how great thou "art" ??

My art history class is basically a field trip every week, where we visit original works of art, and the professor talks about them on site. Feels like the magic school bus goes to Florence! I leave every week being totally jazzed.

One of my favorite things so far is seeing the dialogue between artists. Florence has a history of fine art spanning centuries. I forget that just like in literature, these artist are constantly influenced by previous works, and often reinterpret subjects to be "his/her own."

I don't know why, but I used to think brilliant artists were totally unique, and dreamed up their projects out of the blue. As a photographer, I felt an immense amount of pressure to be "original." I feel very liberated allowing myself to be influenced by art I see, and even to respond with my own points of view.

I LOVE the Rodin sculpture garden at Stanford, and it's amazing to see Renaissance (and earlier!) works here in Florence that inspired him. There is a Michelangelo tomb with a closed posture that is somewhat similar to the "Thinker." Also, there is a set of doors known as the "Gates to Heaven" that were the first of their kind have dimensionality, and cast figures popping out of the plane of the doors (previously, works had been more 2 dimensional pictorial depictions). Gah!!! my head just might explode.

Maybe this is so obvious to everyone else, but it was a revelation to me!

One more side note... it is a little weird how much people can worship art. Florence is definitely a temple in this respect. Sometimes you get the feeling that there is nothing else more important in the world. That weirds me out a little bit, as the very things that inspired these people to create were human lives, experiences, feelings, and observations. Art is not created for the sake of art... it is a mode, neither an object nor an end, but an every evolving dialogue that invites each person to participate.