writing prompt: think about a certain piece of art...

THINK ABOUT A CERTAIN PIECE OF ART THAT HAS ALWAYS ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION. If you can, post this piece on your website and study it again. Ask yourself questions. Why do you like it? How does it make you feel? Are you happy or sad when you look at it; study your emotions. Write about it. Don't fix your writing as you go...just write.

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer is one of my all-time favorite pieces of art. I have been drawn to this piece as long as I can ever remember and when the book came out I bought and read it in a half day. Then of course when the movie came out I was there the night it opened and eventually added it to my movie collection as soon as I could. A friend of mine borrowed it once and I have never gotten it back so I usually rent it a few times a year just for fun.

Why do I love this piece? I think it's because you can't really tell if she is happy, sad, scared, nervous, turned on.... of course the movie sort of draws those images for you because you know that she's completely enamored with Vermeer and it's like watching them have sex without touching each other. Unfortunately as I write this my mind keeps getting drawn back to the movie.

When I was 17 I moved from Montana to the D.C. area to be nanny for a year. Some of my fondest memories were of the hours upon hours I spent walking around in the museums but I spent the most time in the Museum of Art. I have never seen this piece in person, although there were hundreds and hundreds of pictures by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet and all the artists you study in art 101 your first year of college. One day in the gift shop there was a poster though of Girl With a Pearl Earring and I snatched it right up. I didn't even open it for months, until I moved back home after fulfilling my nannying committment. I have a vivid memory of pulling the plastic off the long tube and carefully opening it, still in awe at her face, her lips, her eyes. I think the draw to her is that I can relate to ALL of the things she might be feeling.

I have been happy at many times in my life.

I have been sad just as many times.

Being scared every once in awhile is a normal emotion but I tend to go through each day afraid of everything. Fear is something that lives inside of me constantly. It holds me back from adventure. It steals what little joy I might find in something. It makes me second guess every decision I make. It strangles me. And it has stripped me of my potential.

That has made me nervous. Through the years I have developed severe panic and

anxiety issues which is, in my opinion, a direct result of being fearful. I think I have such fond memories of my year in Washington D.C. because that was the last time in my life that I have ever LIVED LIFE WITHOUT FEAR. I boarded a plane when I was only 17. I left my parents, everything I knew and I went out on my own. I really was full of life. Full of energy. Full of questions, answers and opinions. My heart and mind were open, ready to be filled with insight. To quote Thoreau....I sucked the marrow out of life.

And finally, who could look, REALLY look at this picture and not find it haunting, sensual, almost erotic? The movie does a good job at creating a very sexually intense scene as Master Vermeer pierces her virgin ears so she can wear his wife's pearls. He tells her to lick her lips. She sucks her bottom lip into her mouth and wets it. He tells her to do it again. She does. He tells her to do it one more time. She does. And then she looks at him with her "fuck me" eyes. The only thing he can do is grasp his brush and make love to his canvas. Stroking her, vicariously, in desperation. Is there a part of me that is sensual and erotic? Of course. Is there a part of me who has not wanted to do something naughty and/or forbidden? Of course. We are all human and I am sure anyone who lives and breathes has thought about and possibly acted on things that are better left unsaid. Of course we know how the movie ends. But we'll never know how things TRULY ended for Vermeer and his young doe-eyed muse. And when it all boils down to the raw, inbridled emotions we all feel...who would NOT like to be somebody's doe-eyed muse?