• Gustav Klimt’s Death and Life
• Art Class Curator Trips (We’re going to Vietnam and Angkor Wat in 2022!)
• Free Lesson Sample
• Be a Podcast Guest: Submit a Voice Memo of Your Art Story (Scroll to bottom of page to submit your story.)

Cindy Ingram:

Hello, and welcome to the Art Class Curator podcast. I am Cindy Ingram, your host and the founder of Art Class Curator and the Curated Connections Library. We’re here to talk about teaching art with purpose and inspiration, from the daily delight of creativity to the messy mishaps that come with being a teacher. Whether you’re driving home from school or cleaning up your classroom for the 15th time today, take a second. Take a deep breath, relax those shoulders and let’s get started.

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Art Class Curator podcast. My name is Cindy Ingram, and I’m excited today because we are going to try a brand new type of episode where I get to have art conversations with other people. Where we talk about some of their favorite works of art, we talk about what drew us to it, we analyze and interpret, talk about our personal connections and dive deep into a work of art.

For our first guest for this episode, is someone who works for Art Class Curator and she is also one of my very best friends of the last 10 plus years. It is Madalyn Gregory and she is the project manager, director of all things at Art Class Curator. She also is a brilliant writer and so lucky to have you in my life, Madalyn. Thank you for joining me today.

Madalyn Gregory:

Thank you, I’m super excited to be here. I love you very much, so this is great.

Cindy Ingram:

We’ve always talked about how we think it would be fun to have a podcast together, so we’re actually going to test that out for you today. See if that’s true or not, so that’ll be interesting. But the artwork that we’re talking about today, can you tell us what artwork it is and why you chose it?

Madalyn Gregory:

Yes. I chose Death and Life by Gustav Klimt. It is an artwork that I saw in person whenever we were together in Vienna for one of the Art Class Curator trips. It totally stopped me in my tracks and I kept coming back to it again and again. Have never forgotten it and even looking at it now, gives me goosebumps and just makes me feel all the feelings. So I thought it would be fun to talk about.

Cindy Ingram:

We were together on this and sidebar, if you want to travel with Art Class Class Curator, we do have an upcoming trip next summer in June of 2022. We’re going to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. That will be amazing. If you want information about that, you can go to artclasscurator.com/travel. Quick sidebar.

But yeah, we had spent the whole day together in Vienna and saw that exhibit in the evening. We were both completely and utterly wrecked by the end of that exhibit. We had come together and were apart most of it. Came and saw each other throughout the exhibit. But by the end of it we both looked at each other and we had been crying, we were just so emotionally spent from that. For me, it was the whole exhibit, but this artwork in particular, was so very powerful. You said it stopped you in your tracks. Do you remember anything specific, like how you felt when you saw it for the first time?

Madalyn Gregory:

Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, his artworks have always stood out to me. I mean, they’re famous, my mom had a print of The Kiss hanging in our hallway whenever I was growing up. So I had always known him and I had seen this artwork on calendars and stuff, maybe a couple times, but never really looked at it. Earlier that day we had seen some of his artworks at another museum and we saw The Kiss and then the one with the really tall sunflower, I remember seeing that one too. They were great, but there was a ton of people and you couldn’t have that moment. We went to the Leopold Museum, right?

We walked around and it was already great and it was one of the moments where we were separated and I was on my own. I was already loving the artwork and it was so great and I turned from one room to another and it was at the end of the room. It was on the opposite wall and there was nobody else in the room at that moment, which was incredible. I just stopped. Like it was, “Oh, my goodness,” because it was so big and so colorful. It was like love at first sight, but with an artwork. I walked to it and I remember there was a bench in the way and I was a little bit upset because I just wanted to walk straight to it and I had to walk around the bench. I just stared and wondered about who these people were and all of their emotions. I just got teary and it was great. Eventually, of course, other people did come along and so I felt bad because I was right in front of it and doing all the things.

I walked away, I went and saw some other art and then I knew the museum was closing soon, so I came back. I was like, “I don’t care if anybody else is here. I’m just going to stand in front of it until I can’t stand in front of it anymore.”

