Blog #3

In this weeks reading I didn't feel like a really related to anything. I have been to Italy though and one thing that really caught my eye was the Gates of Paradise. I was very young when I went to Italy, but the most vivid thing that I do remember was going into a church where almost everything was covered in gold. There were even glass tombs with gold edges to keep them together that had the corpses of past priests. The intricate gold in the panels of the Gates of Paradise and the tombs in that church made me think of a link to heaven. Gold to me is bright and luxurious and so is the idea of Heaven. Maybe not so much luxurious but you know that something beyond your wildest dreams lies there. Gold for some, even me, is magical. Not everyone has a piece and it really never goes out of style. It holds its own holyness.

Blog #2

Our assignment is to relate one thing from the reading to our everyday world. Well all I had to do was read the first page and I had found my inspiration. On page 585 when the book discusses the tableaux vivants is where I found my muse. The tableaux vivants, or "living pictures" were people that got dressed up in costumes and as the book says 'stood "absolutely frozen, like statues" to re-create scenes from their own town's most celebrated work or art'. This was how some townspeople welcomed Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, to Ghent in 1458. The townspeople completely reminded me of the street performers that I've seen in Las Vegas and in San Francisco. The most vivid one is the man that is dressed from head to toe in silver, even with silver face paint, that looks exactly like a life-like robot. He just stands completely still like a statue until someone drops money into his cup and then he acts like a robot. But even today we have tableaux vivants. They are townspeople that dress up, entertain, and welcome tourists and out-of-towners.

BLOG #1

The assignment is to choose three pieces of art that each describe me and who I am. Honestly I already know that I’m not a connoisseur of any kind of art. It is something that I would definitely like to be but unfortunately am not. One of my life goals is to be an Interior Designer and for me to be a connoisseur would help make me top in my field. I’m explaining this to you because one of my three pieces of art that do express me is my very own bedroom. I understand that at the moment it is a masterpiece under construction but I created, designed, and manufactured the colors, concept, and ambiance all on my own. It is my own piece of art that describes me. My bedroom is the greatest expression of myself because of its content of bright bold red and white walls, a little messy, random with pictures of a lady from the twenties and a game of checkers on a gold table next to a bowl of fruit, a cherry wood framed futon with custom mattress, and new retro style phone. My bedroom is my sanctuary at which I could stay in and stare at for days just thinking about the future of my career in Interior Design and thinking that this is where it all started.
The second piece of art that would really describe me would be Frank Sinatra’s music as well as many other musicians of his time. People around me sometimes describe me as an old soul and a lot of the time that’s definitely how I feel. I don’t do well with technology, I have always been able to relate more to people older than myself especially senior citizens, and Frank has been the music that I mainly connect with. His music puts in places where things were all beautiful, songs did not include curse words or derogatory comments, and everything was about romance. I’m a strong believer in love and romance, which are other reasons why I’m so drawn to Frank’s music. Also it doesn’t hurt that he has an attractive and charismatic voice.
This may not make sense to anyone else except me but I do believe that the new TV show on Showtime, The United States of Tara, is truly a work of art. The breakdown of the show is about a woman who has multiple personalities and how she, her husband and her two kids deal with the unusual situation and how each of them react to her other personalities as well as her before and after her personalities come about. I understand that it is a TV show but it still has actors just like a play or a musical, but maybe not appreciated the same way. I’m sure that this show was idealized differently for the writers and directors. I’m sure that it was meant to just be a dramatic comedy show, but for me it went a little deeper than that. For me The United States of Tara is another perfect representation of me. All day, every day I feel as though I go through many different personalities, actually I think we all do. I will act as a different person to my teachers than to my friends or family and it just feels like I’m a different aspect of myself each time. I’m a lot like a roller coaster. Some days I can be in a really girly mood with the high heels and the makeup and others I may be in terribly worn and torn up pants (that my grandmother can’t stand because ladies don’t wear pants like that) and a white wife beater. Some days I’m lazy and sloppy and don’t pick up anything while others I’m a super energetic clean freak that needs everyone in order. The great thing about the TV show is that with her crazy and completely different personalities she was still able get married and keep him around for seventeen years as well as raise two kids. It just reminds me of me and I know that it’s just a TV show but it gives me hope that if she can have the life I want then maybe I can too, even with my totally unpredictable personality and lifestyle.

Success!!

I have now, finally after a half of an hour, created my blog account. For me being so computer illiterate this is so far one of the greatest accomplishments of my life. Haha. :P