know that every day when I get off work, I come home and I have to have my daily dose of Steve Howe, Pete Townshend, Tonino Baliardo, David Gilmour, and many others, whose art and music just keeps me going. 

It is the point of reason in an otherwise unreasonable world.  For a few moments, a blissful few moments, I can enjoy the art of gifted people, and there is indeed something awe-inspiring about that.  They, through their art, take me to places that I can't get to on my own.  That is the fascinating thing about the human mind; we can, when the music is just right, when the painting jumps out at us, when the written or spoken word connects with our souls, be transported to a place in our own minds that is higher than the stumbling, stinking men that we are.  It's like magic, yet it is a gift from God!  I believe that artists were given their craft as a blessing from God, for this very purpose.  

Their gift, that which they practice, has the ability to transform our everyday comprehension of this world, the mundane, into something extraordinary that we view in a new light. 

I know that it works that way for me.  When I see the paintings of Auguste Renoir, when I listen to the music of Pete Townshend, when I read the writings of Hemingway, something definitely happens.  I am transported in my own mind, into their little world.  What kind of an extraordinary gift is that? To be able to influence other human beings in this way?  That is the true gift of the artist, they take us out of our own little spaces and introduce us to a whole new world of perspectives, and they bring us, inexorably, by their treat, into their worlds.

What a pleasure, how fortunate we are to know these gifted individuals, inasmuch as we might know them.  We have never met them, yet we know them by their craft.  I wish I had the artistic capability of a Salvador Dali, who put his views down in brush strokes.  His message was so simple, yet so complex.  Who can ever understand the mind of Dali?  Yet, his messages were far simpler than the actual paintings he created.  "Lifting up the skin of the water to find a dog sleeping in the shade of the sea"...I "got" that piece.  It is brilliant!  His painting was so complex, that no one but Dali could have done it.  Yet, his message was so simple, that even I get it!  

It is an extraordinary glimpse into everyday life.  The mundane.  It is just a different perspective on the mundane, and it is so refreshing. 

But, that is the particular genre of artists, the surrealists, the great artists that I love. There are many more great artists, with something to say.  Could anyone have been truer with a brush stroke than Rembrandt?  His works are so beautiful, they look like photographs, only better!  Who can do that?  

Then you have the Impressionists...Renoir, Degas, Monet, their works absolutely blow my mind!  They saw the world, and they put it right down on canvas, and their works are some of the most beautiful and exquisite I have ever seen.  Simple scenes of ordinary life, made large through the mind and eye of the artist.  There is nothing I can say that you wouldn't see for yourself, just looking at the works of these gifted men! 

Anyway, I just appreciate art, whether it is in the form of paintings, or music, or writing, or just good speaking.  Some people have an artist's gift.  

The rest of us broom-pushers sit back in awe, and hope for our own day of expression! 
Mike's Musings...
Art Appreciation from Townshend to Dali
Salvador Dali Sea-Shade-Dog
Ed. Note:  This post was penned as a follow up to Bee Gee's "Power of Music."
Sea-Shade-Dog 
by Salvador Dali, 1950
Hemingway The Old Man and The Sea