Cindy Ingram:

Wow! Oh, it was amazing that we were in a tourist place in the middle of July and there was very few people at that exhibit. Outside in the square, I think this was because there was a concert going on, there was all sorts of people and everywhere. But inside, we just had the place to ourselves. Pretty amazing.

Let’s describe it for someone listening. If you are listening, we’ll have the image on the show notes at artclasscurator.com/60, but if you’re driving, please don’t try to look at the artwork while we talk. When you’re pulled over, you can look at it and then you can continue listening. I think we’re going to also put the artwork in the image for the podcast image too. So you might be able to just see it in your podcast player. But I’m not 100% sure about that since this is the first time we’re doing it and depending on your podcast player too.

Yeah, let’s describe it for a little bit. In the painting there’s two, what is it, areas. On the left side, we’ve got a skeleton with a skull and hands and he’s holding what looks like maybe a club or something. You get a weapon vibe from that too?

Madalyn Gregory:

Definitely. Cudgel is the word that comes to mind. But yeah, it’s almost like a baton or something but it’s red. It’s not-

Cindy Ingram:

Yeah, it almost looks knotty, like K-N-O-T-T-Y, not N-A-U. He has a super creepy look on his face too, like he’s super pleased to be there about to beat these people to death. That’s the vibe I get from him. It’s just the skull, his hands, his skeleton hands, the weapon thing. Then his body is really long and maybe a drapey fabric with blues, purples, blacks, greens, cool colors, I could have just said. These little cross designs. Then he does have skeleton feet down at the very bottom of that. But he’s really long proportioned, not realistic proportions.

Madalyn Gregory:

Yeah, it’s very wavy so it’s almost like the fabric is flowy, but there’s no real movement to it.

Cindy Ingram:

I really want to keep interpreting him for a minute instead of just describing. Or should we describe the rest?

Madalyn Gregory:

Well, both. Let’s describe what’s on the right even though it’s a lot. But maybe just a quick overview.

Cindy Ingram:

Yeah, because you need to know what else is going on besides just him. Okay, so on the right we have I think it’s a family group. We have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine people. Two of them I almost didn’t see. All bunched together. If you’ve ever seen these Klimt ones where he just groups everyone together and everyone looks like they’re sleeping. Except for one has her eyes open. They’re all cuddled together, it’s like they’re in blankets almost. But there’s a lot of different patterns and fabrics. Then we also have lots of different ages represented. We have babies all the way up to an elderly woman. I think it’s a woman, yeah. And every age in between. That is pretty significant. Then yeah, lots of patterns in a lot of warm colors, but there’s also cool colors too. But the overall predominate, I would say would be warm. Is the oranges and the reds pretty strong.

Then the background between. They’re separated in these two groups and then the background is just a black and gray, a little bit of blue very painterly background. That’s the description. Did we leave anything out of the description?

Madalyn Gregory:

I think that’s a good overview. Definitely details to get into, but

Cindy Ingram:

Definitely a lot of wavy lines, lots and lots of wavy lines. Okay, do we want to keep talking about the emotional reaction or just start interpreting? Do you have anymore emotional thing because we can talk about personal connections too, later.

Madalyn Gregory:

Yeah, I think let’s interpret and it’ll come naturally.

Cindy Ingram:

Okay. Start with that. If you were my student, I would say, “What’s going on here?”

Madalyn Gregory:

Oh, right. Okay. Excellent question because I had lots of theories while I was standing in front of it. Yeah, the skeletal figure on the left definitely immediately to me is a personification of death. Like you said before, he looks giddy to have all of these living people in front of him. Like, “Oh, yes. I’m going to go get all of them and it’s ha, ha, ha.”

Cindy Ingram:

I can hear him cackling. He’s a cackler, for sure.

Madalyn Gregory:

Yes. Especially in person, his eyes, even though they’re dark, they had a lot of depth to them. That really came into how I saw him looking at all of them. But I think-

Cindy Ingram:

Oh, you know what? I didn’t realize that eye thing because you normally see a skeleton, you just see black in the eyes. It’s not really an eyeball, but it is almost like an eyeball. It’s gray with a little black in the middle.

