Category: Academic Blog

 
Last Friday the September 8th, I went to American Flok Art Museum. It is a free museum for all. In the front of the entrance there are a lot of brochures and by reading them I have learned that American Flok Art Museum is the premier institution devoted to the creative expressions of self-taught artists,past, and present- artists of diverse backgrounds, origins, inspirations, and goals. And since 1961, the museum has been shaping the understanding of art by the self-taught fro the revolutionary era to today. By showcasing the ongoing creativity of individuals whose singular talents have been refined through experience rather than formal artistic training, the museum consideres the historical, social, and artistic context of American visual culture. The museum’s collection holds more than 8,000 artworks dating from the eighteen century to the present, including early American portraits, painted furniture, and twenty-first centuries; the art of the American south, by African American masters such as bill Traylor, Lonnie Holley, Ronald Lockett, and other.

As I went through the museum, there is a little shop on the left side of the entrance, very small but full of creative hand-made art such as books, postcards, and some fabrics. In the middle of the exhibition hall of the museum, there is a painting of a lady making the quilts. Because during this season the museum is  exhibiting the “quilts”. This paint is called “Strippy Quilt”. And there is a story on the wall which says this complex quilt was made by a soldier who was not a professional tailor. It shocked me, because the quilts seems to be made very professional.

I never learned American tranditional culture like this before. It is new and fresh for me. I will learn more about past American art in the future. It was a wonderful experience for me.

Out of all the choices I have, I’ve decided to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art near central park. Together with my friend, we visited this museum full of relics of the history. From Egyptian Art to Medieval armors and arms, modern American paintings to European sculptures, Asian art to Japanese bamboo art, each sections brings out a distinctive feeling of the period.

Specifically, my favorite among all the masterpieces was the “Seated Four-Armed Vinshnu”. It is originated in India, Pandya Dynasty, during the early 9th century. This four armed statue has its own unique significance. His role in Hinduism is to preserved the world and is portrayed as a war god that descend to the earth to battle the evil. With each arm holding a different weapon; his raised left hand, he held as shankha(conch battle trumpet), his lower left hand rests, his upper right hand held a chakra, and his lower right hand would be in a gesture that exorcise the evil. It portrays it with such great strength that makes the people feel safe; nothing is better than peace. Most importantly, it is my favorite because Vinshnu is said to be sitting on a lion throne even it can not be seen fully. However, I can imagine how mighty it could be. Other honorable mention was the Armor for Man and Horse. This colossal army caught my eyes once I entered the Arms and Armor section. I can already felt the triumph of riding on armed horse. At last, with one regret, not being able to find the sculpture of Arthur Pendragon(King Arthur) and Excalibur. Regrets aside, it was a fun day spending quality time with my new college friend Dianyuan and bring our friendship together :D.

For my Academic Blog, I decided why not make the best of this opportunity, by getting help in math and at the same time I will get the blog done. I registered for it and was happy to learn more and because this was my first time going there, I was excited. It took place on Saturday the 9th of September from 10am to 12pm. When I woke up that day I had forgotten that I had to go because usually on Saturdays I wake up late. I had finally realized and so had to rush everything because it takes one hour to get there. Once I left my house, I thought the day will get better but it only got worse.

As I took the first train, there was a lot of train traffic so the train kept stopping, but I was happy that I got off the train by 9:30 because I thought I would never make it to the stop. But that wasn’t the worst. As I went down the stairs to catch the next train I realize, they blocked it from going to the station. So when I asked the workers, they said I have to take the bus(shuttle) for that train, but the problem with that was that it didn’t stop where I needed to get off, it stopped near but that near was still far. So I left the station and decided to turn on my maps and see what I can do, as I did that, I realized it’s 9:40 already and that I only have 20 minutes to get there. So I decided to walk to college from West 4th street, which was a lot but it’s better than waiting for transportation. It was about 22 streets, but I somehow made it there by 10:10 and the class had already started but thankfully they let me go in.

The instructor was good at explaining the concepts thoroughly, which helped me a lot. He went over Limits and Continuity that we were working on in class, so it made my homework even easier to understand and do. After the two hours I felt like I can take a test on limits and continuity right now and get an A on it. After I was done with it, again the transportation got me tight. I had to change up to 5 trains just to come home because many trains were following another route. So for me this day was when I learned a lot, whether it be math or how to come back home or go to college, when trains stop commuting.

 

       For my blog post I decided to visit the NY Hall of science. I went during the free hours which were from 10-11AM. I also brought my sister with me. I am a person who loves science, so visiting this museum gave me pleasure. There were so many amazing aspects to it..

      My favorite part was when I created soap bubbles. It was really fun to create the bubbles. There was also a soap film painting. There was white light that was reflected from the back and front of the soap film which caused different colors. It was beautiful to look at because it looked like water.

    I also learned something new. I learned the humans are not adept to walk on two legs but are more adept to walk with four. However, after they developed over time humans began to walk on two legs so they would be able to carry tools and equipment with their hands. I didn’t knowthat hence, learning about this was very fascinating to me.

    Another thing I learned was that many people lack the enzyme necessary to digest lactose, it’s a sugar in milk. This depends on the genes that are inherited from over past ancestors. Also, people who are able to digest milk as adults inherited from their ancestors who raised dairy animals. However,  people who cannot inherited genes from their ancestors who did not raise dairy animals.

      The picture that I attached was when I was at the  colored shadows section. The motive was to demonstrate that shadows are not only black or white but they can also be colored.

    I would recommend the NY hall of science to my friends and peers because a lot of people assume that science is a boring topic but after visiting this museum it allows your perspective to change. 

