“Commonplace objects are constantly changing… The pies we now see are not going to be around forever. We are merely used to the idea that things do not change.” -Wayne Thiebaud
Cake is GOOD. And Wayne’s right–those pies and cakes are NOT going to be around forever! Just had to get that out there. What better way to part with some of your closest friends then to watch Dr Who re-runs (especially when you’ve never actually watched the show before and you’re utterly clueless as to what’s going on…), and eat birthday cake and Penn State Creamery ice cream?
Cake photo a la Wayne Thiebaud. I remember a painting I made in high school mimicking Thiebaud’s style. He generally uses these light, airy colors to paint rows of similar desserts–be they lollipops, pies, tarts, brownies, or CAKES. I chose to paint a brownie–and it was torture because in order to do so, we had to observe the brownie from life. So at first, it was painful to sit there and look at our desserts and know that they are destined to go uneaten, but after a few days, the torture lessened as the desserts grow more and more stale.
But Thiebaud’s statement is interesting. Obviously, taken in a light-hearted way, yeah the pies won’t stay around forever–they will be eaten. But it’s also interesting to look at it in the broader scope of things. We always assume that things will never change, that everything happening right now will just go on as it always does. But that’s not really true. Everything is constantly changing, as much as people try to hold back those changes. Take the English language, for instance. It’s gone through countless changes, through Old then Middle then finally, present-day English. When Samuel Johnson undertook the project of creating the first official dictionary, he said in his intro that he hoped by creating the book, he would hold back the changes. Well, he was wrong. That was less than 300 years ago–and it’s changed plenty since then.
But yes, the desserts. Change is good, right? As we all sat around the table eating our cakes, happily reminiscing about the past and chatting about the present, the future hung over us, reminding us that we were all on the brink of some of the biggest changes of our lives.
1. That sounds like the best day EVER.
2. I love Wayne Thiebaud! And I think I’m writing that quote down in my journal, because it’s pretty excellent. : )