Creative Inspirations: Parisian Art

While in Paris for the marathon the recent Icelandic volcano halted flights in Europe and trapped me in The City of Lights for an additional week of unplanned vacation. During my two week stay in Paris I discovered more inspiration and creative motivation than I thought was possible for such a brief time span. Paris was a breath of fresh air, a much needed extended vacation and a chance to reflect and be inspired. Along with the sights of Paris, the cuisine, the language, the friendly people and the ART have all left me with lifelong impressions that have inspired me to create and long for more travel excursions.

I visited a total of five art museums while in Paris, not to mention the many other tourist locations that were a must-see. Unfortunately the Picasso Museum was closed for renovations while I was in town, but will reopen its doors in 2012. In Paris the museums are organized chronologically, with The Louvre showcasing art from prehistory to the 19th century, The Musee d’Orsay featuring French art from 1848 to 1915 and The Centre Pompidou which houses Musée National d’Art Moderne and showcases modern art that picks up where The Musee d’Orsay left off.  Along with the three museums just mentioned, I toured The Musee Rodin, which houses Auguste Rodin’s infamous sculptures (The Gates of Hell, The Thinker, and The Kiss, to name a few). And last but not least, I toured The Palace of Versailles. Versailles is an architectural masterpiece in itself with vast gardens and countless pieces of commissioned artwork by Louis XIV. Each venue sparked excitement and left me craving more. Some of the most impressionable artists’ whose work I saw were: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Giovanni Bellini, Caravaggio, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and The Guerrilla Girls. Needless to say my cache of inspiration feels full at the moment, the fullest that it has felt since studying art and art history in Italy during my Junior year of college. I promise that someday soon, when I have more time, I will elaborate on my impressions and how much I took away from this experience.