Anita stepped out of her house, accepting the warm weather on her skin, she started to go on with her usual Tuesday journey to the train station. Along the way streets were filled with kids, how lucky it must be to be young and have a day off from school. As Anita got closer to the station, she realized that she was going to be late for class due to construction on the Manhattan bound side of the N train. Sighing and taking the extra effort to get to class, she then went to take the Coney Island bound N train to transfer to the Manhattan bound D train. The amount of people waiting for the same train is ridiculous; these must be the same people she misses when there is a Manhattan bound N train. Anita proceeds to take the D train to Broadway-Lafayette to transfer to the six train. Two stops later on the six train, at 23rd street station, she gets out of the wrong exit. Despite the extra street, the walk was pleasant and it was a change from the usual for Anita. As she approached Baruch, she realized she had time to buy coffee from the vendor who was staring into the abyss.

That morning Aiesha started off her day as usual , she left her house to start off her journey to school( Baruch College). She took an empty elevator to the main lobby , upon exiting her building she noticed that the bus was approaching her way, as she boarded she saw that it wasn’t crowded “hmmm.. on a monday morning, rare “she thought .She continued her journey by taking the 5 train to grand central 42nd where she would then have to transfer to the 6.While boarding the 5 train she came across a familiar  face , it had been a client she had a few days back .She felt a bit annoyed .The customer was asking her about work related things while she was trying to study for her Spanish exam.Once she reached grand central ,the 6 train was waiting right across the platform she made a quick run for it and make it just before the doors closed.While on the 6 train she overheard 2 coworkers bickering about a client .Her stop finally came and she exited the train.As she made an attempt to walk to school a lady stood right in front of on the sidewalk blocking her from crossing she said excuse me over 3 times , but no response from the lady . There was a lady standing  right by Aiesha who couldn’t bare no more,  she yelled “EXCUSE ME” and shoved her out the way. On the bright side Aiesha got to school right on time for her exam

This morning Brianna left her house and was sadden when she realized that winter would soon be here. She got onto the Q38 and surprisingly it wasn’t extremely crowded, but she was still annoyed because there was a lady in a rush to get off the bus. When the bus got to Queens Blvd the woman ran under everyone’s arms. When Brianna got onto the R train the sounds of people coughing grossed her out. There was a train performer at the Lexington 59^th Street stop, but she just passed him up in a hurry. She hopped on the 6 train and was happy when she saw an empty seat. Once seated Brianna overheard a couple talking about vacation plans, this made her hopeful about her up and coming cruise in June. When Brianna got off at the 23^rd Street station she passed by Starbucks and saw that the line was too long for her to get coffee before class. Then she walked to Baruch without even thinking, but then she thought about the first time she came to Baruch. Which was with her mother, and then she began to reminisce and miss her mother.

This morning Gagandeep left her house to go to Baruch College. She saw that the flowers in the front of her house were wilting. This made her feel sad because they were so pretty during the summer. She thought to herself, “I should probably remove these from the yard.” As she continued to walk to the Elmhurst Avenue Station she said “hello” to her neighbor who was walking her dog. She realized she should get a dog too. Gagandeep got to the Elmhurst Avenue Station and took the R train to 23rd street. Once on the train, she was disgusted and grossed out by the people who wouldn’t cover their mouths while coughing. After getting out of the train full of sick people, she walked from Madison Park to Baruch College. On the way there she asked herself, “Why are people always running across the street when it’s a green light and a car is approaching?” She thought people were crazy and risk takers. She then crossed the street and walked the rest of the way to Baruch College.

Matthew started his day by leaving his house at 6:00 AM when he drove to a local bagel store to by breakfast. He noticed that there was an abnormally large amount of customers for it being so early in the morning. He then drove to the train station where he would take the LIRR to Penn Station. While on the train, he noticed that the majority of people were sleeping. This reminded him that he too was tired so he decided to go to sleep as well. After arriving at Penn Station, he began to walk to 34^th Street- Herald Square Station where he would take the R subway to school. While walking he noticed that the sun was particularly bright, causing everyone to shield their eyes. This brought him back to this past summer and made him want to visit the beach. After taking the subway, he got off at 23^rd street and walked down the road to Baruch.

