Man's drive to create and communicate is also a drive to surround
oneself with beauty and harmony. For me beauty is not decorative,
which implies it is superfluous, but often times decoration is
beautiful. An action, a sound, even a smell can convey beauty. Beauty
is infinite, it can transcend space and time.
I can recount an experience where art had an effect on me similar
to stendhal
syndrome. I love visiting art galleries in my travels. I was with
a friend in NY at a museum. Enjoying walking through the galleries, I
turned the corner and it was if a magnet dragged me toward a
particular work by El Greco. I had not really seen his work or been a
big fan. I am not a Christian and am not drawn to this particular
iconography, however on this day, this image of Jesus Christ being
lowered from the cross captured me and wrapped around me like a warm
embrace. This image of suffering was so beautiful.
I was glued to the
piece. It had felt that I had transcended time into some sort of
divine space. I felt myself beginning to tear as happiness filled my
entire being. It was as if I had traveled back in time to the 1500's
and I was the paint on his brush being put on the canvas. It was like
a brain aneurysm, each stroke was made by the artist tickled my
brain, like I was there at the moment it was created, like I was
paint on the end of his brush.
A friend saw me frozen there gazing,
tearing up. I vaguely remember him saying "I'll leave you two
alone". I cant say for sure if I was there for 2 seconds or two
years, it felt as if a lifetime had passed. He said it was 20
minutes. I'm amazed if the gaze can be kept for two. This piece had
me riveted, not because of its subject, not because of its color, not
even the powerful application of paint, but because of its entire
beauty, I was entirely captivated.
When I returned home I
had to seek out the image again. I looked at a reproduction and it
wasn't the same. I had to experience it in person. And that is one of
the things about art, it is a think, almost living, a copy or print
is not entirely the same as the real thing.This work did what beauty
is supposed to do. It change me and my life forever in a positive
way. That is what I hope I can accomplish as an artist.
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