The Beautiful Arboretum

This was my first trip to the Arboretum. I didnt even know our school had a place like this! I wouldnt call myself a nature lover but I do enjoy it. I am a big fan of eye candy so whenever I see something beautiful such as snow on trees or fall leaves, I take the time and fully appreciate the beauty. The only reason I dont consider myself a nature lover is because I wouldnt save the enviornment if it hurt businesses. If were talking politics and government then I would put the economy before the enviornment. This is the only reason why I wouldnt consider myself a nature lover. This is a place where I could definitly see myself coming on my own. There was this one open room with white sheets flowing in the air and a bench looking into the distance. I could just sit there and plug in my headphones and enjoy the breeze for hours. If it wasnt so far I would probably go there twice a week, for a nice walk or just to relax. I could definatly see myself bringing friends. Hopefully a friend like a date. When I got to the arboretum the first thing I thought of was how tranquil and beautiful the place was. It would be nice to bring a nice girl and just talk, walk, and relax with her. Its also different from what most people do such as going to the movies or going out to dinner. What impressed me the most was the number and variety of plants and flowers that the arboretum had. For example, there were plants and flowers that ranged from Serbia all the way to Korea. Flowers such as the "Salvia Eveline Sage" and the sunflowers really brightened the atmosphere. In the garden of sunflowers I even saw red ones?! There were several pathways all filled with colorful flowers and even bamboo! One of my favorite places was the lily pond. I have never seen so many different kinds of lilyies in my life. My favoirte one was the "Tropical Day Blooming Water-Lily, it had pretty tulip looking flowers attached to the lily. There was also this HUGE lily that was the size of like 4 other lily. It looked like it could hold 10 frogs. The whole time I was there I felt so relaxed and bliss. The place was so beautiful! It was quiet the weather was nice, it was definatly a different scene than what im used to seeing at state college. Im the type of person who enjoys calm, quiet atmosphers. This was a much needed experience. This place reminded me of a park near my home. When Im at that park I feel happy and relaxed as well. It was nice to feel those same feelings again :) Overall I really really enjoyed this trip. I will definatly come back to this place. The Arboretum is definatly a hidden jewel at Penn State. In a way its a good thing that its not one of Penn State's main attractions. Some things you just want to keep to yourself or share with the people you really care about.

Arts/Cultural Blog Post

Title: Boy Looking at Mount Fuji
Artist: Unknown, Studio of HOKUSAI Katsushika
Year: n.d.


This piece of art depics a young boy whose back is facing towards us, sitting on a thin crooked tree, playing what seems to be like a flute.  In the distance Mount Fuji is standing tall with only its top clearly visible.  The bottom of the mountain is painted in all white.  Hanging on the tree to the left of the boy is large wicker basket.  Below the boy seems to be a waterfall shaped like stairs approaching Mount Fuji.

The date of which this piece was created is unkwon.  However, the studio of HOKUSAI Katsushika ranged from 1760-1849, meaning that this piece was created somewhere between that time.  On 1783 Mount Asama erupted, wiping out towns, villages and farm lands.  The painting only shows one boy visiting Mount Fuji.  This could suggest that most people at the time may have feared or resented mountains after what happened at Mount Asama, except the little boy whose innoncence still allows him to appreciate the sacredness of Mt. Fuji.  In addition, Japan was very secluded from the rest of the world until 1854.  Like Japan at the time, the boy is the only one present in the painting and is secluded in his own world paradise.  There is no tie with politics in this paiting, but Hokusai was a member of Nichiren, a buddist sect, where his choice to paint and draw Mt. Fuji stemmed from.

This piece of work does not hit me emotionally, but I can relate to it.  Like the boy in the painting, I like to be alone at times.  Its great to have friends and go out, but everyone needs time to themselves.  Like the boy in the painting, when you are by yourself your free to do whatever you want without people judging you.  Your free to think what you want, feel what you want, and reject what you want.  Sometimes we can have the best times being by ourselves, which is what I believe the boy in the painting is experiencing.  The painting itself makes me feel at ease.  The mountian in the distance and the cool, light colors used gives me a feeling a calmness and quietness.  The boy all by himself in the painting sitting on the tree gives me a carefree, relaxed feeling.

