil colors can express deeper and more affluent/abundant hue and texture(matière) on the canvas, so that such an oil color might have been loved from many painters for a long, long, long... time...
This is an Acrylic color sample that I have now:


Acrylic color
Made in domestic
Image: selfie

Oil color / Titanium white/  Brand : Van Gogh
Made in Netherlands
Image : selfie
When we people become the old, we might have to fight against a dreary time with the aging... That day,  everybody will experience the loneliness with the dreary time... If so, how slow time flies!....

Painting might be one way to kill time... Because, painting is like a thief who steals that time, which means, time will fly quickly. When we paint, we might experience "another space" on the canvas like we are in another world...

Image by the Gallery In Paris




sourblog  Shalom








Jul 22, 2020

Jean-François Millet Art Style


" Birds Struggle To Get Out Of The Egg That Is The World. Those Who Are About To Be Born Have To Destroy Its World. The Bird Flies To The Deity
... omitted. "
ㅡ Demian, Herman Hesse(1877~1962), Germany
Translated by ISOURBLOG

The Angelus Painting by Jean-François Millet
The Angelus(1857~1859)
Painting by Jean-François Millet


Contents
Introduction
1.  Who Is Jean-François Millet?
- France Is The Hub of Painting
- The Difficulty of learning Foreign languages
- His Second Wife Catherine
2.  Jean-François Millet Art Style
3.  Ex-wife Pauline Died Caused By TB
4.  What is TB(Tuberculosis)?
My Personal Experiences:
- A Sufferer Caused by Pulmonary Tuberculosis
- A Sufferer By Religion Christianity
5.  ArtworksㅡPersonal Analysis:
-The Gleaners
-The Sower
-The Angelus
-Bathing Women Seize
6.  Hantavirus Hemorrhagic Fever With Renal Syndrome, HFRS
7.  Bush typhus(Tsutsugmushi Fever)
8.  Epilogue




Introduction


         There are plenty of painters all over the globe who express their minds and hearts. Among them, I'm particularly interested in Jean-François Millet( French painter 1814~1875), who depicted famous masterpieces such as The Angelus(1859), The Gleaners(1857), and The Sower(1850), etc.

     All these things seem that nobody will admire, for all his works are neither beautiful nor attractive nor colorful nor glittering..., but rather, these are just poor-looking and dark... Who would exalt that kind of painting Jean-Francois Millet painted?  No one will praise it...  However, a miracle happened in Millet's life... 

     When I appreciate his works, I admire his mindset which was represented by his hard life and work... And besides that, everybody has been hurt caused by diverse sufferings of life in our livesㅡ whether it is dire or not. According to the Bible, all humans were trapped under the misery of sin, so we humans should be afflicted and dead in this world. Anyway, the lyric suddenly comes into my mind is, this: " Everybody Hurts."  The rock band R.E.M might have wanted to give comfort to people through this song:


When the day is long
And the night, the night is yours alone
When you're sure you've had enough 
Of this life, well, hang on

Don't let yourself go

'Cause everybody cries
And everybody hurts 
sometimes 
Sometimes everything is wrong
...
So, hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on
Everybody hurts
No, no, no, no you're not alone.


      Whether it is this or that, I think that living itself is a sin, suffering, and death while we humans live in this world...  
However, what is more, noticeable is that no one will want to take up this fact...

      Jean-François Millet was not a fictional character, but was a real-life character like you and me, although he already died in 1875. How far away it is from now..!  In one sense, whether it is a fictional character or a real-life character, both are the same as a nonexistent phantom... Even so, his renowned name and works have only remained in history...

Jean-François Millet Self-portrait-1
 Jean-François Millet
Self-portrait-1


1.  Who Is Jean-François Millet?

      First, I might as well introduce him succinctly. For it is not my focus to expound his life and his works like art scholars, who studied it professionally. Just what I want to describe is my personal views as to his life, his art style, and some artworks.
 
     He was born in a poor farmhouse as the firstborn son in the village situated Gruchy, Normandy in northern France. But fortunately, he received a talent to paint, and his talent was highly respected by his acquaintances so he launched to school in 19 century.

     He also dreamed to be a successful painter with his lust for life like many painters dreamed to be...; who would not want to be a successful painter in Paris..? No people will dislike living such a successful life these days, too.  This self-portrait might be suitable to represent his ambition; so I chose this image to show his ambition...

