knit knit knit and don't quit

i don't remember how i came across this, but i think it's beyond cool. knitting art in the urban world by KnittaPlease and their blog is here. i hope to one day witness this in real life. it's so whimsical and warm. after seeing a few of the knit graffiti, i feel like it should be everywhere. i'm looking forward to winter break so that i can knit. headed back to keeping warm while studying. be back soon,

-Genevieve

renaissance remembrance

i had my midterm in Early Renaissance in Italy yesterday. it wasn't so bad, it was nice walking out of an art history exam and still being able to feel my hand lol i'm eternally grateful to my professor for not making the exam too stressful. i felt much more capable of writing good essays. for the big essay, i chose to write about the Arena Chapel aka the Scrovegni Chapel aka Giotto's Grotto as one my past professor's liked to call it, in Padua, Italy. it's nice writing essays when you know what you're talking about. it was actually an enjoyable experience. i hope to one day be able to visit it, maybe i'll get lucky and go on a day that isn't so touristy.

ok enough about talking, here are some images:

1. looking east 2. looking west 3. Last Judgement on west wall 4. Betrayal of Judas on south wall 5. Lamentation on north wall (1305 for all)

tried to find the best quality, i think the last is not the one my professor used for sure. these are a couple of the more famous ones of all three registers that go around the chapel.

it's practically the weekend, so excited. ciao!,

-Genevieve

dissecting fine art

i came across this website online and i'm beyond words. awesome doesn't begin to describe it. as an art history nerd, i'm very excited when i come across great quality images. especially since most of the physical art is not readily accessible to me as i'm learning it, it's wonderful when professors take the time to get great quality images. when doing research it's also exciting to be able to zoom in and try to see something 'up close', when you're not even really in front of it. after i saw this website, i truly hope that this is the future of images and that the study of art history will benefit from both the improvement of images and digital technology. both can lead to wonderful things in the world of research. anyway, enough about my nerdy musings. go check it out for yourself:

http://www.haltadefinizione.com/galleries.jsp?lingua=en

enjoy! be back soon,

-Genevieve

seizing the light

i dedicate my sundays to yoga and studying. they are lovely lazy days that i try to be productive and get ready for the start of the week. i have a midterm this week in history of photography, so i'm working on memorizing slides and little bits of info of every image. i'm in love with the collaborative photographers Southworth & Hawes. their photographs are mostly studio portraits, but they dared to experiment with shadows and posing. they feel more than just a planned pose. many evoke a powerful emotion and you can't help but feel like you know the person. you feel the moment, you feel what they were capturing. the first image left the strongest impression on me because of its beauty and subject. in 19th century, it was popular to take post-mortem pictures, especially of babies and children. these are all daguerreotypes.

Unidentified child, deceased, 19th cent.

Albert Sands Southworth, c. 1848

Mrs. James Thomas Fields (Annie Adams), 1861

hope you have a good start of the week,

-Genevieve

being cool in the nineteenth century

this daguerreotype intrigues me. it is called Portrait of a blind man holding a cat (c. 1850) with an unknown photographer. naturally i think it's awesome because it's probably one of the first photographs with a cat, but there's something else about it. although only blind men wore 'shades' in photographs, in today's perception he looks 'cool'. but i guess it's the movement of the cat. it's an endearing image, while at the same time creepy. i think it's great. the cat is blurred because exposure times used to be super long and if anything moved, it wouldn't show up. the cat probably stood still for most of the exposure but then decided to move and now it looks like a ghost of a pet. i'm taking history of photography and i'm now obsessed now with daguerreotypes. it might have been one of the first photographic processes, but it remains as one of the best images that you can capture. if you were able to microscopically zoom in on this photograph, you would see an incredible zoom. i could keep going on how this works, but i'm going to refrain from getting too nerdy.

i'm going to go back to studying now. tomorrow's friday, get excited.

