Strokes of Impressionism

It is the intensely clear turquoise of a little girl’s eyes that stops me in my busy tracks, holding my world still for that fraction of a second. It is the myriad of aromatic smells wafting from a bakery amidst the bustling morning crowd, which intoxicates me to lift my neck; head tilted back as my eyes close in one satisfied moment, and just take it all in. The blind busker in that little corner of the jam-packed street, swaying with his livelihood, the accordion, and his slightly off-tune songs, he makes me slow down, relax and enjoy the random snippets of a morning which otherwise would have dissolved into nothing but a blur of city rush.

As a search begins to make some sense of an existence which at times projects itself to be mundane, un-meaningful and lacking impact, a realization comes quickly that like a beautiful Monet masterpiece, our lives are greater than the sum of individual events which we experience, but the beauty which emanates from within is captured from a wider, bigger, overall perspective.

Monet’s impressionism form of art dictates that they are best viewed further rather than nearer. According to Wikipedia, impressionists used “short, ‘broken’ strokes of pure and unmixed color, not smoothly blended, as was customary, in order to achieve the effect of intense color vibration… Characteristics of Impressionist paintings include visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on light in its changing qualities, ordinary subject matter; the inclusion of movement as a crucial human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles.”

At close view, the un-harmonized strokes and stark colors feel garish, too intense and vivid for the audience to appreciate. Too harsh compared to the finer strokes employed in other competing forms of art; somewhat queerly disjointed.

I’d like to imagine that the impressionist brush strokes are the individual events in our lives; that they should always be bold, strong and passionate, vividly alive with the richness of life and love; not blended into someone else’s achievements, watered down and faded. That even as individual strokes, they tell a story, albeit just a small part, but whose character is shown strong, daring, and unwavering. Like confidence deliberately marked on an originally plain white canvas, showcasing each stroke of color in a light of its own. As life runs its course, and wisdom increases in each one of us, the changing illumination on these strokes of events display a different side to them, one which has never been cast before. And these strokes tell our story, each one of the vivid, pure tones.