Hour at the Arboretum

As I was trekking through the middle of a field, with no idea where I was going Monday morning, I began to think that the last place I wanted to be at that moment was the Arboretum. It was a far walk and it was cold outside, gosh darn it! But by time I made it to the Overlook Pavilion, I was already beginning to change my mind. The view from the pavilion was vast and serene. Big white sheets billowed down from the top of the structure which overlooked the entire valley. Flowers were blooming all around. Instantly, I was in a happier state of mind.
We soon began to walk around and tour the place a bit. The first thing I saw was the map of Penn State carved into the ground. I thought it was pretty interesting, but I was more interested in seeing the fields of flowers that were surrounding us. I walked out of the pavilion and soon saw a huge field of sunflowers. I love sunflowers, because of their boldness. They are bright and happy. And they are huge. They don't fit the stereotype of a delicate flower. Not only are they tall, but their blooms are ginormous as well. To me, they are one dramatic flower and I like that. After appreciating the sunflowers, I walked underneath a trellis covered in vines, with gourds hanging down from the top. There was a little bench underneath, and I thought that it looked like a good place to sit, relax and reflect on things sometime. It seemed peaceful. In fact, the whole arboretum seemed peaceful and calm. I liked that about it.
I also loved the diversity of the arboretum. Not only were there different varieties of flowers and trees, but I found some peppers and strawberries too. There was a beautiful water feature, with lily pads of all shapes and sizes floating in it. There was also a rose garden, which I would have loved to see, but unfortunately it was being renovated at the time. Despite that, there were still many other bright and blooming flowers for me to enjoy.
My favorite thing about the arboretum was not any particular plant or exhibit itself. My favorite thing was the fact that I noticed I could name many of the flowers. I realized that this was because of my mother. My mother loves flowers, and she always has many planted in our yard. She has taught me the names of many of them throughout the years. So, as I walked around the area, I thought about her and her gardens back home. I thought about the time she let me try to tend to my own garden as a kid, and it failed miserably because I was not motivated enough to keep up with the weeding. I thought about how she picked out red and white flowers for her pots, so that for my graduation party, the flowers would match my school colors. And I thought about the daffodils she cherished because my father's mother gave her the bulbs, and they were always the prettiest blooms, year after year. It was really nice to have the arboretum evoke all of those happy memories for me. I often forget to think about my family back home, because I get swept away in the college life.
I enjoyed my time at the arboretum because it was peaceful and beautiful. I like that it reminded me of my family back home. I believe my mother would really like it there, and I hope to go back and take her with me sometime. I also want to go back when the rose garden is open again and walk through it. It is definitely a place I would like to revisit.

Palmer Trip

On our recent class trip to the Palmer Museum of Art, I was drawn to a piece titled "The Denial of Saint Peter." It is an oil on canvas piece, painted most likely in the 1630s. The piece is attributed to Master Jacomo, who is believed to have been either a Frenchman or Italian, living in the early to mid-17th century.

Four people can be seen in this piece, only from about the waist up. On the left there is a guard in armor holding a candle into the middle of the scene, and the face of a person behind him. On the right there is a woman in a red dress and brown shawl and a bearded man holding a long object who we can assume is Saint Peter. The rest of the painting is engulfed in shadows. The flame from the candle the guard is holding is what is illuminating the faces of all four figures. The guard is leaning toward Saint Peter who is holding up is hand in what appears to be protest.

This piece was painted circa the 1630s, placing it in the Baroque Period. This period lasted from the early 1600s, until 1750 in some parts of Europe. Baroque art is described as more "dynamic" than earlier art. It is known to be bolder and more theatrical. Additionally, during this time, the Catholic Church (as well as Protestants and the secular government) had a great influence on art. "The Denial of Saint Peter" fits in well with all of these aspects of the time period. It is bold and dramatic, and most likely of Catholic influence. 

For me the piece extracts emotion by displaying a well-known story from the Bible, in which Peter denies that he knows Jesus three times, as Jesus said he would. Peter is wrought with despair after doing so. As a Catholic, I have heard this story many times, and I relate to Peter because of his humanity. The boldness in this piece reminds me instantly of the story and of my own humanity. It is probably why I was drawn to the piece.

