Abstract Art

I have always been such a fan of abstract art. I don't know if its because there is no certain thing that you have to see or focus on. There isn't always a certain message or meaning behind why it was created the way it was. It can be viewed and rationalized in every ones mind in a different sort of way. I remember the art we had to do in elementary school...not meant to be abstract. We would be given a certain thing or animal or description that we would need to draw, color, paint, etc...most of the time it would turn out to be abstract though we didn't intend for it to! Your teacher would take your finished work, start by holding it upside down then she would continue to rotate the paper til she could try to make out what she was looking at. She would point and say oh yeah i see the horse here by the barn. You then realized she had no clue and almost were insulted that she couldn't see clearly that the horse was not by the barn...in fact that "horse" was your favorite pet dog! And the "barn" was your house. Even then you realize that not everyone understands and sees things like you do. So maybe i just realized that at an early age. I recall my dad having a friend that worked at a local college and he invited us to an art show that the school was hosting. My dad brought me along and i fell in love with art. Knowing i wasn't an artist made me appreciate everyone else hard work and creativity. From twisted metal sculptures, exotic colored glass formed and blown into amazing fragile pieces, to canvases covered in paint in no certain order other than what the creator seemed to see in their mind. It all captured my attention and made me wonder. Starry Night is by far one of my favorite pieces. While very famous, no matter how many times i see it, it excites me! The detail and yet the lack of detail it holds for my eye to gaze and wonder at is amazing and inspiring to me. The individual brush strokes add texture and is a signature way for the artists work to be almost identified by. Bright colors swirled together to form a calm, yet eye catching piece. What do you see when you look at a piece of abstract art? Does it make you feel a certain way? Its just art, sum may say...even to go as far as calling it art is a stretch for some. I say it most certainly is art, yet has a different meaning and outcome in my mind as it may differ from the view in your mind.