Like most love stories we were making impressions on each other long before we ever moved in together and married.
For quite some time now we’ve been circling the country and the world actually to stand very close to the art we love the most, the Impressionists. We did it again this celebratory weekend when we buzzed back to Portland to view the Monet to Matisse: French Moderns Exhibit at the Portland Art Museum.
https://portlandartmuseum.org/event/monet-to-matisse/
An Extended Golden Soliloquy of Thanks
Why have those impressionists made such an impact on us? When exactly did they become our role models to guide our attention spans, enhance our willingness to travel, and increase our abilities to pay attention to each other, and everything around us?
Google says Impressionists artists such as Claude Monet, Georges Seurat, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, Gustave Caillebotte, Paul Cézanne, and Henri Matisse, to name a few, are loved for many reasons, including:
Modern subjects — Rather than paint scenes from mythology, history, or the Bible, the Impressionists chose to often depict modern subjects like city life, fashion, and leisure activities, which was new for 19th century art. Viewers can see themselves in the paintings and connect with them, which can lead to interest and appreciation.
Timelessness — Impressionists tried to capture the moment and make it timeless. They also emphasized light in its changing qualities, which can accentuate the passage of time.
Subjectivity — Impressionists believed art was subjective and that each painting reflected their unique perception of the world. They often expressed their perceptions of nature instead of creating exact representations.
Diversity — Impressionism embraces diversity in color and brightness. Their choice of subjects was very democratic, everyone was important enough to be painted.
More than all other role models in the world be them writers, other artist, scientists, religious leaders, musicians, politicians, entertainers, or athletes, impressionists’ painters continue to inspire us the most. That’s why we go out of our way to view their work over, and over, and over again.
I think we love their paintings because they are not perfectly in focus or always completely finished, instead, impressionistic paintings short hop exquisite moments, moods, short stories, while capturing that seductive changing light in the community. They also honor everyone by sharing everyone’s golden moments. They remind us to look all around. Look to the left. Look to the right. Turn around. Did you notice those golden moments right behind you?
With their inspirations, Sharon and I have sought out as many golden moments together as possible with all our travels, our picnics, our street fairs, our nature walks, our museum/gallery visits, and shows we have attended. We have been inspired to put ourselves in the best light, eating the best of what mother nature offers, meeting the most interesting people, and viewing the world as much as possible which has generated all our vivid memories, and the occasional selfie photographs.
Measuring Time
We can measure time anyway we want. It’s been 30 years now since our wedding day.
How long has it been since the last time? How long was it since the we saw our last collection of Impressionists work? How many car rides, meetings, airplane rides, conference calls, train rides, presentations, or visits to the grocery store in between seeing their work again?
The novelty of the subjects in Impressionists paintings when they first started showing them were their social media of their time. Just as we share golden decisive business/personal moments on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and other websites now, these Impressionists started showing us how to really do it properly when they opened their first Impressionists exhibit in 1874, exactly 150 years ago!
It’s only been 150 years since we were all important enough to be in paintings. We no longer need to be wealthy patrons, religious icons, or nobility. Impressionists helped us all jump into the pool. All of us, and all our golden moments, are now good enough for remarkable paintings and/or by extension all our best moments are good enough for social media posts!
The Impressionists sought to express their perceptions of the world, rather than create exact representations. I can’t thank them enough for being so talented, and for being so brave, and I especially can’t thank Sharon enough for being so patient with my silliness at times, so loving, and so brave too to journey throughout the world together!
Epilogue
Wonderful anniversary weekend: We returned to Vancouver, WA, where we had lived 10 years, enjoyed dinner with dear friends Sherry and Joe, crashed a music and art festival in Vancouver where an artist, Bonnie W was presenting her work (we’ve been enjoying some watercolors from her that we bought in a gallery in Hood River, OR, almost immediately after we moved to the PNW), strolled around Vancouver’s weekend farmer’s market that has gotten bigger and bigger, then finally made it to the big Impressionists exhibit before rolling around Portland only to discover the Oblation Papers & Press store exactly on Stationery Store Day — a Celebration of Independent Paper Stores Around the World! Amazing business, we never knew! Portland’s looking much, much better than the press it gets!
On Sunday morning, we enjoyed our favorite walk around Fort Vancouver’s Officer’s Row that we have walked endless times before we also visited their voluptuous volunteer garden. It’s in full harvest mode this time of year.
With 30 years in as a married couple, we’ve had so many adventures already, and with full hopes of adding another 30 years together we recreated the famous photograph titled “The Walk to Paradise Garden” by W. Eugene Smith as we walked under archway of hops. We keep walking briskly into a bright future together, and we are fully expecting to keep this up for another 30+ years! That’s what all those Impressionists taught us to do — keep paying attention, keep exploring more, notice the changing light, make room for everyone, and keep capturing more and more of those golden moments together!
Easy-Peasy!
P.S. For a wedding anniversary present to ourselves, we bought a book at Portland Art Museum’s gift shop titled “The Art Lovers Quotation Book, An Inspired Collection on Art, Beauty, and Creativity“. Good one, pick it up yourself!
We end this extended golden thank you with these quotes:
“Creativity takes courage.” — Henri Matisse
“The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells you to take your time. Always listen to the art.” — Junot Diaz
“The more I paint the more I like everything.” — Jean-Michael Basquiat
Cache of Communiqués 