The Wonders of an Artistic Mind

What does it mean to be artistic? Being able to express yourself? Seeing things that others don't? How does the painter go from a story in his head to the painting you and I see? Often we don't see the story, just a painting that we can't explain. Can other artists read the story in the painting, though? I think many can.

We went to an art show tonight that consisted mainly of paintings, poetry readings, and finished with an independent filmmaker's piece. Two paintings struck my interest. One was a three dimensional city scape that had layers peeled back to reveal it's dimension. The city was baron, but the texture gave it life. It turned out to be by our friend who had invited us to the show! Amazing. Then there were other colorful paintings of buildings, quite the opposite of our friend's art piece due to their vibrancy. I really wanted to come home with one of these! Oh, well...another time. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of her work in the future. Some of the artwork struck me as odd. It left me wondering what others saw when they looked at it. Really. Was there another world in those paintings that I was unaware of? The poetry is what stirred up these questions the most. We were able to hear several people speak, but I didn't "get" most of it. I listened very intently trying to decode some of the words, but I was left wondering. Just when I was convinced that the poem really had no meaning, it was over and BAM! The audience applauded and yelled and were obviously moved by the words that left me lost. Hmmm. The wonders of an artistic mind. I was thrilled when the second to last guy went up to perform his poetry. And what a performance it was! He spoke from his heart and his pauses and dramatic effects drew me in. When he got to his last poem, he informed us that he had just written it before he arrived. The audience chuckled. It was amazing! Full of contradiction. I could finally understand this poet!

I had a wonderful time enjoying the atmosphere. These people who all seemed to live mysterious, almost magical lives, quite different from my own. Or did they? Maybe all I could see was their painting. Maybe the others saw an entirely different story.