 

For my academic blog, I went to the Museum of Modern Art also known as MoMA at Manhattan on Friday, September 8. I have been to other museums but this was my first time at MoMA. The first thing that caught my eyes was the helicopter that was hanging in the midair. In addition, I saw many artworks and galleries collection from some of the most famous artists. One of MoMA’s collection was Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night. A lot of people was surrounding that most recognized artwork. The first time I was introduced to van Gogh’s The Starry Night was when I was in middle school in Pennsylvania from my art teacher. She talked about the story behind it and we also learned how to draw that piece of art using oil pastels and other art supplies. That was when I learned that this painting was not van Gogh’s original Starry Night, his original piece is called The Starry Night Over the Rhone. There were also a Pablo Picasso’s collections such as Guitar that was made from cardboard and Three Musicians. One thing that astonished me was The Mud Muse by Robert Rauschenberg. It was mud that was control by the sound which makes the mud bubble and jump. It was very impressive. In addition, I saw a sculpture of a 36-foot-tall rose in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. Overall, I had a great time at MoMA with my friend.  I would recommend those who never went there to take a tour around and explore.

For my Academic Blog, I chose to attend UCLA (United Chinese Language Association) GIM’s which was interesting and funny. By just reading the name of this group some of you might think that you have to either know Chinese language or be a descendant of this ethnicity to become a member. But as the saying suggests “Don’t judge a book by its cover” I would like to tell you few things about this club that everyone should know. Well, it’s not only about communicating with folks who speak the same language but more about learning their traditions and culture that the club strives to promote to students on campus. Besides, you don’t need to be from China or be Chinese to join which might be a typical stereotype but being curious about learning their heritage and participation is enough to be a member. Personally, during Convocation Day the only club I was interested in joining was archery but ended up joining UCLA that I do not regret. At the club, I became friends some members and VP’s with the same interests and hobbies. At last, I’m not going to describe the GIM’s itself because some other members might have had did it already so instead I will tell few things about the picture below. I took it last Thursday in a club room where for a couple of hours after the event some of the members were talking, playing on a musical instrument and even singing. And to be honest were stunning and at the same time entertaining. It’s not the best picture that portrays all of the people who were there during that day. In fact, I recorded a couple of videos but aren’t going to post it without the permission of its participants. 

For my Academic Blog I decided to go to the Museum of Modern Art short-term (MOMA). I’m really not into museum and places that has information about the past.The past is very boring for me because i am the type of person to keep moving forward and see what the future holds.Most of the museums in New York City are free for the young ones like me who are under 18 and should most definitely take advance of it because once you have to start paying you will regret the opportunities of going for free. Overtime i go to a museum i often try to find a seat however,this museum had me on my feet for most of the time i was there. Mostly because it was art, art that has a lot of meaning behind them. Art interest me and it always catches my attention. I went with couple of my friends so we had a lot of say about each art either negative  or positive. The day i went they were offering everyone a tour of the place and explaining each art. I wasn’t interested because i knew it was gonna take a very long time and it was a lot of people and i don’t wanna be stuck in one place for too long. One of the art that was very interesting for me was “Starry night”by Vincent van Gogh that was placed in MOMA in 1989. This art was talked a lot during my High School years and i wanted to know slight more about it. I went to several museum and this had to be my most favorite so far because you can see how much meaning a picture could hold. I suggest everyone who hasn’t gone there to give it a try.  Here is a picture of me and my friend.

A long long time ago, there was a movie called the Night at the Museum. I saw it when I am still in primary school. It is fun movie and I love it. Later, I found out that prototype of the museum in the movie is the Museum of Natural History, and I decided to visit if I got a chance.

Although I have been in U.S. for almost 4 years, I never visited the Museum of Natural History until today (I know this ridiculous as I live close to New York, but it is true). With a Baruch student ID, the museum is free (suggested donation is $18). I “donated” some as I don’t want to embarrass myself and I began to explore the museum.

I try to find all character that appears in the movie, but only a few of them are exhibited in the museum. However, I had found my favorite character, Dum Dum (I remember it as Dum Dum in the movie). it is actually an Easter Island Head. In the movie, it is full of wisdom and always guide the leading character. In reality, it appeared both majestical and mystical.

Besides things related to the movie, there are still many interesting exhibitions. For example, dinosaur and many ancient creatures fossil are exhibited in the museum. The Big Bang theater will introduce you the creation of the world and our insignificant. There is also a mummy exhibition right now(require another ticket). Anyway, it is definitely a good place to spend time.

I went to the American Folk Art Museum after last Friday’s class, it was located near the Lincoln Center; it is a free museum for everyone, small-size but plentiful. There is a gift shop on the left of the front door of the museum, I didn’t buy anything there but I stayed for a while to see all those creative products like handmade books, jewels, and all kinds of accessories. The old lady who took charge of the gift store was nice and friendly, she says hello to everyone entered the museum, and chatted with some frequent people, it looks like she was totally enjoyed this kind of life- slow but quiet.

And Then I went to the inside of the museum, the exhibits that surprised me the most was the quilts that the soldiers used during the war time, most of the quilts were owned by the British soldier, made in India. The quilts were still in good condition, they were of excellent workmanship and still as colorful as new. The interesting thing I noticed was the quilt can be separated by their owners’ hierarchy. Also, I saw a fancy quilt- it mounted with luxurious precious stones like pearls, rubies, and sapphires, maybe it’s for a higher-ranking military officer. The gallery about quilts taught me pieces of knowledge about history as well because when I saw the introductions of those exhibits, I was able to know which war they had been to with their owners, how did the war started and how they ended. I learned a lot besides the textbook.

Quilts are excellent handicrafts, they not only gave soldiers a comfortable environment to relaxed and kept warm but also an inheritance of the treasure that generated from craftsmen. I really had a perfect time in the museum, if some new handicrafts are exhibited, I will definitely go to the Folk Art Museum again.