During my last LACMA visit, I realized what it was about artwork that really captures my attention: contrast. It's all about contrast. Take a canvas--standard, two-dimensional, rigid boundaries--add contrast, and you've suddenly created the illusion of something dynamic and three-dimensional on an otherwise limited surface. There was one painting in particular at the LACMA that made me realize this. Of course I don't remember who the artist was, but it was a piece of American art showing a national park landscape. There was such a distinct contrast between the mountains in the shadowed foreground and the lightened-almost-hazy background mountains creating the unmistakable illusion of depth on an otherwise depthless plane. There was a piece of modern art that Vinita really liked. It was an elongated diamond with a blue semi-circle painted onto it. Vinita commented on how the shape was so dynamic because of the blue paint, but how it was ultimately just a diamond. What created that shape? Contrast.