Passionate About Visual Arts - Weekend-Engagement topics: WEEK 188

I can't hide this now because some of my few readers may have noticed. I'm referring to the weekend posts.

There is a slight difference from my usual theme. I mean travel (almost always the same places), walks (almost always the same places), museums, photography. Lots of photos, everything I write here is supported by lots of photos (always mine and this is one of the few things I can be proud of).

And yet, on the weekends sometimes posts appear with fewer or very few photos and a theme different from my concerns.

Well, for those who may be wondering what the cause of this is, I confess that on weekends I appeal to someone else's imagination.

It's all about the inspiration found in @galenkp's posts to the Weekend Experiences community every Friday. Those who use these topic suggestions and post them during the weekend, the best posts get some prizes. An incentive to post and interact.

Now, some might consider this presentation to be done to flatter Galen, in the hope that my writing will be noticed. It is not, for at least two reasons...Firstly, anyone who knows Galen knows that he cannot be swayed by such rudimentary methods, and secondly, that I do not write in this community for prizes. However, I have to be honest and admit that I look forward to Mondays to see the list of those noticed and have a kind of regret or even envy when I do not find myself among them. I know, however, that many participate in this challenge, after all, and many are more good or inspired on the subject.

If I have aroused anyone's curiosity, you can see the theme and rules of participation here: Weekend-Engagement topics: WEEK 188

There are usually several topics to choose from that are closer to your interest. Many times I find I don't have anything interesting to say and choose not to post, other times I could write about all the topics and find it hard to choose. This week there is a more particular and exciting topic that I am not comfortable with and initially, I chose not to write because I don't think I can give anything of interest but I found myself thinking about what to write and I will write something.... The subject is this:

_{Are you triggered more by visual stimuli or by touch and feel? Explain your answer with examples. (Bonus points for posts about whether you like the light on or off during sex.) Remember to use your own photos.}

As I said above, I don't write here for rewards. The main reward, which everyone who participates gets, is that we get a topic for a weekend post.

My post today doesn't even meet all the requirements (I deviated a lot from the topic) so it's excluded from the listing anyway and gives me the freedom of not having any expectations.

I'm grateful that I was able to give my opinion on this challenge and I hope it also shows my gratitude for what we get.

Next up is an attempt to respect the subject. An exercise done, first and foremost, for me.

Passionate about visual arts

Ever since I've known about myself I've been drawn to the image.

Childhood was spent somewhere in the middle of the last century, in a country in Europe just a decade out of the Second World War and after a violent change in the form of government from monarchy to communism. This is the picture of the first part of childhood. Even more, this is happening in a small town, almost a village. What do I mean by all this description? These were very hard times full of deprivation. We had almost nothing of what children have now. There was only one thing I had that made me happy. The view! The window of my room was my television. Then storybooks and their illustrations. Then the pictures in newspapers and magazines and, later, the movies.

My happiness, as much as it was, was in being able to watch!

From adolescence to early youth it was visual stimuli that triggered feelings of all kinds in me and related to the developmental stage of my mind and body. I was "drugged" with images, images were almost more important than reality. Because reality was grey, like life, and images, especially those in movies, were colorful and showed me a life that didn't exist where I lived.

The film image got me...

Around the 70s, still in that communism whose ideology was that the West was in decay, I was discovering, also through film, the new movement, pop culture. The film is called "Blow-up".

There I saw the dawn of the new world culture. In London. I saw two of the new expressions of visual art being born: Fashion and fashion photography, pop art, and something non-visual, but wonderful. Rock music!

The famous sequence in the film with the Yardbirds and two great rock singers at the beginning of their career: Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.

I know it's not appreciated to post directly from YouTube, a link to... is preferable, but I can't help myself. I've seen that, in general, these links don't get clicked and maybe direct video would be more appealing. I recommend rock lovers to watch it, it keeps history.

I don't know by what miracle it was shown in Bucharest in 1970. It was played for a week in one cinema. I watched it twelve times. I learned it by heart. I was only able to see it again twenty years later.

This was an example and an explanation of why I prefer visual stimuli.

Painting is another... visual pleasure.

Paintings by Michelangelo, Raphael, Van Gogh, and Klimt, to name but a few.
This art is perceived and thrilled just by looking at it!

Recently I was able to see a Picasso exhibition and I had, for the first time since looking at paintings, to do something more...

I touched the paintings. I wanted to have the tactile pleasure but also the opportunity to touch a painting that Picasso touched.

Finally, we come to the bonus for which I was tempted not to choose this theme...(Bonus points for posts about whether you like the light on or off during sex.)

Because I don't like talking about my sex life. On the other hand, why not?

To cut a long story short, I'll get straight to the point. Long ago, in the past, I liked it with the light on! Especially since I was a nudist.

After I got married. I preferred the light on, my wife didn't, so it was almost exclusively light off.

Now that I'm past 70, you know what they say...

After a certain age, the best aphrodisiac is the light off!

_{All photos are my own, only the two about Blow-up are YouTube - BlowUp - Creating Reality With A Camera captures.}