Here I have a picture of a street light that I see everyday when I go home.  This street light is often overlooked because it is not appealing nor is the wooden pole beautiful at first glance.  This may not be a vast visa, but it can still be sublime.  By fixing our eyes on the street light and paying closer attention, we can see it’s inner beauty.  The light is very subtle.  It gives a sense of quietness; a feeling of peace.  The street light helps us to relax and slow down as if it represents a growing hope.  It is beautiful because of the feelings it gives us.

According to German philosopher Frederic Nietzsche, science can not explain the world, but only describe it.   Science can not fully explain this street light.  It can not explain why the light exists in the way that it does.  In the same way, we can not logically explain the beauty or sublime of the street light, yet it can give us a bundle of feelings.

The sublime is something that evokes great emotion. In class, we discussed several different interpretations of the sublime. One in which the sublime is described as something that evokes both terror and the sense of beauty. Another in which the sublime is something that elicits great questioning within us without the yearning for fact or reason (also known as negative capability). The sublime, however you may personally interpret it, is all around us.

If we look at the picture I have attached, we will see my father crouching before the ocean on a trip to Fire Island in mid-January; one of many trips we take on those long, non-eventful weekends.  In this picture, he is a small, dark creature faced with the vastness of the sea and of the sky. What formed the waves tumbling towards him? How did this enormous mass of water get there? How can a sun so far away heat our tiny planet? How do we have the capacity to see all this? To think? Those are some of the questions that the open ocean and the bright sky of this photo may stimulate. We spent nearly an hour on this beach, my parents and I, staring out to the ocean, watching the waves roll in and out, and in silence, each deep in their own thoughts. Soon after, with no new answers or knowledge, we all walked away, resuming our regular lives. None of us having expected to learn anything new, we left content in allowing our minds to ramble and absorbing the moment. The sublime, in this photo, is generated as John Keat’s idea of negative capability.

I took this photo on Tuesday night while sitting on my porch drinking coffee with my parents. Knowing our assignment I thought this was the perfect picture to capture my “sublime”. At this moment I realized that everyone else could see this sunset while ew were all going on with our lives, I happened to be sitting on my porch on long island while others were doing other things.

Sitting on the porch with my family is the favorite end to my day it’s where we relax and talk about our days after dinner. There isn’t always an amazing sunset like this but when there is it is very calming to me and always seems to cheer me up. Who knew something as basic as a sunset could have so much meaning to one person..

In our hectic daily life, we start out days with social media, lists of tasks to be done by the day and talking with family on the phone while checking our email. We easily forget who we really are. We pass by so many important things that may seem trivial to others such as the nature surrounding us and the messages we receive from our parents back in Korea. The messages from our parents can be as simple as them saying “I love you” or “Hello”. I quite often go to Central Park to get away from the hectic day by reading or taking a nap. I am always impressed of the beautiful nature in this big city.

I took this picture in Central Park under a tree. I still remember when I went to Central Park for the first time. It was ironic that there was a huge park in a very complex city with soaring skyscrapers and I really loved that. Whenever I go there, the people in the park look so free and full of happiness without any distress and it makes me calm, take my mind off things and purity my spirit. The nature found in the park such as trees, grasses, small lakes and wind gives me strength and I feel alive when I am exhausted from work and study. Everything around me such as the nature and people are beautiful and sublime and I am thankful that I can feel this.

This piece displays a very gloomy image. It is a canvas painting with what seems to be some sort of pastel. The piece consists of very few colors such as grey, brown,  black, and touches of bashe. The painting carries a very foggy smokey look reflecting a gloomy and depressing vibe.  In the center is what looks to be the remains of a mansion or a large estate for only the big arch entrance is standing. The large entrance is surrounded by black dead leafless trees as well as gravestones and crosses in the ground all of which are located in the center of the piece. On the outer parts of the painting, is nothing but emptiness. While this painting is some what abstract, its details reflect a common theme, termination. The mansion which used to exist had been deteriorated with time and only its entrance has been left behind. The trees which used to be colorful, leafy, and most importantly alive, with time have died and left behind only their corpses. The people, who’s time has unfortunately expired has left nothing but a grave stone. The bottom right part of the piece is rather interesting for it has a very dark mustard color thus making it the lightest part of the image. If my assumption is correct the artist used that color to represent a sun rising. This rising sun is shining light on the the bottom dark part of the painting. I believe the real message is that from death comes birth.

