12,470. RUDIMENTS, pt. 932

RUDIMENTS, pt. 932

(before cars had cladding)

I've always been able to get

in and out of situations OK.

No one has ever thrown a

metaphorical stove at me.

I've usually managed to be

able to see what was coming,

watch for what was expected,

and unexpected too. Some of

the best times I've faced have

come from situations mostly

unexpected, and the rest of

routine and sameness can be

a boring Hell to undergo.

-

One of the things that's brought

out, in preliminary drawing classes,

of the base sort anyway  -  and

one which I've never thought

made much sense  -  is the point

of drawing a baby's head. In order

to teach art, or drawing, I've

always thought a person would

be far advanced past this point,

the point of making such a

stupid sort of comment  -  but

it is, really, the sort of thing

that teaching and instruction

gets stuck imparting to dolts,

and pity the instructor. Not

fit to be called 'Artist.'

-

The point, simply made, and I

only recall it from long ago, was

that a 'baby's head, or a child's

anyway, does NOT develop from

a baby-size and is pretty-fairly

full-sized right from the start.

Hmmm? It's actually pretty funny,

thinking about art students tracing

a M&M to get a baby's head on

a baby's body. On the other hand,

however, they don't trace oranges

do they. So in drawing a child the

need has to be taken to somehow

come up correctly with a fine

and proportional recommendation

of suggestion in the drawing.

How to get across the head?

-

In latter days, of course, my thinking

on this has changed some  -  and I

realize this startling point now, if I

were to put it in some colloquial

form : This 'child' is born with a

regular-sized head, and most all of

the apparatus needed, so that it can

later be filled with content  -  yes,

yes, in the same manner that we buy

an empty computer so that it too can,

eventually, be filled with content.

Hopefully prime content. Hopefully

wise and learned stuff. We get to

make the choices, oddly enough,

about ALL things  -  size of storage,

content, deletions, amassing and

archiving. In the Platonic symbolism

of the world about us, I wonder why

we are not then allowed that same

range of choice before we are born.

To select, perhaps, cranial size,

optimal intelligence-speed, etc. To

my knowledge (no, not to MY

knowledge, but to the rational

arranging of the sodden world

we now live in), it is said that we

have no choice in these matters,

all is a flat scale, and what we get

we get. Is that then proof of God?

Otherwise would not life just be

one big Best Buy or computer

store, with long lines and with, 
hopefully, fast check-out lines?

-

The funny thing now is, in

the same way that traditional

parents of old used to be able

to control what came into their

homes, these new kids now with

their full-grown, empty heads,

get to fill them with whatever

drivel they want, because parents,

within today's social milieu, can

no longer - or do not any longer,

because they share the ethos  -

control what comes in or what their

baby-heads face; school social,

etc. All glory to the big head!

-

Before cars had cladding, the

world always seemed a tad

slower and more resolute to

me.  Cladding pre-dates home

computering by some amount

of years, maybe a decade? The

first cladding I'd seen, as a

design adjunct I guess, was

about 1985 on those Mercedes Benz

models that introduced it along the

lower body panels. It looked stronger

and tougher, even if it was just a

form of plastic. I wonder what effect

cladding had on body-shops? Much

fewer lower panels dings and dents

to fix, and far fewer rust-jobs from

rotted rocker panels and door-lips?

Just guessing. Had I ever seen such

'cladding' on a 54 Chevy or somesuch

auto, when younger, I imagine I'd

had been perplexed about the whats

and whys of its being there. And

why would that have been? Because

it was a different present  -  things

were staid and solid, metal was

taken as metal, and accepted. All

the big-head kids at that time

knew that cars were made of steel

and that metal dented. Not so much

that it needed protection; more that

it was always just 'there' and facing

it's own proliferating danger. Danger

that everyone accepted. Those big,

empty heads kept room for mishap,

danger, and disaster in ways no one

now ever does. Maybe in my own

big, empty young head, I replayed

the Dresden Fire-bombing, or the

concentration camps, or the torched

and bombed-out wrecks of old

WWII Europe  -  and of course

the two A-bombs to which the

Japanese were treated  -  and

accepted them, each as being part

of the vulnerable and unclad world

I lived in. What came after that?

Now? The safety zones, the gentle 

handling, and the only thing

of this sort they maybe knew :

the Twin Towers crumbling on

live-screen school TV, without

any repercussions right then,

as protected and safe to them

as the cladding on Dad's Benz.