20s self-portrait-2
20s self-portrait-2


      In my eyes, his eyes look alive, intense, strained, and masculine [as if a sailor] in order to come true his ambition... Plus he looks clean-cut and abstained with the black outfit(perhaps). He was a believer who believed in God. Thus in my book, his appearance looks religious...

       Eventually, he went to Paris to make money through his outstanding talent as mentioned above. Back then, Paris was like a stronghold for those who dreamed to be successful painters or entrepreneurs like in New York probably... 

 - France Is The Hub of Painting

      Nowadays, most painters may still want to study painting or exhibit their paintings in Paris, France.  As we know, France is the country in which
 art, literature, history, tradition, philosophy, etc. are replete. While, a close Germany is well known as a classical music hub, thus a lot of classical musicians have studied music in Germany.  Paintings will be a primary pride of France. Tons of tourists have visited the Louvre in order to admire its paintings...  That being said, I don't know very well about the French and France...  I just learned basic French for nearly 4 months. Now I forgot everything that I have learned... Some vocabulary and sentences were only memorized... 

 - The Difficulty Of Learning Foreign Language

      Well, learning a foreign language is always difficult as though blogging... For it is endless to achieve...  Furthermore, speaking a foreign language is not meant that people fluently speak because there should "speak", "listen", "write""and read", in addition, should know "grammar" at the same time, therefore what if someone speaks it very well, then it doesn't mean that someone can write, listen, and read all together, what is more, difficult is that each of them is a different realm, though all these things are connected with one root.  For example, if someone is good at writing, then it doesn't mean that someone can translate, and writing is different from translating as well. That is the reason that people are difficult to learn foreign languages, not as native speakers. 


     To return, Jean-François Millet mainly painted portraits and nudes of women for a living itself in Paris like many painters pursued and painted, that kind of work might have been exalted by most people in those days.  From my point of view, it seemed that he could not find his own unique art style in Paris yet,  just his paintingsㅡportraits and nudesㅡmight have been the same as a parrot whose birdsong apes people's tongue, so to speak, there was no his originality in it. 

       So Millet might have just painted it technically based on his outstanding workmanship, which there was no his own heart and mind on the canvas... Probably, those paintings would have been uninspired...  Nevertheless, his perverse fate relentlessly trampled and tore his searing ambition like the song "I Dreamed a Dream."  God might have let him be shattered like that...

I Dreamed A dream.
There was a time when men were kind
When their voices were soft
And their words inviting...
There was a time when love was blind
And the world was a song
And the song was exciting
There was a time
Then it all went wrong...
I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted...
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung...
No wine untasted...
But the "tigers" come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
As they turn your dream to shame
He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my child in his stride...
But he was gone when autumn came
And still I dream he'll come to me...
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that CANNOT be
And there are storms we cannot weather...
I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed....
The dream...I dreamed...

 ㅡThe song of Fantine from Les misérables

They(that life)tear our hope apart

They(that life) turn our dream to shame

 There are dreams that cannot be

 There are storms we cannot weather

      That is life...  People dream and expect, but life is perverse, inexorable, invincible, cruel, and painful... Everything doesn't become what we people want...  Even birth is not what we people wanted, and death is not what we people wanted either. In some sense, everything may become unilaterally as God only wishes... 

       Even so, we people must not stand against the Creator... There might only have to exist an " obedience " and a "thankfulness" like the painting " The Angelus" that he depicted... 
 Because of his inexorable fate, his livelihood was getting worse, in addition, his first painting for the art contest in the Salon was rejected, at last, even his lovable wife Pauline early died of her sickness TB(tuberculosis), as soon as she was married... If I were him, I would be crazy! 

        He failed. Moreover, he had no money due to his failure of becoming a successful painter, and above all things, he lost his lovely wife to their abysmal poverty as well... After all, he was shipwrecked to the bone, so this self-portrait might represent his situation of those days:

Self-portrait-3
Self-portrait-3



        His eyes look painful with the dark shadow, but it looks milder than his previous self-portrait when he painted in his 20s.  This self-portrait is very different from the previous portrait in his 20's indeed; as we see above, his hair was tangled, and he took off the neat black suit, instead he put on a shabby dress... His clean-cut, vivid, strained, and alive self-portrait turned out a lifeless and untidy portrait of his hardship, which was far apart from the former ambition that he had dreamed of...

