I was about 11 years old when I first visited the Louvre.
My mother is from France, and it was my earliest memory of exploring Paris with her family. I was wooed, as most tweens would be, by the large, glass pyramid I had seen in many pictures.
At that age there was just one piece of art I knew of in the Louvre that I longed to see. It was, of course, the “Mona Lisa.”
Aisle after aisle of paintings and sculptures eventually led to a room with 20 or 30 people crowded around a wall.
I didn’t need to ask what everyone was trying to see. I wiggled my way around tourists with flashing cameras until I was standing right up against the rope guarding the painting.
It was much smaller than I had expected. The shock and awe I had long expected didn’t come as I glanced into her eyes peaking to her left. I took a photo for proof I had seen the most famous painting in the world, but left disappointed by how unmoved I felt by the portrait so many claimed to be perfection.
I recall this moment to bring about two points in my columns to come. Firstly, as I study abroad in Florence, Italy, and travel to other places on weekends and spring break, I’ll be honest in my opinions of what I see in each new place.
While my appreciation for and understanding of art has grown drastically since my first encounter with the “Mona Lisa,” it’s important to establish your own opinion and take on art. That’s why art any given piece can have countless fans as well as numerous haters.
That’s what I find to be the most intriguing about art. It’s like taste buds. What one person may love will be strongly disliked by the next. However, what I find the most fascinating is how bendable the rules are in defining art.
While I’ll spend a fair share of time visiting the greats like the “Last Supper” and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, I’ll also be reporting back on the non-traditional forms of art — the art found outside the museum and the art we may not read about in travel books.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition of art is “works produced by human creative skill and imagination.” So often the primary thought that comes to mind when we hear the word art is a painting or picture of some sort.
We don’t always think of the art that is an extraordinary dish of food, the traditions of a small town, or creations found at a local market.
I won’t claim to be an amazing painter or drawer who is overly qualified to report on the great works of art that exist all over the world. If we are going by my qualifications it starts and ends with the photojournalism and watercolor classes I’ll be taking this semester.
The fact that I’m not an overly experienced artist isn’t necessarily a bad. In fact I like to think it will be a good thing.
While I’m no expert on Leonardo da Vinci or Pablo Picasso, I do have an eye for the beauty and art found in the unexpected. I may be a rookie artist, but that nonetheless allows me the opportunity to find my own definition art this semester, and I intend to color outside the lines.
apoudrie@indiana.edu
@adelepoudrier
