When I chose this class, I had done zero research on what I would be studying. I just saw that my options for this semester were two of the following: Psych, History, Humanities. I said hell no to history and was left with the others.
Please don’t scream things about being doomed to repeat… I am well aware..
Little did I know this humanities was all about art and humanities and this meant not only was I diving back into a time that I can’t personally recall, but I would have to look at, and interpret, and learn about, artwork from that time. I am no artist, my artist is some 1800 miles away.
I am more of a science person and a little math.
Either way… I did find some work that is so psychologically deep that I didn’t dread this weeks work. First up: Woman with dead child.
Woman with Dead Child by Kathe Köllwitz, 1903
This is abstract but, wow, can you feel the emotion in this one?!?! I want, so bad, to know the thoughts that are going through the mind of the subject and even more so, to know what is going through the mind of its creator. Where does one pull such raw and real emotion from without leaving watermarks all over the piece? I almost cried when I put myself in the place of the subject.. I never wish to know that feeling.
It brought me back to the fire of ’91. I can imagine that the subject is my mother holding her child that passed away that night. This makes me see things in a different light for sure. That has got to be the darkest feeling one can have.
Helping and Healing 