Art Review

The picture you see above is "Ophelia" by an artist named Charmaine Olivia. She's a self-taught artist in her twenties. Never took an art class, never went to college. This piece is done on wood instead of canvas, in oil paint. Oil paint literally takes days to dry, and this painting has several layers. Not only did it require extreme finesse and control, it took an insane amount of patience and dedication. Her work, which I enjoy, it not always quite everyone's style. Yet it brings to the surface an aspect of art far different from the abstract concept, the whole "what is art?" dilemma: artistic skill and talent. Even if you don't like it, or it says nothing to you, the skill and dedication that it took to create it is un-ignorable. And even though I think that art has the wonderful capacity to instill thoughts and philosophies and emotions into viewers' minds, and that artists have the opportunity and responsibility to take advantage of that, I also believe that skill is skill and should be appreciated.