Pages

Friday, February 18, 2011

To Monet


I went to the Art Institute last night. It's free for a few hours, so I hopped the brown line quickly after work and headed to the south loop. I was able to go a few times last semester, this visit was the first for this year.

The couple I was with hadn't been there in quite some time, so I enjoyed showing them the new Modern wing, assuring them that, if all else, they would like Pollack. And they did.

Eventually, they wandered off to the new watercolor exhibit and I journeyed to visit a few friends: the Impressionists. It is not a visit to the Art Institute without saying hi to Seurat, Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir. I've grown up loving impressionism.

Idling by Monet's famous hay stacks, a series of paintings he created showing the light on a small field and how it changes through a day, a week, a season, my mind and body were transported to that field.

That field was not as lovely as it looks. I've seen fields with haystacks littering them after a farmer comes through - my eyes have never been captivated and my heart moved as they are with these paintings.

It shows Monet's skill and design behind doing these paintings. Monet shows the extraordinary of the ordinary. Painting in a not-quite-reality kind of way, so you squint at the blurred images, trying to erase the thick brush strokes left on the canvas. He wants you to see that everything is a little unclear, nothing is at it seems. And everyday life can be...beautiful.

And it is! If we only look. If we only tilt our heads and marvel at the unique, glorious creations before us. In the city, in the country, in the faces of the plain and pretty. Think like an impressionist today. Maybe they lived in a place where reality was hazy and untrue. Or maybe we live in a reality that is not all that it could be?

2 comments:

Donna Boucher said...

Lovely post. A little dreamy, like an impressionist painting.
I'm going to post my impressionist picture of you.

I have it on my website. Your eyes are closed....and yet...I love the shot.

You will see.

Unknown said...

You wrote this so beautifully Emma. I think to live like an Impressionist every day is the very best way. For truly, the every day can be mundane, but when we look for the beauty, it is there.

Thank you for this inspiration. Wishing you a wonderful weekend in sunny Chicago. Love, Becky in Sunny Philadelphia!

Post a Comment