Week 6

Velasco, Jose Maria- El Citlaltépetl (1879)

Jose Maria Velasco was a Mexican painter who painted landscapes. To me, what is most impressive about his work is that he painted the same valley over and over again, but each time he was able to see it differently. Everyday he painted something new. Although he looked at the same valley each day, each day it was changed. Each of his paintings is slightly different.

Velasco, Jose Maria- The Valley of Mexico (1875)

Ariel, the protagonist in the Disney movie the Little Mermaid sees her world in the opposite way that Velasco does. She fails to see the beauty of the sea around her and desires to escape to the land above, “the land where they walk, the land where they run, they land where they play all day in the sun”.

 I think that each of these people, Velasco and Disney’s fictional Ariel, represent a different part of Levinas’s totality vs. infinity theory. Ariel represents totality. Although the ocean is vast and beautiful, she is sick of it. She feels she has seen it all. In Levinas’s theory totality is the idea that once we experience part of something we have experienced it all. When we know something about someone or something we know everything. That is how Ariel feels about the sea. She has explored some of it, seen some of it, and wants to be done seeing it. She wants to move on to something new. She needs adventure, excitement, and change.

Velasco, Jose Maria- Bridge at Metlac (1881)

In contrast, Velasco and his artwork embody the infinity concept of Levinas’s theory. According to Levinas, to see things with an infinity perspective one must recognize that no matter how much you know about someone or something there will always be more. This is how Velasco is able to paint the same valley over and over again. Each time he paints it he is able to paint something different. He is never tired of its beauty.