Posts from — December 2008

street-photography3

(Link to Movie)

I thought that this project was going to defeat me. I had no idea what to take pictures of. The only things that I had ever taken pictures of were people or major landmarks while on vacation. I had never taken pictures spontaneously or for the sake of making art. I had only had experience taking tacky, postcard-like photos of the Eiffel Tower, or the Coliseum. What did I know about being a “street photographer”? [Read more →]

Frances Richey seemed more like a peer than a superior, stylishly wearing a vivid purple knit cardigan with a matching shirt and a belt around her waist.  Even her ornate earrings seemed unexpected to me to be worn by a middle-aged woman.  Regardless, I immediately knew that she had flair and I hoped her personality matched her creative style that initially drew me in.  She created a humble and compassionate atmosphere by greeting students arriving late with a “Thank you for coming, I’m glad you made it.” Instead of feeling irritated or set back, she happily volunteered to fill them in on the material they had missed. [Read more →]

bam.org

     People were starting to get restless. It was the opening night of Les ecailles de la memoire (The scales of memory) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the show was already ten minutes late in getting started. However, once the theater went dark and the music started to play, all that frustration melted away and all that was left was awe. Les ecailles de la memoire is a show filled with breathtaking music, astonishing dance, and a sincere story about the culture of a people. [Read more →]

metmuseum.org

     The Renaissance in Italy was an era filled with the sweet sensations of love. It was the era of poets, musicians and bards – all of whom created art in order to express the wonders and tragedies of love. In addition to all of these well-known mediums of affection, there was a massive collection of paintings, pottery, sculpture, jewelry, and tapestry created to depict the theme of love as well. Art and Love in Renaissance Italy, a new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that runs until February 16, 2009, explores the ways in which artists utilized these mediums to portray the different aspects of love – from courtship and marriage to adultery. [Read more →]

samuelfreedman.com

      We had all read his book, Who She Was: My Search for My Mother’s Life, and now we sat anxiously awaiting the man who dared delve into his mother’s life. Most of us are content with knowing only the information about our parents that we learned after we were born. We look at them as only “our parents” and find it hard to believe that they had a life before us, but even if we do take the time to realize this distinction, it may be that we do not really want to know what our parents were like before they had us. Just imagine your mother as an unruly teenager. However, Samuel Freedman dared to delve into this forbidden territory and the result was a success – both in the form of the popularity of the book as well as personal success. [Read more →]

My collage project is entitled Best on Earth and it focuses on the life advice I go by, and just the philosophies I would say everyone should go by. I took magazines like “National Geographic,” “National Adventure,” “Cosmopolitan”and looked through the pages. I cut out the phrases/pictures I really liked and put them on an oak tag to create my collage.

I believe that a person has to be the best he can be, and do the best he can do. A person should strive to achieve the highest, and “dream out loud.” I think we should all aspire to our dreams and never let anything bring us down. As one of my pictures says, “the world can’t weigh you down when you’re standing on top of it. ” [Read more →]

De Colores

Mantras

Egyptian Feline

“Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.” Claude Monet was a fine artist, actually a good bit better than fine and he could barely come to grips with unbridled possibility of color. It’s overwhelming, so much so that we tend to dismiss it. Photography is a terrific way to capture some of the inquisitiveness which makes us human. There are a few instances in which photography can show us little more than what we can view, but often photography reveals to us how little our eyes permit us to see.  Normally we don’t see things as they are; the familiar is forced into the background of our focus. The couch we are sitting on is no longer a collection of darks and lights, patterns and textures; it is simply a couch.  Even though we live in a world full of color, we often don’t appreciate how powerful colors are. We blend it into our minds and don’t notice the beauty of its affect. This project focuses solely on colors, not in one specific area, but in our environment. [Read more →]

The performance opens up with a group of men and women who start to move in slow motion. As they move forward, one woman starts to announce the name of her parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. The others behind her begin to speak as well, stating their family names in their own language. One voice became many, and the chaos of layered declarations, filled the background of the stage with memories, like scales. “Les Ecailles de la Memoire” (The Scales of Memory) is a dance performance that seizes the imagination, leaves you on the edge of your seat, and thrills you in the moment. [Read more →]

On November 25^th, our IDC class had the honor of meeting a famous writer and journalist, Samuel G. Freedman. From the start, he approached the class in a comfortable and caring way. He had a newspaper deadline and was running late, but “decided to risk it” just to visit our class. [Read more →]

Klementei Rybak was just like any other farmer in the Russian Empire. After the Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks overthrew Czar Nicholas II of Russia and attempted a complete redistribution of wealth. In 1920, he received free land in Moldova, a country in the Soviet Union.  It was distributed to him for the purpose of him making money and growing crops. [Read more →]