What makes a Mona Lisa or Venus de Milo so special? What is about art that makes you want to stare at it for hours?
Living in Ottawa I am lucky enough to be only a couple miles from the National Gallery of Canada. Nothing stirs my muse as much as standing in silence in front of a Lawren Harris or an Emily Carr. The Spanish have a beautiful for that feeling, the mixture of awe and joy, sadness and appreciation, touched with a sense of pride that these amazing artists were Canadian.
Duende – The mysterious power of art to deeply move a person. The feeling of timelessness when in the presence of greatness, no less now than when the Mona Lisa was still a wet canvas and you could smell the plaster and paint in the Sistine Chapel.
We live in a world where the Internet has turned the spectacular into a Facebook meme, ho-hummed and scrolled past. And yet even now there are those pieces of art that still stop us in our tracks!
May the mystery continue.
Mark