Monet's water lilies, particularly this version hanging in the MOMA inspired me to paint my room in these colours. No, in fact this testimony of a person who has less sight seeing this painting actually made me fall in love with Monet and impressionism in general. I'm no art history connoisseur but impressionism I have heard is more about the artist's impression of the world as contrasted to realism which is methodical and obsessed with precision and exactitude. This theory actually made me appreciate (more) the swirling whirlpools of vangogh's starry night as well. Here is the excerpt of the blind person's testimony I stumbled upon randomly while scrolling
"Hi, this is Christopher Bailey, Arts and Health Lead of the World Health Organization, here to talk today about the healing power of art, in this case, with Monet's Water Lilies. I also happen to be functionally blind with less than 5% of normal vision. You might reasonably ask, what would a blind person have to say about an art masterwork? Did it cure my blindness? No, it didn't. But, in some ways, it might've helped me heal.............I had been avoiding museums for years and MoMA and the Water Lilies, in particular, precisely because it meant so much to me when I was young. And yet, to my astonishment, looking at the Water Lilies through the gauze of glaucoma, my first feeling was that Monet was actually painting the way I see now. And for the first time, I could imagine that the way I see the world could be conceived of as beautiful. My eyesight registered some of the colors and patches here and there. My intimate memory of the painting began to fill in some of the gaps. And somehow the interplay between brushstroke, emotion, memory and the imagination created the Water Lilies in my mind.
I began to think about the canvas itself and how the nearly abstract brushstrokes simultaneously give the impression of the surface of the water, the reflections of the unseen sky above, and intimations of what may lay beneath the surface, all captured in a single plane, a single space and moment. I realized that much of our anxiety and suffering in this world is about feeling that sense of loss from the past and dread of what might happen in the future, which, if it overwhelms us, can distract us from experiencing fully the present moment.
I began to think about how a chord in music, when the notes are played separately, becomes a melody, pleasing because our minds immediately remember the note just played, hear the present note, and anticipate the note to come and combining these sensations in the mind, the chords form in harmony, even when the sound has passed or has yet to be. So too, when revisiting the Water Lilies, do I slip into a sense of completeness. Surface, depth, and reflection converge, just as past, future, and the present moment become one. And I've realized I've lost nothing. I feel no anxiety or dread. I simply luxuriate in the joy of color and celebrate this present moment. This to me is the healing power of art."
Read the entire testimony here: https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/309/4093
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