How to Love Yourself Even Though You Don’t Know How You’re Supposed to Feel at Art Museums

So you’ve recently visited an art museum and bore witness to original renditions of some of the most renowned pieces of art in the world – that’s amazing, and most people would come away from the experience feeling deeply moved and culturally enriched. And you would too, if not for the fact that the only thing you’re feeling is a deep-seated uncertainty about what you were supposed to be feeling while standing in front of a 9″x16” canvas on an otherwise blank wall. This is most likely a testament to something deeply wrong with you on, like, a soul-level, but here’s how to work on loving yourself anyway!

 

Accept that you’re not as good at looking at art than other people.

You’re an uncultured, unrefined, sweaty meat person – and that’s great! You are who you are and there’s no changing that. There’s not some switch in your little brain that’s suddenly going to flip while you’re staring dead-eyed and slack-jawed at Basquiat’s Dustheads and gift you with the emotional depth and valuable lived experience which allows others to connect with art in a meaningful way. And, that’s perfectly fine! Maybe you’re more verbal! Do you read a lot? No? Okay!

 

 

Be honest about your feelings.

Do you really not know how you’re supposed to feel at art museums? Or do you actually know exactly how you’re supposed to feel and suspect that the way you feel – “unmoved,” “uninspired,” and “blank-brained” – isn’t how other, better people feel when they stand in front of an original Warhol? Either way, it’s important to acknowledge that you’re a dumb-dumb who doesn’t know what good art is or how to have a human experience.

 

Work on forgiving yourself for having the emotional capacity of a plunger.

You’re an unfeeling shell of a human. You’re unmoved by art, profoundly alienated, and devoid of any qualities that might make you, in a word – good. Only once you accept that about yourself can you truly begin to love yourself for who you are, and start to unashamedly approach art museums with the detached nonobservance that’s central to what makes you you!

 

So give these tips a shot the next time you find yourself feeling insecure at an art museum and wondering what everyone else around you is seeing that you’re missing – you’ll never be able to connect with art in the achingly beautiful way that they do, but you can start to love yourself in spite of that deeply disturbing shortcoming.