Rush Rush

There seems to be no time for fun at all! or maybe i just suck at time management.
There is a high probability that it may be the latter. haha!

This week was flooded with tests and homework and assignments. Things just keep piling up. I really need to start getting focused. I have got no more time to waste anymore. Its 1.21am right now and i am still not asleep. I need to be up early later to get to school because I completely and irresponsibly forgot that I have an assignment to hand in yesterday. Because of my carelessness, I now have to make my way to school on a day which is supposed to be my DAY OFF! *sigh*

Anyway, i had my first group meeting for my visual arts project today. It was generally ok i guess BUT when we were contributing ideas. My friend stole mine!! I told her about my idea before we went to the meeting together. I told we should do it on Food and observe the different interpretations of food by the different cultures. She told my groupmates my idea! I was left with nothing. I remembered asking her before the meeting whether she had any idea or suggestions about the project, she told me she thought of none. I guess she was panicking and was so pressured into contributing that she took mine. No harm done i suppose. I totally understand how she feels. Besides, i did talk alot during the meeting, contributed other ideas too so I have absolutely nothing to worry about. :)

She is a very nice person and I'm sure she did not mean to do it.

Dreams and Reality

The Dreams and Reality exhibition was inspiring and beautiful especially for first time arts exhibition goers like myself. I have never looked at paintings the way I did the day I went to the exhibition as each and every one of the paintings stood out from the rest and each embodied its own history and emotions. Initially thinking that paintings were just strokes of the brush and colours of the paint, I never really gave painting any second thought but as the tour guide told us the story of the painters and artists, I saw the paintings in a very different light. I began to realise that within every stroke, therein lies a meaning and with every colour that was chosen, emotions were conveyed. Just as Professor Jan has said in many of his lectures, the form of a painting is crucial in conveying its meaning.

Dreams and Reality certainly did bring out the imaginative life and actual life that we live in. The ‘History and War’ section of the exhibition brought out the most emotions for me. Of those that stood out to me was Gustav Dore’s “The Enigma”. Drenched in shades of grey, it showcased a depressive and morbid atmosphere where one is clearly and easily exposed to the emotions the painter was trying to portray. The lifeless bodies of innocents and soldiers strewn all over the remains of the battlefield enveloped in thick smoke certainly intensify the emotions. The winged woman in the middle of the painting described the distress and helplessness the painter was perhaps feeling at that point in time as she seemed to be begging for answers from the sphinx. Here I saw how vast meanings and emotions could be interpreted from only one painting.

Claude Monet, Gutav Dore, Gustav Courbet and Philip Wilson Steer’s painting were remarkably beautiful to me. Not forgetting also, Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night Over The Rhone’ which was undeniably the most popular piece in the entire exhibition. The exhibition gave me an opportunity to observe the paintings up close and changed my perspective of the visual arts for the better. 

Artsy Fartsy

Today, I realised what I love.

ARTS

Fine Arts, to be more specific.

I mean, I have always liked sketching and painting but I never really thought about it as my future. Society has taught me that I need to get into something more substantial in order to survive. I need a "real " job. So i grew up trying to fool myself into thinking that i love teaching or being a doctor or a business woman or an anchor woman... well.. basically anything that pays. Honestly, i hate all of them. I do not want to spend the rest of my life confined behind a desk or be subjected to the authority of another. I do not want to go through politics, be it  in school or at work or on the television. I. DO. NOT. LIKE. POLITICS. Politics ruins lives. (<<< understatement of the century)
Whenever people ask me what i want to be when i grow up, my mind always draws a blank. I really DO NOT know! Well... actually.. i do know what i want to do... its just that.. the thing i want to do would not be able to help me support my family. I am not rich, my parents can't support me forever. So i have to suck it in and embrace it.  I'm going to have to decide on what i want to do with my life whether i hate it or love it.
I'm only left with a few months before i have to decide on a major that will determine the next phase of my life.
Thus far, i am considering history and sociology but i'm bending towards history. My dad wants me to be a doctor but i have absolutely no interest in the medical field. Sure the title sounds fancy but... that's just about the end of it.
Ever since i took a module on arts history on a whim, i have never stopped thinking about it. My mind is always full of paintings and colours and emotions embroiled within each stroke of the brush. Painting during a rainy day. Painting when I'm sad and depressed. Painting about everything. Pictures are a big part of my life. I mean, I even use them to help me memorise the technical stuff in school.

I should never have stopped doing what i love. I should have just continued.

I wonder what my parents will say when i eventually tell them this.

 I foresee disappointments. 

The Great Gatsby

Amazing, amazing book this was.

I only recently just finished reading this book and i was so immersed in the story plot and so struck by the different characters in the book that I could hardly put the book down and when i did, i could not stop thinking about it.
Basically, the story is about a man named Gatsby who did everything he could to get the woman he loves, Daisy. Daisy is however married to another man called Tom Buchanan ( i call him Tom Banana because i don't like him hehehe) Another thing about this book is that it clearly illustrates the class hierarchy in America. Shows how materialism determines how a person lives and acts.

Tom Banana is a rich man with a repulsive personality. He is the typical , spoiled rich man who thinks he can do whatever he wants without repercussions and thinks he can get anything he wants with his money. He has a mistress called Myrtle Wilson who is peasant with a selfish dream of becoming rich even if it meant cheating on her husband. Her husband is a devoted man who does everything she asks of him and never questioned nor suspected her loyalty to him yet she deceives him, talks rot about him behind his back and engages in adultery with a married man.

The novel ends tragically though.
Poor Gatsby :(

Busy Busy Buzzing BumbleBee

Late for school today as I overestimated the time I had. Lucky me, my Lecturer is extremely nice. Right after that, I had European history tutorial and I found out my tutor is a Turkish lady. She's nice too but she expects us to do too much. I have to many things to finish, readings to read, essays to do... ugh.. the agony of being an arts student.