Topic: What's your take on this?

[gpw11]

Thought I'd let you guys in on this creepy, yet very cool little puzzle before it's spoiled one way or the other.  Check this out, find the dugg mirror links or whatever link to the picture (and I suggest checking out the following images as well).  Pretty entertaining trying to figure this out.

http://www.digg.com/health/What_is_the_insane_secret_of_this_painting

Personally, I don't know what to think.  Assuming this is all real, I have a feeling it has something to do with the shape of the landscape or something like that.  I think the key to it is to listen to the clues (which a lot of people in the comments don't seem to really be doing) and take those into account. Furthermore, I think the answer may be able to be decoded by looking at the original image and the replica and finding what has been altered.  Not what has been omitted, but what has been physically changed (yet still remains in some form) or even if anything has been added.  I think if we can find something along those lines we'd just have to determine the significance of it and we'd pretty much have it figured out.

This, of course, is assuming there actually is anything of merit behind the story.

[Raisa]

it's the redundance of the house.. the kid had drawn two angles

[poomcgoo]

Well the people commenting are way off it seems.  I think you're right.  I'm thinking it has to do with the landscape.  If you look at the original, and then the insane one, the insane guy's version cuts the whole right side of the town off.

EDIT: but then again, I don't see how the landscape fits into the clue "ask yourself what could have preceded this scene"

EDIT2:  The only thing I can really think after looking at it for a few minutes is that maybe it has something to do with the path that the sleds and the skiiers are on.  It looks like it's going uphill, but the horizon line for the rest of the town is below where the hill comes from.  If you remove all the objects, where does that hill go?  Fear of heights maybe??  Could be a stretch

[Antares]

The perspective is distorted between the right and left side, I wonder what the painting would look like if you looked at it after folding it 90 degrees?


Edit, nevermind, I didn't realize it was actually the same scene repeated at a different angle.

[Cools]

Maybe some kind of fear of silence and isolation. Remove all the objects, and you've got utter silence and the cold. With all the objects back in the picture, you've got activity and lots of noise (the horses, kids playing, etc.). Or the reverse. I doubt that someone "sick" would draw exactly the thing they are afraid of and instead would draw a scene and then add all the elements to make sure it looked more "unfearful". So maye the artist is afraid of snow.

[nickclone]

No doors on the houses?

Is there an actual answer to this?

[Xessive]

Baby on the sleigh?

[WindAndConfusion]

For those of you who want to save the clicking:

The original painting:


The supposedly insane reproduction:

(hosted by ImageShack)

In the original, the children riding the sleighs appear to be singing or something. They're quite happy. In the reproduction, they're staring at the viewer, and not doing anything else. All the other figures are doing the same thing in the reproduction they're doing in the original.

[Quemaqua]

Was going to say what Ant said, same thing drawn from different angles, but if that's the case it isn't drawn well.  It isn't an accurate depiction of the same thing twice, so I don't think that's it.  The houses aren't quite right for that and the two people with the baby carriage aren't repeated in the other, they're actually on skis there even though the same color.  Don't know what it is really.  There aren't power lines in the reproduction.

Personally, my guess is whatever the "real" answer is, it's probably just psycho-bullshit anyway with no actual basis in fact.

[Ghandi]

Fear of isolation? No one is alone, and in his insane reproduction all the kids are looking at him. I dunno.

[Raisa]

strange.. so that's what made him insane?

[WindAndConfusion]

He's not really "insane" (which is kind of a useless word anyway), he has/had a phobia which his painting supposedly reflects. (Starry Night, for example, has features that suggest Van Gogh had visual epilepsy or something.)

[scottws]

I have no idea what it could be.  Supposedly you're supposed to imagine what it is like with all the objects removed.  I see a snowy hill with a cleft in it.  Maybe if you include the shadows they could be like eye-sockets and the snow trail some hair.  But that's pretty flimsy.

[poomcgoo]

Yeah, what's the deal with this thing... That russian site said the professor would talk about it by now.

[gpw11]

Yeah, well sorry about that.  It seems like it may have been somewhat of a wild goose chase.  The "prof" never posted an answer, erased his live journal where he was supposed to do so and never showed up at the original blog.  I don't think the author of the blog had anything to do with the 'hoax', he seemed just as upset as everyone else.

The last word from the prof basically stated that some people got his phone number and contacted him demanding an answer, which scared him off.  True?  I have no idea.  The closest thing to an official answer there is was someone claiming to have been in that prof's class claiming the answer was that the viewer is spring approaching.  If you look at the bottom left corner of the painting you can see grass and the snow melting (?).  The children are looking at you with what may be interpreted as fear, and all the doors in the village are closed (?).  Word for word:

But just to milk it for a few more thousand hits… the following, apparently, is the answer. Given to me by an anonymous commenter claiming to be the professor’s former student. I don’t know if it should be believed or not. But it sounds crazy enough. And it fits in with the patient’s alleged condition — he saw imaginary things all around him.

Here goes.

“In this painting, we are Spring. You can see water, melting snow, in the lower left corner. The people are looking at us, afraid that their little world is about to melt down. They’re escaping from us, from Spring, in those sleds. It’s also why all the doors of all the houses are shut.”

I’m a believer.

I have no idea if that's actually the answer or if there is even an answer.  The only thing for certain is that this was painted by someone who was crazy (it's listed on Outsider Art). The painter's name is known as well.

Sorry about this.

[scottws]

Oh my God, Spring is approaching.  Obviously the painter is seriously mentally ill!

No, I don't think that's it.  Compare the lower left of both pictures.  The "crazy" painter is just copying what's going on in the original.

[gpw11]

yeah, I actually didn't look at the original to check that out.  Good point. 

[Pugnate]

One thing is for sure, those painting suck but are probably worth a lot of money.

[Quemaqua]

Needs more boobies.

[Xessive]

I don't know, my next guess was gonna be "there are no doors!"

[scottws]

That's not true.  Both the original and the "crazy" one both have one door.  It's just harder to see in the latter.

I think this whole think is a hoax, a joke on people like us.

[Pugnate]

Well it may not be a joke, but I am just skeptical of how you can tell a person's disability from the way he paints. There can be plenty of explanations of why a painter makes the choices he does.

This is one of the reasons I used to hate poetry class. I found it to be pretentious bullshit. They would take a five line poem and write all this nonsense analyzing stuff to the point where they thought they were in the psyche of the poet.

Bull fucking shit.

I bet soon you are going to have shrinks making patients write poetry so that they could analyze the writings and treat them.

We even had this semi famous guest poet who had his work analyzed by our class, and then said something along the lines of,"Wow, I didn't even mean half of the stuff you people came up with. Good job!"

Good job? We are coming up with bullshit stuff you didn't even mean and then patting each other on the back for!

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, I have absolutely zero belief in the psychoanalysis of art.  Most of what universities teach these days is complete and utter garbage.

Everyone here should do themselves a favor and read The Rape of the Masters by Roger Kimball.  If this subject interests you at all, I'm sure you'll find it fascinating.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Yeah, I have absolutely zero belief in the psychoanalysis of art.  Most of what universities teach these days is complete and utter garbage.

Everyone here should do themselves a favor and read The Rape of the Masters by Roger Kimball.  If this subject interests you at all, I'm sure you'll find it fascinating.

Thank you for reminding me to get that at the library!  I knew there was a book I was needing to get along with the others I picked up but couldn't remember the name, just what it was about.  I will have to get that next time I go.

[Quemaqua]

I bought it a while ago... it's some really good stuff.  My DA sig has been a quote from it for years now.