Mark Canada, Ph.D.

Art
"“To have read the greatest works of any great poet, to have beheld or heard the greatest works of any great painter or musician, is a possession added to the best things of life."
Algernon Swinburne
Following Swinburne, I count my experiences with paintings, sculpture, architecture, and other forms of art as the best things I have known. I have a number of favorites, including the works of El Greco and Winslow Homer, but I am open to all kinds of visual expression.

PICHINCHA
Artist: Frederic Edwin Church
Year: 1867
In this painting of a scene from South America, Church creates a sublime image of enormous mountains, seeming all the larger because of the tiny figure of a man on a horse in the foreground. His red shirt is little more than a pinpoint against a sea of green under a brightly illuminated sky. The precarious nature of a human being amidst all of this grand nature is captured in the image of a sagging bridge the man is crossing. This simple bridge is the only sign of civilization in an otherwise completely natural setting. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the painting to me is the apparent illumination of the sun. Although the paint with which the sun was portrayed has no illumination of its own, Church has managed to fool me into thinking I am being overwhelmed by light. I almost feel I need to squint when I look at it. The key to the illusion, I think, is the coloring around the sun, perhaps coupled with my own extensive experience with sunlight!

PICHINCHA
Artist: Frederic Edwin Church
Year: 1867
In this painting of a scene from South America, Church creates a sublime image of enormous mountains, seeming all the larger because of the tiny figure of a man on a horse in the foreground. His red shirt is little more than a pinpoint against a sea of green under a brightly illuminated sky. The precarious nature of a human being amidst all of this grand nature is captured in the image of a sagging bridge the man is crossing. This simple bridge is the only sign of civilization in an otherwise completely natural setting. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the painting to me is the apparent illumination of the sun. Although the paint with which the sun was portrayed has no illumination of its own, Church has managed to fool me into thinking I am being overwhelmed by light. I almost feel I need to squint when I look at it. The key to the illusion, I think, is the coloring around the sun, perhaps coupled with my own extensive experience with sunlight!