Other than the ones on walls filled with paintings or photographs, I see frames everywhere. Earlier I was lying by the pool and the umbrella framed the sky on one side. Now I’m lying on the couch on the balcony and there is a rectangular opening in the wall and along the bottom there is the top of a table and farther off there is the side of the building across from ours, so the sky is framed by the opening on the right and top, the table on the bottom, and the other building on the left. These frames occur all over where there are straight lines.

The most frames are in the cities where there are buildings, windows, roads, light poles, and other urban structures. Why do we frame paintings? Why must they end at the borders? Does it matter? The answer, I think, is the same for these frames that occur on their own. But you can only see the picture once. If you shift your gaze at all, the picture will change and you won’t be able to ever get the same one back.

Originally written: Wednesday, May 26, 2021, 5:38 PM