Museums and Culture

It has been four years since my last post on Marina Nebro: Arts and Culture.

This blog was started in August 2012, at the beginning of my undergraduate journey at CUNY Queens College & Macaulay Honors College.  While initially inspired by the idea of winning an iPad mini at the end of my first year as part of Macaulay’s ePortfolio Expo (spoiler: I won), I became engrossed in learning HTML and CSS to personalize this blog, and filled my calendar with concerts, shows, lectures, and more in order to write about my experiences.

As the my college years progressed, I kept up with my blog by posting my academic papers, art projects, and personal anecdotes.  All of these additions can be found throughout this blog website, through the different tabs on the left of your screen – Art, Music, Theatre, Museums & Culture, and Academics.  On a somewhat secondary blogging site, I recounted my journeys abroad, travelling to Spain, Israel, and more.  You can visit these posts by clicking on the Travel tab at the left of the screen.

Since my last posts, I have graduated from CUNY Queens College & Macaulay Honors College with a double BA in History & Art History, and later went on to complete my MA in Art History from Queens College.  I’ve been working in several museums and cultural institutions, moved apartments, and learned many new things and met many new people.  I even went on to start a second, post-graduate blog (Marina B. Nebro).

However, I’ve never said goodbye to this blog, at least not officially.  It sits here, with it’s last post dating to August 2016 titled “I’m a Cat Mommy,” in a liminal state of closure and hope for something more.  I cherish Marina Nebro: Arts and Culture as a time capsule of my undergraduate years, exploring New York City, the world, and myself.

Thank you, dear reader and subscriber, for coming on this long journey with me over the years.  All of my posts and musings and creations will remain available to sneak back on whenever you so desire.  And of course, I’ve kept all of my work in hard-copy format to hold close to, as well.

Perhaps we shall meet again.

Best,

Marina Bardash Nebro

It was May 8, 2016 – Mother’s Day.  My family was getting ready for a barbecue to celebrate the awesome job my mother and grandmother have done.  School was winding down, and I was being lazy – napping on the sofa in the den.  All of a sudden, I hear my father scream “Karen, Malka, come here!”  I only assumed they had done something wrong to annoy him, so I ignored the call and continued my slumber. How strange, there’s no more yelling!  Maybe I should check this out.

Out of the den I walked, half asleep, and I made my way to the backyard deck.  There, my sister was crying.  In her hands was a little black fur ball – a kitten!  My dad had found two baby kittens in our coal bin!  Of course, I needed to hold one as well.  “I thought Truffles was looking a little fat,” my sister got out between bursts of crying.  “I want Truffles’ babies!!!”

Being away at college for the past four years, I didn’t know the daily goings-on back at home.  Apparently, there was a black cat roaming around our backyard for the past year.  My sister dubbed her Truffles.  These were her babes.

All of our minds were a blur.  We couldn’t think straight!  My dad went to buy some more coal for our barbecue, and it was up to me, my sister, and my mom what to do next.  We thought the best option was to place these little critters in a tub so that we wouldn’t get our scent all over them.  We didn’t want Truffles to abandon them!  By the time my father returned home from buying coal, Truffles had snatched one of her babies and disappeared.  My dad was distraught – he wanted these kittens for himself!  Truffles didn’t come back for the other baby until she was protected by the dark of night.  Again, my dad was upset that he missed out on the opportunity to snatch them himself.

***

Fast forward a week or two.  We assumed that maybe Truffles had hidden her babies underneath the shed in our backyard.  We were right, but it took some time to actually discover the little ones again.  I was still going to school at the time, and so I only was able to seek these little guys out on weekends.  On top of all this, five houses down from us was another litter of kittens!  KITTEN SEASON!  I made it my job to walk from my backyard to the neighbor’s house several times a day to check on the beautiful babes.

I crocheted a little doll for the kittens to play with.  I spent hours by my shed, getting bitten by mosquitos, just to see those little eyes peer at me.  I fed them.  I watched them.  I wanted them.

For a while, I really thought that my dad would take the initiative to snatch them for himself.  “I’m doing it this week,” he would say.  That never happened – my mom didn’t want kittens in the house after the loss of Spooky and Mush (the cats I grew up with).  When it finally became obvious that these kittens wouldn’t be my dad’s, I took action.

***

I’m a bookworm.  I’m a facts person.  I researched.  A LOT.  After doing some basic math, I realized that the kittens were nearing 10 weeks old.  I started to worry that it was getting too late to socialize them and get them used to humans.  I took a stand, and insisted that I capture the two kittens – for their own safety.  It is the natural cycle of a cat’s life, to be raised by a mother, and then adopted out.  Overpopulation is a very real problem for cats – they breed like crazy!  The responsible thing to do is neuter and spay.  In my neighborhood, TNR (trap-neuter-return) is a program that allows strays and ferals to remain in the wild, but limits overpopulation by getting them fixed.

