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Saturday, July 13, 2024

Take your pick


Our last woodland character looks like he's either been taken out to be shot or is having some sort of ecstatic vision.  Take your pick.  Of course, for some guys those could be the same thing.

 

14 comments:

  1. Definitely a Sebastian moment! His expression makes it so.

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    1. I should do a Sebastian set sometime. it would have a lot of repeats, but it might be interesting.

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  2. He must be very tall, a bit like me when I was thin!

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  3. Is it just me or facially, does he not look a little like a young JFK?

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  4. Gutaussehender Mann des Waldes.
    Gut kuratierte Fotoserie :)

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  5. Obviously it it is not either; it is both pain and ecstasy, a glorious combination. I once wrote a short story on Sebastian but I have no idea where it is.

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  6. I remember a psycholgist or an artist (whom I can't recall) noted that the facial expression of pain and of pleasure is the same. Artistically, we could see this is the various Sebastian depictions. Also, there is the sculture of 'St Teresa of Avila in Ecstasy' where her expression has been described as pain and/or sexual climax. Maybe the whole pleasure/pain motif is a yin-yang kind of thing -- in which we don't have one without the other. Maybe, Jerry, you might have something to say about this from your studies in psychology.

    In any case, the photo above is beautiful in many ways. I wonder how long ago it was taken? Tho it's in B&W, I get a feel for later 20th century -- tho I could be way off.

    I loved today's series.

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    1. I spent my undergraduate advanced Psychology coursework focused on Jungian concepts of art, archetype, and the collectgive unconscious. Some elements of that hinted at a contilnuum of expression that can double back on itself, so the pain and ecstasy elements merge into one another. In grad school, I took so many technical psychopathology and psychopharmacology classes that I ended up with a Master of Science degree rather than the usual MA, so no help there.

      I think the photo is 1950s because I have seen the same model at about the same age in other photos from that time. It may (or may not) be by Rod Crowther.

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