Is this Art?

Norman in Paris

Street art.
Art without walls.
Big orange curtains flowing over a river.
Painted cows and rhinos.
Is this art?

Photo of a painted rhino in London as shown today in the NY Times. I wonder if my friend Vicki will see them.

I think many people who visit the Louvre, come for a photo with Mona and then quickly leave to take a better selfie somewhere else in the lovely city. This provides proof of a visit to a museum that holds thousands of years of art history. Standing with their backs to the famous painting to take a photo with her, Mona Lisa is now on everyone’s memory cards or saved to their Google photo app. This proves they have been to Paris and this also proves that they know art when they see it.

I found some of the people more interesting than some of the art in the museums of Paris

Ten years ago, Norman and I spent a week in Paris. My sports enthusiast husband followed his art teacher wife around the museums of the city, posing with sculptures and wandering through at least one museum every day for eight days. Norman rested on a bench somewhere in the Louvre while I sketched some of the Greek sculptures. This was way more thrilling to me than a quick photo op of Mona. I used to sketch the sculptures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art when I was in college. I can now say I sketched in the Louvre. How cool is that? It was.

I was happily ensconced in a corner of a marble-filled room sketching away. My chosen bust of a Grecian man created by the hands of an unknown artist from some year, B.C., was not a tourist attraction. But, because I was sketching the beautifully chiseled nose, full lips and curly hair, this ancient Greek guy suddenly became an object of interest to others. I attracted a crowd with flashes of light capturing me along with the marble bust on other people's memory cards. Was this sculpture "art" before I caught anyone else's interest?

A Jeff Koons sculpture in Versailles

A market outside Versailles

We also spent an afternoon wandering the halls of Versailles during that trip to France. Clutching my Rick Steve's guide to the Palace, I was trying to find the scenes on the walls depicting the history of France but there were shiny metallic balloon sculptures in my way. Our luck they had a pop-up installation of Jeff Koons art in the center of each space. I found the contrast of the modern pieces in the traditional rooms to be funny and we took many pictures of these ironic moments, but I did not see Versailles as Rick Steve suggested. I left feeling confused, way too old, and more than happy to find a great food market for lunch outside the Palace gates. The market was just as memorable and probably more rewarding than the art that day. Ten years before food became the most photographed image on people's phones, food was my subject matter for the day. Is food art? It is to my son, Sam.

I do not understand modern installations. On the banks of the Hudson River in Beacon, New York, where you don't need a passport to enter, is the Dia: Beacon. The Dia is in a renovated Nabisco factory building where they used to print the boxes for the cookies. The idea of using industrial spaces for art is not a new concept and it happily reminded me of the gallery lofts in Soho I used to frequent with my dad when I was little. Now Soho looks like Madison Avenue, but that's another rant for another day.

An example of an installation I saw at the Dia was a cardboard box ripped open and stuck in the corner of an empty room. That's it. It seems that the visitor (me) was supposed to appreciate the space as art and what the box or indeed what my presence did to that space. Huh?

I know about art. My father is an artist. I used to teach art, I dabble in creating art, and I am still learning about its history. Today there is a lecture in my local library about Picasso. Since I do not have school nights anymore, I can do things like attend lectures. I look forward to hearing about Picasso from the point of view of a visiting author. I will always be a student. I will continue to explore what art means today even if I continue to resist what I don't understand.

I don't have expectations of grandeur in my own art. I don't expect anything other than I hope to make someone else happy who loves their dog, as it makes me feel happy to be an artist. I have a cute black dog named Bear on my easel today, and I hope one day, we can take another trip to where people think art is something more than a cardboard box.

Until then, my claim to fame is painting fur and other things. Here is my new printed business card. Commissions are open!