Art is Art

Have you ever been so inspired by something that it just keeps coming back to mind time and time again? It might have been a film, a song, a view, a dream, a place... or even a person. This has happened to me more times in my life than I can even dare to count, but one such catalyst for inspiration was discovered unexpectedly at a guest art exhibit at the Frist Museum in Nashville, Tennessee. The artist was Lalla Essaydi, and the effect was long-lasting. On that little day trip, I was with my sweet friend Samina, and it was such a great trip that I even remember the very wonderful ahi tuni salad I ate in the café at the entrance of the museum. Good times. :)

This particular exhibit by Ms. Essaydi was of Moroccan women in various scenes of rooms draped in linens - and on every square centimeter of space, both on the subjects and throughout the entire room, were lines upon lines of Arabic written in henna ink.

And I just gazed in wonder, my breath stolen as I stood before each photo.

Some people think of art as this highly-convoluted, pretentious thing. The truth is, though, that art is for everyone, and art is simple. You can love certain forms of art, reject others, feel indifferent toward something... and yet, no matter where you land - whether on the side of appreciating something or despising it - you're never wrong. We humanoids are so good at forming clichés that we don't even know what we're saying when we say something anymore. We spout words off like they don't mean anything.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

One man's junk is another man's treasure...

And then we see something that someone considers art, and we scoff and think, "Ugh, why would anyone think that that is art. My 5-year-old could paint better than that." But don't get caught in the trap of thinking that just because you dislike this art, a wholesale rejection of all art is in order. Different things appeal to different people at different times for different reasons. That's all it's about... it's seeing something that was created in the mind of another person, who then manifested that creation into a visual, auditory or other sensory form, and then that manifestation evoked a reaction. It doesn't even have to be beautiful necessarily. It only has to stir something in you.

Louisiana Iris ~ The New Orleans
Botanical Gardens
(Spotted on 4.7.2012)

In fact, just because a thing is beautiful doesn't even automatically make it art... sometimes things are just beautiful. Like flowers, for example. Or a beautiful countryside. Or birds singing.

But sometimes people make things beautiful or make something that once was only imaginary something that others can now sense. When that happens, we call it art.