exhibitionism

isn't it incredible how many people in the last months have started blogs? they are such a bizarre form of communication, or self-expression.... i fear sometimes that in constantly turning around and re-telling our lives, we lose some of the power of lived moments for what they are. it's like mom always used to say "don't be a slave to your camera" - not living the moment through your eyes but trying to just capture it in an artificial form... how often are we slaves of the idea of possible future story-telling? i don't think that all blogs are simply about exhibitionist self-absorption, but the boundaries between private and public have never been so blurred... i am still so surprised when people say "oh yes, i saw that on your blog" - but then again, why write a blogpost if you have no intention of anyone seeing it?

at the met this week there was an exhibit of the work of giorgio morandi, a reclusive italian modernist painter whose work i greatly admire. at one point he said:

"[compared to other italian artists of my generation], i was still left in peace, perhaps because i demanded so little recognition. my privacy was thus my protection, and in the eyes of the grand inquisitors of italian art, i remained, but a provincial professor of etching at the fine arts academy of bologna."

do blogs immediately make us all great demanders of recognition? and sometimes i wonder if i'd prefer to be more protected in my privacy.

oh well :) ultimately i'm happy that because of blogs, i can see this. and this. :)