-Genevieve

missed the boat

i have returned from the lost world of i'm-not-sure-why-i-didn't-blog-in-three-months.

not sure if you missed me, but i missed you.

while we're on the subject, could we change the subject now?
i was knocking on your ear's door, but you were always out
looking towards the future, we were begging for the past
well we know we had the good things but those never seemed to last
oh please just last
everyone's unhappy, everyone's ashamed
well we all just got caught looking at somebody else's page
well nothing ever went quite exactly as we planned
our ideas held no water but we used them like a dam

-Modest Mouse

as promised, here are pics of my ceramics. a bit late i realize but better late than never, right? lol we'll go with that.

soft slab construction

firm slab construction with sgraffito

thrown on wheel

thrown on wheel

thrown on wheel

and here are some songs that came on pandora that i fell in love with...

alias & tarsier - "dr. c"

neil halstead - "sometimes the wheels"

mint - "the winter of 1985"

i promise to be back soon. i have a test in the morning, so i should go back to studying seeing at is midnight in ten minutes lol oh the joys of college. hope you have a lovely week.

au revoir,

-Genevieve

histoire de l'art

my friend shared this with me. i think this might sum up what i learn in college. it's pretty great.

lost to the mists of time

sorry i've been absent from here, i've been very busy doing absolutely nothing. i miss not worrying about school, it's quite delightful. although i have added many more law & order episodes to my 'watched list', it's nice to be home.

turns out i did use different images for my paper. i turned it in last friday, and since i chose different images i just wanted to share them. my paper's main argument was that Berthe Morisot pushed the boundaries of female artists by incorporating landscapes into her work. i used the Corot and Monet as comparisons and i wrote about female restrictions in the nineteenth century.

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, The Valley, 1855-1860

Berthe Morisot, The Artist’s Sister Edma with her Daughter Jeanne, 1872

Morisot, Hide-and-Seek, 1874

Claude Monet, Landscape: The Parc Monceau, 1876

Morisot, Laundresses Hanging Out the Wash, 1875

i've been recently addicted to this indie band au revoir simone, they have a way of capturing an ideal emotion in their music. enjoy

i'm starting my ceramics class next week, i can't wait. until then, i'll be unpacking and getting ready to start summer. be back soon,

-Genevieve

the love of caffeine runs through my veins

"cheer up and dry your damp eyes and tell me when it rains

and i'll blend up that rainbow above you and shoot it through your veins

your nerves gather with the altitude...

exhale the stress so you don't come unglued

somewhere there is a happy affair, a ghost of a good mood"

it's getting there. i'm almost at the point where lack of sleep and too much caffeine and a never ending to-do list is finally kicking in.

but it's ok. why? because when you listen to lyrics so eloquent like Owl City, things don't seem so impossible. music, especially happy things, help me sit down, take a breath and mentally focus. reggae always puts me back into a calm that i can't formulate into words.

i have been looking at Morisot images like crazy and guess what i found. you'll never guess. ok, maybe you will. a painting with a cat lol you can't even imagine how much i wanted to write my paper on it. but sadly it's in a private collection. these are the moments that i wish i was part of a group of thieves like ocean's eleven so that i could get this dream of a painting.

Young girl with a cat, 1892

the colors are amazing. they are so vibrant, that i feel infused with youth and i feel invigorated.

anyway, i'm sitting around the fine arts building waiting for my central African art class to start. i shall come and put up some images of things that i've fallen in love with this semester, sometime this week. i never thought that i would enjoy that class so much. if i can fit it in, i definitely want to take another class in African arts or at least take non-western art with the same professor.

this time, i will resist with not putting any music. but i wanted to share something that i feel combines the best of both worlds. coffee and art. yep, i am the nerd that watches youtube latte art vids. and i am pretty much in love with this one artist in the video below. i plan on going to NYC to have one of his lattes lol enjoy

very addicted to caffeine,

-Genevieve

back in the day mommy and me

as promised, i did find some time to procrastinate. i'm studying for linguistics and although it can be interesting, it's not the easy elective i was hoping for lol anyway, here are some of the images i'm using for my paper. i couldn't find the other couple on google, so these will have to do...

