Will you allow me to do another illustration? It's kind of a visual pun. It's about how rarely we really see what we are looking at. Case in point, a painting of an old stone church, surrounded by a 'normal' rock wall.
This well known person you're thinking of, whose image I digitally edited, was an painter who managed to illustrate everything extraordinarily well. ( and I'm sure he even painted rock well, but I couldn't find any examples) He was good at what he did because he saw the normal, differently. Each endearing scene he painted, awakens in the viewer a love of some truth, or recognition of the beauty contained in everyday activities of life.
A normal dry stone wall, in a way, still deserves that kind of artist's attention. When I travel to countries where walls, like the one in the painting are common place, I'm often surprised how little they are noticed or appreciated by the locals. They just don't see them.
How is it even possible to see things differently, to observe unappreciated aspects of life better, and not take for granted the common place places all around us?
I think we have to stop merely trying to see over the wall. And, like the artist who did the painting, (along with the people who's stonework is depicted in the illustration) we must have let ourselves imagine everything has the possibility of taking on special significance, and that there really isn't anything that needs to be normal.
