ART!

     Art to me is a very vague word that encompasses almost everything that can be seen or heard by humans. With this being said, art can be a picture painted or drawn by an artist, a song sung by a singer, and in my opinion the greatest artistry of all, the magnificently crafted work of mother nature. From the amazingly dressed flowers in the meadow, and the elegantly carved rock in the Grand Canyon, to the white waves crashing on the vast surface of the deep blue sea, mother nature has to be in my opinion the greatest contributor to arts history. I believe art is an expression illustrated to convey a message, thoughts and/ or feelings. Art created by a human medium is also something that cannot be completely and perfectly replicated which in my view is the reason why the original piece of art created by an artist is the most valuable and most sought after.

     A piece of art that is printed in amounts of 16,000,000+ copies a day and is handled by most Americans just about everyday is the United States dollar bill. This piece of paper has art all over it, back and front. The  all black front has a portrait of the United States first president, George Washington and also floral designs outlining the perimeters of the Federal Reserve Note. The all green back of the dollar has a bald eagle holding arrows and olive branches and also a unfinished pyramid with an eye hovering over it. Until this blog when I saw or physically handled a dollar bill, or any currency amount, I just saw money and other tangible things that I could purchase with the money. However, after researching the dollar bill for this blog, I came to notice that the artistry work on the dollar has a rich historical message, which I feel is safe to say that most Americans including my self have failed to pay attention to. The George Washington portrait on the front is obviously the tribute to the first president for his accomplishments and hand in helping build the United States of America. The bald eagle is the official bird of the United States and symbolizes American freedom along with the arrows in the eagles claws which represents Americans defense and willingness to defend it's borders and the olive branches symbolizes the longing for peace both domestically and internationally. The 13 stripes on the breast of the eagle represents the 13 original colonies and so does the collection of stars centered above the eagles head. The unfinished pyramid has 13 steps which in my observation (not completely sure)  represents the 13 original colonies, however also shows the unfinished work of the states/ colonies because ultimately today we have 50 states!

     With this art work printed on a object that many Americans have a deep passion for, I find the fact that most people can't even recite from memory what graphics are on the legal tender to be quite interesting. Obviously, the dollar isn't just an object for private use, because the government and specifically the media uses the dollar for a number of reasons. With the medias central strength and power invested in money, the U.S one dollar bill is one of the most influential pieces of art since it's first issue in 1862 as a legal tender.