Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.

Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.

CLAUDE MONET

I have loved this quote from the moment I read it, decades ago. I wish it were more well known.

I remember taking a fine art appreciation class in high school, called XDA. (MultiDimensional Awareness). My instructor spoke at length about different styles of art and the influences, meanings, trends, changes, radical departures, etc. I stayed late after class one day and was chatting with him, and I asked him how or why we know what all of the meaning of art is. I inquired, “wasn’t it possible that art was just expression of the artist and nothing further? Does their subconscious and environment and circumstances really play a key role in the art creation, or was it just a person using assets at their disposal to make pretty things.” His response was that he felt it was both. We are all creatures of our world, our circumstances, and the influences that have left indelible impressions on us.

This was the year in my life when I abandoned a potential future in medicine and instead, focused on becoming a filmmaker. I came to the determination that my instructor was correct. I was a creature of the stimuli that moved my soul. The surreal expression of Salvador Dali, the exquisite lighting and cinematography of Vittorio Storaro, the obscure perspective of society of Stanley Kubrick and the passion for storytelling of Copolla and Scorsese, were clearly influencing my tastes, as well as my creative soul. 

I was traveling to Europe quite a bit during that period and once, while touring the Musée d’Orsay, I was on a tour in which the guide was trying to explain Monet. It was one of those awkward moments in which I laughed aloud in a quiet museum at an inappropriate moment because the guide was putting all sorts of context into Monet’s paintings. She was busy explaining what he meant in his floral gardens, and all I could think about was this quotation by Monet, himself. I resisted the opportunity to share my thoughts…Then I flashed on that great scene in Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” in which Woody and Diane are in line for a film, and the patron in front of them is pompously explaining what Marshall McLuhan meant in The Medium is the Message, and Woody gets into an argument with the guy in front of them, and then, to prove he is right, Woody pulls Marshall from off camera into the argument to shore up Woody’s perspective.

So, my thoughts on this one, are that art is art. It is the expression of the originator from wherever that inspiration comes from, be it Devine, internal, environmental or any other combination, thereof. Art is to be appreciated. It is there to move another person’s soul. It is more important that we can understand, and far more reaching. If an elephant can paint many different pictures (google “painting elephant Thailand”), then there is a deeper component to the entire aspect of why we are so desirous of artistically reflecting the world that surrounds us.

I do not think art has to be understood. It just has to be consumed. All reactions from that point forward are on the viewer. The artist has already done their job… to move another being’s soul and deliver value through whatever medium makes them come alive.

Happy Friday!

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