Author Archives: Ed

The piece of art I chose when visiting the Museum of Modern Art was “The Persistence of Memory” which was painted by artist Salvador Dali in 1931. Salvador Dali was born in May of 1904. He was known for his strange images and surrealist work. His painting skills were heavily influenced by the Renaissance. In his youth he supported anarchism and communism which he received backlash for. After the Spanish Civil War began, he fled as he did not want to take a side in the war and ended up doing the same during World War II and received criticism for it. At times his own actions and beliefs made his name more well known then his own work.

At a glance when looking at this art, we are shown four clocks in what seems to be a desert. When we look deeper into the painting, we can see the clocks are oddly “melting”. We can also see that one of the clocks is melting over a corpse of something or someone. There are a group of ants on the orange clock. One of the clocks is melting over a dead tree branch. In this image there seems to be no humans that we know of that are alive. Dali’s inspiration for this work came from Albert Einstein and exactly from his theory of relativity of space and time. Dali came up with the idea of the “melting clocks” after watching a piece of cheese melt on a summer day.

The lifelessness and melting clocks play hand in hand in this painting. We are shown decay through the corpse on the ground and the ants over the orange clock. Time is infinite but humans are not. Dali lived through the Spanish Civil War and World War II and watched as lives were taken in a blink of an eye.

Before Going to see this piece of art at the Museum of Modern Art I have encountered myself with The Persistence of Memory. As a kid the most memorable time was in the movie Looney Tunes: Back in Action. There was an entire scene that was animated in that painting and it always stuck with me.  The painting is very intriguing as we question everything that is happening in the painting. It is interesting and draws viewers into trying to decipher all the abnormalities in it such as the melting clocks, corpse and the desert.

I would have a few questions for Dali on this painting. One would be, what is exactly under the blanket or cover? Is it dead or alive? Another question is if the idea of death is preeminent here, how come the two clocks on the left and tree on top of something that seems to be man-made? It seems to be some type of furniture, so it opens the question to, is this on earth or a different realm?

I attended the Assimilation and Written Native American Language with Professor Joshua Whitehead. Professor Whitehead was well informed and is a member of the Choctaw Nation which resides in Oklahoma City. He has been practicing Typography for twenty years and is a professor here at Baruch College. His great, great, great grandfather was a part of the Trail of Tears, so he is passionate about what he does. I’ve never encountered an individual with roots this close to Native Americans, so it was a great learning experience. Professor Whitehead did a quick summary of the forced migration and how the tribes were lied to, manipulated and stolen from. More then 30 different tribes ended up being placed in Oklahoma which created a diverse amount of languages being spoken in the one geographical area. This caused many problems when trying to decipher languages that were being written because a lot of the tribes began to over lap one another’s languages. The creation of the font, “Noto Sans” was a breakthrough as it was the first font which included all Native American Tribal languages which solved the problem of trying to decipher different languages within one another. This was developed by Google and took under a decade to develop. Professor Whitehead is currently in works with “The American Indian Cultural Center and Museum” In Oklahoma City, where they are going under a huge renovation. The museum got in contact with professor Whitehead and asked him if he could help them re-brand and rename the museum. Professor Whitehead drew up three different concepts and explained the meanings behind each one. The museum and mayor of Oklahoma ended up approving one of his concepts that was surrounded by the meaning of human value. They also approved the name change of the museum which will now be named, “First Americans Museum”. Professor Whitehead concluded with some Q&A’s where we went in depth about his personal beliefs about the history of Native Americans, where we are in present time and how the future looking holds. He said his work is still in the beginning stages even after twenty years which just proves how devoted he is and what more he has to contribute to his tribe.

In the text, “The Love Song of Alfred J Prufrock”, we are exposed to Prufrock. A man who is insecure, procrastinates and is lonely. His physical features are brought up multiple times. His bald spot, age and legs are specific features that are brought up. He seems to never be able to make decisions. Women are constantly brought up which is probably because he has no one by his side. His excuse is always that “There is more time”, which highlights his procrastination. The character of Prufrock can relate to many real-life people. I’ve personally had to deal with my aunt who was very ill. She ended up being in a wheelchair and at first it was difficult for her. She was insecure because she never thought she would end up in a wheelchair and it was embarrassing for her. She did not like the fact that she had to ask other people for help and was insecure because of this. She also procrastinated because of her illness. She held things off and didn’t have the same motivation she used to have. Everyday activities were suddenly pushed to the side. She was not able to go out for walks like she used to and didn’t get the same exposure to people. She became very isolated and lonely because of this. It was a difficult transition for her. Prufrocks character is not ill, but both go through similar obstacles such as insecurities, procrastination and loneliness.

Hello,

My name is Edward Monge. I’m 21 years old and live on Long Island. I graduated from Nassau Community College this past summer with an Associates in Business Marketing. There I frequently volunteered within the school and was even the Secretary of the Marketing Club. I decided to take this past fall off to intern at a small software technology firm called Utmost Technologies where I dealt with social media management. It was a great experience as I learned to use advertisement promotions, web & graphic design and coding. In addition I have also worked at an Italian Restaurant called Calogero’s on Long Island for five years where I serve, bartender and am also the social media manager. This is my first semester at Baruch and with that comes a new chapter in my life. I just transferred and it is exciting to meet many new people with great opportunities. My biggest hobbies are keeping up with sports and attending games as I am a huge Knicks, Yankees and Jets fan. I have not taken any type of English class in many years so I look forward to having a great semester with everyone in this class.