- His Second Wife Catherine


The portrait of Catherine
The portrait of Catherine

        After that, he met a nobody, who was none other than an underdog named Catherine, whose job was an unnoticeable housemaid...  Despite she looks generous, strong, warm, mature, and diligent (like her job), according to rumors, she was very able-bodied.  He would have just wanted to marry a healthy woman, unlike his ex-wife Pauline...

       Of all things, he would have been hurt because of the early death of his ex-wife Pauline, for this reason, he would have just wanted to live with a healthy woman than anyone else, this is not because of beauty, social status, family background, and academic background, etc., but because a healthy mind and heart, warm heart, liberal-minded manner, diligence, and sincerity... etc.  Plus, he would have learned humility amid his hard life like so...  It would also have been his unavoidable fate; who would be able to live alone as a male, i.e. widower?...  Most likely, not many...

        If he were a woman, then it might have been possible to live alone to some extent, abstaining from sexual desire, but he was a man who was necessary for keeping up his married life along with his children, and who needed to enjoy his sexual life as well...

       On the flip side, women are hard to live alone for a living. Because, if they don't have an expert or a special job such as a doctor, professor, engineer, researcher... etc., then almost all women might want to marry or remarry.  

       Jean-François Millet would not have belittled Catherine as a housemaid because he wanted to formally remarry with her; he himself wanted her to be his wifeㅡnot as a housemaid or street girl...  However, his family rigorously rejected his remarriage as Catherine was a low-level woman, so she would have been unbalanced with him who was an educated painter though... Regardless, he insisted to live along with her without a formal marriage.

        At any rate, in those days, riots frequently used to break out in Paris, furthermore, the epidemic of cholera was prevalent all around like the current coronavirus pandemic is being scattered...

       Hence he moved out to a new village called "Barbizon", which was nearly located in Paris, to flee from such a hard life.  Many other painters were already gathered in Barbizon. Because, at that time, France was very chaotic and radical under industrialization and rapid urbanization, on this account, some of the French wanted to live in the countryside for a living in 19 century...  Accordingly, those who wanted to be relaxed out of the chaos used to return to farming, so to speak, Barbizon was an appropriate place and became a refuge for many painters.

       According to rumors, he struggled to show not to be seen as a rustic peasant in Paris because his innate birth was a poor peasant. Therefore, returning to farming and being a peasant again would have been more proper to him... He might not have wanted to pretend himself as a chic Parisian any longer in some ways, but rather he would have longed for being a peasant again from the depth of his heart like that was his origin. 

       Fortunately, he found out his art style in Barbizon, and then he undressed the ostentation that he had masqueraded as a chic Parisian. Everybody might want to pose themselves as a capable person, in other words, the rich and the strong, or else people tend to downplay the poor and the weak... That might be the reason that we people pretend ourselves to be rich and strong... 

        Jean-François Millet rid all the ostentation in painting as well, and then sincerely mirrored the only reality of rural life as a lowly peasant, questioning these things; it would go:
 What is life? ... What is a labor in nature?... What is nature?... What is the suffering of life as lowest peasant in France?... something like that...
       In the meantime, he tried to indirectly expose such a miserable peasant life on his canvas and whether or not people would admire it because in another sense it would have been his own self-portrait...  Back then, he would not have known that his paintings would be exalted... Because, his works are not bright nor showy nor beautiful nor attractive but are dark, heavy, sorrowful, shabby, and loyal to his own motif... and so on.  
    
       Honestly, who would admire such a genre that he had depicted on his canvas...? Everybody will respect showy, hopeful, lovable, joyful, dynamic, overpowering, magnificent, energetic, sweet, tender, rich, bright, shiny, peaceful, beneficial, and profitable paintings...  Despite this, luckily, his works came to the top little by little...  Finally, he received many astonishing awards from the government of France named " La Légion d'Honneur" which is connected with "The Order Of The Legion Of Honor".  According to descriptions,  this title of the award was designated by " Napoleon Bonaparte."  Plus, his paintings were sold by many rich collectors as well as the government of France.

