Thankful for Monet

So here we are, I have finally gotten around to writing about Monet. I still haven't finished the book, but I don't think I can put it off any longer. I'll never finish it if the planning of writing a post about remains stuck in my head. In fact, I might finish sooner because I'm looking at his paintings and remembering what I have learned about Claude Monet and how much I love the water lilies and the paintings of his Camille and his son, Jean. It really makes you feel as if you knew him. You can see his wife through his eyes, see the way he portrays his son and how he saw the world.

I really enjoy his paintings of the sea and the wooded setting of his Luncheon on the Grass. But the book Claude & Camille: A novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell, really gets into the struggles of the artist in his artistic and his personal life. Anyone can relate to this, artistic or not. It's about doing what you love but no one appreciating it or knowing what to make of it. Monet struggles throughout the book financially and spends what little money he has, and the money his friends give him, buying painting supplies and (later on) lovely things for his wife and child.

Everyone knows that feeling, having almost no money to your name but what you do have you use to survive and continue your work and treat those you care for as much as you're able. It's a horribly, tragic life. Especially when looking back at those who are now house hold names, are being talked about in history books and have paintings being gazed at in museums. Monet and others works were once almost worthless or unappreciated, but now their priceless. It gives many artists hope for their own careers to take off, to become someone in the world. Not everyone can be published in books or be featured artists, but everyones art should be appreciated. I may never sell a painting in my life, but if someone just appreciated it and saw it for what it was then that is enough.

A professor at my university takes the viewpoint that art isn't about the product, it's about the process. It really is a transformation that you undergo when you creative something. Monet knew all about that. He developed through his paintings and then was able to let go of them whether to customers or to a gallery to be displayed. Granted, his financial situation also propelled that release of his work in some ways, but it was also his artistic maturity that allowed him to do so as well.

I don't believe I am that mature yet to just paint for the experience and that metamorphosis of mind and soul. There are others that feel the same, I'm sure. The feeling of attachment to their work holding them back or maybe a perfectionist attitude that their work is never finished and can never be sold if it isn't finished. Maybe some are like me where they have their favorites and don't want to let them go, but there are other pieces that have been experienced but the fear of rejection is holding them back.

Maybe we all need to be brave like Monet. He went out and asked customers and galleries if they were interested in what he had and he was rejected over and over again. He persisted and kept on painting without the knowledge that later it would pay off.

That is the best part I think. Even though he had so much hardship and faced so much rejection he never gave up. He always survived, whether is was in his work or his relationships, he prevailed. I don't know if his story is a happy ever after or not, but it's like that of painting: it's not the product, it's about the process. During this time of Thanksgiving, that's what I'm thankful for. The processes of life that build us no matter the end result and the hope to later understand those processes more.