Art

Art surrounds us. I think pretty much all of us can agree with this statement, it almost always is with us and in one form or another is difficult to escape. Between advertisements, movies, poetry, and music, art is an integral part of our lives. However there is one form of art that receives very little attention; one that is neglected in part because it is intrinsic, but highly moving regardless. This form of art is reading.

It may be easy to say that reading is not a form of art. It surely doesn’t fit into our model of what art is, it isn’t visual, or aesthetic. You can’t hear reading, it just doesn’t fit in. However I’d like to look at what art is. In a general perspective, art is the focusing of creative energies towards a sensual experience. When you consider music or advertisements, it is easy to see that these subjects fall into the category of art. Reading also meets this criterion, though once again we neglect it because it is intrinsic. Just as the painter sees or the musician hears, as a reader advances they can experience the story instead of just understanding it. This encourages thought much more than the text on the page, and allows for much the same enjoyment as other forms of art. Because of our failure to view reading as an art, we do a lot to screw up its instruction. We teach our children to interpret words on a page, and while many of us learn to explore further with our minds as we age, I would argue that the reason so many people dislike reading is because they do not understand how to do it. I believe that we need to instruct students in an abstract manner, just as you teach any other form of art. You can tell a painter line by line how to draw or a singer note by note how to sing, but it loses its beauty when it is done this way, and I am afraid we are doing this with reading. 

Cultural Event

As a destitute college student, my first thought when instructed to attend a cultural event was to find one that was free. Looking for free events, I found them to be few and far between, and of poor quality. I expected as much, but after attending for my own purposes several free recitals and finding nothing of note to write about, I was at a loss. My problem was fixed, however, when a friend was kind enough to give me a ticket to a show back in my hometown of Williamsport. The show, Little Shop of Horrors, was one that I had never seen live, so I welcomed the opportunity. It was performed at our community theatre league, which I had been involved with through high school, and included as cast members a number of people I knew.

Several years ago my mother invited me to watch the film adaptation of this musical, and I can say it was definitely not what I had expected. The stage show was very different from the film adaptation, one example of this being (spoiler alert) that almost everyone dies. Beyond that, I found the stage version to be much more interesting than its movie counterpart, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I thought that the show was very well done, and in particular I enjoyed the acting of the plant, as it came across very much like the animated movie version, and the various versions of it as it grew were all very aesthetic. There wasn’t really anything that I would want to complain about, as like I said I enjoyed the show, though this admittedly might be because of my personal attachment to the cast. The thrust-stage theatre was sold out, as it was for the run of the show, and the lighting and sound were both done very effectively and tastefully. Overall it was a very positive experience, and I look forward to going back and seeing future shows at that venue.

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First signing up for English 15S was done by the recommendation of my FTCAP advisor, and because I had no idea what sort of classes I should be taking on my own. I came in with moderate expectations, as English is by no means my favorite subject, however over the course of this semester I have learned to really enjoy English 15S; even if it is a little early for me.

Coming to Penn State I had been warned of the class sizes here, and a lot of questioning was done about how fluid a learning environment that situation creates. After spending a semester here, I would say that even though some of my classes enroll over seven-hundred students, Penn State does a very good job at fitting class sizes to the course material to most efficiently serve their purpose. This is reflected in this class, being about twenty-two students, as well as in the rest of my classes.

In terms of the class material itself, a lot of emphasis was put on the arts in general instead of focusing it on English. This is an approach that I have not experienced in my previous English courses, and a pleasant one, as I am heavily involved in the performing arts. I very much enjoyed our required out of class arts trips, as one thing I think Penn State promotes poorly are the events happening around campus, and it was great to have the opportunity to go to these events that I would not otherwise have known about. In particular, I really enjoyed seeing In Red and Brown Water, which has been the only theatric performance I have gotten to see since coming to Penn State. I heard no mention of it outside of class, and unfortunately I think that was reflected in attendance. Once again I think Penn State is lagging on this note.

Another focus of this class was put on our course blogs, and our effort in them. Before coming to college I had written blogs for classes, but they were usually one and done assignments. I did not realize that as much focus is put on them as it is in college, as several of my classes require them. I think this is a reflection of the student body at Penn State, as they are known for being extremely active online. Anyone who questions this needs only look at any public voting competition online. If Penn State is involved, expect them to be winning by a considerable margin. So in this sense Penn State is very intelligent with marketing their classes towards a medium that the student body is already intimately familiar with.

