perspective shifts

(yes, i know... long time no blog. blame it on the dog.)
i don't think that i have ever before been irritated with myself for broadening my perspectives. today, though, when i went looking for fodder for a sneer, i failed to find it. no, i don't usually go looking for things to dislike, but i was in a non-specifically cranky self-critical mood and really wanted to focus my distaste on something other than my own shortcomings. so, having heard a scathing review of frank gehry's architecture (including the bilbao guggenheim museum and the strata building at MIT), i decided to look them up and have a good derisive chuckle at the crap that people will buy for millions of dollars. i should have looked up imelda marcos' shoe collection instead. i found myself actually admiring the sinuous curves and protruding windows of the structures. i enjoyed the radical non-functionality of them both. they WERE whimsical and even daring. they made no effort to fit in with their surroundings. from what i understand from the review, they leak terribly... and the upper floors of one of them makes the people who work in it nauseated by dint of the slant of wall and hallways. it was even suggested that he did the latter on PURPOSE! all of this is a recipe for work that i would have completely despised a year ago. what happened to me? why am i appreciating forms that i have never liked? it is artists... damn it. i know too many of them. i have been forced to cultivate a habit of standing back from new work (of my own and others) and giving it a little space before i judge it. otherwise, i would on a regular basis be in the uncomfortable space of disliking work made or cherished by those near and dear to me. suddenly, i find harmony in all sorts of odd (for me) places. pleasing angles in i.m. pei. joy in the undulations of antonio gaudi. utter peace in rothco's blending blocks of color. hmm. and so it leaves me without a object of scorn in my hour of need. sigh. i guess that there is always pop music, but that seems like a cheap shot. and who knows, i might end up liking it! aigh!
glad to be back...
heather