This place knocked me out the first time I saw it! I had read about it and studied it in school and though I knew what it was, but until I saw it with my own eyes I finally understood. The men charged over one mile in the face of cannons and rifles.
This is the place where General George Picket attacked the whole Union army on the afternoon of the third day in the battle of Gettysburg, Pa. July 3, 1863. ( Yes I've drawn and painted this place.)
It's been called the High-water mark of the Confederacy. I believe it broke the back of the rebellion even though they lasted another two years.
Art is a lot like that, until you get the bigger picture your understanding is limited. Paintings seen in books or heard about you think you know, but until you go see them or stand under their spell you can't know their power.
In 1965 (almost 100 years later) I got to see Vincent Van Gogh's drawings in Columbus. His power with charcoal and paper the crude dashed off lines awoke in me a desire to draw and paint forever!
The power of the visual is crazy, many of us need to touch or hear something to be moved by it. I need to see it. Both of those two moments moved me. I love the history of the Civil War and am completely overcome by the Pieces of Art I've seen!
If you live in the Midwest or Great Lakes states, go to every museum in the surrounding area! ( We have some great ones.)
Look at the old masters, the early pieces of our collective history when man first drew a buffalo or woolly mammoth on a cave wall. Look at the Impressionist look at Klee or Jackson Pollock or Mary Cassatt. Look at the modern painters enjoy what they teach us.
Where is your high-water mark? When will you charge into glory for your art? Well at least go to a museum.
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