Steve: essay from museum of fine art

I hated art. When I think about art, I usually think about big canvases with a lot of paint on them. It probably also looks messy and weird. Sometimes even the thing the drawing is about is. Looking at unmoving art can be really boring. I loathe going to museums and looking at art for boring things like tables and chairs. They are super boring but a great place for a nap. However, last week, I was forced to go to a messed-up imagination of a kid they call an art museum. The magical part was it was able to trick professional art people like my teacher into thinking it was a real art museum. I was really surprised that I enjoyed myself because I hated museums and most art. That made me want to document some of the most insane things they had there. First, we went to the funhouse section, then, the haunted house section. Lastly, the messed up section. All of those things showed me a whole new way of thinking about art.

In the funhouse section of the museum, there were a few “boring pictures”. However, what caught my eye was amusing pictures that looked like a 5-year-old drew them. One of them which I liked was a picture of a guy with a chicken or bird with two heads. To put it simply, it was a picture that would pop up in your mind when you were showering. There were also many other pieces of art with concepts just as crazy. Also, it was not drawn super realistic. It was a cartoon drawing with a guy's head and a two-headed bird. The artist gave it the name of seeing you guys talking. Those kinds of pieces of art blew me away. How did those pieces of art get into a museum? That made me wonder what the people picking art for the museum were smoking. I also wondered if you had to be sober when you were at work. However, the sheer madness made me truly enjoy myself. The simplistic design made me think of art in different ways. It felt relatable and realistic. Unlike something like Mona Lisa which was unachievable for everyone except masters at drawing. Abnormally, it was bright and cheerful. Which allowed me to relax because of how ridiculous it was seeing those kinds of art at a museum. My teacher would say that the artist wanted us to think seriously about this piece of beautiful abstract art. I disagree, I think the artist was probably just having a drink with his friends and decided to have an art competition.

In the haunted house section, they had stop motion animation. At that time I was beginning to wonder if I was the one smoking something weird. The exhibition was about the sets they used to make the animation. It was super creepy but the loony design looked like a little kid's imagination. The animation was about a creature that was a combination of an ugly horse, a deformed flamingo, and an angry yellow bird. That … umm thing was jumping on the top of crocodiles like they were lily pads. The crazy part was I did not understand the plot of the story. Maybe there was no plot, just the jumping. Maybe they just wanted to show what they can do. My teacher would say that this is an abstract animation that prompts you to form your own conclusions on what they were doing. However, I felt that the artist/director was just testing the limits of the suspension of disbelief. Either way, most people seemed satisfied after watching that nutty animation.

Just when I thought the strangest was behind me, I walked into a room with a 20(estimated) sided flute. I later dubbed this section the room of messed-up thoughts. The sound that came out of it was music from a horror film. I immediately decided to not mess with it and move on. Clearly, I made the wrong decision. I went to a movie theater deeper inside that same section because I was tired of the madness. Personally, I think the person who was putting the movie on, accidentally put on an R-rated movie. It was a real challenge to try to describe what I saw in a way that was appropriate for a school essay. I watched it for about 30 minutes and from what I can tell, it was a German film about a mentally deranged soldier who really had issues. He thought the noodles of his pasta were bugs and things in his reality were disappearing. That was the “normal part”. The disturbing part was, he saw a woman kissing a man, the woman called him son and in another scene kissed him. To be clear it was not a motherly kiss on the cheek. Also, he kept changing appearances. I may have missed something because I left to keep my sanity. Nonetheless, I asked my classmate who watched longer than I had. He also could not make any sense of what was going on. My teacher would probably say that the director/artist was trying to tell us in a slightly exaggerated way about what a mentally ill person can be going through. Anyhow, I think either the director just had some issues of his own or, when I took my medication that afternoon I took something else. Either way, I think the person planning what to put in this “art museum” did an excellent job. It made me consider going again.

From this trip, I learnt that either I was living somewhere in the mountains with no internet, or, maybe I or people in general, have started to open their minds to new kinds of art and are now more accepting of different things in life. The painting, animation, flute, and movie all taught me valuable lessons. This reality is crazy, things do not always make sense but, it is important to have an open mind once in a while and think about things from different points of views. The thing about art is, most of the time, there is no good or bad art. There is only one's take on it. The art here is weird but serves its purpose. It was memorable and helped me write this essay in less than 30 minutes. I think I now only hate some kinds of art. I am very thankful for the chance to go to visit this messed-up imagination of a kid and would suggest you visit it. I genuinely enjoyed it but viewer discretion is advised for some parts.