I was in a bank recently and as I approached the counter, the tellers were all fixated on a new painting from a local artist hanging on one of the walls. Some of the tellers were standing close to it, others from a distance behind the counter. Each of them was transfixed on deciphering all the shapes. One of the tellers nearby was quite stunning, so I made every effort to sound artistically insightful around her.

It was a large piece, several feet by several feet. The shapes and figures were mostly recognizable, but not completely. For instance, some people saw a jazz band, like myself. A golden saxophone, cello and the suits stood out most prominently. Then, one of the tellers pointed to a potential drum set and, after looking more intently, I concurred. However, I “saw” too large of a drum set because then she pointed out three heads of people sitting in the front row. I completely missed them as did she at first glance. We thought the “head” in the bottom left hand corner was the kick drum…

We had a good laugh about that one.

Turns out, it was a painting of a jazz band. One of the tellers was told so by the artist himself. Still, as the tellers informed me (and as I experienced personally), everybody had their own interpretation of the painting and/or some of the distorted shapes. People were still seeing different things here and there. Not everybody saw the jazz band, but then others did see the three heads of people in the front row.

Either way, the painting is very cool, it’s hanging inside a nice bank and the artist successfully sparked a conversation about his work.

Win-win-win.

Interestingly, the journey to finding the “girl of our dreams” is much like looking at a beautiful painting. Most everybody sees the obvious beauty, but it takes that one special, right person to discover how and why it’s (she’s) a masterpiece.

The first step, in some situations, is casually starting a conversation with a stunning bank teller despite the crowded presence of her fellow female tellers, perhaps about a piece of art hanging inside a bank. Then, it’s about asking her out to dinner as smoothly as the strokes of paint in a prominent wall decoration.

Afterwards, maybe she’d find it fun to catch a set at a jazz club…

If so, talk about life imitating art.