Suspiria- a Film Between Dreamlike Imagery and Exploitative Shock

This classic tale of witchcraft is the most beautiful horror film I have ever seen. A young American woman Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) is accepted to a prestigious dance academy in Germany only to find it is a meeting place for a coven of witches. Based on the essays of Thomas Dequincy’s Suspiria de Profundiis. Director Dario Argento takes the first three essays of “The three mothers,” about ancient and powerful witches who live in various places of the world to spread their evil to create a film like no other. It is like a live-action Disney horror film of brilliant reds, green and blues filling the screen. A voice-over sets the uneasy tone of the film as he tells you over a black screen that Suzy Bannion has taken a plane from New York City to attend an exclusive dance academy in Germany. Suzy Bannion arrives at the airport and steps out into a driving rainstorm to hail a taxi. A cab arrives and there is a language barrier. Suzy shows the driver the schools brochure and she is off to the academy. She arrives at the academy to find a young woman at the doorway, screaming at someone inside. She hears pieces of the conversation, which become a helpful clue after the girl is murdered. The killer chases the girl through a dark forest until she arrives at a friend’s house. The friend tries to calm her down and leaves the girl to meet her death. Suzy immediately notices everyone at the academy look likecharacters from a dark Brothers Grim fairytale. The tall, gangly students are represented in stark angry colored lights. The ballet instructor is dressed all in black. The head mistress is a serious looking woman with bright painted red lips. The servant is a hunchback deaf-mute servant, and the Russian head cook is a knife-wielding lunatic. Suzy falls deeper into the threat of the coven when she suffers a nosebleed in ballet class causing her to collapse. The cause of the nosebleed is explained as a mild internal hemorrhage. Soft blues and pinkish reds represent Suzy, as she seems to float on air when she walks. Her discovery of the secret is handled in a sleep-like haze with red twinkling lights following her as she runs from the dying queen witch in the end. Scary and gory in 1977, the film looks fake and silly by today’s standards. The blood and gore looks like bright melted red crayons or wax. A scene stands out where a student is chased into a room full of piano wire, which doesn’t cut her as she thrashes around in the middle of it. The effect looks as if a giant slinky is attacking her. The film, despite all this is still a lot of fun to see with your friends on a Saturday night with the lights off and lots of popcorn. Digitally re-mastered. Rated R.

Art Box: A Great Way to Get Creative with Children

You've had it! If you hear, "I'm bored. What can I do? There's nothing to do!" or one more whine you'll surely put your head in the dryer and slam the door shut! Keeping kids occupied challenges the most stalwart of adults. Let's face it; we're no match for the leprechaun like stealth of the half-pint human who exhibits no shame while in pursuit of getting what they want. In this case, the want is something to do! Take a deep breath and grab the art box. Aren't you glad you planned for just this kind of rainy, I'm bored day?

The art box is alive with fun projects for little fingers and minds. The key to creating this mother's little helper is to keep it fresh and growing. First you'll need a box. Find a fascinating box, either plastic, heavy cardboard, or a Rubbermaid container. Make sure it's colorful, big and fun. After all, this is a special box, not you're ordinary run of the mill type of box filled with just paper and crayons. The art box I pulled together is a plastic one in primary colors of red, blue and yellow with a snap on lid and a carrying handle. It cost about $5.00 at a big box store.

Once you've found the perfect box you can begin filling it. There's no need to fill it all at once. The idea is to start with the basics: construction paper in lots of colors, crayons, markers, scissors, glue, and a sketchpad. These items can be varied depending on the age of the child. Washable markers are a good idea for the younger set along with small, scissors with rounded ends. Add to the box periodically so when it's opened there's something new inside. Play dough makes a great addition. Forget the molds and the fancy tools. Let the children just use their hands and imagination to create whimsical masterpieces. Toss in stickers from time to time, especially for upcoming holidays. Paints of all kinds can be added. Start with watercolors. Move on to tempra for the older kids, but always have finger paints for the little ones. Sidewalk chalk is a big hit in the summer and in the winter it can be used on large newspaper print. You can usually get the end rolls free or for a nominal fee from newspaper publishers.

Think out of the "box" when coming up with new ideas. Collect little treasures when out walking. Botanicals like small pinecones, straw flowers, dried grasses or try your hand at pressing flowers with your wee ones. These can be glued on to paper to make wonderful nature pictures. Tiny shells and sea glass collected from a trip to the beach will surprise and delight when the box is opened. Glitter, pieces of fabric in bright colors, ribbons and rickrack all get the creative juices flowing. At some point you'll want to add colored pencils, stencils, and a handy dandy ruler. A compass or protractor for the older children will acquaint them with these items as well as aid in the artful creativity that makes children everywhere smile. (At least for a while.)

