Art is All Around Us

While in Arizona several years ago, I attended an art show. Some of the works were for sale. One small painting of pansies caught my eye every time I walked by it. Finally, I decided to purchase that painting and bring it home. It now hangs in my living room where I can see it every day. The bright yellow flowers with their deep purple center brings a smile whenever I look at them.

Every once in a while, a phrase one of my daughters said when I was showing her a small statue I’d purchased enters my mind. As we looked at it, I commented that to some folks they wouldn’t like the statue. She smiled and said, “You know, Mom, I always have felt that when a statue or painting or picture or even a book, speaks to your soul, it’s art to you even if it means nothing else to another person.”

After we went our separate ways, I thought about what she’d said and decided she was so right.

Quite some time later, that sentence crossed my mind while on a trip with a friend. It surfaced as I watched the countryside as we were driving along and I’d spotted some wildflowers on the prairie. I thought, we are continually surrounded by art yet so often we don’t think of what we are seeing as art.

While sitting outside at a watercolor workshop I was attending, I tried to capture a scene I was looking at across from where I was. Taking out my paper and paints, I kept looking at what was before me as I painted. Several hours later I felt I was finished. As the instructor took a look at what I’d done, he said, “You did a good job capturing the background.” Since I am very much an amateur at painting, his words made me feel really good.

How many times have you arranged flowers in a vase and while looking at your finished project, liked what you saw? Or once the flowers you planted began blooming, you were pleased with how everything looked? Or after returning home from a short trip or vacation and in browsing through photos you’d taken, picked out one or two that you thought were exceptional and kept them out to put in a frame?

Whether you ever thought about it or not, you had created art. You had in mind what you wanted your flower arrangement to look like or when you took that picture, there was something about that particular scene you were trying to preserve. That’s art.

There’s art in our daily lives. But we can only see and recognize it when we look at our lives with eyes that seek it and an open mind.