Impressionism

I saw this painting in San Francisco's de Young Museum the day before I left for Duke. It's Monet's The Magpie. Of course, this image doesn't do the actual painting justice -- when you look at it up close, it's amazing how Monet used all those different shades of purple and blue to create the illusion of snow.

The exhibit was titled "The Birth of Impressionism" and started off with many classical-style paintings -- heroes and heroines from historical epics or mythology, usually nude, posing in a formal manner. When the exhibit began to transition to the softened blurs characteristic of the Impressionism movement, at first I thought, Well it looks like we're starting to lose the techniques of the old masters -- and by that I mean, my mother (the Art Education Ph.D) has told me in the past that today people don't pay with the same technique employed by the Renaissance greats -- da Vinci and Vermeer, for example. (Not quite sure if Vermeer counts as Renaissance... don't quote me on that one.)

But as you go through the exhibit, you start to notice just how much movement is in those impressionist paintings. I like to look at the painting and imagine what kind of story I can come up with just by looking at the painting. With the impressionist paintings, it's literally like those Eyewitness documentaries, where you zoom into a painting on the wall and immediately you're peering into some video. Why is that woman standing on the swing? Who is that man standing next to her with his back turned towards me? Did he buy her that dress with the blue bows?


I haven't had the time to write lately, but that doesn't mean I've shut down my imagination.