Five Things They Never Told Me (22 page)

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Last Sickness
(1953) by Alice Neel. There is something about this oil painting that makes me utterly sad. I'm not sure if it's the way that the old lady is slumped in her chair or if it's the fact that her glasses are all wonky, but she looks like she's really tired. And not the sort of tired that a good night's sleep will sort out but the sort of tired where she just might not bother to wake up in the morning. Alice Neel painted this picture of her mum and I think it looks like there's no life left in her. Like she's already gone.

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In the Garden
(1885) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The two people in this painting are sitting in a garden and I think they're in love. The thing is, the man is gazing at the lady as if she's the most interesting thing he's ever seen but she isn't looking at him. She's looking at us. And it's impossible to tell what she is thinking. Maybe she's imagining spending the rest of her life with him. Or perhaps she thinks it all seems a bit scary and she wishes that she was somewhere else.

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Fish and Frogs
(1949) by M. C. Escher. This is a brilliant picture where fish and frogs tessellate together and you're never really sure what you're meant to be looking at. One second you're sure that you're looking at a frog and then BOOM – it's gone. It's confusing. Everything changes in the blink of an eye.

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Life Death, Knows Doesn't Know
(1983) by Bruce Nauman. This art is made out of flickering neon lights that flash up different words:
Cares Doesn't Care, Knows Doesn't Know, Pleasure Pain Love Hate
. I feel like I don't know anything, definitely not what I'm supposed to be doing or how I'm supposed to be feeling. And I'm wondering how I can go from happiness to sadness so quickly.

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Me and the Moon
(1937) by Arthur Dove. The colours at the top of this painting make it look beautiful and calm until you look down. Then you realize that the mood has changed and it feels sad and depressed. And then you notice that the moon has been broken and you're not sure that it can be fixed.

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The Dance of Life
(1900) by Edvard Munch. This painting shows three women at different stages of life. The woman in a white dress on the left is waiting for it to be her time to dance. The woman in the red dress in the middle is dancing with her partner, ignoring everyone else around her. The woman in the black dress on the right has had her dance and all she can do now is watch and remember. This picture makes me think that we should dance while it's our turn, because one day we'll be the ones who are watching and the only thing left will be our memories.

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The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
(1990) by Damien Hirst. This piece of art is actually a dead tiger shark, floating in a tank of formaldehyde, which means it won't go rotten for years. Lots of people got a bit upset about this piece of art. Some people said it wasn't even art and that it was rubbish. Damien Hirst was cool, though – when someone told him that anyone could have done that with a shark and called it art, he just said ‘But they didn't, did they?' I actually think it's OK. I think it shows how difficult it is for humans to think about dying. And maybe, it means that something isn't really dead if it still exists in the minds of the people left alive. I like that idea a lot.