Madalyn Gregory:

He has a pupil. Okay, so what’s going on? I think that he is looking at them with glee, thinking about how they’re all going to die either soon or someday. For all of the amalgam of people on the right, I had that same question. You said seemed like a family group, but I don’t know if they’re a family or if they’re people that live in the same place. Or who are going to be dying soon, or something like that. But I do get the sense that they’re all related in some way. Of course, the girl who has her eyes open stands out among them because she’s closest to the death figure and is looking at him. But her eyes are angled to where it looks like one eye is looking at him and one eye is looking at us, as the viewer.

Cindy Ingram:

Oh, yeah. She stared into my soul and she is doing it now, too on my computer screen. She’s creeping me out. Creepy.

Madalyn Gregory:

I have a lot of thoughts. I feel like she could be aware of death, she could maybe be welcoming him. But she definitely wants us to think about, I think, our own mortality.

Cindy Ingram:

Oh, yeah. Yeah, she could be one of those people who are super intuitive and can feel spiritually awakened or something. She knows what’s happening here and everybody else seems just lost in their own contentment. Mostly everyone else. Well, no. Some of them are content and some of them are not. So I take that back.

Madalyn Gregory:

It’s interesting because the skin tone of all of the women is pretty much the same, it’s very pale. The oldest has a gray sheen to her. But then the two that seem male in the painting, the baby boy is a little pinker, that fresh baby wonderfulness. And then the man, he’s very strong and muscular, but he’s also much darker. Which I thought was interesting. But part of me wondered if the two figures in the front, because the man is holding a woman, made me wonder if they were maybe the parents of the baby. They seem like in grief, which makes me wonder a little bit. Did somebody in this group maybe already die and everybody else is grieving? Is the baby maybe dead, or is the woman on the side? There’s so many interpretations I feel like we can make.

Cindy Ingram:

Yeah, because I really thought that the woman at the top with the brown curly hair, I thought she was the mother because she just looks so blissed out cuddling with that baby.

Madalyn Gregory:

Yes, new mom feels from her, definitely.

Cindy Ingram:

But yeah, the two at the front seem very distraught. Well, yeah, now I never thought about… Maybe I did think about it. It’s been nearly two years since I went to see it. But I don’t think I ever thought that some of these people could be dead. Because even the one that’s at the bottom left, beside the man, she’s almost drowning in there.

Madalyn Gregory:

Yes.

Cindy Ingram:

What’s she doing? What do we think that the skin tone thing could mean? Do you think that there’s any symbolism there or meaning? It could be just a balance thing with the art too, but was he trying to say anything there?

Madalyn Gregory:

I always think it’s more interesting to assume even if it was an artistic choice, that there’s some meaning behind it. Yeah, I do wonder. Maybe it had to do with who the artist surrounded himself with or thought depicted beauty or something. But I think the fact that the older woman is a different color too, I mean, I feel like maybe it has something to do with vitality. Because we’ve also got the rosy cheeks on the women, but it’s different. The one with the long, brown hair has a blush going on. Then the one with her eyes open also has very rosy cheeks. I almost wonder if that has to do with how alive they are or maybe how dead they are.

Cindy Ingram:

Yeah, because the couple in the front, because even the skin color of the woman in the front, we don’t see her face because she’s burrowed into the man. But her skin is more blueish. And there’s blue in all of the skins, you can see that, but hers is definitely blue enough to where you would call it blue, not just blue tints in it.

Madalyn Gregory:

Yeah, sickly almost.

Cindy Ingram:

Yeah, she could be dying too.

Madalyn Gregory:

It makes me think whenever we’re grieving someone that is sick or dying or already dead, it feels like a part of us dies too. The fact that the colors of all these people are so different then death on the left. Even in life, I think, parts of us die, so maybe this is him, even if they’re not dead, he’s getting joy off of the tiny deaths that they are enduring.

Cindy Ingram:

Yeah. Because another part of grieving someone’s death is you don’t just lose the person, but you lose the future that you had imagined for that person. If it’s a child, you’ve lost the wedding and the graduation and the seeing who they’re going to be and seeing how they grow. So you’re not just grieving the loss of that person, but the loss of that person forever and what you’ve built up in your head of what that person will become.

Madalyn Gregory:

So sad.

Cindy Ingram:

I know.

