When he was an MFA student at the University of New Mexico in the early 1950s, artist Richard Diebenkorn took his first plane flight.
He flew to San Francisco to see the Arshile Gorky retrospective at SFMOMA.
As he stared out the window, he had what his biographers would later refer to as an "epiphany". He saw the world from a new perspective --
the low-flying plane had created a flattened landscape made up of broad planes of color. This altered viewpoint would lead him to his life's work, as the greatest West Coast Abstract Expressionist.
I took a quick trip a few weeks ago to Washington DC.
Two plane flights after having been grounded for so long may not have turned me into a great artist. But they did give me a much-needed shift in perspective. I no longer felt quite so grounded in my little corner of the world.
That's why art and travel are so important - and often so interrelated.
Like all of you - and like Diebenkorn - I look forward to journeying
to see great work in great museums. In the meantime, I get to look at the art on my walls and have my perspective shift every day.
Do you need a change in perspective without a plane flight?
Well, I wouldn't be an art dealer if I couldn't provide you
with this handy solution: LIVE WITH ART!!
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