Project: Reading the Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art

I’ve started a new project, which is reading The Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art (one of many  books I bought from Hafa Books a few years ago that served to sit on my bookshelf until I rediscovered it) page by page. The dictionary narrates the themes and stories behind art-- allegories traced through historical, mythical and biblical figures and how they were perceived by artists through the centuries. The idea for reading the art dictionary in alphabetical order? 

It came from another book, Into the Forest by Jean Hegland. The novel is about two teenage sisters who survive in the woods when civilization comes to a halt after a series of global monetary and environmental collapses. In the book, the two characters try to continue practicing what they're passionate about during 'the lost time between the two halves of our real lives'. The younger sister, Nell, was planning on taking admissions tests to Harvard before the collapse and in attempt to continue her studies (computers are obviously no longer working) she reads and rereads every book she is stuck with in her house until resorting to reading the encyclopedia page for page:

"Fighter planes and supernovas and the falconlike divinity of the soul: death and flight, Heaven and the heavens. Even though it's only an alphabetical accident, there is a serendipitous rightness to that juxtaposition, and for a moment I wish my father were here so that I could prove him wrong."

The argument is the poetry of reading a reference book like this and beginning to notice the patterns and juxtaposition that connect every writer, philosopher and person in history. It's realizing the little things and the recurrences that drive through time.

The girls of Into the Forest were also unschooled before the collapse. Of her education and learning process Nell writes:

"For years I studied what I wanted to, when and how I wanted to study it. One book led to another in a random pattern, meandering from interest to interest like a good conversation, and the only thing that connected them was their juxtaposition on the bookshelves in Mother's workroom."

Jump back! (Side note: this saying is from Kevin Bacon's line in Footloose, which I've watched three times in the past two days, and I'm trying to bring it back as I think it sounds cooler than saying 'No way'! Join me in reviving it)

But, I wanted a way to expand my learning and give it more depth and meaning than just a few paragraphs of reading. And that's the idea for the blog posts. Every week of reading the art dictionary, I'm going to choose two subjects that interest me from my reading and research them before writing a blog post documenting what I've learned.