Chiaroscuro

On any given day in New York, if the sun is out, as it is today, you will find moments and pictures of small revelation. Here, outside the Asser Levy rec center, is a stone column partially hit by the midday sun. Made me think of chiaroscuro--the technique of modeling an image in high contrast for dramatic purposes. Something about the moment hit me--it was a happy moment, but there was melancholy in it, and the column and the light/dark capture that. The feeling of having a joyful day, being alive and the sadness of the passing of time. Saudade, I think the Brazilians call it. Edward Hopper paintings have this in spades. Something about well-rendered images gives them that sadness, too. It strikes me that the near- perfection of anything evokes loss, somehow; temporality is most alive in the beautiful, the excellent.