During a visit to an art gallery, I saw an exquisite painting of fishes with their eyes appearing to pop off of the canvas. I walked over to the painting expecting to see a raised spot where the eyes were but did not see anything. The artist had painted it quite skillfully.
The gallery employee said to me that the artist is a scuba diver and loves using the sea and its animals as the source of inspiration. She further went on to say that you paint what you know and/or what you want to communicate.
I’d never heard art expressed that way.
Well, of course, it makes sense to paint what you know and love. When we love something or someone, we see them through different eyes. And when we paint through those eyes, we enable observers to temporarily see through them as well.
