For my museum visit, I choose to go to one of the smithsonian museums in Washington d.
c. The museum i choose was the National Gallery of Art and I took a visit to this museum on June 3,2015. I choose this museum because I have never been to it before and because it had a gallery on the medieval time period. Preparing for this visit, I was expecting just your typical “art museum.
” I was thinking there would be a few paintings on the wall and some sculptures here and there. To prepare for my visit, i read some reviews online to see if people who have previously visited had any recommendations on key points to visit in the museum. I also went directly to the museum’s website to see if they had any special tours or activities going on that day. So when I actually arrived at the museum and seen how big it was and how many different exhibits and sections there was i was blown away.
This museum does not have just one specific type of art or one specific time period of art it has so many different galleries and things to do. It was an overwhelming experience at first because there’s so much to see. The first thing that really impressed me was how big of a variety the museum really had. They had everything from drawings,paintings and photographs to a complete sculpture garden. During the winter time, the museum also has an ice rink! The museum is so large it had an East building and west building, and you have the options of a guided tour, a self guided tour or an audio tour. This being my first time to the museum we decided to do the self tour and take our time seeing as much as possible.
One thing that I read about that I decided was a must see on the trip was the sculpture garden. This part of the museum had great reviews and was labeled as a must see. When i arrived to the museum, i decided to just play it by ear and choose a direction to start. As i toured through the museum there was so many things on the walls and sculptures i thought it would be nearly impossible to see everything, The first large collection we came upon was American paintings collection. This was one of the smaller collections the museum has but was one of my favorites.
It had more of a modern feel to it and I felt like the pictures had strong meanings behind them. As we continued through the museum, we visited most everyone of the collections and exhibits and they were all so different. During my tour of the museum,i was trying to keep in mind the different things i had to incorporate in my report but the museum itself was so big it overwhelms you and it’s hard to remember everything you want to incorporate. When we finally got to the sculpture garden, we choose to do this last so that we could spend a good bit of time their and kinda wind down from our day. The sculpture garden was by far my favorite part of the museum.
It had so many different types of sculptures and everything meant had such an important meaning behind them. Before we got to the sculpture garden, I was trying to picture what type of things we would see and little sculptures came to mind but nothing of what was actually their. The one sculpture that blew my mind was the giant spider sculpture. It was amazing at how large it was and how much meaning a simple spider could mean to someone. After spending nearly 2 hours in the sculpture we decided to call it a day and head home. this trip to the museum was definitely nothing what I had expected it to be.
The only other art museum i have ever been to was a small gallery in my hometown. This museum definitely exceeded all my expectations and left me with an overwhelming itch to definitely go back and visit. The one thing that impressed me about this museum is how much art really played in our history of the world. Reading about it in books and seeing it in magazines has no significance until you can really see it in person.
Essentially art was the beginning of everything. They used art to do everything, they communicated with it,learned with it, made money from it and essiac lty was the backbone of everything. Looking at at from the outside you think its just paintings but really it is so much more. Just the impression that art had on the world previously and the impression it still has on the world today and i believe that art will continue to put an impression on the future. Previous to this visit, i definitely didn’t have a huge interest in art or really any idea on the significance of art.
One thing i did learn from this trip is how important art really is. I learned that you really can’t judge something before you learn more about it and that you should take the time to leap into something that you have little interest in. The art in this museum really showed me how the world evolved per say and where we started to where we are now. For example, the photographs i saw were just so simple compared to the the photographs we have today.
Its amazing at how far technology has come and will continue to grow. As far as our class and the museum there was so much in common, one thing I specifically remember is when we learned about prehistoric drawings. i saw a lot of these in the museum and learned about the original meanings of many of the different types of arts. Overall this visit to the museum was really an eye opening experience. I definitely had some kind of emotional connection to all that i learned during this trip because it gave me the motivation to dig deeper into the world of art and maybe take a chance and studying more about it.
I definitely appreciate this part of our journal because it gave me a whole new perspective on art. Periodical Abstract The article that I choose to read was an article based on the history of vikings. This article was based off a television series that many people believed was incorrect about vikings. Based on the television show, vikings are considered barbarians and do nothing but fight and kill. On the other hand, researches have ;proved that vikings are no more dangerous than the next guy.
Based on the article, vikings weren’t the men you see on tv with horns on their helmets and fighting raids. Vikings were essentially farmers and herdsmen who were in lack for a better term just trying to make a living. They migrated for the first time to North America between 740-1450 focusing on westward expansion. After the first migration, the vikings were trying to find suitable land to take their farm animals to grow and farm but continually struggled to find adequate land.