Little is known about Master Jacomo, the artist to whom the piece is attributed. He lived in the early to mid-17th century and was known as the Candlelight Master. "The Denial of Saint Peter" makes it very evident as to why he was called this. However, he does create credibility in this piece by painting a scene from the Bible. Religion was very important to those who lived in Master Jacomo's time, and was a central part of their lives. Jacomo chose a very famous scene from the Bible. The people in the portrait are very realistic and his use of light dramatizes the scene, therefore adding emphasis to the story. By tastefully appealing to an important part of people's lives, Jacomo adds much credibility to his piece.

Saint Peter's denial of Christ is a very well-known story. It shows us that even though Peter was one of Jesus' most devout followers, he was still a sinner. Catholicism is a very strict and traditional faith, so patrons are often reminded of their own sinfulness. Jacomo's piece could be making the claim that we are all sinners. However, as I said, the story always reminds me of my own humanity. As hard as I try to do all the right things, I am human and I will mess up. Perhaps this is the claim of Jacomo's piece. Due to the time period, the first claim seems most persuasive to me.

I enjoyed my experience at the Palmer Museum of Art. Although I have been to other art museums, it was my first time at the Palmer. I was impressed with the diversity of its pieces, being such a small museum.

I wouldn't mind going back, because I feel that I did not get to see everything there. I liked the bottom floor the best, as I am fonder of older art. Yet I was surprised to find that I really did like most of the contemporary pieces there as well. Overall it was a pleasant experience.

Self Analysis: My Blog

My Template: I decided to chose a template that was easy to navigate. I like simple. Anytime I encounter a website that is difficult to navigate, I feel as though the author of the website is deliberately taking advantage of the fact that I am totally inept with technology. So, I chose Awesome Inc. as my template. It seemed simple enough, yet I still felt as though I could make it my own.

My Title: The title was the hardest thing for me to create. I tried to pick a title that said something about me and was "artsy." Unfortunately, being creative is not my strong suit. I finally settled on "Kayla at the Keyboard." I feel like it portrays what I am doing; just sitting at my keyboard trying to turn all the thoughts swirling in my head into articulate sentences on the page. The alliteration in the title is my attempt at creativity. Admittedly, I am still not 100% satisfied with my title. It is one element of my blog that I will try to improve upon in the near future.  

My Color Scheme: The background of my blog is a nice, bright orange scene. I chose it because it reminds me of sunshine, (as cheesy as that sounds.) To me, sunshine represents happiness. I am a happy person. Therefore my blog should reflect that. For the other colors, I tried to incorporate purple and pink as often as I could. I feel as though they blend nicely with the background. Purple is also my favorite color, and as I said, I feel like my blog should really reflect me.

My Font: I really like fun fonts, but I also feel as though my blog should have a clean look. I tried to look for fonts embodied both of those qualities. The font for the title is "Indie Flower" and the other major labels are either in "Chewy" or "Cherry Cream Soda." These fonts satisfied me as both fun and professional. I chose "Consolas" as the text for all of the posts. It is easy to read, and to me it looks similar to typewriter type, which I think is pretty neat.

My Pages: I have two pages on my blog: the home page and my bio page. The reason for this is actually pretty technical. Blogger has a default "About Me" gadget which it automatically links to my Google+ account since I have one. I honestly couldn't figure out how to edit it and add more information, so I just added a second page for my "About Me" section. 

My Gadgets: I have a few gadgets that I felt would be useful and fun. I included a search blog gadget and a blog archive gadget so that I, or anyone else could quickly access a post. I also added a Twitter gadget (which at the present time actually does not seem to be working.) I included this because I often spew random thoughts throughout the day on my Twitter. I felt that showing my tweets would be a good way to give a quick insight as to who I am. I did not include any additional links, because I could not think of any relevant sites that I wanted to share.

My Perspective of My Blog: I do like my blog. I feel as though the colors represent me and it is easy to navigate. It shares just as much of my personal information as I want it to. I had fun creating it and it was actually a little easier of a process than I thought it would be. However, the title did give me a hard time as I suspected it would. I hope to continually improve during the course and hopefully, regular blogging will help me with my writing.