      At that time, audiences and collectors were amazed by his realistic paintings that were never beatified, for painters and audiences thought that paintings had to be glamorized. On the contrary to this, his paintings were never luxurious. However, that kind of his honest works was noticed by people because his paintings were staggering, fresh, unique, informal, realistic, shabby, heavy, dark... etc.  And above all things the protagonists on his canvases were none other than lowly peasants who could never become the nobility..., all these things were like a new revolution in the circle of art in France.

Ex-wife Pauline Died Caused By TB

    
The Portrait Of Pauline, 1844
The Portrait Of Pauline, 1844



      Pauline
 was his ex-wife. She looks pale and thin,  though looks like a pretty doll as we see above... Because there was the reason is, this:  According to rumors, she was awfully agonized by poverty, and along the way, she was early dead by TB (Tuberculosis).

What Is TB(Tuberculosis)?

      In general, TB is known as a wasting disease, which is accompanied by missive fatigue and weight loss. Besides, TB causes scary hemoptysis (coughing up blood from the respiratory tract) and chest pain.  Pauline would have coughed up blood much, thereby she might have looked pale and lean...   

      There are thousands of information about Jean-François Millet and his works, but everything seems to be uncertain, each of them is like thriving hearsay, according to descriptions, he himself was also dead by TB at the end of his life like his former wife Pauline died...

        TB has an incubation period, thus TB patients are not able to become aware of the symptom in advance until they cough up blood... I did...  Well, I didn't die due to a good medical service, which I live in...  And if God exists, He might have saved me from the delusion of religion through the infection of TB and through all my sufferings...  That God might give sickness and heal it as well like Jean-François Millet underwent his suffering and success in his life...

These are my personal experiences: 

- A Sufferer Caused by Pulmonary Tuberculosis

          I know the disease TB well... because I was also sick by TB is a legal epidemic... I was infected by TB, while I was working at... In my case, the name of the disease was pulmonary tuberculosis. TB causes in various body organs, so in my case that TB is caused in my lungs. Oddly, in those days, no one was infected by TB, but I was the only one infected. I would have been infected at my workplaceㅡ there were 200~300 people...  Even so, I could not even know where I was infected expressly... Now I assume the reason, would be this:  I worked under severe working stress, thus I couldn't sleep well, nor could I eat enough of the tensioned stresses...

- A Sufferer By Religion Christianity

      In addition, I was brainwashed person by a religion called Christianity.  I had to attend church every day after finishing my work, including Sunday worship, like a 
spiritual slave and an addict.  I was fatigued with my work every day, despite I had to attend church, and had to give tithes every month along with other donations for God's sakeㅡin fact, the money seemed to be used to extend pastors' church(building) and pastors' family living.   Yes... I might also have cherished an ambition, not to die by taking advantage of God's supernatural power, as if Jean-François Millet dreamed a dream in his life... 

    Well on many levels, believing in God(or religions) is to target one's sake, which says it is not for the sake of God; there may be rooted in dogged and incurable selfishness; no people will believe in God to die or to be victimized but will believe in God to live and receive God's blessing...  The Bible itself might have been written for the sake of the Jews first and humanity, for the culminating desire of salvation, even though the Bible looks only God-centered... A little bird told me that smart people exploit religions, whereas fatuous people believe in religions that might be the self-portate of humanity...

      What if I didn't harbor that kind of religious zeal, then I would not have been brainwashed or fooled by a religion like Christianity... But I think that everybody cannot help but cherish the lust for life, so long as they live, and such a dark experience, which means a religious desire, under Christianity that I have undergone will be a good life lesson not to rely on any kind of religion as wellㅡ esp. the Bible, its doctrine, church, and pastors...

       At that time, the old pastor had a great ambition to build a new megachurch(building) in another place.  At last, the pastor built the megachurch through his church members' offerings. Back then, I was young so while I might not have known what was right or what it was wrong. One day, the old pastor said to me, " You must not quit the job, whatsoever you are in hardship at your workplace!"  Because I could not work(make money) well every time, unlike other people who do make money and do save money well by having their iron will at their workplaces. Even my blog cannot make money either like in the old days...

      What was more stupid was that I made an effort to obey everything that the pastor taught without any doubt because the pastor also taught the Bible like many pastors have taught, in other words, the pastor was like God Himself in my eyes, and I was like a dummy like other church members followed the pastor whatever he taught. So I determined to work(make money) in there on and on, although working was extremely painful day by day... In another sense, working was my living... Even I made up my mind if I die, I will die, working there... That was me...