The first stop that the vikings made was the faeroe islands and inadvertently they brought problems with them. The issue was that they brought lice, mice dung beetles and many animal parasites. During the time in iceland they realized that it was far to cold for any type of farming and soon began the migration again. Throughout the next hundred years they struggled to find adequate climate to accompany soil that was suitable for farming.
They migrated to many countries throughout the world until they started to vanish due to the ice age. Eventually they started to travel out into different groups of people and they essentially never made permanent presence in north america, they still made the vikings a known presence in the world. For myself, reading this article was very interesting. Like many people i thought vikings were the hard hitting rioters who did nothing but destruction.
This article really helped to open my eyes to what a viking really is and how they impacted the world. Although they didnt make a huge presenc in the world, they opened up the world to earlier days when the struggle to find civilization was harder than many people expected. Braveheart Braveheart is based in 13th century England during the political unrest in Scotland. This internal fighting in Scotland is what leads to the invasion from the English. Also, the reign of Edward “Longshanks” in England hates the scottish and puts laws into effect to raticate the scottish bloodline. This story is based upon William Wallace, played by Mel Gibson.
William Wallace was introduced into the war between Scotland and England at a very young age. As just a young farm hand on his family’s land, he has to watch his father and brother leave for the war to fight for Scotland. Instead, he is instructed to stay home and take care of the farm and family. During the early battles both William’s dad and brother are killed. Following the funeral William leaves with his uncle Argyle. Years later, the newly trained and very different Wallace, returns to his homeland to check with old friends and the family farm.
In returning he falls in love and secretly marries his childhood sweetheart, Murron MacClannough played by Catherine McCormack. When an English soldier tries to rape his wife, the two of them attempt to run off together. However, Murron is captured and publicly executed to set an example. This incident is what causes William Wallace to snap and use his newly learned fighting. He gets the scottish villagers to rise against the tyrant English. The Scottish emerge victorious after killing the whole squad of englishmen.
Now the spark is lit that sends Wallace into a rampage and he and his acquired army set out to take revenge on all of the English. In one of the following battles, Wallace murders the nephew of Longshanks. King Edward Longshanks then sends the French princess to try and negotiate peace with Wallace. Wallace, instead of surrendering, seeks help from the Scottish Lords for food and resources.
He quickly learns the Lords are being bought out by the English. After a betrayal Wallace is forced into hiding in order to recollect himself and his tactics. He is once again betrayed, this time by Robert the Bruce. This betrayal leads to Wallace’s capture and torture by the English.
He is tried for high treason and found guilty. He is then executed in the square at the Tower of London where with his final breath yells, “Freedom! This courage and rebellion is what sparks the later war led by Robert the Bruce, son of the Robert the Bruce that earlier betrayed Wallace, and the victory over the new King Edward II of England. The movie ends with Mel Gibson’s voice saying how the Scottish won their freedom in this last battle. Website Evaluation For my website,I choose an art history website that includes many different types of art history from many different time periods.
For the search of the website, i choose to search medieval art because this was the time period I used for my entire journal period. When i did this search,it provided me ample information on medieval art and offered many other resources such as books,essays and podcasts The one thing that I found great about this website would be that it has the many different types of sources to use as well as the information provided on the website. The author of this website is very educated in the information that he is providing. He has wrote numerous books on the different ages of arts and has taught many classes on the information at hand. He has an M.
A,Ph. D,and a B. A all in art history. WHen he started this site in 1995, he has continually kept all the information up to date and provided new and interesting information as time goes by. I find this to be a scholarly article because it has all the appropriate citations and sources and it also is written by someone who has knowledge in the field.
Although the website does have advertisements, i still find it to be credible. I think the advertisements of this website are a form of funding to keep the website up and running. All together i think this would be a great website for research on art history from any ages. Personal Integration QuestionsIn the article left by the Persian King Cyrus the great, he gave many great elements of leadership that I feel all are very valuable to leaders.
The first one that I think is important Is Be Loyal. I think this is a huge one because in order to gain any respect or any type of leadership for a group of people you have to be loyal to them. I think that loyalty is a huge factor because it shows what type of person and leader you really are. During my senior year of high school, I was named the captain of the team and was required to answer to the coach about any issues or problems that may arise on the team. Some people thought of this as a snitching position and were very standoffish towards me and didn’t want to tell me things.
While I know I had a responsibility to my coach to report any issues, I also had a responsibility to my teammates to help them whenever I could. I had to remain loyal to my teammates by not causing any issues with them and I also had to remain loyal to my job as the team captain. The second element I think is important is to be an example. I think this is important because you want to set an example for how you want others to act. If you don’t set an example for others, that doesn’t give anyone anything to run off of.
