Why are artists weird? It was in my first year in college as I was leaving an economics class that I heard one of the students say, "Look, there's one of those weirdo artist just sitting on the ground drawing weird stuff." The young man had long hair, torn jeans and a gruffly beard. The look that's popular and cool today. The status quo of 1960's opposed anyone that looked odd and dressed like hippies. Artists like, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Dali, Picasso and many others occur to "normal" people as weird because artists see life in a way that isn't normal. An artist is born with eyes that see plants, birds, humans, landscapes and all life different from what is normally taught and accepted. Different and even strange from how others must see in order to fit into the norm. Are artists weird? Yes! We must be because we were created to see and live outside the norm. As a matter of fact "Norm" and "Norma" are very normal boring names come to think of it. When have you ever know a great artist or great creative person named Norm? For that reason the most famous Norma had to change her name to Marilyn.

Historical painting was traditionally regarded as the highest form of Western painting, occupying the most prestigious place in the hierarchy of genres, and considered the equivalent to the epic in literature. In 1436, Leon Battista Alberti (Renaissance humanist polymath) had argued that multi-figure history painting was the noblest form of art, as being the most difficult, which required mastery of all the others, because it was a visual form of history, and because it had the greatest potential to move the viewer. He placed emphasis on the ability to depict the interactions between the figures by gesture and expression.