Bells of Notre Dame 

Curator: Ah, here we have "Bells of Notre Dame" by Jeff Jamison. A beautiful cityscape, painted, it appears, en plein air with oil paint. Editor: It’s melancholic, almost dreamy. The reflections on the wet pavement, the muted palette... feels like a memory fading at the edges. There’s something quite evocative about it. Curator: It's funny you say that because I find it very active; there are figures bustling about. Though it's a realist landscape painting, it verges on impressionistic—those bold brushstrokes really capture the transient light of a rainy Parisian day. Editor: True, there is movement. But who are these blurry figures in this artwork really meant for? Their shadows reflect within this setting just to echo through spaces that are, arguably, very exclusive ones to begin with. It gives a feeling of not belonging; exclusion and inaccessibility are quite pronounced. Curator: Well, think of Baudelaire's flâneur! Someone observing the urban landscape—Jamison is capturing a fleeting moment. The everyday lives of Parisians, not static monuments, right? Maybe even suggesting how quickly memories disappear into the urban hum. There’s that interesting tension, though—between permanence, symbolized by Notre Dame itself, and ephemerality in the city. Editor: Precisely, but what does the bells mean to each individual person represented? Are these the original bells before being destroyed and recast with the destruction that occurred in April 2019? These questions would make interesting entry points. I do wonder also about how this artwork situates Notre Dame as an established western cultural construct through art history as well, and what that entails on a social and historical level. Curator: It's compelling to think about those contrasts of physical, social, and historical forces, the idea that something so resilient, a landmark which existed for centuries could be rendered as ephemeral through a passing glance, in art as it is in the world. Editor: Absolutely, that’s the potent question Jamison asks, and I feel there’s more beneath the surface we haven’t uncovered; a whole spectrum of personal connection and collective responsibility. It urges us to remember who gets to take part in creating and witnessing historical significance.