With the help of my family, I went to the  Town of North Hempstead Animal Shelter and got humane traps to get my little cat babies.  Unfortunately, I was only able to capture one.  I tried for three days, but the other baby seemed to just disappear!  It was very upsetting for me – I felt like a failure to myself, to the kitten I captured, and to the kitten that was still outside.  After some crying sessions with my mother, I realized that no matter what, I was doing a good thing by taking care of one of them.

I just want to say thank you to Lisa Studley at the  Town of North Hempstead Animal Shelter for helping me out with all of this, and calming me down when I worried too much.

***

For about a week, we had no name for the little black cat that was lodging in our downstairs bathroom.  My mom swore she thought the kitten was a boy, so for a while we were calling it “he.”  It was very shy, and would hide underneath the sink and toilet, and in the corner on the radiator.  My family took turns sitting in the bathroom to keep it company.  The moment we would leave it, the kitty would start meowing really loudly – it was scared and wanted attention!

It was a tough week.  The little thing had fleas, and we couldn’t let it out of the bathroom.  After a couple of days, we tried to remove the fleas on our own, sending my father to the ER with kitten bites.  OUCH!  Luckily he did not need to undergo rabies shots, and he is FINE.

Because of the flea problem, we needed to take the kitten to the vet – North Shore Animal League would not de-flea the kitten for some reason!  So, I paid my first bill as a cat mommy – $550!  At the vet, we found out that “he” was a SHE!  Now to just come up with a name!

Naming the kitten was another problem!  I thought she was MINE, but apparently everyone in my family needed a say.  For me, naming is important.  I want the name to mean something and be filled with symbolism.  Apparently that’s silly?  We finally agreed on the name Slinky, because she is so cautious and scared, she stretches out her neck and her body to see if everything is safe.  The way her neck extends is like a slinky (the toy) and she tends to slink around when she explores.  I also liked the name because it was in the same vein as Mushy and Spooky – an homage to our first cats!  This entire experience has been making us reminisce about them.

***

I brought Slinky home with me after the vet to Queens!  No longer was she to remain in the tiny downstairs bathroom in Great Neck!

I wanted her to have a companion, though, and was still upset that her sibling couldn’t join her.  The vet suggested that it would be best to get a companion as soon as possible so Slinky wouldn’t get used to being a lone cat for too long.  She also let us know that adopting a male or female companion cat really didn’t matter – female it would be, as my family and I have a bias towards the more dainty sex of the species.

Bindi!  That’s the name of my second kitten.  She came from the shelter with the name Amber, but since I felt uncomfortable with a name I had no say in, I decided to change it.  My brother, however, refuses to call her anything BUT Amber!  Unlike Slinky, she is a tabby cat with orange flecks of fur.  On her forehead is an orange dot, similar to an Indian bindi, hence her name.  Bindi was found on the side of the road, and brought to a shelter where my parents picked her up for me.  She is not like Slinky at all!  She is not cautious or scared, and instead of slinking around, she runs and jumps!

***

I guess this brings us to present day!  It has only been a couple of weeks since I’ve had any cats in my apartment, but already it feels like forever!  Instead of traveling, taking care of kitties is what takes up my summer days!  And it isn’t easy!

Slinky is still coming out of her shell.  She only allows me to pet her in certain situations – when she is comfortably seated on her preferred windowsill or on my big comfy chair.  She doesn’t like being picked up, but I try anyway!

Bindi, on the other hand, never had a shell to begin with!  Not only will she let you hold her and touch her, she is NOT afraid to touch you back, and I have the scratches to prove it!  She loves to play, and sometimes that includes grabbing and biting me!  Currently her “safe place” is my brother’s room, which leads to her waking him up in the middle of the night, biting his feet!

Introducing the two of my kitties has been tough, and is still a work in progress.  Bindi just wants to play, but her methods can be seen as a bit too aggressive.  Slinky, though, is rising to the challenge, and when I separate them, she occasionally will meow at me to let her have another go!  I bring them together for mealtimes, and have even brought mealtime out from my bedroom and into the common area of the kitchen!  That is great progress for Slinky, as she has really been stuck in my room this whole time!

***

Truffles and TJ (Truffles Junior – Slinky’s brother) have both been TNRed.  The day I got Bindi, TJ reappeared – Truffles started bringing him to our deck to get food, as we’ve been feeding Truffles ever since May 8.  Even after their capture and return, they still come back daily for their meals!

I am so glad that I made the decision to get kittens.  The responsibility is great, but it feels great too – when I’m not worrying, that is!  And each step of progress is such a gift!

Holding Slinky while laying in bed is the best gift in the world!

“We should all sit at the table,” concludes Holly Hanessian, ceramics artist, in regards to creators in all mediums – painters, sculptors, potters, designers, and so on. I took her final statement to mean something different, bigger.

For the Spring 2015 semester, I took a course with the Family, Nutrition, and Exercise Sciences Department called Fashion Archiving.  Queens College, CUNY, has an immense historic fashion collection, and in this new course, students learn how to research and handle old materials.  After being assigned an 1830s White Satin Evening Dress, I was required to pinpoint the exact period of the dress, place it in its historical and cultural moment, and finally give a small presentation to a live audience.  I did research both at home and at the FIT Special Collections Library, looking through 19th century publications and fashion plates.  Enjoy!

