So this is a lazy Sunday (not necessarily a Lazy Sunday) with coffee, cinnamon rolls, and sitting around in the den on various electronic devices.  Bell’s on her desktop, Wildcat’s on the couch with the DS, and I was on the couch with the lappy.

I was doing my Wikipedia excursions, and today my wanderings had brought me to the SubGenius entry to check on ol “Bob”, when I found a link to Magritte’s Ceci n’est pas une pipe.

Sure ain't, Rene

I don’t know how I’d gone 31 years without fully appreciating this work, but upon finding it this morning I realized that I had to get a big ass print of it and either hang it in my house or maybe in my office (did I mention I have an office now with 4 walls, a door, and no windows? no?).

I told Bell about it, cuz I wasn’t sure if she was familar with it, when Wildcat piped (heh) in, without looking up from the DS,  saying “Hey, I know that painting!  Its got a picture of a pipe and it has words underneath it saying that ‘this isn’t a pipe’.  Its weird.  Its a surrrrealeeeism painting.”

…

I stared at him for about 10 seconds with my jaw gaping open.

Once my brain had worked enough to get past the fact that my second grader is schooling me on surrealism, I asked him what else he knows about it.

He said “Its usually weird paintings that don’t make a lot of sense.  I think that Sarvoladore Dali is my favorite surrealistic painter.  He likes to paint melting clocks.”

Melty clocks for the win

So I pulled up some Dali (now, I’m not as much of a rube with ol Salvadore as I am with Rene) and he pointed out Persistence of Time, saying that he recognized that one from his art class.

“See the thing underneath the clock [on the right]?  Thats his face peeled off.”

…

Wow.

So we went through other surrealism paintings, and he recognized some, and I had an intelligent art conversation with my 7 year old.

Before he went back to the DS.

So, holy crap, Oak Ridge public schools for the win.  I emailed his art teacher something babbling about how “OMG MY CHILD IS KNOWING TEH ART TALK !!!!1111!!”

So, now I really, really want to get Ceci n’est pas une pipe.

This one ain’t bad either, and arguably more my speed…