a Picture at work...

at work on the 3rd floor there is a picture I love looking at. Its a picture of three boats lazily sitting at the dock, by the light reflecting off the boats it seems the sun is just going down. I love the shapes of the red and green boats and how they cause soft ripples in the water. The sun hits them at just the right angle, making it seem like it has been an active day for them, but now they just get to sit there on the water enjoying the sunset.

I am not sure what attracts me so much to this picture...infact what attracts me to any picture or painting ? Do I like it because I imagine myself sitting at the dock in the picture, or do I feel like an observer enjoying this scene from afar ?

I feel like since there are no people in the picture, I do imagine being there (I AM at work at the time I look at it:) , but I think if there was a person in the picture that might make me just an observer looking into someone elses day. Interesting how that changes things, does it say something about our need to have something to ourselves? Whatever it is I guess art can be so many things: an escape, an expression, creativity, a feeling .... I guess its up to the creator of the piece to make us either feel a definite reaction, or to leave it open ended where we can be free to interpret it through out own experience and memories.

"To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event. " Henri Cartier-Bresson