With my writing itself, I would say that I have improved in the concision of my texts, which in the past has been a serious problem for me. However I have also improved with completing thoughts instead of just stating them, which fills out my papers and blog posts much more than I have been able to do in the past, without stating the unnecessary.

Overall I would rate my experience in English 15S to have been a very positive one; miles ahead of my expectations. More so than this I believe this course has been a good stepping stone towards more difficult courses that I will be required to take in the future, a stepping stone that I had previously hoped for but was a big unknown coming in. I would like to thank Sheila for helping (and putting up with) me through this course, and wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors, as I’m sure she has more magazine articles in her future.

Blog

http://15snmpy-y.blogspot.com/

Under- you think you know art

http://rfatherly.blogspot.com/2012/11/in-red-and-brown-water-by-tarell.html?

showComment=1355190440808#c85173865337791858

http://quirkyconfessional.blogspot.com/2012/12/greek-sing_4.html?

showComment=1355190704450#c96190667740875679

http://artstateofpsu.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-social-network.html?showComment=1355190959560#c368001561688730627

http://haileyhere.blogspot.com/2012/11/in-red-and-brown-water.html?showComment=1355191295055#c9188849283644760816

http://jrose412.blogspot.com/2012/12/for-love-of-music.html?showComment=1355191962386#c2188633938885141113

http://morgannsays.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-arboretum.html?showComment=1355192092074#c6617460776081394269

http://knaviello.blogspot.com/2012/11/in-red-and-brown-water.html?showComment=1355192242163#c7056843308318391816

http://colorfulspots.blogspot.com/p/my-palmer-museum-visit.html?showComment=1355192454876

http://the1meltingpot.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-arboretum-at-penn-state.html?

showComment=1355192607390#c8608881644685325463

http://jenniferlongdancingart.blogspot.com/2012/11/catch-22-marathon-reading.html?showComment=1355192815360#c1226752136662853548

The link to the course evaluations (SRTE) can be found on ANGEL. Please take a moment to fill this out--it's important!--and then post a sentence under #3 of your final blog journal that says, "Hi, Ms. S--I completed my SRTEs!"

In the Red and Brown Water

In The Red and Brown Water, by Tarell McCraney, a young woman named Oya lives on the Bayous of Louisiana with her mother, Momma Moja. Oya loves to run, and she is very good at it; so good that she has attracted the attention of the Louisiana State University. They offer her a partial scholarship if she runs with them, but she is forced to decline due to her mother’s failing health. Momma Moja dies later that year, and hardship is compounded upon loss when “State” does not offer her a scholarship the next year, saying that they have found a new number one. Accepting that she is likely not going to be able to leave the bayou, Oya tries to find a man with whom she can start a family. She finds three potential suitors, and for much of the remainder of the play goes back and forth between them as she tries to have children. As the play progresses Oya begins to fear she is barren, a fear that is confirmed by a shaman. Crushed by this, and finding out that the one whom she thought she loved, Shango, was having a baby with another local woman, Oya breaks down and cuts of her ear, handing it to Shango as she bleeds out, pleading with him to remember her.

Throughout the story Oya was trying to go somewhere; to make something out of her life. Originally this was her running, but as that failed she became just as determined to start a family, one that she could raise properly. Oya never achieved this goal, and it was this that in a large part contributed to her eventual suicide.

I really liked the character of Oya. She displayed the most depth, and was fairly tasteful with her emotional buildup and character building. In particular I like the last scene where Shango cradles the “soft of her ear” for the last time. It was very profound and appeared to really touch the audience.

In all honesty this was much better than I had anticipated. The acting was very strong and the play was very exciting and enrapturing was start to finish. I would say that the percussionists might have been a little bit better, as they couldn’t do much to hold a beat, and I thought Ogun could have played his part better, his transitions form one stage of character to another were not very fluid.

This was by no means my first experience with theatre, but my first seeing a production here at Penn State. It was better than many small scale productions I have seen, but I would expect as much considering the caliber of the actors on stage. All in all I found this to be a very intriguing play, and is definitely an encouragement towards going to see other Penn State productions in the future.

