How many times have you heard, “I don’t know anything about Art” or “I just don’t understand it”?

I think we often prefer those things that have particular rules that we can learn and understand. As the only female in my household it may come as no surprise that I’m often overwhelmed by football. Whether it be practise at school, late pick ups on Friday afternoons and being there for them when their team wins and inevitably when they lose.

Whatever your football code what I’ve come to understand is it’s not just the beautiful game on the field it’s also the way it brings people together off the field. The machinations around each game. The build up of excitement, the challenge to play well and play within the spirit of the team are lessons I’ve watched my boys learn.

As a practised “watcher” I’ve also been a little envious of the strict rules of the game. There’s not just a boundary around the field but boundaries around what can and cannot be done unlike Art where the rules are somewhat more flexible. The “field”/canvas can be any shape and the “players“/artists can kick in any direction.

Chess is often also described as the beautiful game with its connection to intelligence and strategy and I’d also say the very strict and sometimes complicated rules. It makes me wonder if we find that playing exceptionally well within a set of restrictions is the attraction.

Like enraged coaches we can all yell at decisions by umpires or bad fumbles or wrong moves. We can all happily imagine our favourite players (or ourselves!) doing it better. It’s the collective passion that makes us feel connected and energised. An experience to transport ourselves out of our own private worlds.

So when I balanced the apple on top of the giraffe’s nose with the tiger looking on ferociously I couldn’t help but think of the beautiful game and the competitive desire to win that small object and the fever that overtakes both the participants and the onlookers.

And when this painting hangs on the wall of a gallery I don’t expect that there will be such a fervent response as a game of football but I do feel the people looking at it will know more about Art than they think. After all this painting has also been a team effort, years of crafting skills and days in the studio experiencing the ecstasy of doing well and the devastation of failure and hopefully when it’s exhibited it will interest people from all walks of life, maybe even give them a transporting experience out of their daily lives .... perhaps Art isn’t so different to sport and in a way is its own beautiful game – Kate Bergin