       At last, I was infected by TB in contrast with the pastor's advice. Despite I thought that his advice would be a sincere consolation for my sake(living)...  Yet the old pastor's advice seemed WRONG, so now I think that the pastor might have wanted to only receive money(offering) from me, for I donated tithes and other donations regularly, working hard work there amid my dire anguish...

       And then, when I was in the hospital because of the contagion of TB,  the pastor and his church members did not visit me at all, perhaps they might not have wanted to be infected by TB like me, on the other side, when my nephew was sick caused by a different diseaseㅡinflammation of the intestines. (I don't know the medical diagnosis manifestly, but it might have been a virus that can infect other people, ultimately I heard that my nephew was sick caused by inflammation of the intestines from my elder sister in person.) 

       The old pastor and his church members visited the hospital room several times in which my nephew(when she was maybe 2~3 years old) was hospitalized. They must have prayed for my nephew's recovery in the name of the LORD loudly in the hospital room and imposed hands on my nephew that is the way of visiting a sick person Christianity follows in my country, it is a kind of culture.  That university hospital was the same place where I was hospitalized for nearly 1 month via its hospital emergency room. Notwithstanding, the pastor and his church members never visited my hospital room...

     Now I guess that the old pastor would visit my nephew in order to ingratiate my elder sister who makes money enough, and who has a steadfast and professional job. Accordingly, she has donated many tithes and other donations to his church. My elder sister and two nephews still attend the church under the brainwashing of ...  One day, even my elder sister donated a special offering for the extension of the church(building), as I know the amount was about $ 2,000~3,500... 

      Now the old pastor's second son took over the wealth(his father's church). For his second son was also a pastor who can cast out demons as if an exorcist... Yes, the old pastor could also cast out demons.  That kind of pastor makes more money through the ability that can perform a wonder.  Because churchgoers admire that kind of pastor. Who would dislike seeing miracles happen in churches? That pastor's ape Jesus and His disciples performed a wonder in the Bible. But in my eyes, they are none other than another demonㅡ the sons of the Devil!  And then, the old pastor moved out to the new megachurch, delivering all his brainwashed church members.  I don't know whether or not the old pastor is still alive because he used to make sure that he never dies because of the power of the enteral life that the Bible states!  After that time,  too much time has passed...  My elder sister and I don't even keep in touch with each other, anyway, she and I have a different view of what faith is... 

        I was forsaken by them like that when I was sick... 
And fortunately, I was able to completely leave the church and the pastor's clutch in consequence of the infection of TBㅡthe dramatic event in my life!  When I was infected and cussed by TB, it was a cold winter... That night, I was still going to church after finishing work.  Yes... it was snowing under the light of a streetlamp, and as soon as I coughed, a little blood spewed like Pauline would cough up blood... So that night I perceived that I would be sickened with a weighty disease... On the other hand, I wanted to die as it is because of unbearable suffering in my life...

The Snowy Night Under A Streetlamp...
The Snowy Night Under A Streetlamp...


Jean-François Millet Artworks - Personal Review

The Gleaners

The Gleaners, 1857
The Gleaners, 1857

       Almost all people will know this famous paintingThe Gleaners."  Some might simply assume that it looks like a peaceful rural landscape where three women were diligently gleaning in the field.  Seemingly, women seem to be very engrossed in gleaning dressing shabby clothes, but there was a reason that they had to be absorbed in gleaning...

        About that time, the rabble, peasants, had to glean within the limited time under the monitoring of landowners, thus as we see above, the red circle mark that I marked signals that kind of landowners. In the painting, he is monitoring peasants, riding on a horse in the distance.  On that account, women had to glean as many and fast as they can within the limited time, that was their primary absorption on which they gleaned. It might have been a dark shadow rather than a peaceful rural landscape. And It might mean that peasants had to live like dogs, that dogs only have to eat broken pieces or leftovers under the table of a master like in the parable of the beggar Lazarus in the Bible...

