Vladimir Putin picks up the paintbrush and paints a starry night, a view from inside, looking out a window. Lace curtains, perhaps rather provencial, a touch of red...
Prince Charles paints landscapes in watercolor and I don't know if outgoing President G.W. Bush ever painted a thing but fear itself, in broad brush strokes. But, to look into this deeper, Putin paints himself as an insider. I found this interesting as Obama is an outsider's outsider. So I've thought of what might a window represent, symbolically... I think of this especially as this week I notice that one of the first official photos of President Obama showed him at work, sitting in an empty Oval Office, his back to the windows. The windows frame him. The view is not to the outside, but to the activity taking place at work in front of the windows.
What is the window, as an idea, such as the one Putin has painted? A window is a barrier between in and out. Unlike a door, through which one may pass to enter another place, a window only allows a view to elsewhere, not direct participation. It is the frame of a watcher. Some view the world from the inside looking out, and others, from the outside looking in. What views the windows frame, and especially those in our dreams or visions, such as the ideas that Putin paints, could be representative of deeper meanings.
So. Putin sees stars from the comfort of a place contained.
Interesting! Definitely food for thought.
Posted by: Kay Dennison | January 24, 2009 at 11:02 PM