Here’s another one of my favorite works of art, Riding with Death by Jean-Michel Basquiat. I saw it first in text books and later online but didn’t think much of it until I saw it in person at the Menil Gallery in Houston, Texas. The piece is very large and it photographs poorly because there is so much gold in the painting. Up close, I saw that Basquiat was aware of every brush stroke. The field of gold and the rhythm of the strokes was hypnotic. Looking at it was almost like looking at the ocean. The effect + the subject matter moved me unexpectedly.