Finding the Stories

I love museums; the idea that art should be out and visible to all who wish to see is so fundamentally democratic an idea that I'm surprised that art museums are so often considered the domain of the wealthy and the elite.
I love paintings especially. I love that every painting tells a story, and that all anyone wishing to enjoy the story need do is look closely. The story tells itself. Yes, it can help to be familiar with literature and history, but anyone can look at a painting and see its story, even if they can't name the players.
Docents at the Chazen often bring groups of children through. They sit the kids down in front of a painting depicting the story of Apollo and Daphne. By degrees, with only a few leading questions, they bring out the essential details of the story: Cupid, the prankster, Apollo, the Ardent lover, Daphne the unwilling beloved, her loving father Peneus. Daphne's prayer and her transformation into a laurel tree.
Once the kids have told them most of the story, they put the elements in order, summarizing the myth.
Yet the children remain free to assemble the elements of the story in whatever way they like; art is a collaboration between artist and audience. Once an audience has seen it, the story leaves the artists hands forever, never to be fully reclaimed.
That's an essencial part of this blog; to look at works of art and find the stories therein. Perhaps the stories I see are the ones the artist intended, perhaps not.
Maybe you see a different story than I do. Cool, please comment and let me know what you see; that's another essential part of this blog.
Anyone able to look at a cloud and see a rabbit or a ship or a man with a funny hat can appreciate art. All it takes is the imagination to find a story amidst images.