It's all in the way you look at it.

I am not a big art connoisseur. I still like Norman Rockwell, Leroy Neiman, and others that you will not find in some of the famous art museums around the world. I have been to the Louvre, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and others, and there is no doubt they have beautiful paintings, sculptures and more. I just have trouble envisioning them in my home. (Not the real ones, this is me Joe Blogwriter after all!!)

What amazes me when I visit these museums are the ages of these paintings. To think these artists had the instruments and materials to create these "masterpieces" and still have them around today---at times some 400+ years later. When you consider many of these artists were old when in today's times would be considered at best, early middle age, makes it even more impressive. I know no matter how old I live to be, I won't paint anything like this---okay maybe I will, but I sure hope that "art gene" shows up soon!

Which brings me to something that happened yesterday. I was at Brookfield Zoo outside of Chicago and they had the winners of a photo contest conducted by the zoo. Turns out 2 brothers one first and second prize for the under 12 category. One was 8 and one was 10. I was talking to their Mom and she said, "They both took these pictures with old point and shoot cameras they had at the time." I was expecting at least one of the "good cameras." Nope, they were your basic early point and shoots that are now hidden at the bottom of a drawer. Their photos were really good. To think, the camera I use is much more expensive---maybe I will switch to a point and shoot.

As I spoke to the Mom, the boys came over. I said, "Your pictures are really good." They of course were polite and thanked me and then they went over to play with the box full of toys they had won---guess they are still boys after all. I thought to myself, "these boys are more than 40 years younger than I am, and look at the photos they took. Can you imagine what they will be doing at my age?" It goes to show when you have got the knack, it starts very young---and the equipment is really good. (Better than the Kodak Instamatic I referred to yesterday for sure.) I didn't ask them for their autograph, hmmm...maybe I should have? Just kidding.

The photo above was taken at the Chicago Art Museum; I went there to take pictures one day. I was actually hoping to take one like Norman Rockwell's "The Connoisseur" but no such luck. This one just kind of happened. There was a man looking at this picture and he cocked his head as if the painting would look different from another angle. Maybe for him it did, but for me, it looked just the same. It just goes to show, we all look at things differently and for me paintings and sculptures are nice, but I will take a photograph instead.

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