I was very thankful that I had the chance to go to the museums in London on Friday. I realize that it is a blessing and I at least, if no one else, was very blessed by it. I have found that the longer I have studied art the more my outlook on certain aspects of art have changed. It actually takes me less time to get through a gallery than it might have a few years ago because it seems like before I felt as though I had to, whether I really liked a piece or not, spend a certain amount of time in front of it analyzing it and trying to make myself like it, because I'm supposed to. As I've developed my own personal style and personal preferences I have begun to understand more about what there is to appreciate in art, regardless of whether I'm moved by it or not. As I went through the gallery I was able to appreciate a greater amount of art while spending the most time on pieces that I found personally moving. I found that while others awed over a painting because it was a Seurat, or a Monet I was able to discern why I was (or wasn't) drawn to it and I was able to appreciate it at face value instead of the value of namesake. So I guess that what I am saying is that I don't like art as much (or as much art) since I've come to understand what it is to be an artist. (I say understand because I will indefinitely consider myself not as an artist, but an artisan. We're nowhere near finished and may, in fact, never be.)
I am trying hard not to consider it dismal that we spend our class period in the Ashmolean, who's collections will quickly become dated, instead of having the good fortune of spending our days in the National Gallery. Not to discredit the Ashmolean because I've already found an appreciation for its contents, but it is the National Gallery's lure of limitlessness of that is so enticing.
I would leave England a much better person if that were the case.
Not that it's impossible without it, the hope is that it's not.
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