So, I went to the art museum in my town today for the Paris 1900 exhibit, to get a glimpse of one of the most remarkable forms of human expression. I scaled the white wash walls for an image to burn in my mind and change my way of seeing. I saw tame, descriptive, lines embellished by colour and caged within a frame. They failed to take on lives of their own, but were merely created to tease the eye and sort of flirt with our senses, as our bodies released half of the endorphin amount that chocolate triggers. I completely appreciate the trail of art that these masters before us have left behind. I also love to understand what they were trying to express when they created these peintures. But something about these images made me wonder if many of the artists after the Renaissance just stopped trying. Was there nothing left to develop? The inventions of the 19th century overshadowed the art of that time and it's sort of depressing, but at least it picked up after that with modern art. My favourite kind of art is modern art because they want to tip us upside down and make us lose our perspective. They don't want to define our world with typical black and white charcoal on paper. Sometimes their messages get lost in abstract blobs of paint, but at least they have messages. It's also sad to think that as children of the romantics, everyone has a message so it's even harder to get noticed, unless your message points out some sort of "truth" no one has mentioned before. Either that or they've reinvented our old "truths" to make them more spunky and appealing. It makes me wonder whether the artists I went to school with will make it.... whether I will make it. I don't even know what I want to do with my life yet, but I know it takes a lot to stand out and to be heard. I'm writing in this online journal after years of keeping personal journals where I could scribble poetry and artwork in, as well as whatever consumed my mind for the day. It's remarkable to think that the internet has robbed our modern day artists, that actually get paid for their artwork, of any sort of superiority. Now everyone is an artist, a writer, a singer, a composer, or a film maker. This is a beautiful thing... maybe that's what we need. To take the royalty status out of art and give it a democratic makeover. But will that make art die down all together? Devalue art to the point where anyone and everyone can do it so that it doesn't even really matter anymore. If we're all making statements, how can the world change? There will be too much to change or too much to observe. Maybe we'll develop some sort of uniform too. Everyone will have horn-rimmed glasses, intellectual tees, paint splattered jeans, funky chucks, and an obnoxious accent. Weird would be the new norm and everyone would say "ugh!" to uggs. I doubt that that could actually happen though. Thank goodness for diverse minds. The future freaks me out a little, but I suppose that's the case for anyone if they really ponder over it.
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