Infinite buildings in the city

http://allthebuildingsinnewyork.blogspot.com

Mamushkas de Praga

• Paseando por Praga, no tardé mucho en encontrar las tan buscadas mamushkas!! De pronto, el infinito estaba en cada vidriera de las tiendas de souvenir! En aros, y en prendedores!

• Contenidas una dentro de la otra, las mamushkas (o matrioshkas) simbolizan la fertilidad, una madre dentro de otra, una historia dentro de otra, dentro de otra, contenida por otra en una secuencia que generalmente es de 7 pero que puede extenderse hasta el infinito.

• Vestidas generalmente con los trajes tradicionales rusos (sarafan) y sus cabellos escondidos bajo un pañuelo, dicen que las mamushkas traen suerte, o acaso esa es la mejor excusa para venderlas como souvenir. Yo compré, para mi y para regalar.

• Me dijeron que cada vez que un deseo se cumple, hay que abrir la muñeca y liberar la que está allí dentro... Ahora entiendo porqué las mamushkas representan el infinito...

Infinite water lilies

I had never thought the water lilies as a posible expression of infinity. But now that I spent almost an hour admiring one of his works that is now part of the Legion of Honor collection, I´m convinced there´s no way water lilies can not be taken as a demonstration of inifinity…

(I suggest to visit the Legion of Honor website for a better quality image of this painting: http://www.famsf.org/imagebase_zoom.asp?rec=7822312331480020)

Although Monet had his own water-lily pond in his house at Giverny since1893, he did not start the Water lilies series until 1899, when they begun dominating his work.
By using a never-ending, soft border and juxtaposing not only the impressionist colours but also the water lilies, Monet emphasizes the eternal movement of water and the light that reflects on it.

By the mid 1910s Monet techniques had changed significantly and the water lilies almost reached abstraction. You could hardly distinguish a water lily from another. The reflection of light on the flowers and on the water usually implies juxtaposing colours and figures. This is how Monet gives the spectator the illusion of movement.

This becomes more evident in the circle canvas that intensifies the circle shape of the water lilies. Uncountable circles reflecting circles inside a circle.
Although the Water Lilies series has approximately 250 oil paintings, each painting is unique and captivates an unique atmosphere. By painting them in different seasons and different moments of the day, Monet introduced infinite possibilities into his work.
Just like Heraclitus claims we could not step twice into the same river, Monet could not paint twice the same Water-lily pond.