Well, let me tell ya ’bout this fella, Salvador Dali, and his weird eyeball pictures. Don’t know much about fancy art, but I know what I see, and this guy, he painted some real head-scratchers. Folks say he’s a big deal, a surrealist or somethin’. Sounds like a made-up word to me, but hey, who am I to judge?
This Dali, he liked to paint eyeballs. Not just regular eyeballs, mind you. Weird, twisted, meltin’ eyeballs. Like somethin’ you’d see in a bad dream after eatin’ too much spicy food before bed. He painted clocks that looked like they were drippin’ off a table, and elephants with legs so long and spindly, they looked like they’d snap in a breeze. And eyeballs, lots and lots of eyeballs.
Now, I ain’t no art critic, but I reckon these eyeballs mean somethin’. Maybe they’re about seein’ things different, you know? Like lookin’ at the world through a cracked window. Or maybe it’s about dreams. We all have them crazy dreams, don’t we? Where nothin’ makes sense and everything’s all jumbled up. Maybe Dali just painted what he saw in his dreams.
- Melting clocks
- Long-legged elephants
- Lots of eyeballs
They say he called his paintin’s “color photography done by hand.” That’s a fancy way of sayin’ he painted what he saw, but what he saw wasn’t what most folks see. He saw things twisted and strange, like lookin’ in a funhouse mirror. And them eyeballs, they’re always starin’ back at ya, like they know somethin’ you don’t.
This surrealism stuff, it’s all about the mind, I hear. The stuff that’s hidden deep down, the thoughts and feelin’s we don’t even know we have. Dali, he dug that stuff up and put it on canvas. And those eyeballs, they’re like windows into that hidden world. Kinda spooky if you think about it too hard.
Some folks say he was a genius, this Dali. Maybe he was. But to me, he was just a fella who painted some real weird pictures. Pictures that make you think, make you wonder, and maybe even make you a little bit uncomfortable. But that’s art, I guess. It ain’t supposed to be pretty and easy all the time. Sometimes it’s supposed to shake you up a bit.
And them eyeballs, they definitely shake you up. They’re starin’ at you from the canvas, followin’ you around the room. They’re lookin’ into your soul, seein’ all your secrets and fears. Makes you wonder what ol’ Dali was seein’ when he painted them. Must’ve been somethin’ else.
This fella wasn’t just paintin’ pretty pictures, no sir. He was messin’ with your head, makin’ you see things you wouldn’t normally see. Like them elephants with legs like stilts, or them clocks that look like they’re meltin’ in the sun. And always, them eyeballs. Starin’, watchin’, seein’ right through you. Makes a body a bit nervous, if you ask me.
Dali and his friend Luis, they even made a movie once, way back in 1929. Folks say it had some shockin’ images in it. I ain’t seen it myself, but I heard tell it had eyeballs in it too. This fella was obsessed, I tell ya. Obsessed with eyeballs and dreams and all that other weird stuff.
Now, they’re gonna have a big show of this surrealism stuff in November 2024. A hundred years of it, they say. Imagine that. A hundred years of folks lookin’ at these weird pictures and tryin’ to figure out what they mean. Me, I don’t know if I’ll ever figure it out. But them eyeballs, they still give me the shivers.
This Salvador Dali, he wasn’t the only one paintin’ this kinda stuff. There was another fella, and a woman too, named Meret somethin’-or-other. They were all thinkin’ about the mind, about what’s hidden deep inside. And they used all sorts of strange things to show it. Lobsters, apples, skulls… and of course, eyeballs.
The eye, they say, it’s about seein’, but it’s also about knowin’ and thinkin’. It’s about the inside and the outside, all mixed up together. And Dali, he painted that mix-up better than anyone. He made the inside world look like the outside world, and the outside world look like a crazy dream. And them eyeballs, they’re right there in the middle of it all, watchin’ and seein’ and maybe even judgin’.
So, if you ever see one of these Dali pictures, don’t be scared. Just take a deep breath and look at them eyeballs. Let ’em stare at you. Let ’em see you. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll start to see what ol’ Dali was seein’ all along. It ain’t pretty, and it ain’t easy, but it’s somethin’ you won’t forget. And that, I reckon, is what makes it art.
