Displayed at San Francisco Asian Art Museum
I went to the San Francisco Asian Art Museum just the other day with my friend Dana when something caught my eye. This man there who by his looks was definitely an artist himself, stopped to stare at each and every piece of artwork for the LONGEST time. This was something I recalled noticing in the past when going to art museums--artists standing and staring for such long periods of time that I am positive they must end up staying the night there in order to get through all the artworks.
This man, like many I had witnessed before, seemed to have gotten lost in this one particular sculpture and I wanted to find out what it was all about. So what I
decided to do this time around was wait for him to finish with it and follow to stand in the exact same place and position that he was in when admiring it . All of a sudden I’m there--standing and staring. I’m honestly itchy waiting for it to blink or something. When it doesn't, I begin to freak out. Yes, It was a beautiful sculpture, however I could not understand what took one so long to identify that it was. I’m like, What is he looking at? Why is it that everytime I come here every artist does this? Should I be doing so too? Wait--am I NOT an artist?
I went home pretty defeated that day, contemplating my genuinity as an artist. That’s when I chose to go on a walk that afternoon right as the sun was going down. During my walk, I found myself staring at the sunset. I watched it with diligence as the rays of sunshine kissed the water below it and shot out of the clouds like spotlights. I noticed a beautiful peach-like pigment up in parts of the sky and thought about how I’d love to mix up that same color for my next painting. In between thoughts I suddenly became lost in time. When I snapped out of it I realized that I had just--at that moment, done the same exact thing that the man from the museum had been doing earlier. That's when I began recalling many other times I’d done this. How I’d recently incorporated that same cool psychedelic vibe I had picked up from a movie into my collage. Or how biking one morning I had admired the bay’s beautiful reflection of the trees beside it. How it was perfectly symmetrical, making it look like a parallel universe on the other side--and I’d go home to try and replicate it.
These are the types of things that make us artists. Seeing and admiring things that often go unnoticed and being able to translate them into something extraordinary. This is why someone might go to an art museum--to get inspired. But just how you get inspired looking at a sculpture or a painting that sits on display at the asian art museum, you can get inspired by listening to a song, watching a movie, the unique way your loved one holds their utensils or even the way a chip has creased making it look a bit like Elvis Presley. Beauty lies everywhere. Set your eyes on it and allow yourself to get lost!
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