Seurat

Weekend Assignment #50: Art for Art's Sake

I remember a day in math class in my early years of school. We were discussing plotting points on a graph. I think our teacher sensed our minds wandering off the slightly boring topic, so she went off on a tangent about how math touches all aspects of life...including art.

That is when I first heard about the pointilliste method of painting. Pointillism! I was fascinated by how these artists could take a bunch of dots and turn them into these amazing works of art. My instant favorite was Georges Seurat. I went to the library at my next free moment and checked out an art book. The Seurat painting that grabbed my attention the most was:

Un dimanche après-midi à l'Ile de la Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat

"Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" was just amazing. I remember looking at it for what felt like hours. I felt like I could just fall into the picture...and that night I had a dream. I dreamt I was in a museum looking at this painting when I swore that one of the kids was moving. He was waving to me and motioning to me to follow him. Years later I saw a movie or cartoon that had this same idea in it. Obviously, I was not the only one affected that way by seeing this painting.

How much money do I think is my art budget maximum? Right now, I probably couldn't justify paying more than $1,000 for a painting, drawing, photo or print that I loved. Not when I can get a perfectly framed poster version for $50 or less. Having "real" art on my walls just isn't a priority. I like having my own photography on my walls, a little Native American arts and crafts, some Asian prints and some Impressionist prints. That's good enough for me. Having unlimited funds probably wouldn't change that attitude.