Madalyn Gregory:

I had written on the day, I think the day that I saw it, that night I was like, “I have to remember all of these thoughts that I’m having.” I had written that death looked like he was just super happy and waiting to bash you over the head. I think too, another thing I wrote was the maybe father figure or the man, the fact that he’s so strong makes me wonder if it’s supposed to be a protection thing. That goes back to the colors of all of them. They’re all very dainty and even the baby, even though he’s got a little more color to him, he’s still a baby, he still needs protecting. So maybe the color of the man’s skin is also an armor of what he-

Cindy Ingram:

Yeah, I love that too because he’s also right in the center. Right now he’s drawing so much attention to him for me. I don’t know that he actually did in person. It might be just the angle then versus now. But he’s right in the center, he’s really muscular, he’s got a different skin color and he’s hunched over. It makes me think, his shoulders are so hunched over, but they’re also strong, that he’s carrying the weight of everybody there. He’s feeling the burden of protecting all of these people. They look so relaxed, they look so peaceful. It’s like maybe he’s taking all of their negative feelings. He’s taking all of that and just internalizing it for himself. That could be something going on.

Madalyn Gregory:

Because like you said, they all generally look very peaceful or sleeping, except for the older woman, I think. Because everybody else’s faces are flat and looking out, but she almost looks like she’s praying. With age usually comes wisdom and knowledge. And the fact that she’s over the pair. She seems to me like she’s protecting too.

Cindy Ingram:

She almost looks invisible. We see her, but you don’t see really any of her body other than right under her head there’s some pattern. Oh, she does have a hand that’s touching the baby’s thigh. I did not see that until just now. Or you know what? That could be the girl behind her’s hand too.

Madalyn Gregory:

Yeah, it’s not clear.

Cindy Ingram:

But she’s looking down and her shoulders are not full shoulders, they’re really pulled in. She looks like she feels really alone to me.

Madalyn Gregory:

Very solitary. She’s even got more blue than anybody else does. Which maybe signifies here being close to death too, because he’s got all the cool colors.

Cindy Ingram:

Yeah, and most everybody in there is interacting with another of the characters in some way. The creepy girl, she’s not really touching the girl next to her, but her head is leaned up against. She’s cuddling with her back. Everybody has someone in there that they’re interacting with. But she, assuming that’s not her hand, depending on her hand. I don’t really feel like that’s her hand, that doesn’t resonate to me.

Madalyn Gregory:

I don’t know. I feel like it could go either way. Go with the first, if it’s not her hand.

Cindy Ingram:

Yeah, if it’s not her hand. No, now I’m thinking it is her hand though. But I feel like she’s so solitary and alone. That could be some sort of comment on how you feel when you get older. I know I’ve heard, I don’t know for sure because I’m not elderly, but I’ve heard them say that they do feel like they get more alone as they get older.

Madalyn Gregory:

Yeah. I mean, if it is her hand, the fact that she’s touching the baby, I mean, she’s going to the next generation. This is the new life that’s coming as mine is ending.

Cindy Ingram:

Yeah, I think I like that better. That hand is really more close to her skin color than the girl behind her skin color. It’s got that same blueish, grayish, yellowish vibe to it. I don’t know what you call that color. But he uses so many colors and you can see them all in there because it’s so painterly.

Madalyn Gregory:

I like to imagine too, where this is taking place because that background, even though it’s so dark, it has a lot of color in it. Because of the death theme, is it the whole going toward the light thing or going toward the dark maybe? Because it definitely to me, looks darker on death’s side. But it also gives me an outer space type thing. Separate from the world certainly.

Cindy Ingram:

Yeah, it’s interesting because the jumble of people, I view it as they’re all on a bed with a bunch of blankets. If it were me I would be in utter misery because that’s far too many people close to me. But I love a good cocoon of blankets and pillows. It feels really comforting, but also it feels like they’re in this beautiful, comforting place, but they know they can’t stay there. It’s this bubble that they’re in. Especially those two at the front, I feel like they’re clinging to stay in that bubble. But then they can’t stay there forever.