“Abbey in the Oak Forest” is a somber paintaing by Caspar David Friedrich. The painting depicts a desolate church centered in the middle of a cemetery. Around the church there are tall oak trees without leaves to portray the deadness of the scene. There are also people walking into the destroyed Abbey holding a coffin illustrating the dreariness and sense of emptiness of the image. Friedrich makes it clear that the Abbey was once beautiful and well kept, by showing the detail of it, such as the windows, being shattered and broken. Its interesting that the people entering the abbey are just walking deeper into devastation by doing their rituals of burial in the ruins of the abbey. The image is obviously toned to dampen the viewers spirits. The first time  I looked at the emptiness it made me feel some kind of emptiness. I find it interesting that he is trying to show that mans ideas can never last. He shows this by painting landscaping letting each part represent mans ideas. The most obvious instance is the desolate church. Friedrich lived at the heart of the enlightenment – a time when people began to reject the church and think independently. He is trying to stress the point that it is nature that dictates how the world is ran and it is nature that is eternal. The once great church is now reduced to ruble shadowed by dead oak trees  to show the death of ideas. Whatever he was trying to depict, this picture shows defines the term emptiness.

There was a fog, a really dense fog on top of the old and distraught cemetery. It looked like an old town that was destroyed and hadn’t been around for centuries. That pillar was the last remaining of that town. The trees are accompanied by each other. There dullness and denseness complemented the color of the sky. It looked like an old haunted town. That was my reaction after looking at it for the first time. The second time I saw it from a completely new and different perspective. It looked like an old church with its own cemetery, that was completely destroyed. It was dark and scary, and frankly I was scared and uncomfortable. But I saw it much deeper than that. This picture was depicting religion, and the old way of thinking in relation to the enlightenment. The enlightenment was a time of thinking and challenging old outdated thoughts that have been followed for centuries. The enlightenment totally changed the way people thought about and practiced religion. I believe that the message David Friedrich is trying to send is that, during the enlightenment religion is not what it used to be. I believe he is comparing the picture to religion. He is saying that religion is old and outdated, in the time of the enlightenment. No more did people just follow and do, they thought for themselves. I ultimately think that this picture is a metaphor for religion during the time of the enlightenment.

The trees have lost all their leaves. The structure which looks like leftovers from what once was a house, barely standing. the cemetery looks dark and abandoned. The second you lay your eyes on this picture you get a sense of darkness and depression. You can derive that when completing this work of art, the artist was not in the right state of mind. It looks like his mind was gloomy and possibly in a stage of his life where he was contemplating suicide. Everything in the painting is dead or withered. Cemeteries are often neat and have someone, a caretaker,  to keep the grass green and trimmed. however all there is here is abandonment.

Although we have all this negativity compressed into this one painting, you can still see that the painter projects hope and possibly a chance for a longer life. looking closely and analyzing the contents of this painting you’ll see large oak trees. Although they’re withered and leafless they are still oak trees. you might wonder what is so hopeful about having am oak tree in this painting. Oak trees are known for their long life span. some living for thousands of years. in my opinion this artist is going through a rough phase in his life and might be depressed but i also believe that he still has hope and still believes that his life will be better.

It seems like the last day on earth, where there is nothing but a destroyed landscape, bare trees, leafless branches and a few people remaining on the painting. I cannot even tell whether it is daytime or not. The view of the sand on the ground reflects the destruction of the buildings and makes us think about all the death and chaos. We can only see a few trees in the graveyard. All of the emotions we feel about the painting are despair, powerless, fear and sorrow. It shows that human beings are helpless. The only thing human can do is prey there. And it makes us feel increasingly desperate. Because it seems that there is no God who helps humans on the painting. The reflection of abbey on the window mirrors the outside landscape. Yet it seems that people are heading to the abbey without even knowing the true.

However, we assume that it may be a miracle that humans are alive there. People are gathered in the abbey, and even if they don’t know each other, they might help, share love and rely on each other later. And they will make a miracle as if they are alive in the waste land.

Overall, even though the shadow of death hung upon on the painting, we can assume that the humans on the bottom will overcome difficulties and create a better world.