The above painting, “The Starry Night,” was painted by prominent painter, Vincent van Gough, when he was in Saint Rémy seeking treatment in a mental asylum, in 1889. Gough is one of the “well-know post-impressionist artist, and was born in Groot Zundert, Holland on March 30, 1853” (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/biography.html). Gough thought to himself that his calling was to preach to gospel and took him many years to discover his true calling was an artist. He was not a very self-confidence man and often struggled with self identity and direction. Gough tried to learn to imitate the impressionist painters after meeting his brother and fellow impressionists in Paris. Although he failed to imitate the impressionist style, he managed to develop his own style that is unique and more emotional. During his career, he did not produce and sell many printing but “The Starry Night” is said to be his best work. The painting is well known for his unique style, which is different from other post-impressionists. This painting particularly gains attention of art community because it is drawn from his memory of the night sky.
When I first encounter the painting, the first thing that I notice is the blue night sky filled with almost fireballs-like yellow stars that takes up most of the background. At the bottom right corner of the painting, there is a town that blends really well with the forest, without light, and encompasses little houses, giving the impression of silence and that everyone seems to be asleep. The cypress bush in the foreground with it dark green color stands out from the blue sky. The flowing lines appear to be in in motion due to the fluid brushstrokes that gives the impression of the movement. Many critics have said the painting reflects the emotions, loneliness and distorted perception of Gough at that moment as he reproduced it from his mental image. The thick brushstrokes certainly give the illusion that the painting is in constant motion. Moreover, in the middle of the painting, the heavy white brushstrokes seem to portray the flowing of the wind. In the top right corner of the painting, the biggest of the stars appear to be the moon as the shape of the moon is surrounded by the yellow light. Overall, the painting almost magically presents the blue night sky that filled with stars and moon that shines brightly upon the mountains and the quiet small town.
The post-impressionists believe that art doesn’t always necessarily have to resemblance the actual object in the real world. Therefore, in contrast to impressionism, which tries to imitate the actual object, they tend to rely on heavy brushstrokes to paint portraits that are imaginative and somewhat surreal. Moreover, the painting has been said to be the best work of his artist career and gained popularity in artist communities and general audience.

After walking around practically all of the 5th floor of MoMA, I came across this painting among a series of three paintings by Umberto Boccioni named States of Mind. This was the second in series, called whose who go. This painting caught my attention because it was dark in real life, and the faces initially were not very visible until I looked a but harder.

I feel like this painting reflects so much of people’s lives, especially “those who go” and leave your life. When someone leaves someone else’s life, no matter how happy you may feel like you may be, I feel like there is still that sense of unhappiness and void in you. I left so many people, and so many have left my life, and honestly when i think about it those times seem dark to me and those are often times I don’t like to remember. (Its a different story if two people just slowly drifted apart over time, I’m referring to when you get into a fight or you are so fed up with someone that they abruptly leave your life.)

This painting is very mystical. Along with it being in the dark, it portrays heavy rainfall. Usually in heavy rainfall, it becomes very difficult to see where things are doing and you are often steered to an alternate angle, even if you are trying to just walk in a straight path. The faces in this painting seem hazy, blurred by the rain, and also they express glum emotions. From the looks of it, above the portraits near the center of the board, it seems as though a mosaic ship was painted on, with white/gray clouds above it. If that’s the case, the painting could be of heavy rain on a oceanic journey, with high wild tides, with passengers (who’s faces are portrayed). These passengers could have left and escaped from something, untold, and now because of the high rides and rough sea, the passengers have officially left… earth.”Those who go”.

In the Paint and Sculpture I section, wall after wall, there were many lovely works of art. But the work of art that has captured my eye is called Bather by Pablo Picasso. The reason this oil painting caught my eye is not only because of the visual of how the female body is portrayed but also the description that came with it. In the description, the words that jumped out at me were ‘challenging pictorial conventions of beauty’ which made me revisit the painting. While analyzing the female body, I could not help but point out what is considered “flaws” in this society or specifically in the media, such as the way her limbs are not in proportion or the way she slouches and doesn’t watch her figure. This made me wonder if this is the response that Picasso was hoping for regarding challenging pictorial conventions of beauty. I personally think this painting of a nude female is definitely different, but also vaguely intriguing. I say vaguely intriguing because I am not sure what it is of the painting that encapsulates me. People may either agree or disagree with my opinion but I believe, in the end, it is hard to judge this painting and whether Picasso’s painting did a good job or bad job challenging conventional beauty because beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Today, I went to the Museum of Modern Arts and made my way up to the fifth floor to see the exhibition called “Paintings and Sculptures 1”. As I made my way across the exhibition, the painting that most caught me was this one called “Fishing Boat, Collioure” by Andre Derain. It was painted in 1905 by using Oil on canvas. It was part of the Philip L. Goodwin Collection from 1958.

The thing that struck me the most about this painting was the use of colors. It’s a very colorful picture. You can make out the boats to be of a blue color with red interior which is peculiar since boats in real life aren’t for the most part blue with a red interior. The faces of people on this painting has red and yellow faces. For these reasons, the painting feels very abstract. It feels as if Andre Derain was painting a scene but in an entirely colorful universal compared to the dull colors of such a scene if viewed in the colors of our world. The picture isn’t very detailed and is mostly filled with polygons of circles and lines. You can make out the basic shapes of everything to tell it’s a bunch of boats in a water environment and the artist is sitting on a dock painting the scene or remembering a scene he had on his mind but he can’t tell the exact details. Overall, this painting is very abstract for its features. From the varieties of colors to the simplistic designs, the artist painted a wonderful scene.

MOMA Assignment- Van Gogh’s, Starry Night