Madalyn Gregory:

Talking about that made me realize just how alone death is. I mean, he doesn’t have anybody with him. All he’s got is that cold stick to hold onto. What would it be like to be the figure that’s got to end everybody’s life? Depending on how you look at it, I mean, is a necessary job. It’s something that has to happen. So what kind of personality would you have as that figure? We’ve talked about how it seems like he’s definitely choosing delight about taking peoples’ lives. It’s so interesting to me that he has so much personality and it’s just a skull. But so much of how we interpret emotions is based on facial reactions and all the muscles in our skin and all of that working together. Maybe it’s not a cackling death, maybe he thinks and has accepted his role in it all and is like, “No, this is good because eventually people have to die for new people to be born.” Maybe he’s not evil, even though he gives me evil vibes.

Cindy Ingram:

Yeah, it makes me think of books I’ve read where death was a character. Book Thief, death is the narrator. Then I read another one recently. It was called, The Invisible Life Addie LaRue, and one of the main characters steals peoples’ souls. Death adjacent, he was a similar lonely death character really clear. Both of them have this loneliness in both of those books. This loneliness and also this curiosity about the people that they’re having to interact with, but they can’t get too close. It’s almost like they’re these voyeurs watching and just you get really connected.

Cindy Ingram:

You know what it’s like? My brain is going in six different directions. But it’s like when you’re on social media and you’re friends with someone who you met once. But you just watch their life and you feel connected to that person and then you stop and realize like, “I know so much about this person. I’ve literally met them once, but I know about their kids, and I’m invested in it and I like their posts. But I still don’t really know them.” That’s a weird place. I bet death feels weird about that, if death were a thing.

Madalyn Gregory:

Whenever you were talking about the books, it reminded me of one I read years and years ago, too. It was part of series. I don’t remember the author, but it was called, On A Pale Horse. And in that, death is a job. But whenever death dies basically, whoever was the next person to be scheduled to die becomes death. The book opens on this guy having to turn into death and he doesn’t want to kill people so there’s a back up and all the other people are very upset with him. It’s interesting, he has a human skull, so that makes me think he has to have a connection to humans. He’s not this spirit thing happening.

Cindy Ingram:

Right, he was human once. That also made me think of The Santa Clause when you were saying that. The next Santa Clause becomes Santa Clause when they die. Anyway, neither here nor there. Well, that would be a weird transition from being a human to being death.

Madalyn Gregory:

Yeah, and I mean, even humans that are alive, if anything has taught us this year of being solitary and quarantining and all that, I mean, whenever you’re alone or whenever you’re just with the same people in your house, it changes who you are. If he’s just this one person, then I mean, it doesn’t take long for you to change in new and unexpected ways. Especially-

Cindy Ingram:

That’s true.

Madalyn Gregory:

If you’re taking life. I feel a little more connected to death.

Cindy Ingram:

Now I thought about that and I looked at him again and I looked at his position. I was like, “How can I read that evil cackling thing differently?” It almost then he transformed into this really shy kid. My daughter’s wanting to play softball and she’s really, really shy. But that’s her standing to the side holding her little softball bat and wanting to be a part of it. But she doesn’t really know fully how to engage, she’s just so shy. Maybe that’s what death is. Maybe he’s just standing to the side like, “Hi, guys.”

Madalyn Gregory:

Oh, my goodness. Now I’m thinking of The Nightmare Before Christmas because Jack tried to take Christmas. He wants to have that joy and that color and all of that. But he can’t and he messes it up because it’s not his. Maybe death remembers what it’s like to be alive. Like you were saying, that voyeur aspect, but he can’t have it again. There’s always going to be a separation.

Cindy Ingram:

I really like how we’re bringing in connections to other things in our lives. I think this is a really important lesson for teachers to realize. All of your students are going to see different things because they’ve read different books, they’ve seen different movies, they’ve had different experiences in their lives. Your brain is constantly looking for those connections to books and movies and life experiences. That’s something that we can learn from each other and our students can learn from each other too. There’s a lot of power in that.

Madalyn Gregory:

Yeah, I think it’s definitely worth leaning into because I mean, it’s all art at the end of the day. The books and the shows and even the Vines and the Tik Toks. I mean, my kids know Vines that Vine wasn’t even a thing whenever they were coming of age and had phones and stuff. But they still know the ones that I heard whenever I was a teenager. I think the connection is always going to be there and there’s a timeline. Nothing is new, right? And to be able for them to see those connections and have that validated, I think will just make them connect to art all the more.