The Sower

The Sower, 1850
The Sower, 1850


         I think that this painting is pretty thought-provoking...   He looks hard to sow on the sloping and desolate field where nothing is seen, even that field seems that nothing would be able to live on, whereas the sower's motion looks very dynamic to scatter seeds, even though that field just looks bleak and barren in stark contrast with the seedman's toil, nevertheless, the sower is diligently sowing in the painting, probably expecting a luxuriant harvest... A certain philosopher told viewers via YouTube that we people should sow seeds(i.e. hope) as possible as we can only within the given possibility, expecting the harvest(i.e. fruition), then heaven(God) will help us. Is it really true?...

         There are innumerable descriptions regarding this painting, "The Sower", based on religious perspectives, for Jean-François Millet was also a believer.  It seems to me that humans have to work laboriously.  If humans don't work, whatever it is, nothing is given as a fruit because of the result of mankind's sin, which was spoken in the Bible. We humans must sow(work) on the desolate field, expecting a harvest, but ironically, God might only grow the seeds and harvest its fruits like He is only a very farmer... Thus We humans might be a scarecrow(dummies)... In a sense, we humans might have to be humble before the harvest... Because the harvest is only up to God; if someone can harvest many, then he should not brag about it, while if someone cannot harvest at all, then he should not be disappointed therewith because the harvest is not up to us...

The Angelus

The Angelus(1857~1859)
Painting by Jean-François Millet


        This painting was also best known all over the world...
It apparently looks like a poor husband and wife are giving thanksgiving to God with their harvest in the evening sun, and the flock of ravens is coming nearer or drawing apart a long way off...   However, their harvest looks very poor, and they seem to be shabby... According to descriptions, that harvest was some of the potatoes, yet it was not. True be told, that was their dead baby...

         This is the hidden story: In the beginning, Jean-François Millet wanted to depict the true scene that a certain husband and wife are praying for their dead babyㅡhope the baby goes into heaven and rests in peace there... Their baby died caused of starvation as the baby was not able to overcome a lasting hunger during a long winter...

        However, his acquaintances were concerned about that tragic painting because that kind of his tragic and straightforward motive would have been targeted to receive public criticism, thereby he was in severe conflict about what to do, finally, he retouched the dead baby as the potato basket...   For this reason, he would have painted the flock of black crows, because those birds take a smell of the dead things, even if it was blurredly described afar... After that, the Louvre scanned this painting with ultraviolet rays, amazingly, it was a dead baby in the basket! 

        No one will want to be confronted with those tragic happenings, in short, the death... Moreover, if one's family is dead, then the rest of the family will live in an insistent yearning(attachment) until they die, too... Hence I suppose that Jean-François Millet would have recalled his early dead wife Pauline, who died due to the same poverty that caused the baby to die too... Therefore he would have wanted to paint the real scene where the poor husband and wife are praying for their dead baby, whose body was laid in the basket as though some potatoes.  That kind of his aspiration would have let him paint "The Angelus" which resonates with varied and unforgettable impressions in viewers' minds and hearts that is why this painting is called an immortal masterpiece in our history... That is Jean-François  Millet's living and swirling soul on the canvas.

           At least, Millet actually experienced what death was through his dead wife who died due to her sickness and poverty... and would have felt the incurable heartbreak like the husband and wife in the painting... so, he would have wanted to indirectly portray all the suffering in this way,  praying for the parent's and his own peaceful rest like the evening bell called an Angelus was echoing in the sunset...

       Most people will not be able to easily embrace their wives' or families' deaths, regardless, life is so relentless...
What we humans have to do is that might be obedience and thankfulness whatsoever it is, instead of bitter resentment...  Everybody may be living a dissatisfied life, and a man's greed is endless... We, people, complain against God who ultimately allows all the things and contexts..., asking, " Why am I the only one who has been suffering from those things, Why, Why, Why?"

       Recently I read a poem when I went to a second-hand bookstore to look around which one will be proper to buy.  No one will like this poem; this is my partial transition:

 Others say that they love freedom,
    but I like obedience.
Although I know what freedom is,
 I want to submit myself only to you.
The obedience that I obey is
sweeter than the beautiful freedom.
       For this is my happiness...

ㅡPoet: YU, Han(1879~1944) 
This poet was none other than a leper whose body was rotting... The parts of his body was losing one by one owing to the disease. Namely, he was Hansen's disease patient...


