For years I have hated Claude Monet's paintings. His boring-ass, featureless, bland, blurry, pastel-coloured style makes me want to spit every time I see it.
There is one thing to be said for them, however: Few paintings out there affect me this much.
I was at the campus poster sale the other day and, as usual, there were some of his paintings, dully starring down at me with the meaningless look of a seven year old girl's Sunday dress. Feeling the heat flash through my veins, I approached the painting to verify that I hadn't discovered that another impressionist jerk hasn't polluted the visual world with such worthless brush strokes. It had been a while since I'd seen a Monet. Such Anger. Invigoration.
I bought the print. And another one. And I still hated them.
That is, until I looked at one of them upside down. You see, one of the problems is that Monet's paintings don't inspire my imagination like say, Renoir's or Van Gogh's. What I realized is that these are not Water Lilies.
It is a painting of Atlantis.
Here is a breakdown for those who don't see it. The green vertical lines are underwater grasses, the lilies are still lilies, but we are looking at them from below and the bright light is the city of Atlantis. I know what you are thinking. Why are there lilies in the ocean? Remember though, that Atlantis is a lost city, and when you lose things you start to look for them in strange places. Monet must have thought it might be found in a lake or something, since all searches of the sea have turned up empty handed. Look for yourself and tell me you don't see Atlantis!
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