Cindy Ingram:

Yeah, and too, these are big themes; death and life. Artists throughout time, whether they’re authors, whether they’re visual artists, whether they’re dancers, they deal with these big themes. So it’s just innately human for us to question and think about these things. Art allows us a place to do that.

I think we could, between the two of us, continue to talk about this artwork for another 30 minutes. I feel like we could go on forever. Then looking at it knowing there’s a lot more interpretations to be had here if we had a whole group of kids. But I want to talk about the personal connection aspect to it. What do you think drew you to this in terms of how you connect to it? And what lesson or message do you think that it gave you after you had that experience?

Madalyn Gregory:

Great question. On that day that we went, it was already a very emotional day for me. We had gone to this monastery that was just gorgeous and had these breathtaking views. I was already in a mindset of that, but then there was drama going on back home that had me very emotional. I think sometimes whenever you’re in a more vulnerable place, you never know what that day is going to be, or what that artwork is going to be, or the book is going to be, or what have you. But I think it was the right artwork at the right time to really help me zoom out and remember that whatever happened with the situation that was going on at the time, or wherever I was in life or in the world, we have this ticking clock and to really embrace the joy, but also embrace the pain.

Madalyn Gregory:

I have a Post-it taped to my mirror that says, “You are going to die, maybe today.” It’s super morbid and my kids are like, “What the heck?” But is in the same line of thought as memento mori and seize the day and all that. Because remembering that makes it really easy to let go of the traffic jam or the avocado that went bad that I wanted to put on my toast in the morning. It really helps to zoom out and to think about what’s important and what matters. And embrace the fact that you’re not going to be here forever and enjoy all the colors. The cool ones and the warm ones. I think to connect with the people around you as much as you can. You don’t have to be the guy in the middle carrying it all. You can share the pain. They could all bring their power and their strength to carry the group forward. I think it’s super powerful and I loved it.

Madalyn Gregory:

I have to say, whenever you introduce yourself on the website or anywhere else, you always say that it is your hope to make a student cry looking at artwork because they connect so deeply. I mean, I was never in your classroom, but I’ve certainly been in the classroom of Art Class Curator and this moment happened because of you. And goodness knows I cried a lot, so I think you have succeeded.

Cindy Ingram:

Excuse me while I go cry in the corner. Yeah, I don’t think there could be anything I could ever add to what you just said to make it any better or any more insightful. It was gorgeous, so good.

Madalyn Gregory:

Thank you, Gustav Klimt.

Cindy Ingram:

Yes, I guess he had a big part in it too, for sure. That was so good that I’m like, “I don’t want to share my experience. It was not nearly as good as that.” It was not, but you can’t compare.

Madalyn Gregory:

There is a spectrum of art connections and all of them matter.

Cindy Ingram:

Mine was an amalgamation of the entire exhibit for me. I don’t know what it was, but it was an exhibit of Vienna, and I actually just recently talked about this in a podcast episode. So excuse me if you already heard that one. But it was Vienna 1900 and 19 something or other and ’40, I don’t remember. But it was early 1900s. As you went through the exhibit, the art was getting more and more abstract. Modern art, they spent so much time painting people and so there was just portrait, after portrait, after portrait. Most of them were not people you know, it was just people that were in the artists’ lives. I was watching them get more abstract, they were getting more emotional as they were getting more abstract because the colors and the shapes and all of that were starting to play a bigger role.

Cindy Ingram:

Then I just had this instinct to start taking pictures of all the faces really close up. So I just kept doing that and I’m like, “Why am I doing this?” Then I became more in tune with all the faces. So as I’m going, there was one that it took my breath away because I had been so tuned in to all these faces. Then one hit me that was… I don’t remember what the artwork is, I’ll have to go see if I can find it. I know I have a picture of it. But it was like the eyes were just black and hollow. I think it was an Egon Schiele, now that I think about it. But it was really bony in the face and I just lost it at that moment because it was almost that the face had gone. I think that’s why in this painting I was really focused on death’s face and on that one that was staring at us faces, because I was so into faces at that exhibit.

