The idea of impressionism, like all art, is a technique of expression. What makes impressionism different is the "impression" and a little "ism" at the end. When you look closely into an IMPRESSIONistic painting, you realize there is nothing more then large gobs of thick matted paint on a crude canvas. Often dull colours are used, and its often messy with too many colours. Often the colours seem unrealistic and saturated, comparatively to others which are often analogous or adjacent on the colour wheel.
Now on the opposite end, when one sees an impressionistic painting as a PAINTing, they realize it is just paint and stop concentrating on the paint, and see the whole picture. Then all the sudden, the blend of seemingly impossible colours blend to such a strange hue, and more then that; there are patterns slowly emerging, as if from nowhere but somewhere banked perhaps in long lost memories -- and then it all makes sense. It was a place, and picture; a meaning. It could not the looked at objectively. It has to be read subjectively.
Do we look at life this same way? Do we only see the present? The current projection? The current perception? The little dots and squiggles on the page? The sloppy paint strokes? Or do we see outside of the little narrow path we commonly see through? Do we see the words on the page? Do we see its message? Do we see the painting? Do we use our peripherals?
Edit: I wrote this not from a singular perspective on art. Its about everything we approach in life. How we perceive it is how we project it. If we are great, we can achieve. If we look at ourselves small, this world will recycle us for jube jubes for the next creature who thinks we look tasty. I am a visual person.
