ART THROUGH MY EYES

Samiksha  Verma

9th grade.

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A humorous take on the confusing world of art museums, where classical sculptures, modern masterpieces and surreal paintings leave the narrator guessing. Through amusing misunderstandings, the story celebrates the joy of exploring art without needing to understand everything.

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Walking into a big art museum always makes me laugh at myself. I see people standing in front of a canvas that is just a giant red circle, nodding their heads like they just discovered the secret to the universe. Meanwhile, I’m standing right next to them trying to look super smart, but my brain is actually just thinking about what kind of pizza I want to order later.

Through my eyes, art is a fun, confusing puzzle. I love looking at it, but I definitely don’t understand it the way the fancy museum guidebooks want me to.

Take the old paintings of kings and queens, for example you walk into the sculpture room, which is a whole different level of confusion.

You see these beautiful, ancient marble statues of heroic warriors, but half of them are missing their arms or noses.

Everyone walks around them whispering about "classical beauty," but my brain just wants to go find the missing pieces.

I always feel like I’m looking at a giant 3D puzzle that the museum forgot to finish putting together.

But things get truly wild when you finally make it to the modern art rooms. Modern art galleries are like a giant game of "is this art, or did someone just drop something?" I live in total fear of accidentally sitting on a bench that turns out to be a two-million-dollar masterpiece.

Once, I stood for five whole minutes admiring a very simple, clean setup in the corner. It was nice, actually making me think.

Till I saw a spider on the corner and jumped back, bumping into five people consecutively, just to find out the spider was fake and a part of the painting by a security guard, who stared at me for what felt like a century later.

A few minutes later, I saw a bright red fire extinguisher on the wall. I nodded slowly, thinking, “Ah, a powerful statement about danger and safety.” Nope.

It was just the building’s actual fire extinguisher. But honestly? I think my idea was better.

By the time you get to the surreal art—the stuff with the melting clocks, floating green apples, and elephants with giraffe legs—you just have to give up on trying to make sense of things.

It’s like looking at a weird dream you had after eating too much cheese right before bed. You don't need to understand why there is a fish riding a bicycle; you just have to enjoy the craziness.

In the end, I’ve learned to love the way I see art. I might not know the names of all the famous painters, and I will always get way too excited about the museum gift shop.

But it’s just fun to look at cool things, have a good laugh, and enjoy the way my mind works while looking at each masterpiece.