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
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.
