Study Break

I'll take a brief break from studying to share with you for a sec. A tombstone we studied in my American Art class had a poem on it that I like. I don't mean this to be morbid, I'm just studying for that class at this moment and . .I don't know . . I just like it. Deal with it. Sometimes I'm morbid.

"Adieu, my friend forever ever gone,
Her happy soul has put full glory on.
The tendrest ties could never her detain
But O our loss is her most happy gain.
Gentle her manners were, her tastes refined
Her speech sincere and open as her heart
Her conversation did delight impart.
Though young she listened to the voice of truth
And trod a savior’s steps in early youth.
Calm and serene she yielded up her breath
And even triumphed at the approach of death.

Sacred to the memory of Miss Mercy Jones
Who died April 7, 1805
Aged 20 years & 6 months
"


And one more thing--Friday I went to an Ani Difranco concert with two of my favorite males in my life (Will and Ryan, brother and boyfriend, respectively). I have never smiled so much at a concert in my life. It is so fun to watch Ani rock out.

Rock on.

Free falling

Okay. I guess I'll make another blog post. I haven't really felt like doing these lately. I think it's just because I've been busy doing other things. Like reading for my Philosophy class, which is really what I should be doing now. I'm at Common Grounds and I just can't concentrate on it. I couldn't at home either. I guess it's not my environment. I guess it's just me.

That sounds depressing but it's really not. I really just can't concentrate.

There are a bunch of high school girls here and they are ridiculous. They are leaving now. They wrote all over themselves with sharpies. Typical.

22 is a long way away from high school.

Ok, let's say something new and interesting. I've gotten a lot better at talking on the phone. That's not really interesting, but it's new. And I don't think I want to go to Thailand anymore. I just wanted a plan, any sort of plan, and so I latched on to that one for a week or so. But I don't want to be in Thailand for a year. I refuse to freak out about post-grad plans though. I don't want to waste my senior freaking out. I keep waiting for something to just fall out of the sky and knock me in the head and feel like the exact right thing to do. Oh yeah, I forgot I had an epiphany today. My epiphany was--of course I don't know what I want to do. Outside of school, I haven't really experienced much. How can I know what I want to do if I haven't done anything? So in my epiphany I told myself to just do something. Just try something. Unless the prefect thing happens to fall out of the sky, I'll just try other things until it feels right.

Back to Philosophy

Concerning Typos

Yes, this is my second post in one day.

My good friend Bailey once alerted me to the fact that I frequently have typos in my blog posts. I acted offended at the time, but I'm sure she is right. I even re-read my posts about three times but typos continue to sneak through. The reason I'm saying this now is I just re-read an email I sent to my Philosophy teacher earlier today:

"I have changed my mind concerning my paper topic. I was reading an article in Art News about "shock art" and now would like my paper to be trying to answer whether or now a specific piece of "shock art" is actually art, and use one more of the theories we talk about in class to define it. How does that sounds? And would the work of art I choose be the primary source?"

There are three blaring typos! And perhaps more. That's frustrating.

So I apologize for future mishaps.

Hats

I really enjoy wearing hats, but don't always have the guts to wear them. I decided today to get over it. And I'm wearing a hat. A bright red hat that I bought in Florence and wore frequently throughout Europe. I'm wearing it and you can't stop me. I'm wearing it instead of washing my hair.

I'm at the SUB, moments away from my first class of the week. I didn't read for it, which isn't a big deal, and I didn't read for the class after that, which is kind of a big deal, and I'm pretty ok with that. I had a mini freak out yesterday over everything I had to do and so decided just not to do some of it. It wouldn't be the end of the world. I felt instantly better. School isn't who I am. It's an important part of my life right now, but it doesn't have to make or break it. You know?

I've been looking more into this Thailand thing. I've gotten Elise and Claire intrigued too. That would be so fun to have one or both of them there with me, if I were to go there.

Hey, Phil.

I was really excited about my Philosophy and the Arts class, but now I feel more ambivalent towards the subject. Even throughout one class, I go back and forth from thinking that what we are discussing (namely, the question of how to define art) is really interesting and valuable, to thinking it is a pretentious waste of time. There is no answer. What is art? is a question that can't be successfully answered. And we talk on and on about it just to hear ourselves talk.

It is important to know what is art though, I think, so that we can know how to respond to an object. If you know you are looking at an artwork, you scrutinize it, search for its meaning, measure its beauty, which is different then say, if you were merely look at a chair. You just sit in the chair.

And I'm tired of reading about this.

Marcel Duchamp's Fountain. Duchamp bought a urinal, signed it "R.Mutt" and then put in a gallery, calling it art. It's valuable in that it forced everyone to rethink their definition of art. Is art art because the artist intends it to be? It is so because of its context within the "art world"? (Don't even get me started on the so-called "art world." I think the art world should be the whole world . . .) So it's interesting, it's just talked about a lot so I'm tired of it.

I really do enjoy the class, I'm just venting. I think mainly I'm frustrated with Philosophy students who like to hear themselves talk and who throw around names like Nietzche and Aristotle like they're candy. And then I have no idea what they are talking about.

It also feels good to complain, because then you get to feel above all the people you complain about. Which is probably why Jesus tells us to "Do everything without complaining or arguing . . ."

Speaking of me wanting the whole world to be the art world, recently I've been throwing the idea around in my mind of maybe someday teaching art in a high school setting. You know, spreading the good news of art. Art therapy is also intriguing, though I know nothing about it. Maybe that could be before or after teaching English in a Thai setting . . .?