Macaulay Seminar One at Brooklyn College

            “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

When we were told that we had to take a picture for our Snapshot assignment, I thought about what photo I could take that represented New York City without it being similar to others. I thought about taking a picture of the New York subway system, or a Starbucks related item, or even a picture of a tourist attraction somewhere in the city. I never thought to look around my neighborhood in Brooklyn for a picture that would represent New York City. So, when Snapshot day came, I was walking around the city, wondering which picture would do it justice. It was only when I was a few blocks away from my home that I realized that the old Weeping Willow tree represented New York City in the past, present, and future. Originally, it had been planted on the property of a man who’s mother passed away. He had planted the Weeping Willow many decades ago in honor of her memory. Upon selling his house and property in recent years, he asked the new owners not to cut down the weeping willow because of the spiritual and personal meaning that it had to him. The new owners obliged by these wishes and, upon demolishing the old home and building a new one, they hired an expensive company that spent a week trying to uproot the many-ton, two-meter in diameter tree trunk tree with the least damage and move it approximately ten feet, closer to the corner of the property. Although it was evident that the tree was ill the first few months after it was moved, it began to flourish once again. And then, Hurricane Sandy hit. It was flooded by nearly fifteen feet of salty, filthy water.

Despite all of these occurrences, the old weeping willow tree survived. I felt that this tree was an accurate symbol of New York City because it survived upheaval, uproot, sickness, and disaster and yet continues to flourish despite all odds. This characteristic is part of New York City’s identity. Approximately two months after I had posted my picture up onto the site, I visited the Macaulay Building for the exhibit of all the pictures taken on that day and had the pleasure of seeing my picture in several parts of the building. I really enjoyed viewing the pictures that my classmates from all parts of the city had taken in honor of this day and thought that the way the exhibit was organized was brilliant. My classmate from Staten Island and I did the project involving historical significance of different  aspects of New York City. We juxtaposed the images taken in the city on Snapshot day with the images of the same structures taken a hundred to two hundred years ago. We enjoyed catching up while doing the project and viewing and discussing all the various photos taken and displayed.

A beautiful setting sun placed in a sky filled with pink, blue, orange, and yellow in a beautiful mixture seems pretty atypical for a Brooklyn sky. However, this is the view that I have the pleasure of seeing everyday outside of my dorm room window. A few weeks before we were requested to take a picture of the city for our class, I began to notice how remarkably beautiful the sky looks when the sun is setting outside my window. As I was doing my work, I would notice that my room was getting a bit dim, but before turning one of the lights on, I would look out the window and witness one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. The sky had suddenly become a gradation of blue, yellow, orange, and pink as the sun disappeared behind the houses and trees. When we were told about our picture-taking assignment, I knew I had to capture this moment.
Two months later, I had the pleasure of seeing my photo in a very creative exhibit at the Macaulay building. The fact that our classmates could view our creativity and get a little taste of what we were seeing at a particular moment in time is a very nice idea. It was a way of sharing a little piece of ourselves with each other. We were pushed even further with our creativity when we did the assignment that went along with this particular common event. My group chose to do the option that involved the creation of a story- the name of which escapes me now. Surprisingly, all of our stories made sense and were actually pretty well written. One criticism that I do have of the event is that I would have preferred a little more interaction with students from other campuses. I came with two of my friends from Brooklyn College and, therefore, worked with them. Since this was a Macaulay Commons Event, I would have liked to have had the opportunity to interact more with my classmates from other campuses.

Unfortunately, I must say that this was my least favorite event that we attended for this course. I just did not see the point in going to see people read articles out of a magazine that I could have picked up myself. The fact that I could have done this without the hassle and cost of traveling to the city just lessened my ability to appreciate the event. Since I am not a “foodie” some of the experience of the event was lost on me. I did not know many of the famous people who read to us, and I did not understand some of the jokes. Putting all of this aside, however, I did enjoy the articles that were read to me. They were very interesting and were not what I expected to come from a food magazine. Usually, food magazines have simple, easy to do recipes, restaurant reviews, and a few articles on culinary experiences. The Lucky Peach seems to be a very interesting perspective on the making and experience of food. Like the editors said, it also does not limit what recipes it includes based on level of difficulty. It has very unique themes, such as the apocalypse theme, and has articles that show the deeper meaning behind the experience of eating or dining. This was a very good marketing technique for the magazine because it really made me want to pick up a copy and read it! Although, I could have drawn all of this information from reading the magazine, I might not have known that this magazine existed if I had not gone to this event. However, if I were to really give an article my full attention, I would prefer to read it myself. I have different levels of comprehension when something is read to me and when I read something myself. When something is read to me, I might not be paying attention the entire time, and if I do not understand something, it might not always be possible for me to ask the reader to repeat the phrase several times. However, the person reading the passage might read it with a better interpretation than I would. When I read something to myself, I tend to comprehend things better. I can see how the words and punctuation are arranged in the sentence and I can reread a confusing phrase as many times as I wish. I can also annotate in the margins concerning things that I enjoy or dislike, which I would love to do with a physical copy of The Lucky Peach.