Taking time.

Last night I attended a vernissage for The Marcelle Ferron exhibition being held at Galerie Simon Blais. I had seen some of Ferron's work on the Internet but was curious to see what else she painted. I was quite pleasantly surprised to see these beautiful small abstract works on paper done during the 70's. She was a strong minded woman with plenty to say and one of the many Quebec artists who did stained glass and mural installations in the various metro stations around Montreal. Some of the public artwork there is absolutely amazing.

Now that is something I would love to do. Maybe I can create a work of art and have it installed permanently somewhere in Montreal. I guess as an artist we live for that kind of stuff. Its not that I want to be well known or anything, its just sort of a way to show people how proud you are of being an artist and giving back to the people something pleasant to look at as they hurry off to their busy day. You might even get someone that actually stops and looks at the art. Even better!!

I think if more people spent a little more time looking at artwork, we would all be happier, saner and maybe more pleasant for it. Artwork has so much to give to us and it has a way of making us see beyond what is there. For me when I look at art, I wonder about the artist and what they were thinking and maybe going through as they created the work. Did they set out to create controversial or even different sort of work or did it just happen to be seen that way, unexpectedly perhaps? What mood were they in, maybe in a spontaneous mood, happy, miserable, maybe hungry, maybe even depressed when they created the work.

Sometimes art looks, well, not very "art like". Some art has a way of getting us angry,"Do you call that art, my baby brother can do better than that!!" Maybe we are not used to seeing something so unique and different. Maybe it was meant to get us to react. Sure it comes down to the individual and their taste buds but its kind of like when we actually take the time to smell the roses, we should also take the time to really look at art whether its installed in the underground metro, in a park or in a gallery, you might be surprised at what you'll actually see.