Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Matt Marcus titled this picture “Без тьмы не могут сиять звёзды,” which Google translate tells me is Russian for “The stars cannot shine without darkness.” That seems a great title for this picture of a man in silhouette against a befogged background. It also made me think of a quote from St. Francis of Assisi, “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a sign candle.” They seem to be saying the opposite thing but they are both true.
Not to get into a quote-a-thon, but F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” Of course, they only seem contradictory if you don’t think about it very long; they are both saying it is contrast that allows us to see clearly. Which takes us back to the picture, the contrast between his dark silhouette and the light-infused fog lets us see even the sharpest detail of his strands of hair, details that we would miss in a fully-lit picture.
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Google tells me this is titled “Snow”, the name of the song Matt links on YouTube. He kindly provides a translation of this beautiful, sad song. You don’t need the lyrics to know it’s about heartbreak and the video makes it very clear. The video for the song showed it snowing inside the house which made me think of Varykino in Dr. Zhivago, the frozen palace with ice and rime on all the furniture.
I am intrigued by this picture. Is it a depiction of suicide? That would fit the song. He has flowers in his right hand. Are they a gift for his lost love? But then, his hand position is so often the expression of victory, of winning, even of joy. My first impression of the picture was that this was a celebratory Polar Bear Swim that happens on the first of January in the northern United States, Canada, and other frigid zones. After hearing the song and reading the lyrics, I perceived it very differently. Some might think that makes it fail, but actually a work that can shift your perception after it is formed is rare.
And now for something completely different. Everything about “Heart” proclaims joy and happiness. The multiple colored balloons, the sun shining through the balloons, the birds flying up above and the couple watching them. The sunshine is everything, soaking into the earth, infusing everything with light.
Matt Marcus’ photostream is beautiful. It is romantic, not so much with lots of loving couples photos though there are plenty of them, but also the pictures of the brooding hero leaning against a car here and a hale bale there. He doesn’t look like James Dean, but his pictures give me such a James Dean vibe, perhaps because he is so often looking away from the camera.
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