A Strong Craving for Good Art

Today, amidst the million of things that I had to do- I all of a sudden had a STRONG craving for some fine art and thankfully 10 minutes away is a fabulous museum that was showing a few of my favorites (Picasso, Miro and Calder). So I dropped everything and we spent the afternoon looking at amazing work- something that I really needed to do.

Every time I enter a museum or gallery it is a moving experience for me and something I do not take for granted. The first time I saw an original painting by a "master" in person was in Paris-

it was a van Gogh and I cried- I remember standing so close to the painting that my nose almost touched it and I just stood there for a very long time staring at the thick brush strokes, mesmerized by what I was experiencing. At the time I had read The Letters of van Gogh for a class and I related to something in his process- an unstoppable need to create art regardless of success. Seeing his work up close spoke to my heart and inspired me like nothing else. Since that experience, that feeling is something that I actually ache for and there was even a time when art history was just as important to me as making art. In college there was something profound about learning to paint while at the same time studying the masters, learning about their lives and the meaning of their work- that to this day is a huge part of my creative foundation. In a world where it feels like just about everything "has been done" and inspiration is so accessible online, where we all air our creative processes so freely (which is wonderful but strange at the same time!) it is a comfort to know and understand where we came from, the artists that paved the way and discovered what we may often take for granted. Today I needed to see really good art, I needed to find a different kind of inspiration, get goose bumps, a few tears and rediscover over and over again why I love making art.