I can relate to this because during the summers I worked at a summer camp with 5-6 year olds. With kids that young, they are like sponges and retain everything they see. As an assistant director I had to monitor the staff as well and when the staff would start goofing off, I would have to remind them that the kids are watching and in order to prevent the kids from goofing off, the staff had to set an example for them. If I had to add one element to his list I would add is to be impartial. I would add this because during your lifetime you are going to meet so many different people that come from many different backgrounds, race, religion and so much more. Being impartial prevents your judgement from interfering with what’s right and what’s wrong.
This applies to my everyday life because of my job as a correctional officer. I have to deal with so many different kinds of people and sometime I may not always see eye to eye with them or agree with them but regardless I have to be impartial to them and give them the help they need. Regardless of where you come from, what you have done in life, how you look, or what you believe we are all humans. In the Neolithic revolution, the transition from the hunting and gathering lifestyle to the agricultural and settle lifestyle was a breakthrough. When I think of the hunting and gathering lifestyle, I think of it as sporadic and on the go type of lifestyle.
This type lifestyle requires you to move where the food is and where you are able to hunt. This lifestyle reminds me of my teenage years and the years I was in community college. During these years of my life, I was trying to find a job I enjoyed while still trying to figure out what I wanted in life. I was making new friends and just learning the ways of the world. One thing about my life that was similar was my jobs; I went through so many different jobs just to find out what I wanted to do. The challenges of this part of life would be the money.
As a young adult, I was required to get a part time job to start paying for some of my bills so I could learn to be responsible with money. This made jumping job to job impossible. I think this was a positive part of life although it seemed like a struggle but it really shows you the meaning of settlement. The transition to the agriculture and settlement lifestyle is when you find a stable place that provides what you need.
This lifestyle reminds me of my current life now; I have a stable home, income and family. I have all the things I need and don’t have to worry about not having the resources I need to survive. This makes for a very productive life because I can continue to grow and achieve more on top of what I already have. The agricultural and settlement stage of life is like when you find a home and start a life and family together in your home.
During a lifetime, you continually have temporary living arrangements but when you find a home it’s like your settlement. The transition to this lifestyle was really a turning point because it’s opened up many things like money, jobs, more food and farming. In my everyday life, writing is crucial. During most people’s daily activities writing is crucial. In my opinion, writing is a huge part of everyone’s everyday life and it would be impossible to get rid of writing all together. In my life, writing is one of the main parts of my job.
I work in a correctional facility where I have to write reports about everything that happens. During my day at work, I am constantly writing reports and post logs. These reports are crucial to my job because they can be used in the court of law so they have to be accurate and professional. Ultimately the reports I have to write can be the deciding factor of someone’s innocence or not. Without writing it would be very difficult for anyone in my profession to do their job.
In my opinion, without proper writing techniques and skills, many people would struggle. If all we had to rely on were emoticons and abbreviations that would leave a lot of room for misinterpretation. When using abbreviations and emoticons, it could be very confusing because one person could take it one way while another person could take it another way. I would definitely not embrace a world without writing because everyone should at least learn the techniques and skills.
Writing is a very crucial part of the world and I think that everyone should it embrace it with a positive attitude and appreciate the skill of writing. When I think of how my life is guided, I think that it is mostly guided by a balance of the two. I think this because sometimes life requires you to act with emotion and sometimes life requires you to act with reason. When i’m at home and doing things with friends and family, I think my life is mostly guided by emotion. I think this because i’m more relaxed and having a good time.
one thing that comes to mind is planning my wedding. I think my decisions for this were based more on emotion because I wanted everyone to have a good time and enjoy themselves. I think my life is more guided by reason when i’m at work or in a professional setting. I think this because at my job, I am around dangerous people who could do anything at any time. When i’m at work, everything I do i have to be conscious of and know the repercussions. If I am around a group of inmates, i have to think with reason of all the possible things that could be happening.
For example, during my night at work I have to go into a housing unit of 60-70 inmates and 2 officers. During this time, I always have to think with reason because anything I do has an adverse action from the inmates. In my life and my career this is why i have to have a balance of the two.
Bibliography:
Witcombe, C.
(1995, October 24). ART HISTORY RESOURCES; Early Medieval Art. Retrieved June 7, 2015, from http://arthistoryresources. net/ARTHmedieval. htmlLemonick, M. D.
, ; Dorfman, A. (2000, April 30). The Amazing Vikings [Electronic version]. Time Magazine, 1-8.
