Avatar

We went to see Avatar yesterday. Wow! I kept hearing how amazing this movie was, but I was unprepared for the visual pleasure that unfolded before me. We drove an hour to the nearest Imax theater. If ever there was a movie which needed the Imax for its full impact, this is it. Avatar is a heavenly 3-D journey on an imagined planet. It is an amazing creative work art! A must see for all artists for it's filled with visual candy. I can't describe how well done this computer generated world is. I'm excited and proud that my son Josh is majoring in this field. Oh the fun he will have sculpting and creating on the computer!

I'm very sensitive to the details and subtle nuances in nature. I live in the middle of the woods and I'm always studying it. The way the sun dabbles on all the leaves and tree trunks, the chain reaction of an emerging breeze picking up in the treetops creating a wave mimicked at ball games and lately, how the snow collects on each and every branch, down to the tiniest ones. I watch the birds, squirrels and chipmunks, sometimes deer, groundhogs, wild turkeys, raccoons and yes even moose, frolic through my yard. Much of my energy is devoted to studying the sights and sounds of nature. I feel its necessary in order to interpret it with paint in a believable, representational way.

In the movie when the main character first enters into his new environment, he reacts like a playful child, running, laughing and touching everything. As viewers we too are experiencing the same amazement, wonderment and awe. As an artist, I was paying attention to the way light was draping itself on him as he walked through the sunlit forest. I was so surprised at the accuracy with which the sunspots moved across his body. I knew instantly that this was going to be a beautiful experience.

If you love nature, you're going to be pleasured by wonderful, colorful, gleaming, imaginative flora and fauna. You wish you could be walking through this paradise too. But wait, with the Imax and 3-D, you are. Eventually you'll forget this is a computer generated world. It is so believable. Watch out though, you may need to go see it again. Its like going to the art museum and needing to return to view some special masterpieces, you can't live without seeing again...

I'm sure some of you have seen it already. What did you think? Please go out of your way to get to an Imax theater. I promise you won't regret it.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/avatar/hd/ This is the trailer, but it won't give you any inclination of the beauty that awaits. It lacks the 3-D and focuses on war, a very tiny part of the movie. Avatar is closer to a grown-up version of Fern Gully, a movie I loved watching with my kids years ago.

I never expected to be posting a commercial, but it would just be too sad if you missed this adventure. Go give yourself a treat! Go experience someone else's major work of art...