when paintings open your eyes to the world...

a few weeks ago i visited the museum of latin american art (molaa) in long beach, to see an exhibition called "the sites of latin american abstraction". the exhibition featured a number of wonderful abstract paintings, sculpture, and photographs from the 1940's - 1970's.

while i was a bit disappointed in the selection of minor works by the major artists in the show - such as gego, lygia clark, cruz-diez, schendel, etc., i was really excited to discover the works lesser known artists, or artists whom i had never heard of.

one of the standouts in the show is a small painting pictured above, painted by lidy prati. this small painting was one of the things that really burrowed itself into me, and never let go. as i walked through the show a second time, writing down artist names, i found myself constantly drawn to prati's humble work.

a few days later, i was cleaning up the classroom for a day of final crits, when i happened upon a small scrap of paper, peppered with marks from someone's tennis shoe. of course, as you can see above, it instantly brought prati's work to the forefront of my visual consciousness; but while it appeared that the tennis shoe artist triggered my memory of prati's work, it seems more likely that the resonance of prati's work suggested i bend over to pick up the scrap of paper.

that moment of connection was one of numerous moments where art reveals its simple truth... that certain man made objects and experiences do indeed influence the way we see the world. as much as seeing an art object is a visual experience in and of itself, when an artwork work's its magic on a viewer's own vision, it not only changes one's relation to the artwork in front of them (epiphany), but has a longer lasting value in its ability to change the way one moves through the world (transformation) from that moment forward.

the minute one walks away from the object, the human is filled with something new, and there is a permanent shifting in the workings of one's eyes, one's pace, one's cognition, connections, pathways, etc.