Monet..Pissaro and our world

I love Art. There's nothing like standing before a great painting in a museum and getting lost in the moment the painting was created. I'm especially drawn to the Impressionist and Post Impressionist movement. What they did to art is nothing short of remarkable and they were one of the first groups to fuse philosophy and art.

Now..I'm not here to give a discourse on Art. I think there is a great and beautiful lesson to be learnt from the likes of Monet and Renoir.
Here's what the idea of Impressionism is. Until the mid 1800s Art was basically if you're painting a tree, you paint a physical tree - if you paint a person..so you paint the physical anatomical person. Impression came along and said that in reality when you look around what you're seeing is an Impression of a tree. The impression is created by all kinds of external elements..mainly light. If you compare the paintings above you'll see what I mean. They're paintings of the cathedral in Rouen painted at different times of the day by Monet. Basically the underlying premise is that The True Reality of the object is based on the Impression the object makes on you.

This idea is very true in a moral sense as well. One of the most important ethical commandments in the Torah is to always judge others favorably.
I never understood that. What am I accomplishing by judging this person favorably in my mind if the reality is different?

But the truth is..I've come to realize how correct the Impressionists were. Your reality..your Weltanschauung..is the impression that the subject has on you. If he makes a favorable impression than that becomes Reality in your world. The same is true with your attitude. If one has an optimistic approach to everything than his palette is lighter..if one only sees negativity then well..everything is few shades darker.

So take out your brushes set up your easel..and start painting your world...Impressionist style.