Keep a look out for unusual items that you can add to the art box. Purchase various colors of tissue paper for paper flowers and roses or to be used in whatever way your child comes up with. Petal paper is a very special paper that is made with bits and pieces of flower petals, grasses and other gifts from nature. It's a bit pricey, but what a treat for the older children.

The more fascinating the items the children find in the box, the more special it becomes. Look around your home. You'll find items that make for interesting art projects like: cotton balls, colorful pastas, sponges, buttons of every size and hue, dryer lint (?) I was just kidding on that one. Keep a good supply of stickers of all kinds on hand to add when nothing else is available

The true key to the "special" box is to have little surprises inside that were not there the last time it was brought down from it's safe spot. This is not the everyday color jar filled with broken bits of crayons; this box is brought out when things become really dire. It's a "special" art box. The special box is only used at the table or easel. No preschoolers are allowed to take one item from the box and walk around with it. Again, the idea is to make it so special that it brings excitement and smiles to the faces of the bored and fretting. It's worked for me and I'm sure it will work for you as well. So get crackin' you never know when the clouds might appear on the horizon or your child's face. As adults, we seriously need all the help we can get. The special art box will give you a moment or if you're lucky, two or three to take a deep cleansing breath. Just look at their cherubic faces. "NOOO don't paint the cat!!!"

The Creation of Art is Subjective

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The Creation of Art: A Review

The Creation of Art: New Essays in Philosophical Aesthetics edited by Berys Gaut and Paisley Livingston is a great book. As a person who loves art, I was excited to read a book dealing with art from a philosophical perspective. I was particularity impressed with the essays talking about genius and creativity. Therefore, these essays will be the focus of my review.

According to Guyer, genius is a gift for invention. This gift leads to originality in representation (Guyer116). He also claims that what the genius does is that he uses art to represent the freshness of nature (Guyer122). By stating this, I believe that he wishes us to see that when the genius uses nature as his canvas he wants whatever he paints or sculpts to be as fresh as the outdoors themselves.

I agree with Guyer's definition of genius. A genius doesn't just make a copy of what he sees in nature. Anyone with a small amount of artistic talent could do that. A genius seems to be able to take what he sees and shape it in such a way as to make it his or her own. For example, an artistic genius might paint a rose blue instead of red or pink. A statue may be sculpted out of gingerbread cookies instead of clay. A poem can describe the sunset as ‘rainbow sherbet melting in the sky'. Artistic genius seems to spark imagination. I also enjoyed the way he described Kant's view of what a successful work of art entails. A piece of artwork qualifies as a success when it brings human beings pleasure because its form and content starts a free play with our imagination and understanding (Guyer 127). This makes sense because some of the poetry that I write is inspired by what Kant calls ‘successful artwork'. For example, the first time I saw Van Gough's "Starry Night", I wrote a poem entitled "Imagine the Night Sky."

I also like the fact that Cohen states that human beings who appreciate fine art must posses a bit a genius (Cohen 145). This is because it seems that we are geniuses when we can appreciate Shakespeare or Van Gough. It seems that being a genius isn't ass hard as first appears. It seems that all it takes to be a genius is the ability to change the ordinary or the ability to appreciate the extraordinary. However, it is unclear what it takes to be an appreciator of fine art or to have something labeled an appreciator of fine art. It is also unclear how much an artist must change something to be called a genius. Therefore, being labeled a genius isn't a clear cut decision. In other words, many factors may play a part in being labeled a genius.

Olsen does good job talking about creativity. I like the way that he uses Shakespeare to describe what poets do. Shakespeare claims that a poet's pen "gives to an airy nothing a place and a name" (Olsen 192). This description reminds me of Plato. According to Plato, the Muses are vital to poets: "If anyone comes to the gates of poetry and expects to become an adequate poet by acquiring expert knowledge of the subject without the Muses' madness, he will fail" (Phdr 245a). The Muses seem to help the poet's pen give life to nothing.

The discussion of the creative personality is provocative. Creative people may have non-conventional thoughts. This may be due to a need to resist being mainstreamed on society. A creative person wishes to give into his or her own unique nature (Olsen 196). I think that a creative person can have a unique nature and still create a painting, poem, or short story using a very structured regimen. In other words, creativity doesn't have to give way to convention and structure. One thing that a creative person might create is a fictional character. However, many philosophers have argued that fictional characters can't be created. I don't agree with the idea that fictional characters have no reality at all. It makes more sense to believe that fictional characters come into being only because of the mental and physical acts of an author. Because of this, fictional characters have become part of most cultures.

While most of this book was informative and interesting, one essay that I read was boring. The essay deals with the origins of creativity. The explanations of the origins of creativity are cognitive, biological, and social. The argument seems to be that creativity comes from all three sources. This comes as no surprise to me. In addition, the biological portion of the essay was a bit confusing.

This book is worth reading because it stimulates and educates readers. Also, it has put art in a new perspective for me. For the most part, people will not need a background in art to understand and enjoy this book; therefore, I recommend this book.


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