if i give you this paintbrush and ask you to paint...what would you do?

several months ago, this woman i know, we will call her daisy, said to me the following statement:

"you asking me to learn technology, is like me giving you this paintbrush and asking you to paint."

among other things daisy said, i started thinking that her analogy was close, but not exactly right. painting is a very specific type of skill to acquire, for example, like, learning how to use formulas in microsoft excel, or learning how to create a podcast. instead, her analogy should have been a little like, "i want you to learn to appreciate art, and to understand how it can be valuable and useful in your daily life." so, before i ask someone to do something that i wouldn't do myself, i challenged myself to do just that. though daisy will never read my blog, because, first, she doesn't care, and second, she couldn't find it even if she did (which in my opinion is an example of how she should be able to appreciate and realize the value of technology in her daily life), i write this blog to show her that i can do what she thinks i can't, and that if she weren't so lazy, she could too.

i have been blessed beyond belief to be able to spend this summer visiting one of my favorite places on earth, new york city. though i could blog just about this, and will later, i wont go there now, in fear of hijacking my own blog. being here has allowed me to visit some of the greatest art museums that our country has to offer. today, im focusing on the guggenheim museum and the MOMA (museum of modern art). i had never been to either before, and the guggenheim was the first on my list of travels.

perhaps half of the power of the guggenheim lies in just walking into the museum. it literally took my breath away and i had to go sit down to take it in. i find it possible to believe one could spend an entire day just sitting here:

staring at the stark whiteness, while you would think it would be boring, was actually mesmerizing. it draws you in, wraps you in in circular ramps, makes you dizzy, makes you giddy, makes you wonder how it is possible you have lived your whole life without visiting it. and then you look up and see this:

and i became a bit overcome by the sheer magnitude of the place and the possibilities it held for me. frank lloyd wright designed this building, and i was fascinated to learn that it took him 15 years, over 700 sketches and six sets of working designs to build this building. it stands, i believe as the greatest example of the art it contains. don't get me wrong...to stand so near actual canvases touched by picasso, monet, van gogh, that was something else in and of itself, but standing in this building topped that feeling for me completely. it was his last work, his final contribution to the world of art, and what a testament it is. its shape challenges the thought of infinite, the possibility of how such a thing stands and doesn't collapse, and the fact that he conjured this in his mind, had the ability to put it on paper and make it a reality. up the columns says earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust:

never have i felt this message so profoundly as in this space. full of magnitude. full of clean lines, perfect curves, endless possibility, we all come from dust and return to dust. before you return to dust, make this a place you are sure to visit. i promise you don't want to miss this place. art doesn't have to be a painting, or a photograph. i find this to be one of the greatest pieces of art i have ever experienced to date. thanks guggenheim. see you soon.

now i move on to the MOMA. as a museum full of paintings, photos, installations, i preferred the collection of the MOMA to the Guggenheim. There was a Matisse exhibit there, but the line was insanely long, and i decided to opt for the rest of the museum as opposed to spend my whole visit only visiting that exhibit. This museum is filled with many magnificent things, none that I loved more than the furniture, which was amazing, and i wish i could buy it all. however, once, daisy told me that my light looked like a way to beam up to the mother ship, so i do not think that she would be impressed by this sort of art, and clearly doesn't appreciate it. so, lets go with some other things. Let's start with one of the first pieces of art i saw:

untitled, atsuko tanaka

so, this piece was actually inspired from an installation where the artist wore two hundred blinking incandescent lightbulbs covered with enamel paint. i love the thought of this first of all, and wish i could dress in light bulbs on a daily basis. it would make me unbelievably happy. however, bringing it deeper this type of art, called Gutai, was considered to be a way of bringing materials together with the human spirit. it wasn't until much later that i saw the number 8, which had very little meaning for me, however, there are 8 colors in the concentric circles. im not sure if that has any significance, however for me, i love the thought of this being the expression of a human spirit on a canvas. i wonder what my spirit would look like displayed on a canvas. what colors would it contain? what if we all walked around with our artistic representation of our spirits on our backs. if i saw this one, i would talk to that person. would we avoid people based on their Gutai? i was excited to see more...and i didn't have to wait long to meet with this Picasso:

Girl before a Mirror, Pablo Picasso

so i should start by saying i was never a huge fan of picasso, however, i can appreciate that the man was insane and insanely talented. i mean, if you look at this piece, i could NEVER make anything this amazing on a canvas roughly 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide. how is it that none of the colors match but they don't clash either? It is interesting that this is a painting of one of Picasso's young lovers, and his painting obsession during the 1930's. How she looks into a mirror and is reflected in a way that does not even resemble the one looking in the mirror. perhaps it is a symbol of her transformation, and perhaps it is a message to all of us of what reflects, both literally and figuratively from us. perhaps who i see in the mirror isn't who i really am. or perhaps who i reflect to others isn't the right one either. or is it. in my mirror, is it the same person who looks in, or is it someone different? i looked for a long time at this piece. isn't it interesting how she is reaching out to touch her reflection but her reflection doesn't reach back? how interesting. how lovely. i have a new appreciation for you Pablo. you surprise me.

my vows, annette messager

so this piece was a familiar friend to me, because it was also at the guggenheim in a much smaller spiral version. this is a pretty mesmerizing piece of art. from each string hangs a photograph. each is a small part of the human body. everything you can imagine hangs from these strings. sometimes it is difficult to identify the parts of the body. this art tells me one thing. the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. part sculpture, part photography, part...i dont even know what...this is an amazing piece of art. my vows? this i'm still pondering. not sure what it means...if you see it, if you have insight....i'm open to whatever you have to share...

so, while this blog could go on forever, i think ill wrap it up, because, honestly, you should experience these pieces for yourself, and develop your own opinion, your own insight. truly art reflects us each differently. like picasso's girl in front of the mirror, i bring my own experiences, life, insight into art. it changes me in a different way than you. perhaps i look and i am sucked in and you look and walk by. its why there are so many artists.

my soft office (weekly dinner plate), Hella Jongerius

i think i was meant to see this piece. it was exactly what i was looking for. call it kismet. call it karma, call it serendipity, call it a God-moment. Hella found a way to marry technology and art. clearly she loved her technology and her art so much, she never wanted to part from either, and made it so she could eat right on her art, right in front of her computer. Wherever you are, Hella, i think you are amazing. you show the daisy's around the world that you don't have to be one thing or the other. you can be many things, and only your imagination, your desire, and your determination limits those things. some daisy's in our world are closed minded. perhaps it has always worked for them. however, im sorry to hear that. perhaps, one day, the daisies of the world will step outside their comfort zone, stop making excuses and look for a way to expand themselves. and, actually, im thankful to daisy for her misguided analogy, because it helped me to grow, to think bigger, to look beyond, and to appreciate art. it doesn't matter if you are a teacher or not. what matters is that, as humans, we are challenged every day to grow. to become a better version of ourselves. to stretch ourselves to the limits of who we can be, and then go beyond that to be more than we ever imagine, to know more than we ever dreamed we could. why stay put content with the "way it has always been" or "what i've always done"? why not be something new or do something different. it might pay off. i know it did for me.

happy growing, friends.

aformerblonde.