If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would you choose? Why? by Kimbriel

If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would you choose? Why? by Kimbriel - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

If I could have dinner with any historical figure I would choose Leonardo DaVinci.
One of his most famous works, the Mona Lisa, is the stunning portrait of a woman whose image reflected that of mystery and beauty with a gaze that follows all viewers. Countless people since the creation of the Mona Lisa have speculated about underlying messages. But what if it wasn’t about “her” at all? While there is a great deal of controversy with the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and many other works of art he has left for modern society to theorize about, there is still beautiful art and masterful talent to cover it, leaving little to no clues to an actual secret left behind.
What about the paintings and the mysteries still being uncovered today with clues to something greater? What is the long lost prophesy about the secret child of Mary Magdalene? Who is really featured in the painting of the Adoration of the Magi? Why was the search for the “The Lost Leonardo” The Battle of Anghiari discontinued? It seems that history is just now releasing some clues from this creative genius. Did he really know important and possibly devastating secrets about the past, politics, religion, science, or the future? I would want to know his whole life story, the part that wasn’t publicized and given credit for. What made DaVinci do the things he did? As an artist and theorist myself, I wonder, if people from this day and age can ponder and create such mysteries, and if so why couldn’t the people from the time of time DaVinci? So my big question to him would be, “What does it all mean? Is this all realism in its simplest form, or just an imaginative story to entertain the masses, or is there something you’re trying to tell us? I’ve been drawn to his life, inventions, theories, sculptures, and art my whole life. My particular style of art is purely fanciful with no intent on achieving realism, yet I still wonder if there’s an underlying meaning to his realism. It seems all the research I do, in some way or another leads me back to his name. Could there really be a plot with others to preserve or hide someone or something, or even a tradition or work of art?
Above all, DaVinci did something completely taboo in the time. A time when portraying certain images or concepts was not only misunderstood but also unaccepted, and in certain cases, heresy. Since almost everything was looked at through the eyes of religion in this early renaissance period, one could always be accused by another of being a heretic. DaVinci however, didn’t seem to care, he seemed to be on a mission. My whole life I’ve been told, “Art is such a waist and not going to get you anywhere” or “you’d better hope you marry rich because Art is a dying field and won’t get you anywhere these days,” or “you chose art over everything else? Why? Art is dead.” Art is not dead, nor will it ever die, it’s immortalized in everything, and to try and be without it would be a life without meaning. No one seems to understand that I don’t just love art in all forms, art has chosen me, and it and I are on an inseparable journey to show the world of the hidden mysteries together, no matter if I’m a “starving artist” as they say. I must do this, even if my words now… go nowhere, I will show these brilliant things to the world. And I wonder if DaVinci ever felt that way. Even though art has changed throughout the years, it will always show us a deeper meaning in all things.