MOMA, man

(Detail of a Jackson Pollock painting.)

Incase you don't know what MOMA stands for, it's the Museum of Modern Art, a very famous and well respected museum, which I visited yesterday for the first time. The museum is full of very important (Starry Night by Van Gogh) and genre defining pieces (Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Picasso), but I would like to briefly discuss the viewing of paint itself. It is a process that I find fascinating. One of my favorite things to do in a museum is to look at a painting from the average distance, and to then get extremely close to it-so close that it makes the security guards inch closer to me in anxiety-in order to examine the textures and application patterns of the paint. I don't do this with the intension of making anyone angry with me for either endangering the painting or blocking their view; I do it because it helps me relate to the piece.

When I look closely at a painting , it almost feels as if I am in the studio with the artist at the time of the painting's creation; it somehow puts the piece in the present tense. Seeing the actual texture of the paint invokes the image of brushstrokes in motion, which invokes the image of the artist at work. And thinking of the artist makes the experience more personal, as I know that it was a human being who perhaps has some of the same emotions and concerns that I have that made the piece. It brings art from the realm of the obscure to one that is intimate and understandable. This all combines to make the museum experience one that is highly meaningful to and enjoyable for me. I hope this makes you excited to go to a museum or gallery.