On good days, I like to sit up on my kitchen counter, eat some yogurt and gaze at the lovely fountain in the park across the street from my house. Every time I have the opportunity to do this I think, man how lucky am I, what a beautiful place I live in, surrounded by live oaks dripping with spanish moss. I forget all the icks, The chores, the trash, the LIST of stuff to do. I ignore the tumbleweeds of dog hair beneath me, I forget about the roof holes and car issues and heartaches..all I see is beauty…all I taste is Chobani..which is a pretty damn good yogurt. I don’t know how long it takes most people to eat a cup of yogurt, But I savor those 8-12 minutes. Then my bottom numbs up and I lose feeling in my leg, apparently I’m too old to sit on kitchen counters.
For the past two weeks however there has been a front end loader sitting directly in front of my house, positioned in such a way that if I sit in my spot on the counter the front end loader completely obscures my view….Its a big park, some serious geometry had to be in play to position this thing, so directly in my line of vision. I have felt, since I moved here that someone has been skulking around smoking cigarettes in my front yard surveying my every move…now I am convinced they have just been collecting data on what spot to put heavy machinery that would push me over the edge. Well the jokes on YOU mystery tractor people, because I don’t need to move around to change my perspective. I just need to get back to the root of art.
It took me ten years in a four year college to come up with this definition of art. Art is the juxtaposition of one thing against another. That is my definition, I like it because it has the word juxtaposition in it. And because it reminds me to see art EVERYWHERE I look. A leaf against the sky, a hand on a shoulder, a bench with a pizza on it, a squirrel carrying a bagel, a hat with a stain, a shoe on the street, a playing card in the garbage. a cucumber by itself is a cucumber, but on top of a riding saddle it is art.
I think I forgot what art was while looking at that beautiful fountain. My mind became easy and drone like. I saw beauty, because of conditioning, we are told that a fountain is beautiful and and I bought right into that..completely negating the possibility that a front end loader could be beautiful to. A symbol of change and progress, art in itself, orange steel lines against a lush green backdrop.
Tomorrow Im gonna look out at that contraption , take it in, savor my yogurt and be thankful for the beauty in all things, Im calling it art in the park. I have drawn the conclusion that the only thing different between a tractor and a fountain, is me.