Lady of Shalott by Elizabeth Siddal (1853)
Lady of Shalott by William Holman Hunt (1886-1905)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s 1832 poem below

“Four gray walls, and four gray towers / Overlook a space of flowers, / And the silent isle imbowers / The Lady of Shalott.” Throughout the decades of the 19^th century, artist after artist focused on this somber edifice, depicting the world of the Lady of Shalott within its bounds. The publishing of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “Lady of Shalott” in 1832 sparked this widespread appeal in 19^th century England. Focusing on different scenes, and emphasizing specific symbols, artists such as Gabriel Dante Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddal, and William Holman Hunt strove to interpret the role of woman through the figure of the Lady. These assorted understandings of women’s roles illuminates women’s place at the time in which the piece of art was created, as well as how the individual artist personally related to the subject. Tennyson, writing in the 1830s, was grappling with the foundation of the Cult of Domesticity; Elizabeth Siddal, drawing in the 1850s, dealt personally with the issues of women and society; and William Holman Hunt, finishing his final painting on the subject in 1905, depicts the anxiety felt at the turn of the century towards the new, modern woman. The legend of the Lady of Shalott and its myriad interpretations throughout the 19^th century serve as a lens in which the reader and viewer can witness the progression of women’s roles in society.

Images from the Luttrell Psalter (14th Century) and the Queen Mary Psalter (14th Century)

Long, draping, formless garments give way to tighter, more form fitting women’s dress. The changing of silhouette in women’s fashion is immediately apparent when looking at a timeline of the middle ages. For centuries the style remained relatively similar, but as soon as the 14^th century hits, drastic changes can be witnessed.

Gauguin’s Ia Orana Maria (1891) —– Denis’ Springtime (1894-99)

“Art is an abstraction; derive this abstraction from nature while dreaming before it, but think more of creating than of the actual result.” – Paul Gauguin¹

“[Great art is] universal triumph of the imagination of the aesthetes over crude imitation; triumph of the emotion of the Beautiful over the naturalist deceit.” –Maurice Denis²

At the close of 2014, I feel very accomplished with what I have undertaken for my third collegiate year.  I came into my fall semester with a lot on my plate – 18 credits, History Club President, CERRU Fellow, MOTNY Docent, and whatever else I would pick up along the way.  I won’t lie, there were many times in the past several months during which I stressed out a bit, perhaps more than was necessary, but overall, looking back, I realize that everything progressed smoothly.

Franz Kline – Nijinsky
Robert Motherwell – Elegy to the Spanish Republic

Abstract Expressionism, largely an American artistic movement, boasts many artists of varying aesthetics who, ultimately, champion the use of non-representational forms in their artwork, along with other unique and trend-setting artistic practices. Franz Kline’s Nijinsky (1950) and Robert Motherwell’s Elegy to the Spanish Republic (1950) may differ in their application of color, shape, artistic process, and subject matter, but both works of art exemplify the category of Abstract Expressionism, as they champion non-representation and formalist themes.

A paper written for my Art History Research Methods course, and my accompanying presentation
On both assignments, paper and presentation, I received an A+

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes is one of the most renowned Spanish painters in art history alongside masters such as El Greco, Velazquez, Dalí, and Picasso. With a long career as a court painter and part of the Spanish Academy, this great artist displays a wide variety of styles and subjects ranging from Tapestry Cartoons and Court Portraits to graphic images of the Spanish War for Independence and his series of Black Paintings. His most notable works, often grandiose in scale and heavily commissioned or part of an extensive print series, fall into strict epoch and stylistic categorizations such as these. Those works that don’t fit snuggly under a proper heading are often left unacknowledged, or at most marginalized as unimportant, unspectacular, or occasional.^[1][2] Corral de Locos, translated in English as Yard of the Lunatics, is one such painting that is not part of a larger heading, but the difficulty in labeling or classifying this image as belonging to a specific style or genre in Goya’s overall repertoire does not limit the amount of analysis that is to be had.

Goya’s Corral de Locos contains a lot of information in its modest 43.8 by 32.7 centimeter^[3] borders. Painted between 1793 and 1794, it belongs to a group of paintings, all painted around the same size on tinplate, which is now referred to as the Cabinet Pictures.^[4] The artist depicts a scene of violence occurring in an open courtyard of an insane asylum. Various characters grace the painted stage: aggressive brawlers, quiet onlookers, and isolated individuals. But what appears to be at first just a depiction of unruly members of society, Corral de Locos reveals even more. Social history and autobiographical methods can both be used to glean meaning from the painting’s surface. The differing and perhaps contradictory interpretations imposed on Corral de Locos make one thing clear: Goya’s portrayal of the underbelly of society is most importantly seen as a timely snapshot of when it was painted.