project#5 field trip#6

An Evening School

Gerrit Dou  (Dutch, Leiden 1613–1675 Leiden)

Medium:Oil on wood

Night in the Park

Edward Hopper  (American, Nyack, New York 1882–1967 New York City)

Date:1921

Medium:Etching

Small Train Station at Night

Paul Delvaux  (Belgian, 1897–1994)

Date:1959

Medium:Oil on canvas

 

 

Winter Scene

Style of Jan van de Cappelle (18th or 19th century)

Medium:Oil on wood                       Dimensions:13 3/8 x 19 1/2 in. (34 x 49.5 cm)

 

 

Broadway at Night  

Alvin Langdon Coburn (British, Boston, Massachusetts 1882–1966 Wales)

Date:ca. 1910           Medium:Photogravure                    Dimensions:20.2 x 14.9 cm (7 15/16 x 5 7/8 in. )

Ice Floes

Claude Monet  (French, Paris 1840–1926 Giverny)

Date:1893

Medium:Oil on canvas

The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning  ,        

  Camille Pissarro (French, Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas 1830–1903 Paris)

Date:1897 mediumOil on canvas

Winter Scene in Moonlight

Henry Farrer (American, London 1844–1903 New York City)

Date:1869

Medium:Watercolor and gouache on white wove paper

 

Night Scene on the Volga

Alexei Kondratievich Savrasov (Russian, Moscow 1830–1897 Moscow)

Date:1871             Medium:Oil on wood          

Rue EugèneMoussoir at Moret: Winter

Alfred Sisley  (British, Paris 1839–1899 Moret-sur-Loing)

Date:1891

Medium:Oil on canvas

  New York at Night

Louis Michel Eilshemius (American, Newark, New Jersey 1864–1941 New York City)

Date:ca. 1910

Medium:Oil on cardboard, mounted on Masonite

 

A Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters and an Imaginary Castle

Christoffel den Berghe  (Dutch, Antwerp ca. 1590–1628 or later, active Middelburg)

Date:ca. 1615–20

Medium:Oil on wood

 

 

 

 

                                    The Climate of My Mind

           Most people’s emotions may be changed by weather and times of day, so that I believe that different weather and times depicted in art works also change our emotions and thoughts in different ways.And I think some types of weather or time periods that are shown in art works are similar to my emotions. John Chaffee states, “Living your life creatively means bringing your unique perspective and creative talents to all of the dimensions of your life”(1). I want to show my own creative thinking to other people and help them understand my perspective on a few art works. So for my digital art exhibit, I creatively displayedworks of art that show the climate of my mind.

          I chose two different types of time periods which express my changing emotions and thoughts.First,I chose paintings that show winter time, because I love winter, I love snow, and I love cold weather. Even though the weather is freezing cold, I think winter is the warmest season. Instinctively, people try to keep themselves warm in cold weather with heavy clothes.In a way, heavy clothes may seem like the way they hide themselves in the paintings. On the other hand, as the paintings show, in the cold weather people stick together to share their body temperature in order towarm each other. In that way, they are forced to get along with each other. Therefore, in my opinion, winter is a paradox in being the warmest season in my mind.

One of the scenes I chose is “A Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters and an Imaginary Castle” by Christoffel van den Berghe. Even though this painting was in Holland and I am from Korea, I went to skating in my country during the winter. Another landscape that I chose wasAlfred Sisley’s“Rue EugèneMoussoir at Moret: Winter”which shows people far away walking on a street with heavy snow. And in Monet’s painting “Ice Floes,” it shows the cold weather with frozen river.

Allof these paintingsof heavy snow and ice,make me feel cold as thoughI am inside of the paintings and I would therefore try to keep myself warm-- not only for my body, but also for my mind. And Iwould likeother people to“warm” their minds through my digital exhibit’s winter scenes.

          Night might simply symbolize darkness, silence and end of a day to most of people but to me it also symbolizes hope. So I chose several works of art like “New York at Night” by Eilshemius, “Small Train Station at Night” by Delvaux, “Broadway at Night” by Coburn, and others that represent night scenes.Through the night scenes I chose, first we can see the colors of these paintings are not vivid like other paintings. They are full of darkness. If you look clearly, you can find there are lightsbrightening the darkness a bit in every scene.  Even though the brightness is notlike day time, it still helps us to recognize objects. I would liken this scene to our lives. Our lives cannot always be bright, just as dark night always comes after bright day time.Sometimes we have to face failure and discouragement and these can be expressed as darkness in the scene. But as the lights give little brightness at night in the scene, there is still a little hope lightening us and leading us towardbrightness. The lights seem to encourage us to overcome our dark moments. They will lighten us until the sun comes up and then disappears. And I also hope these night scenes in my digital exhibit would encourage people to walk out from the darkness of failure or discouragement they may experience in their lives.

          Vincent Ryan Ruggiero states “A creative idea must not be just uncommon—it must be uncommonly good”(9). As he states, I didn’t try to create my mind uncommonly. I just try to think of every works in positive way and try to express my feelings in uncommon way. As the climate of my mind changes my emotion distinctively, brings my creative thoughts, I think it proves that I am a creative person. Through this digital exhibit, I learn to be more creative on my thinking of art works.