I don’t know that I fully ever processed why the faces were so important to me then. I do have moments in my life and I wish I had a word for this. I feel like there probably is a word for it. But that moment where you look at a person walking down the street or in the car that’s driving by you, and you just have this overwhelming sensation that their inner life is just as deep and meaningful and powerful as your inner life. Then you look around and you see there’s 30 people near you. Not anymore because of the pandemic, but you’re like, “Every single one of these people have this inner life that is so intensely powerful for that person.” There’s just millions of those little universes in this world. I think that’s probably what it was. I guess that is pretty big.

Madalyn Gregory:

No, it is. I feel like I’ve heard a Japanese word at some point that is that exact word that you were looking for. I don’t remember what it was, but maybe somebody out there will email. Yeah, it’s so powerful what you were talking about, especially with the early art and how it transitioned to being more abstract. Because abstract, a lot of people look at it and they’re like, “Oh, that’s not anything,” or, “That’s just shapes,” or whatever. I think it’s fascinating because to look at the early portraits that were in that exhibit, somebody sitting there. They were there for a long time, all that. But I think as they start to get more colorful and get more abstract, I mean, it really brings in the complexity and all that unseen stuff, like you were saying. We don’t see what’s going on in a person’s life and in their head, even if it is on social media and you did meet them once. There’s all this stuff and I feel like sometimes the abstract stuff can capture that more fully, in a more emotional way than just straight portraits.

Cindy Ingram:

Yeah, I think that’s probably why I’m drawn to that much more than anything else. The really colorful, modern portraits of people. I just love them. I want to swim in that painting.

Okay, well, this was an amazing conversation about this artwork. I feel like that was such a delightful way to spend my time. Yes, thank you so much for joining me today.

Madalyn Gregory:

Thank you for having me. Let’s do it again. Everybody let us know, should we start a podcast, just us?

Cindy Ingram:

Is our instinct true that we should do this? If you want to tell your art story and share a work of art that’s really meaningful to you with the Art Class Curator listeners, we would love to have you on the podcast and have a chat with me about that work of art. To do that, if you go to artclasscurator.com/podcast, I’m just going to double check that that actually does go to the page. Yes, it does. At the bottom of the page there is a thing that says, “Submit your story.” You can go on there and you can put an audio file of you talking about it, or you can just share in the comments the artwork and your interest in being on the podcast. We would love to have that conversation with you.

This was a test to see if this is something that we can do, and I think we passed that test because-

Madalyn Gregory:

Definitely.

Cindy Ingram:

I would absolutely listen to this and all of the rest of them. I feel so much more connected to that work of art. Also, if you’re listening, you can see the artwork on the show notes and you can also share your thoughts about the artwork and the conversation on the show notes at artclasscurator.com/60, the number 60. Or any social media posts where you happen to see we’re talking about episode 60.

Thanks again, Madalyn, for joining me today and thank you to you for listening. Bye.

Hey, guys. It’s Cindy and I’m back for just a second. After Madalyn and I had this conversation today, we kept talking about the art. Then we use the app Voxer to talk back and forth sometimes. Then we kept talking about it on Voxer. Even with everything that we talked about and we were both so excited about that conversation, we realized we missed some really important things. There were some things on gender that we wanted to talk about and we wanted to share more information about the work of art and the artist. So we’re going to come back for part two of this discussion next week. So look forward to that next week on Monday. Hear more about this really incredible work of art. Thanks, bye.

When you’re a teacher, one thing is certain, the lesson planning never ends. The Curated Connections Library is here to help with 100s of art connection lessons and activities. Our signature Spark Works lessons include everything you need to teach on artwork every single week. Each lesson features one diverse and captivating work of art and is complete with discussion questions, engaging activities to create deeper art connections and related art project ideas. With unique worksheets and PowerPoint presentations, every lesson is classroom-ready. Get your free Spark Works lesson and take a break from lesson planning by going to artclasscurator.com/freelesson.

Thank you so much for listening to the Art Class Curator Podcast. If you like what you hear, please subscribe and give us an honest rating on iTunes to help other teachers find us and hear these amazing art conversations and art teacher insights. Be sure to tune in next week for more art inspiration and curated conversations.