November 30, 2009. 12:30pm.

Hello! You are so handsome, and a little dead-looking today. After 2 weeks of battling it out with the public, I’ve decided Mondays are best. Crowds are hell if you’re trying to have a meaningful experience.

Eyes the color of milk chocolate. Skin equally rosy and gray. I wonder if there’s texture to the gold beads on your hat, or if that’s Bronzino’s way of capturing light.

Let’s take a look at shadows and light.

Let’s not. Just had an impromptu chat with John, one of the technicians for the European Paintings Dept., who pointed out that my young man’s eye had been cut out – thus the reason he lives behind glass. The lazy eye. I didn’t know this and now, questions abound. When did this happen? What was the motivation? I mentioned I couldn’t see the cut and John said they did a great job restoring the painting. For all the serenity that my young man exudes, I can’t help but project this act of violence onto the scene.

It’s like the man who was paralyzed for 23 years, unable to communicate the fact that he was wide awake, alert, not in a coma, but unable to move or respond.

John talked about the paint as well. The technique.

I can’t remember how he expressed it, but the essence was to discuss the brushwork – invisible.

It’s true, it’s modeled beautifully.

No trace of effort or force.

So today we have a split between absolute calm, and impulsive aggression.

It seems every week I discover a new dichotomy.

It may have been shadow & light this week, if not for the anecdote about my young man’s eye.

12:48pm.