I'm after ME

Annie and I went to the Whitney Museum this afternoon and worked our way through some fascinating exhibits and permanent installments. There was one painting that, for reasons not apparent to me in the moment, really jumped out at me in the room dedicated to artist Edward Hopper.

What really caught my eye in the descriptor next to the paining was the phrase "I'm after ME." It was buried in this sentence, "Asked once what he was trying to achieve on a painting, he answered, "I'm after ME." His aim was not to record outward appearances but to use his observations of the external world as vehicles through which to portray his inner life." (Learn more about the artist and this work HERE) As I read that, I wondered if the same wan't true in the "art" that I create. Now, I don't actually think about my writing and blogging as art, but it is the most consistent and public place that I share my thoughts and inspirations.

A friend of mine who is a reporter for a major news station shared this today on her Facebook wall: "I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.” This quote by Joan Didion is exactly where I was going with my curiosity about Edward Hopper's pursuit of "ME." My writing, both in my personal notebooks and in public forums like this or Forbes, are as much about understanding what I understand about my world as it is sharing that understanding with anyone else.

So here's to that discovery and the revelations that come along with it.