What is Art?

Somebody, please tell me that you love Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael, and Rubens' artwork, because I do not.  Reading "The Innocents Abroad", Mark Twain, says "he was also dismissive of the art of Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphel, and Rubens," I thought I was the only one in the whole world who did not like these great artists works, and I am sorry if you do love art or their works. I am one of those people, who have tried, even taken a class in Art Appreciation, but I cannot simply seem to understand what it is that people love in art.

When we visited the Strasbourg Museum of Modern Art, to tell you the truth, and I hate to disappoint Gregory, for I saw he has a lot of passion for art, and he himself is an artist, but there is nothing I saw at the Museum that wowed me, let along the painstaking explanation Gregory put in explaining the curves and how the artist was feeling working out those little curvy objects, in the name of art.

Please, just understand, even in France, the historical buildings have all those sculptures, but I see them as old and worn out and wish they could be taken down. Even Mark Twain, strangely shares my feelings when he "speedily wrote off St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice, noting that "Its hoary traditions make it an object of absorbing interest to even the most careless stranger, and thus far it had interest for me; but no further....Every thing was worn out...." I apologize for my distaste of art and if a Museum was the last place on earth I would need to visit, in my entire life, then, I am sorry, I would have to pass.

Like Mark Twain, "while his disappointment in art and most antiquities was growing, his respect for craftsmanship was increasing, sometimes to his own surprise" I can feel him wholeheartedly, because I share his same sentiments, except I have respect for the craftsmanship and architectural designs of the French houses and buildings.  I could almost fill my entire camera with photographs of the half-timbered houses, brightly colored houses, some looking like no amount of thought was put into designing them, but still catching my eye.  I am loving them all and my camera has stayed rather busy every time I am on the bus or on the trams and I could almost see myself making a whole book of photos of these unique little houses.  What is their history and what do they represent?  Gregory might help me understand, why I am finding myself completely immersed into the art of French house designs.

As a matter of fact, it was only yesterday, I realized that I am weary of Atlanta's skyline.  Everything coming up seems to be all glassed up and squared in shape, I would wish some city in Georgia would borrow some French housing designs to give those people who do not travel abroad a sense of art in architecture outside subdivision vinyl covered homes that are so common place and boring to look at for long. - Caroline