 Bating Women Series


       These paintings are not well-known rather than his masterpieces, even so, I was interested in acclaiming these paintings. Yes... there are plenty of other nudes or bathing paintings in this world... But whenever I see these paintings, strange to say, I feel sympathy, looking at women on the canvases...


       In these paintings, women are protagonists, generally speaking, women are represented as the symbol of the weak in our society...  In contrast, men have been dominating our society and are still strong, especially in middle eastern countries...; those men there have been committing crimes at their disposal under the law of religion! 

       Yet Millet would have wanted to illuminate women as the weak the same as peasants In these paintings. What if that women were the nobility, then the nobility could not have bathed in a brook, but rather, must have bathed in a comfortable and sumptuous bathtub, spraying a perfume made in France on the bodyㅡAs we know, France is known for producing perfume.  There, around the brook, would have been field rats, mosquitoes, frogs, toads, and even water snakes, etc. These are the painting of the bathing series:

 



      Furthermore, those women show all naked bodies in the painting... One of them is startled by something in the bush...What would it be...?  And another woman crouched,  pondering over something in the darkness... What would it be...? She would have felt loneliness and the boredom of rural life... I feel like I am listening to the cry of grass bugs and frogs in the painting...

       For all those women would never have been dressed in pretty dresses and invited to rich dining along with the nobility who would have been handsome and chic.
Who would dislike to be a princess such as Cinderella, who received love from the well-beloved prince?  Sadly those women could not become such a princess in a small and rural village that was not Paris... Moreover, there was no witch who practiced witchcraft, thus there was no gold coach that was made by the ugly pumpkin either... 



       Hantavirus Hemorrhagic Fever With Renal Syndrome, HFRS

        Especially, the black-striped field mice can transmit the epidemic hemorrhage fever(Hantavirus hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, HFRS), which is caused by black-striped field mice of saliva and feces... I might as well avoid accounting for the expert knowledge not as an expert about that...

The black-stripped filed mouse
The black-striped field mouse


Bush Typhus(Tsutsugmushi Fever)

        Bush typhus(Tsutsugamushi Fever) is also called tsutsugamushi fever because it is caused by the oriental tsutsugamushi bacteria that inhabit fields, so farmers are likely to be infected by it.  It was known that when the mites that are transmitted by the bacteria bite other animals or humans, bush typhus develops an illness; those mites are a kind of parasite whose mouths suck the blood of other animals and humans on the skin! While the mites are sucking blood, their bellies are swollen as if they are balloons! When I was young, I used to see those mites.



Image: Scrub Typhus
Image: Scrub Typhus


Epilogue

        Fishes must live in water that is their original birth. What if fishes dream to live in the sky, they will be unfit... 
In that respect, Jean-François Millet would have known himself, his inborn nature, like the famous saying of Socrates: " Know yourself. " 

        My writings might be equated with his paintings which were painted based on a realistic perspective of what life was like... But ironically, my writings are notional and metaphorical... Contrariwise, they might be very realistic because our lives might be the same as an abstract phantom, which is like a spring dream...; Longfellow wrote that life is but an empty dream... An empty dream...

          I am always weighed down with writing by guilty and pain, for my writings, cannot be supplied in these niches: finance, beauty, IT, car, study abroad, cooking, high-class restaurant, advanced country emigration, international marriage, health, investment in real estate, knowledge, diverse license for getting jobs, and abroad travel, and the rest... shortly speaking moneymaking contents, etc. that people like and admire therewith...  

       I think that my writings were not beautified about life with a dream people chase, but rather my writings might stir up a life of suffering that no one will like...
For this reason, I'm always sorry to those who might read my writings somewhere else... they might have a similar notion of what life is...And they might agree with my personal mind and heart, "understanding" the suffering of life...the reality of life...

       "They" have been with me out there, though they don't even have their own name... I cannot see them.... they are the same...  But yet we might know "the things" through each of our spirits ... and... and...
In fact, I have suffered to mirror the reality of life, and I'm still suffering to write... After finishing writing,  I used to weep by stealth with deep heartache... Such a sentiment/emotion is continuing for several days...  No one will like to face the reality of life...

       Instead, people might only want to listen to a sweet word and want to see a rosy life and want to dream a dream and want to read profitable things...  After all, they might want to live better than now, dreaming it in them...
But, they might be in " Titanic " now...








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