Berthe Morisot, The Mother and Sister of the Artist (Reading), c.1869-70

Morisot, The Cradle, 1872

Morisot, Butterfly Hunt, 1874

Morisot, Young Woman and Child Sitting in the Grass, 1875

depending on the comments that my prof gives me for the first two pages and outline that i submitted to her will depend my topic mostly and well where ever my references take me. i want to look at why she painted mothers and children, why she had to paint what she painted, how she incorporated landscapes into them. women in 19th century weren't supposed to paint outside or well be outside and get their hair messy. at least not of her social class. i'm just mostly intrigued by the fact that she had a decently successful run as a female artist and how impressionism allowed for female artists. it's neat, but we'll see what happens.

"Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength."

ok, i think my studies really need me back. be back soon. and don't stop believin',

-Genevieve

like a bomb in a birdcage

i'm taking a break from my visual analysis paper. i know i shouldn't but well i convinced myself that i would be getting my creative juices going and would sustain me from getting writer's block. well it sounded more convincing in my head...

anyway, just wanted to share the two images that i'm comparing and contrasting. fun times. i technically have yet to start my final paper. i'm still in the 'notes' part of the analysis. however, there is nothing that a little coffee and fear won't do to keep me from sleeping tonight. combined with the fact that after tomorrow, it's basically the weekend. ok, once again, it sounded more convincing in my head.

so this is Gustave Courbet, The Sleeping Spinner, 1853

and this is Jean-Francois Millet, Young Shepherdess with her Flock, 1862

and this is a little suggestion by pandora. it's A Fine Frenzy's 'What I Wouldn't Do'. i think it's adorably catchy. hope you like it.

well it's time to go back. but i hope you are having a good week. a plus tard mon amie,

-Genevieve

getting what you need & the cherry red soda

i'm a big believer in living life to the fullest. it's difficult sometimes because we get caught up in the little things and cry over spilled milk. which although i love me a cold glass of milk, a spill wouldn't or should i say, shouldn't make me cry. we (maybe i should say i?) get wrapped up in our hectic lives and forget to stop and smell the roses.

someone very close to me asked me, "what question would you ask yourself?" and at first i think i over analyzed the question, but then i started to wonder. and this was via computer communication, so i responded:

"are you living today? or just existing? that's what i ask myself every chance i get. i want to be living life, not just going through the motions. i want to be enjoying what i do and loving most of the things that i choose to do. i know it gets rough sometimes and it's not always perfect, but i want to make sure that i am doing all in my power to be living life to the fullest. carpe diem"

this was written on a day that i had caffeine through my vains of course. but it is what i truly believe. life is too short to be worrying. not saying that i'm not a worrier. i could take an award for anxiety and stress freak outs. however, i am happy with stress as long as i love most of what i am doing in my day to day.

you can't always get what you want

but if you try sometimes you might find

you get what you need

right now, i'm in love with this painting

in my beginnings of modernism art history class we just covered Courbet. this is his self portrait The Desperate Man (1844-1845). the course is basically European artwork in the 19th century, mostly French. i'm pretty much in love.

and this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaUI6Tvd1sA

hope you are having a good last week of january. carpe diem,

- Genevieve

give me art, or give me death

since i'm kind of obsessed with female artists, and we're now starting to see female artists in my art history class, i'm super stoked. my t.a. recommended the French film, Artemisia about Artemisia Gentileschi's early artistic career. it's very romanticized and much of the story is not true to real life, but the plot they created is interesting and the acting is pretty great. it's a super lovely time period and i'll warn you that it is a but scandalous. however, worth watching.

i spent a couple of hours at the library this afternoon finding books for my cultural diversity paper. i tend to get side-tracked in buildings with many books and films. time seems to stop and all that i can think about is i wish i could sit down and just read til i fall asleep. for my paper, i have chosen to write about the diverse population that is Native Americans. and i'm supposed to choose government policies that have affected them positively or negatively. i'm quite excited. i enjoy writing papers when i get to choose a topic. even though i took out 7 books for my paper, i also took out 3 films. i wanted to take out 4, but wasn't allowed. i think i'm going to forgo sleep this weekend. i took out Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Le scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) and La Prise de Pouvoir Par Louis XIV (The Taking of Power by Louis XIV). parlez-vous français?

