What's that stuff in a museum?

It's not a trick question. One goes to a museum to see what?
Art.

But "art" is a very broad term, and in the context of a museum, it becomes even broader.
Usually, when we think of the word, we think of artists making paintings and sculptures and photography - things that are meant to be beautiful. And possibly thought-provoking, emotionally evocative, challenging, etc.

But the things that reside in a museum, while usually "beautiful," were often not created for beauty's sake.

The impetus for this blog post, and for me thinking of art as something else entirely came recently when I visited the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to see the extraordinary Forbidden City collection. Which, by the way…wow.

But I saw a lot of things that day in the various wings. And it occurred to me how few of them had been created only to be beautiful. How a lot of the pieces were barely "art" at all.

There were commissioned portraits, important for social standing and family legacy. There were bowls and blankets created with a bit of extra care for important functions in the home. There were religious artifacts meant to convey enduring symbology. There were musical instruments. Furniture. Shoes. Dresses.

Some of the items in the museum were mind-blowing or thought-provoking just because they were so darn old. I saw a big blanket made entirely of feathers that was 1,400 years old. How does that even survive?

It goes without saying that for a modern "artist" like myself, it is both humbling and inspiring to see so many kinds of items that touch you in so many different ways. I had to put my personal Muse on alert. I'm coming for her.

And I also wondered what the heck I'm doing making logos and photographs. Well, I need to make a living, so it's easy to understand insofar as they are part of my commercial enterprise. Commercial art is a whole other ball of wax, of course. One that's a relatively recent invention and easy for us to understand.

Maybe in the future, some curator will look past the vulgar reality of my "artwork," created in large part to make money, and decide to stick one of my photos in her museum.