I would like to preface by saying I’m in no way artistically gifted
My approach to the mask was to just have fun with it and put things I liked onto it. I started with green, my favorite color. I wanted the center of the mask to be the eyes so I colored around them and on the lips and Jenna told me it just looked like I was doing her makeup, which I loved! I also added some contouring on the cheeks. I love beads and I wear jewelry 24/7 so I added some around the eyes, on the cheeks, and on the forehead. All of my favorite colors are on this mask and it did end up encompassing a lot of my favorite things
I actually really liked La Boheme. I loved the drama and theatrics of it, and especially Mimi’s voice. Rent was also good, I saw a lot of similarities. But overall I think I preferred the opera. I liked how they kept the core ideas the same but adjusted the rest of the plot to fit with the times. In both the opera and the movie, the main cast are artists just trying to get by. In the opera, the “main” illness is tuberculosis while in the movie, it’s AIDS. So, they changed it to make it more relevant to the time it was set in. It also conveyed the message that a disease doesn’t belong to or come from a single group of people, since tuberculosis was also stigmatized. I appreciated how in the movie, the characters either had the same names as in the opera or ones that started with the same letter. It made it a lot easier to remember who was supposed to emulate who so I could actively compare.
I liked the opera more because it just felt like more of an experience. The sets were so well done and from where we were sitting, it felt like I was watching a mini show which actually added to it all for me. Even though I couldn’t understand the words directly, the translations on the screens were good enough that I could like hear them in English in my head in the ways they were being sung. Very cool!
Rich Stremme seemed like a really cool guy. His presentation on the history of tattoos was really interesting and he was funny too. It was cool to see how much the industry has changed while also staying kind of the same in a lot of ways. I loved how he included real photos of people he knew and his equipment. I think that the kind of tattooing he does, and the work of Pat that he mentioned in his presentation, is definitely art.
On Tuesday we went to N@tM at the Brooklyn Museum. I was very happy to know we would be provided with transportation.
When we arrived we had the option to have them hold our bags, which I did but forgot to take my glasses. I could barely see the presentation but it wasn’t really working anyway.
Once they let us walk around my “group” was me, Jenna, Lexie, Kiera, Kodi, and Nick, but we split up here and there to look around. It was a lot smaller than I expected because I didn’t know we had access to just one floor. But the floor was beautiful and I thought the pieces were well curated and added to the feel of the whole room. The highlights for me were the rooms with the furniture, clocks, and lamps behind glass, and the one with books. I was very happy to see Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer among those books because it’s one of my favorites. I have my own copy in my room!
It was also great to see some faces from high school that I haven’t seen since orientation since they go to Hunter.
On Sunday we went to the Arpino Dance Festival at the Joyce Theater in Manhattan. The weather wasn’t too bad getting there apart from some light rain. Our train went out of service the stop right before St George which was annoying but luckily a bus arrived basically right away that we took to the ferry instead. We arrived at the theater with most of the class.
I had a really good seat. I was close to the stage but not so close that I had to look up to watch. I was pleasantly surprised by the show because it was a ballet. My favorite of the four acts was the second to last. It was so satisfying to watch and the dancers were so talented. I loved the costume design of the first act, it reminded me of classical ballets. The most striking act with the best music to me was the last one, it was so cool to see so many dancers working together. Overall, I liked the show a lot more than I expected to and was happy I went.
The weather on the way back was a lot worse and there were significant bus delays but I eventually made it back home.
I couldn’t find the context surrounding this image because it wasn’t linked to an article and didn’t have a full description. I’ve seen it before and believe it’s to do with a feminist cause. Regardless of its context though, I think the meaning is applicable to almost every issue concerning our world today.
This shows how many issues (not just concerning women) took a long time to actually be resolved. Some are still being fought for today or they have to be all over again. I think this is still relevant because there’s so many injustices concerning all marginalized groups that are so deeply rooted. I also feel like recently, we’ve taken a couple steps back. People have been fighting for this change for a long time before we were born and probably will still be while we’re here too.
Today I went to Snug Harbor for the Art Lab open house. We arrived at around 1, and parking was a mess –thankfully I was not the one driving. After walking in one big circle we finally found the building that the demo classes were happening in and joined the ceramics one. The instructor was such a kind older man and seemed so excited to see us, although I didn’t catch his name. We were free to make whatever we wanted, but today’s theme was pumpkins. He kept saying pumpkin season was just around the corner!!! My pumpkin was going well but as I scooped out the clay in the center, it just kept getting flatter and flatter so it just turned into a bowl. Working with the clay was actually very fun and reminded me of the art classes I used to take when I was little. I did not take my piece home because I have no space for it and would have rather the clay be reused. I made it out with no stains on my white shirt!
Once we left we got a chance to walk around and look at what the vendors were selling. Everyone was selling such beautiful pieces. The vendors and people working the event were all so kind and inviting. I saw so many dogs and the weather was beautiful too. It just seemed like a very happy environment and I was so glad I went!
I went to the Whitney Museum of American Art. Tickets were free for people 25 and under so that was a plus! It was super easy to get in, they just checked my bag and scanned my ticket. Each floor seemed to have a different theme or the works of mostly one artist. There was a pretty wide array of kinds of art, including paintings, photographs, videos, audio, and sculptures.
Every floor was almost a whole other environment because some were a lot quieter/louder. I felt like I had to whisper on the first floor whereas the next was pretty lively.
Some themes I noticed were ASL, African-American and Native American cultures. I’m sure there were others but I noticed these the most.
Some paintings were more modern and abstract while others were a more traditional style. I personally liked the ones with a lot of color and texture.
Loved this so much. I think glass in art is so pretty and I loved how there were so many different sizes of the orbs.
This blog post won’t let me upload the photo I have but there was this one animation of some kind of terrarium (I don’t even know how to describe it) but it was looped and had an audio that sounded like water and it was so captivating I could have sat there for an hour.
Overall, I enjoyed this trip. I will be honest though, I didn’t really “get” a lot of the pieces but they were still nice to look at. I liked how the plainness of the actual rooms let the art shine but I do wish there was a liiittle more to them.