this weekend is the downtown festival and art show, so i'll try to go and take some cool pics. this weekend should be pretty interesting on the creativity front.

last night was an event night at the museum of art where i volunteer and we had some craft stations. i kept walking around and trying out the different ones, but one that i found so interesting was making rings out of colorful wire. so simple but yet so pretty. jewelry design is something that has always fascinated me. i'd love to meet someone that makes jewelry out of metals and different materials. here's the swirly, rose ring i made (at least that's what i'm calling it)

i'm definitely going to make more rings. just need to get some wire and the tools. anyway, i'm off to go to a fine arts event, where all the different schools are going to display their recent work. should be pretty cool. hope all is well in your world. i'll be back soon, au revoir,

-Genevieve

do what you love, love what you do

happy halloween...a little late. i wasn't prepared for november, but it's here so i guess i'm just going to roll with it. the weather's getting nice, i'm excited.

so i took my art history exam yesterday and it went well. i got a bit confused with dates, as per usual. but all in all it wasn't too terrible. i know a lot of times the century, just can't quite remember if it was early or mid years of that century. names and artists are the easy part, especially when you come up with funny ways of remembering it. i chose to answer the essay question of comparing & contrasting high renaissance and mannerism. these are the works i used to argue my case:

Raphael's Madonna of the Meadow (1505)

Giorgione's Sleeping Venus (c. 1510)

Parmigianino's Madonna of the Long Neck (1535-1540)

Bronzino's Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time (c. 1545)

and i've now become obsessed with learning about women artists like Sofonisba Anguissola and Artemisia Gentileschi. i'm in the process of reading about some other women artists, but here's my favorites:

Sofonisba Anguissola's The Artist's Sister Minerva (c. 1564)

Artemisia Gentileschi's Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (1630s)

well that's some of my loves. i think there's too many to...oh wait. one more. this one i'm really obsessed with. mostly because it reminds me of a camera lens:

Parmigianino's Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror (c. 1524)

ok, i'm done. i think. if i think of more, i'll come on and put them up. we're almost done with baroque and now moving into rococo. can't wait.

well, i hope your week is going well. half way done. be back soon,

-Genevieve

leaving your mark

"Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it." -Salvador Dalí

"This is your one opportunity to do something that no one has ever done before and that no one will copy throughout human existence. And if nothing else, you will be remembered as the one guy who ever did this.This one thing."

-Sam from Garden State

"If you can't laugh at yourself, life is going to seem a whole lot longer than you'd like" -Sam

i'm in love with this painting. i don't think i can begin to describe how much i love it. it's Salvador Dalí's Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea which at Twenty Meters Becomes the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln - Homage to Rothko (1976). my mum took me to the Salvador Dalí museum a week ago. if you ever get the chance to go, i highly suggest it. it was incredible. this painting is one of his masterworks and it's ten times better in person. Dalí did his own thing and that's why i admire him so much. he wasn't afraid of doing what he wanted. he sought to stand out and sought to defy the norm. he's sort of my hero.

i've been thinking a lot about how i just want to do something no one's ever done before. set some sort of first in history. i think it would be pretty neat. just sayin.

if you've done a first, kudos. i hope your week's been good. be back soon,

-Genevieve

the joys of forced relaxation

In a haze, a stormy haze
I’ll be round, I’ll be loving you, always

Always

Here I am and I'll take my time

Here I am and I’ll wait in line, always

Always

-"Parachutes" by Coldplay

one of my favorites from my class. i don't remember if it was on the exam, but i don't think i'll ever forget it. it's Filippo Lippi's Madonna and Child with Stories of the Life of St. Anne (1452). i just wanted to share it with you.

i've been sick all weekend, but i don't have any swine related illness, just your average cold. nothing to do but sleep, watch hulu and drink my weight in o.j.. i'm in the library right now, procrastinating the work i didn't do this week lol. or well in my mind i'm 'multi-tasking', but it's just a slow process of accomplishment. all in all though, i feel much better. happy to blog again. maybe tomorrow i'll come back on and have something a bit more exciting. til then, i hope your monday isn't too rough. ciao,

