Families in Art and the Art of Family

Art. What does that word mean to you? For many, it may conjure up images of stuffy, boring art museums and a “not for me” feeling. I understand that. Our impressions of a thing are greatly influenced by our experiences. Yet the word “art” isn’t only the noun that refers to drawings and paintings and sculptures. Beyond those specifics – there is music, ceramics, dance, and the list can go on and on. What about the mastery of something? The art of throwing a baseball or kicking a football is another use of the word.

Hang in here with me. This is one of those meandering stories.

I recently returned from a wonderful vacation with my husband to Holland and Norway. I’ve shared in a previous column that I enjoy exploring art museums. For me, there is a very strong heartfelt association with the times I spent growing up visiting museums with my Grandma Peggy. My husband also likes going to art museums, so that’s an easy point of compatibility, right?  Often it can be, yet we have different preferences and favorites.

He especially loves Dutch art, and in various places I have gone along less than enthusiastically to those sections of various museums we’ve visited together.  Jan Steen (pronounced Stain) is one of his favorites. And as luck would have it, while we were in Leiden (a beautiful city in South Holland), we found out there was a special exhibit happening in the Museum De Lekenhal (just down the street from our hotel) to celebrate Steen’s 400^th birthday.

The word luck would have been in sarcasm font before I went there, yet it turned out to be genuinely fortuitous. In this setting, I managed to learn more about the artist and view his work with fresh eyes. If you’re unfamiliar, he’s a bit of a 17^th century Norman Rockwell, but his family depictions incorporate a lot of drunken debauchery. He also frequently paints himself in the scene, and often in less than flattering ways. There is lot to be both amused and concerned about when looking at the details of Steen’s masterpieces. (If you read my column about Spamalot which exposed my husband’s love for Monty Python, you can see how this is all adding up.)

The Museum is a breathtaking old building that once housed the trade and commerce of the city. While I was there, enjoying an eclectic mix of things that are housed on the floors and across the halls of the museum, I had an epiphany. Why was Steen’s work taken in a more holistic exhibit so appealing to me? I zeroed in on the fact that he didn’t attempt to gloss over or hide the messiness of family life, including his own role in it. In fact, there is an air of celebration to it which struck a chord for me. There is a beauty in the crazy chaos that often can exist in a house full of family members.

That set off a mental reflection of the many representations of families in art (in paintings, theater, movies, TV, etc). There is no “perfect family.”  There is art to be found in every one of them because art is not only about objective beauty, but also about finding the spots of beauty in the objectively ugly as well.

Mastering the art of family is mindfully taking time to be curious and open minded to the likes and interests of family members. Offering love and acceptance. Whether enjoying literal art together or living the art of life, the experience left me feeling grateful for mine as well as all the many flavors of family in the world.

Given that we live in a Delta town, and multiple daily nonstops from ATL to AMS, let me add a few additional words about Leiden in case you find yourself traveling to the Netherlands. The city is a short and easy 20-minute train ride south of Amsterdam Schiphol. It’s a lovely university town, with canals, delicious and varied dining, multiple museums and easy trains to The Hague, Utrecht, Haarlem, Rotterdam and Amsterdam central. If you’ve done Amsterdam before and you’re looking to explore beyond, or you simply want a different pace and price rather than staying in the heart of Amsterdam, it’s a real gem.