I have always been one for the outdoors. I’ve spent many an afternoon wading up streams and many an evening driving around potter county looking for deer. The majority of my experiences outdoors, and many of my fondest childhood memories take place at my grandparent’s cabin; from fishing and catching frogs to watching bears and flocks of turkey waltz up the valley. It has always been my escape and my sanctuary, and it is a place that invigorates me in a way that few other places can. The colors in fall are some of the most spectacular I have ever seen, and the sky, the darkest east of the Mississippi, is the ceiling for the absolute and perfect silence from everything this world knows. It teaches you so much and yet asks for nothing, and nothing we can ever hope to create will match the beauty of a single dewed flower.

This past summer I had the opportunity to visit the UK, and went to a number of walled gardens that were truly spectacular. They were put together with such taste and were like nothing I had ever seen before. To pair that with the history of the estates made for a truly amazing experience that left me with very unfair expectations for gardens such as the arboretum. However, I did enjoy my walk around the grounds, and would definitely like to see what they are able to do with it in the future. This was my first visit, and while it was not quite what I expected, it was still nice. I found it very interesting to see the difference in variety between here and in England. In England, there are an unbelievable variety of flowers and other various exotic plants, likely brought to the British Isles during their period of colonialism. It is also understandable why many of these plants aren’t available to us, since we have tried much harder to keep out living organisms that are not indigenous to our regional biospheres. That being said, there were a couple of plants that I was not familiar with, and really liked the lily pads; as they were the largest I had ever seen in person. I was also encouraged by the number of projects that they seem to be undertaking for the expansion of the center in the future. I will definitely come back sometime next spring or summer so I can try and see what it looks like in its entirety, as this probably wasn’t the peak season for colour. On a tangent, there are a lot of trees on campus that I am not familiar with, and I only live an hour east of here. The one thing I was most surprised by since I came last month was the difference in plant life. I hadn’t really considered that it might be different, but this is a much flatter area than I come from so I guess it may make sense. Anyway, I think it would be a great campus project to put placards on the trees, and maybe certain other plants on campus to identify them. This is common practice at zoos and I believe that a number of other Universities have them as well. Just to put that thought out there.

After walking once through the Palmer Museum of Art, I found a piece that drew my eye not for its scale or bold colors, but for its historical significance. This piece, First Communion in the New World by Tompkins Harrison Matteson was a medium sized oil on canvas that hung in the corner of one of the back rooms. What it lacked in stature in more than made up for in containing elements that drew a picture of an entire period of American History, and it was for that that I chose this piece.

The setting for this painting is a small forest glade with a preacher holding the communion cup and bread, surrounded by the first new world settlers. The preachers face is much lighter than the faces of his fellow pilgrims as he gazes towards the heavens. In the background you can see several Native Americans watching the proceedings curiously while a landing boat brings yet another load of “white faces” to shore. In short, this oil on canvas painting gives wonderful insight into what happened as the first white settlers made their way to the New World. Starting with those present in the glade itself, this painting shares the purpose of those original settlers; the pursuit of religious freedom. Those around the preacher further the message of freedom as you see children frolicking in the grass while another man sits writing in a book, a standard necessary for free speech. Behind the main group, you see two Native Americans; one of which holds an inquisitive look on his face while his mohawked compatriot holds a grim, almost hostile expression. In the far background you can see a group of men stepping off a small rowboat holding guns, a clear indication of the violence that the white settlers would eventually bring to the continent. Painted in 1858, this piece was created long after the events in the work took place, and because of that Matteson was able to paint an accurate portrait of the events of that era. This painting evokes pathos in its religious appeal, seen through the pastor and the elements of communion, as well as an emotional appeal to heritage; as these were the people that founded this great land, yet as the Native Americans remind us that it had a very high cost.

Tompkins Harrison Matteson was an artist out of New York State that focused in many of his works on historical, patriotic, and religious subjects. All three of these can be seen in this work, and they can be given credence through our own knowledge of this period. What Matteson does is to put that knowledge in one painting that reminds you of a period that influenced us all so much yet is very easily put by the wayside. This knowledge can be separated into several distinct parts: the goal of the first settlers to find religious freedom, the Native Americans having been belligerently pushed aside, and the imperialists who followed that led the largest and most extensive genocide that took place in human history.

I found visiting the Palmer Museum of Art to be a positive experience. It had a very clean design that separated the art, keeping paintings significant in their own areas. It also had a moderate range of styles and periods, though I thought there were some big ones that were missing. I really enjoy museums in general, though I have never been a big fan of art museums. American and natural history have always been far more intriguing subjects for me. I would be willing to go back to the Palmer, though probably not for a while. It would also be nice to visit with a guide who could give much more detailed histories of the works on display.