-Genevieve

the rebirth and rekindling of my love

how incredible is this painting? just sayin. this is The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck painted in 1434. want to see something cool? ok here it is. i don't think i have words to describe how much i enjoy the renaissance. got to go back to my studies, but hope all is well. sending some posi+ive energy your way,

-Genevieve

never judge an artwork by it's period

i have been away for far too long. i never thought that an entire week would actually go by without any blogs, but it has. i'm terribly sorry. i really have no excuse except that i keep thinking of things to blog about and then not physically sitting down to do it. well, here i am.

so i just wanted to mention about what i've been learning in art history this week. we are in the Gothic period. i never cared too much about the type of work to be honest. that all changed when my prof showed us all the details of Chartres Cathedral in Chartres, France. it is incredibly elaborate and beautiful. i really want to visit it and take pics of every angle imaginable. the first pic is an aerial pic that i played around with, the second is a close up view of the west facade, the third is of the stained glass windows and the third is of the nave. the windows must be breathtaking in person, and it's amazing that they have survived for so many years (since 12th and 13th centuries). apparently, the light is like an uplifting spiritual experience in the cathedral because it's so bright and has the mixture of colors from the stained glass. even if you aren't Christian, the architechture is inspiring and the building becomes a piece of artwork from history.

i should be back shortly, literally. maybe even tonight or tomorrow. hope this week is treating you well,

-Genevieve

stand back and see the bigger picture

mosaics are small pieces of color that come together to form a bigger picture. it's like all the little intricate separate pieces unite to form one majestic sight. it made me wonder sometimes that many little things in life, the good and the bad, when put together as a whole and looked at from afar can be beautiful. these two pictures come from the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna, Italy. it is an early Christian funerary chapel with mosaics from ca. 425. i thought they were beautiful and colorful, and must be more interesting in person. a picture of a mosaic is difficult to capture, because some are so intricate that they end up looking like a paintings. either way, mosaics were intriguing to me ever since i was little. i liked the mixture of colors and how the shapes were chosen and placed. and my favorite part was to stand back and see all the little pieces turn into a big picture. they really are incredible feats.

and the following band was a little random find that i came across on itunes, the Photographic. they are really cool to listen to when studying or writing or especially just to chill. they have pretty trippy video projections when they perform, i'd love to see them live. my favorite song by them is "Secure", definitely recommend taking a listen. i couldn't find a video with the song, but this video is from the visuals part from their enhanced cd. and of course, i'm digging the editing. it's a simple complexity with very indie, unique clips.

enjoy the music, may it relax you and help start off your weekend.

-Genevieve

stop and smell the tulips

being caught of guard by nature is one of the most incredible things. at least for me it is. to be walking and then suddenly notice flowers or a tree or a beautiful sky are some of the moments of awe that i crave. i can't wait for more flowers to bloom and it to be officially spring. as much as i love fall, spring brings a peaceful time, nice weather and flowers. it's as if everything is waking up from a long sleep, and my eyes feel like they witness something new every year. i love when flowers catch me off guard and i can't help but smile. they radiate happiness and beauty. Renoir always makes me smile because most of his paintings of nature are uplifting. the painting above is Summer Landscape (1873) and the idea of this garden made me wish i could be there to take some shots.

although roses are beautiful, my favorite flower is tulips. when i was little i went to a tulip festival and i remember the rows and rows of different colored tulips there was. i remember picking up seeds in hopes of growing my own tulip garden. unfortunately, i was unsuccessful in this venture, but one day i hope to have a garden. a garden much like the one in the Renoir painting but it must have tulips. so with this thought, i started searching for paintings of tulips. i came across  A Field of Tulips in Holland (1886) by Monet. not only did it make me smile because it's a field of tulips but because of the windmill. a few years ago, i went to Germany and i will never forget driving on the highway by the windmills. they are massive in size and yet seem so peaceful in the fields. i could watch them for hours. this painting combined two of my favorite things. i really can't wait for spring. i hope you like the paintings and don't forget to stop and smell the roses.

-Genevieve