Words- Essay #1 Final Draft.

 Words

A picture that captures the essence of the human heart can be looked at for hours; the same is with a picture one has a connection with. The photo can be something simple, however it is so quintessential to the onlooker that they stand captured in the essence of its simplicity. He can look at the photo over and over again and never get bored or want to move on. The picture speaks to him in a way that our words cannot. It is as if the picture is speaking in tongues that only the onlooker can comprehend. It is a connection with art that is so magnificent, almost like magic. In the art gallery I saw many pictures, and it wasn’t the first place winners that caught my eye. In the gallery I was captured by the simplest of photos; a girl standing at a window, pictures of triangular monkey bars on a playground, and a picture of a shiny motorcycle. These pictures where not metropolitan worthy and they did not make you ask life’s deepest questions. They were however meaningful to me, and that placed a connection between those photos and myself that is very unique. It might be a simple captured moment, but in this moment as Napoleon Bonaparte said “A picture is worth a thousand words”.

            Rachel Hammond managed to grab my eye as I was going through the gallery with her photo “Woman in the Window”. With poise and grace a woman stands tall with her shoulders back as she looks outside into what I perceive to be as an unknown. Poise is captured in this photo along with an essence of beauty, in a pure form. When I laid eyes on this picture I saw myself observing the world from my own window. I love to look out and watch the world go by because it is so peaceful. Judging by the quaint rustic window I would say that she is looking out at a hillside, where green grass rolls off the hills and the sky is as blue as it gets. I feel a newness about this photo; perhaps it is springtime, the flowers are blooming the air is fresh everything is about to start over anew. However, as sweet as this picture looks I also see a part of myself that I try very hard to suppress. I see a touch of sadness. This lady wishes to break the glass and go run in the fields and be as free as the birds that surround her. For some reason, the window pane is blocking her freedom and she can’t break loose.

            “To be a kid again” not so much the picture but the title stopped me in my tracks on this photo. The photo is a black and white portrait of a rusty set of monkey bars. While looking at this photo I was taken back many years ago to the joy and happiness I felt as a small child. I pictured my little self doing flips and clinging on to dear life as my biggest troubles where if I would make it to the next bar. The photograph was technically just a picture of bars on a pole on a clear day, but the photo spoke to me. The photo not only gave me a feeling of youthfulness and childlike joy. The photograph also triggered many memories in my mind of the life that I used to live, when my troubles where small and my smile was big, instead of the flip flopped order that it is now with life happening all around me. This picture was very moving, although it didn’t say much it brought back so many phenomenal childhood memories.

 Having recently been involved in what could have easily been a life altering motorcycle accident, the last picture that I saw before I left the gallery is still buzzing around in my head;  “A Perfect day to Ride” by Jessica Norman. This photograph captures a cruiser with sun shining on it and a clear beautiful day, simple right? Not to me, this photograph now contains something darker, a danger that I have recently encountered and do not wish to be near again. No way that this author knows the trauma that I am going through she is probably a bike fiend also just trying to capture a picture of her Sunday afternoon. The photo takes me back it brings back the deadly CRUNCH of metal on metal and a deadly force that YANKED me off the bike onto the cold midnight pavement. A million images surround my head as I see the bike looking peaceful and glorious; however none of the thoughts that swirl around in my head are peaceful or glorious in the slightest.

“A picture is worth a thousand words” an overused quotation, however it is very relatable in my opinion. As evident by the places that these pictures that I saw took me I am very apt to agree with Mr. Bonaparte. These three photos captured a moment in time and made it stand still, however it very much came alive to me. Flashbacks, voices, watching myself in my own past became a part of these pictures and it made everything surreal, just like I was living it over and over again. It is a peculiarity what art can do to the mind, but it is also so majestic. It takes you to places you know and places that you don’t, as Twyla Tharp stated “Art is the only way to run away without leaving home”.