TODAY'S FEATURED POST

Aortas in a Chair – Aortas They Don’t Care

John Jude Palencar

For artists, concepts present themselves in unexpected ways. Why or how the artist responds to them is sometimes just as much of a mystery to the artist as it is to the artist’s audience. Freudian reasons aside, there are many avenues for inspiration & pathways to creative new lands. My wife had this small decorative chair she no longer wanted. It’s one of those objects that you say to yourself, “why would someone make this?”.…

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EVERYDAY ORIGINAL

Queen of Hearts

YESTERDAY’S POST

Image

Rückenfigur

Lauren Panepinto

September 4, 2025 - I didn't know there was a word for this until recently, but of course there is, and of course it's German. Rückenfigur (literally "back-figure") is a compositional device in painting, graphic art, photography, and film. A person is seen from behind in the foreground of the image, contemplating the view before them, and is a means by which the viewer can identify with the image's figure and then recreate the space to be conveyed. (from Wikipedia) The textbook example of this is this image is Caspar David Friedrich's Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog: And in fact, I only heard the term Rückenfigur at all because there was just a Caspar David Friedrich exhibit at The Met. He loved this device and it shows up in his work a number of times:   Obviously Friedrich…

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