Worth a thousand words

This post is dedicated to art. Should I be more specific?
(Holy butt, this is going to take a while.)

Paintings. Just a few strokes of a brush can create or recreate anything! From surrealists to photo-realists, the mind depicts the world in the best of ways. Who cares what your history textbook says about the Black Plague? Hieronymus Bosch saw it! He was there! And he painted it so that you and I could look at it today and think, "Man, what a messed-up world. What a messed-up guy." What better way to learn about history than through the eyes of those who lived it?

And mixed media? Don't even get me started on Braque and Eva Hesse. Never has the phrase "seeing the bigger picture" made more sense.

But even with more simplistic styles. Take a look at a Pollock. Not in a picture on the internet. Art wasn't meant to be Googled. It was meant to be experienced. Stand before the aura of a Mark Rothko piece and I guarantee you will never feel the same way about color.

Walk out of the Prado and hussle over to Grenada so you can marvel at the ingenious design of the Court of Lions in Alhambra. Imagine it in its hey-day, the men philosophizing in the atrium with their infinite arabesque clothing and the women chatting away in the gallery, snooping over into the garden and wishing for freedom.

Check out those Rubenist sketches. The curvature of the human anatomy, carefully modeled limbs, the detail of every single muscle. Even colorless drawings spark life!

Artists are very similar to writers, actually. Drawing and writing are essential skills, but schools and academicians seem to focus more on the latter. This is why so many people claim they can't draw! Are you kidding me?
Of course you can draw, you idiot.  
It's just like writing actually! The skill has to be learned and developed until a person can adequately express themselves and emotions by drawing them out. Of course, some people will be better than others and not everyone will become an artist! But then again, not everyone becomes a writer.
Unlike writing, however, art transcends language. That's why art museums are so wonderful. If you walk in and keep an open mind, you can understand everything you see. Art brings people together in a day and age where everyone seems so distant. It's a connection we all can share because it taps not into our brains, but into our hearts and our souls.

Enjoy and form friends, your creations are valued.

Mona