Blog @ the Nelson-Atkins

I know it is the last day of March but I recently discovered that March is Celebrate Youth Art Month.

My daughter's art teacher sent home a flyer with some suggestions on how to celebrate which include ideas such as drawing outdoors, learning calligraphy and taking a trip to a local museum.

It made me think about how much art has meant to me. I still remember the day in 5th grade when a woman came to talk to my class about art. She had a print of Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. I was hooked.

From that day on, I would check out books from the library about art and artists, specifically French Impressionists. I took any opportunity to read more about artists as subjects for research papers or writing assignments. My high school French teacher still remembers an essay I wrote about Claude Monet. In college, I studied art history and was thrilled to discover Chinese and Japanese art.

Just this morning I read a blog about the artist Cy Twombly. I find his work interesting but it has never been that exciting to me. As I read the blog, I appreciated looking at his work from someone else's perspective, someone who has a great appreciation for it. I realized that even though I don't love Twombly's work I love learning about it.

I will never be an artist, I know that. I also know that thanks to my elementary school art teacher, I certainly have a great appreciation for art.