The artist creates credibility by not paiting pictures with people actually on the mountain, seeing how it was a very sacred place where commoners and foriegners were not allowed.  He also painted the mountain with only the top visible. This is also credible because Mt. Fuji is very big, it would be very hard to see the whole thing from that point of view.  Also Mt. Fuji is often covered by clouds or smoke, and is very hard to see at times.  Like I mentioned above, the artist is unknown.  This piece of work could have been a student or an apprentice from Hokusai's studio.  Hokusai and his studio have produced many works of art such as, The Dragon of Smoke, The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido, Hokusai Manga, and many more.

I believe that this piece is strictly demonstrating the sacredness of Mt. Fuji.  You see the boy at a distance from the mountain, yet he knows it is a sacred place and is at peace because of that.  The painting does not show a big party or war near the mountain, but a innocent boy playing a flute.  Also note how the instrument is a flute which is very peaceful, instead of a drum which is loud and symbolizes with war.  I believe the claim has its intent to show the sacredness of Mt. Fuji but I do not believe that the artist was trying to persuade anything.

I thought the Palmer Art Museum was amazing.  I was very impressed with the amount works and space that it had.  The pieces of work varied from Japan to America to Italy, and so much more.  It had paintings as well as pottery and sculpture.  I am not a museum-goer but I want to start.  As a young child I could not appreciate it as much but now that I am older I want to experience more art.  It was my first time going to the Palmer Museum and I could see myself going back.  It seems like a nice place to take a friend for a nice walk and conversation.  Overall I enjoyed going to the Palmer Art Museum, it was a great experience! 



http://www.shikokuhenrotrail.com/japanhistory/edohistory.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokusai

Course Blog Assignment

I chose the "Simple" template because I like things to simple, neat, and clean.  The "Simple" tablet was perfect for my blog.  For the colors I chose a frost blue for the background, white for the body, and frost blue again for the title background.  I chose these colors because they are very clean, crisp, and cool colors.  Like the title of my blog suggests, I want this blog to portray a relaxing and chill atmoshpere.  The black font color was added so the readers could easily read the material.  The colors represent how I like things to be very clean and simple.  The font I chose for my title was josefin Sans.  I chose this font because I thought it fit the title very well. Like Sans Serif the font is very modern and clean.  For the tab font and post font I chose Arial because it is very easy to read but has a little more personality than Times New Roman.

Like the title of my blog suggests, I want this blog to be a place where people can just take there minds off of work, studying, stress, or whatever.  I hope that this blog serves as a place where people can stop whatever they are doing for about 5 mins and just relax.  As a Penn State student we have lots of work to do.  But its also important to take study breaks now and then, which is the theme I want for this blog.  Websites such as http://howdoiputthisgently.tumblr.com/ and yahoo.com (the news bar) are websites that offered me the 5 min study breaks that I needed.  As for as art, I enjoy art but I dont think my blog says too much about it.  However, I do plan to post info on the arts of music and cinema.  I did not put anything to do with Penn State in this blog at the moment but I am thinking of putting a page for places to visit at Penn State.

I chose to add a link for http://howdoiputthisgently.tumblr.com/.  This website provides thousands of funny virtual memes that are great for a quick study break.  Sometimes I find myself reading memes on this website for more than 30 mins but thats ok!

I decided to add tabs with the following titles, Celebrity Crushes, Nostalgia, and The Best Things in Life.  I added Celebrity Crushes to show my humor side.  I have so many celebrity crushes, im probably the guy that falls in love the easiest.  I added Nostalgia to post the awesome past that we lived in.  Im a person who doesn't like change that much.  I love thinking of the past and all the great memories in it.  In this page I plan to post many 90's generation swag and common feel good memories.

In the About Me page, I added my personal information such as date of birth, highschool, nationality etc.  I added these to allow the readers to know about the generic characteristics about me.  I also added my favorite movies, tv shows, artists, sports teams, food, and things to do.  I added this to show my readers the fun side of myself.  I also added the pros and cons of my personality to show my readers the deeper side of myself.

Overall I like my blog, although its only the begining I hope to build this blog throughout my Penn State career.  I feel like this blog reflects me very well.  While I hope to entertain my readers, I am also using this blog to have a visual representation of myself.  Everything I post, I post because I want my readers to know that "thing" about me.  The blog was actually harder than I thought to make at first, but after an hour of working on it, it became easier.  I hope to get to know myself more through this blog.  I also hope to experience what others think of my posts.  I hope to see a lot of comments agreeing and disagreeing with my posts.