“Hide-and-Seek” is displayed in The Museum of Modern Art. The artist of this piece is Pavel Tchelitchew. It was made in 1940-2 and was painted with oils on canvas. Tchelitchew used many different colors such as green, yellow, brown, orange, red and blue. It really captured my eye and when reading up on about it, it said that the artist used these colors and this material in order to capture the emotions and the drama of the piece in a way that many other materials would not be able to. The artwork was made in Vermont during World War II.

The subject is the “apocalyptic” vision of the childhood game, hide and seek.  I noticed that at first glance you see what looks like a tree, but when looked at closer you can see the leaves make out the faces of little children. The children are looking up with their mouths open in fear. There is a mixture of life and nature. There are human characteristics here along with birds, butterflies and plants. You can see on the bottom of the tree is a new -born baby and on the bark of the tree is a woman climbing.  There are all hidden images within this artwork, such as a foot, hand, toes and fingers. Also within this piece you are able to see an X-ray vision of the body. You can see bones and veins within the arms, heads, and toes. The veins do a great job camouflaging because it looks as if they are the branches from the tree.

This painting is displayed on the wall facing you when you come off the escalator on the fourth floor. This floor is all about paintings and sculptures, but this painting is isolated. There are no other works of art surrounding it. It is probably placed this way so that everyone will have a chance to absorb the whole picture without being distracted by anything else. This picture is an extraordinary painting with many surprises. It deserves to be examined and well observed.

http://www.moma.org/collection_images/resized/355/w500h420/CRI_5355.jpg – this is a photo of the artwork

Our class trip to the bellet was nothing but amazing. Just beautiful. Being in Lincoln Center in itself just feels classy on its own. I know that the theater we were in, as we said in class, is not one of the biggest, but I was certainly blown away at its elegance.

I did not really think that ballet was anything special/unique or required a talent because I’ve just always viewed it as a little girl tutu dance swaying in slow motion, but I was proven wrong 🙂

The first part was by far my favorite. The dancers looked so majestic in their costumes. Looked absolutely flawless. They looked so beautiful, and when using my binoculars I was not able to see any struggle with the dance moves they were doing. I thought it was so amazing how the women would go on their toes the way they did. I can never imagine myself being able to do that. Must be so difficult, but they made it look so flawless. The amount of dancers on stage and how in sync they were blew my mind. It looked so professional- every turn, every jump, every hand movement was together. My favorite part was when the dancers would be on their toes and you can hear the “thum thum thum” as they were tapping across the stage.

I was not the biggest fan of the second part, the story part. However, the scenery was out of this world!!! I had no idea how it even got there!

I’d probably be criticized for saying this, but I always felt that the dancers arms were “just there” and never really understood the amazement of it or what part of it was considered talent because it just looked like it was floating… I was more interested in the other parts, but I guess the beauty is the posture and alignment with the body that they are able to maintain.

The final part of the ballet was pretty interesting. The choice of costume, being two different colors, was cool and very different. I’m a big fan of seeing new things- the setting with the floating symbols also, to me, added a little mystery to it and the randomness of it and never seeing anything like that made it so enjoyable to enjoyable to watch!

My favorite trip so far, and I would totally go again!

The 9/11 Memorial is definitely worth visiting and once the museum is open (planned for spring 2014) will probably be even more meaningful than it already is.
The last time I saw the area was in 2011 when I attended with school. While recovery was still taking place, I was very impressed by the transformation from that time and the respectful memorial and park area being developed. Just like the first time, it was just as breathtaking for me.

I’ve been to many memorials, but this is by far the most breathtaking beautiful one I’ve been to. By beautiful, I don’t just mean the way it looks, but what it represents. The memorial being the size of how the building was really puts it into perspective.

Regardless of the amount of names shown, it still felt just as personal to me. I kept noticing white flowers, and I found out it was placed because it was that persons birthday. It was very moving.

As Jonah said in class, the constant flow of water and its noise, may have represented the constant outcries and voices of the people who were lost. The first time I have been there, I haven’t noticed the tree that was standing opposite the memorial as we walked in. It was tied down and wrapped all around– keeping it in place.. and an observer told me that the reason this tree is being sacred is because it was the only tree that wasn’t diminished and destroyed during the time of 9/11.

Walking in, I felt a sense of happiness or…relief, at the way it was upheld. You were able to tell through the amount of security, how clean they kept it, and from the amount of people/tourists were there, that it was still something people held close to their hearts. It might be because I remember exactly where I was during 9/11, and during our lifetime, but I felt a connection. Looking at the new buildings being made, gave me a sense of pride but also mixed feelings. I was pleased to see that people wouldn’t let these terrorists stop us from building, but also nervous in the way that I wondered: Is this a replacement of what was? Do you think people will choose to go back, or will it be a possible danger, regardless of security? What is the significance of this new building?

I have never been to the Vietnam memorial. Upon arriving, I felt bad. While one may call it beauty, I find the beauty in the people who visit, and this memorial looked like the type to be ‘that the only people who come are the ones who have a personal connection to one of the soldiers’. It was in between two buildings, was dark, the water fountain didn’t work, located by a restaurant, but at the same time one may say that it being isolated and not so populated gave it a sense of peacefulness, being alone, not busy, closure or what not. The flowers I felt gave the ‘light’ and life there. What got to me was the ages of these soldiers. I’m 19, and it is startling trying to reflect what these men had to do. The letters written on the wall also made it very personal. Much of it was too difficult to read, but the pieces able to be made out really touched me.