Now that there are no priests or philosophers left, artists are the most important people in the world

Today is Gerhard Richter's birthday, it is also Tu B'Shvat (Jewish Arbor Day). I also managed to accomplish some stuff, like going to the Absorption Ministry to get unemployment. Took my business card to the printer. Went to the doctor; he's starting me on physical therapy - that should give me more to do, given my unemployment. Looked into a program in Industrial Design at a local college; it is intense and I don't think I have the discipline to handle such a huge course load, especially in a foreign language. I have to figure out what I am going to do when the course I am taking ends. I certainly want to continue in the field. Speaking of which, I made some not so minor tweaks to my kitchen plan. I extended a counter so the kitchen area is more of a U than an L. I haven't decided the height of the extension; if it will be table height with a couple of chairs, or higher with a stools.
The two images are Richter's. I saw the Toilet Paper image at a MoMA showing of his a few years ago, and for some reason, this image resonated with me (as did the entire exhibition, but for some reason, this image especially). Also the above are his "Trees," fitting both with Tu B'Shvat and with the motif of my Thoreau apartment. If last post touched on the relationship between artist and viewer, then I suppose one of my themes in this post can be the relationship between nature and art. And, perhaps, photography as art. Gerhard Richter said of photography: "Photography altered ways of seeing and thinking. Photographs were regarded as true, paintings as artificial. The painted picture was no longer credible; its representation froze into immobility, because it was not authentic but invented."

'To the complaint, 'There are no people in these photographs,' I respond, 'There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer.'

I was playing around with some images for an "HDR" effect; this is one of the results. I posted them on flickr and I got some good feedback, so I figured I would share it with you all. It was taken about a week after 9/11, the first time I'd been down there since the attacks. You'd think this photograph would evoke a more emotional or cathartic response in me, but I just see it as another photograph, I guess until now when I am putting into the context in which it was taken. I guess that is another example about the "dilemma" in photography, and art in general, the relationship between the creator and its viewer or "experiencer." I may be getting a bit Jamesian, so I shall stop.