There are a number of pleasant distractions for a Sunday afternoon here in the Bay Area. Yet, if I were in Madrid, I could add bullfighting to the list. I actually have never been to a bullfight and really have no interest in seeing one. Yet there is something I find compelling about the imagery. When it’s depicted in an Almodóvar film, bullfighting becomes downright glamorous. I wonder if there is an artist somewhere in Spain who would look towards America and say the same about NASCAR? I suppose it is always possible to see something in a foreign culture that is not really there, but that would be a stretch. The imagery of bullfighting in art always draws me in as well. Can a corpse be stunning? It can if it is Édouard Manet ‘s painting of a dead bullfighter. Today’s inspiration and material came from something a little more ordinary — some vintage bullfighting postcards and a ticket to a bullfight in Madrid on a Sunday afternoon 50 years ago.
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