What has made you feel excited lately? | Happy Writing Marathon #46

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Ken Honda's Happy Writing Marathon, which I am taking on.

The topic for the 46th session is

"What has made you feel excited lately?"

Something that made me feel excited lately🖼️

I went to an art museum for the first time in a very long time.

I was thinking about what to do on my next day off.
That's when I remembered.
The art exhibition of a famous painter that had been heavily advertised.

Honestly, I had a dark image of that painter.

The flower paintings I'd seen in textbooks, and
the intense anecdotes that made me wonder if he was a passionate person.

No matter what I saw or heard,
as someone not well-versed in art, I only had a gloomy impression.

But I'm glad I took the plunge and went to see the "real thing."

The bumpy canvas of the oil paintings.
The brushstrokes you can't see in photos.
The expression of the works changes depending on the lighting.

It was something completely different from what I saw in textbooks✨

The exhibition was structured to follow his life.
The colors, style, and motifs changed with each era.

I had assumed he was the type who couldn't get along with people, but💦
I learned that he interacted with painters of his time that even I know.
I found out that he learned from their paintings and tried to improve.

In his early works, there were some with strange compositions even to an amateur's eye.
There were also bright works that were completely different from his image.

What I liked was
not his typical gloomy works or brushstrokes.

A vivid yellow that catches the eye.
A gorgeous flower painting that I would want to display in my room.

The reason I ended up buying postcards was because
they were all works I wouldn't have known about if I hadn't come to see them.

For people we only know at a textbook level,
what we see is only the "finished part."

They are already called "geniuses."
Their artistic value and reputation are high.
They are "those" works that everyone knows.

But,everyone has a "process".
Perhaps I had been making assumptions by only looking at the finished form.

It was an art appreciation experience that made me realize that.

The excitement of "bathing" in it on the spot🚿

Just as watching a movie at home is different from watching it in a theater🎬
art also has the charm of being "bathed in on the spot."

Music is the same.

Rather than explanations, "recommendations," or "correct answers,"
I believe it's something to be enjoyed with one's sensibilities.

When I looked back on my time in the quiet art museum,
I realized it was similar to the exact opposite: a LIVE concert🎤

"I want to hear this song."

At a concert I went to with expectations,
they sometimes play an unexpected song.

My favorite band, B'z,
often does that with their daily rotating setlist songs on tour (lol)

In that moment, while rubbing the goosebumps rising on my skin,
"You're playing this song? This is the best!"I whisper.

"Unexpected"

Even though it's a word you'd normally want to avoid,
it's the moment that becomes the ultimate "excitement"🤩

"One draft beer, please!" "Coming right up!"🍺

You might be wondering where that came from (lol),
but that's the call-and-response before a B'z concert.

I have always been excited about this "raw" experience 🤩

This topic made me realize that.

"The real thing" or "the genuine article"

If I can, I want to continue living by soaking in as much "raw" experience as possible 🍀