Artistaday & GoogleArtProject: Getting My Daily Dose of Visual Chocolate

I love art, and I need a little dose of it every day to feed my mind, like dark chocolate for the eyes.  It pulls me back from my more utilitarian designs, refocuses my senses when they are tired of the everyday, and rejuvenates me.  I have worn out my copy of The Art Book.  I have collected postcards from half a dozen countries, since I couldn't always afford prints of art I loved.

Despite all this, I get overwhelmed by art museums.  The intensity of them, the depth, the crowds, it all gets to be too much very quickly.  So I long ago developed a system of visitation.  I come into a gallery and scan it, taking everything in from a distance.  Then I choose one or two pieces and go closer, concentrating on them.  I don't worry about viewing everything there, just about looking really closely at a few things.  It is also a great way to do museums with kids - each person picks their favorite in a room, and tours the other people's favorites, learning who likes what and why.

For my every day art fix, I have been using http://www.artistaday.com/.  It is a fascinating glimpse into contemporary artists, and allows me to save my favorites to my own gallery.  Sometimes weeks go by without anything that is gallery-worthy, but the accumulated set is a fun place to visit when I am looking for a little visual candy. 

But now, I have a new option: http://www.googleartproject.com/.  I still love my modern art, but this is an amazing exploration.  You can also create your own galleries here. It allows you to tour the museums by floor plan, so you have a sense of context, and also allows you to zoom in on the art itself, getting a sense of texture, layers, and technique that you couldn't get from a book.  You can visit galleries you've never been to, or go to museums you know well and see them with new eyes.   For example, I've been to the National Gallery in London several times, but either I didn't see it, or this was not a painting that caught my eye there: Mary Magdalene

In the online gallery, however, this painting blows me away.  I am drawn in by the complexity of the robes and love the sadness in her eyes.  It is a whole new perspective.  I am looking forward to having two ways to get my daily dose.