The Evening Post

Now that we’ve all filled ourselves to the brim with turkey, sweet potatoes, and pie galore, we all know it ‘tis the season to be jolly. Along with the many Christmas songs and festive activities, I’m always reminded of a certain artist in the holiday cheer. For as long as I can remember, Norman Rockwell has been one of my favorite artists. Whenever I think of his work, an image of a jolly Santa pops into my head. I suppose this is due to the pieces of his that I saw as a kid. I now know that he his painting repertoire expands much farther than old Saint Nick, but I still like to consider Norman Rockwell my ‘Christmas artist.’
Best known for his 322 Saturday Evening Post cover illustrations, Rockwell became a 20th century American icon. He painted everything from Santa Clause to racial segregation. His realistic style is easy for the viewer to connect to. For instance, in the painting at the right, a day-in-the-life scene is depicted. The young girl sits upright on her stool, proudly showing off her flowers to the waiter across the counter. The anxious hours before for this night seem to have paid off; her date, sits, turned completely towards her, and smiles proudly. The viewer can sympathize with the youthful excitement hanging over the scene. Even the man on the other side of the girl grins as if remembering those youthful years of his own.
In my search to find something to write about for this week’s blog post, I looked through student artwork from the Ringling School of Art and Design. My inspiration came from Francis Vallejo’s The Sagging Evening Post. I was blown away by the creativity displayed in this work. Two ever so different men stand side by side. One, a member of the i-think-im-so-cool-because-my-pants-are-about-to-fall-off clan, and the other can’t seem to pull up his pants enough. Yet, both look at each other in distain, for they are certain that their pant-wearing ways are the best. It’s up to the viewer to make the laborious decision of: “to sag or not to sag?” Whatever the verdict, I think all would agree on the immense talent displayed in this piece of work. Similar to Rockwell, Francis Vallejo portrays the figures in a realistic, yet somewhat exaggerated style. Their brushstrokes are smooth and connected and the shading and hues used are accurate. Most important, both artists draw the viewer into their work by displaying scenes that one can connect too.

The Importance of Watermelon

Last year for Christmas, my cousins sent me a unique t-shirt. On the back was a picture of a melon, with the words, “Eat Mo’ Melon” above. Considering that my uncle grows watermelons for part of his job, this seemed to be an appropriate slogan for his triathlon team shirts. So now, the Miller family can walk around and encourage people to eat watermelon in the same way chick-fil-a attempts to sell chicken…quite amusing. Anyways, the point I’m trying to show is that melon is obviously very important in my family. Every year when we all meet at the beach, some type of melon is served with just about every meal. Because of all of this extra rind lying around, a few years ago, my cousin Jesse began to carve the leftover watermelon shells. The first year he started out simple and made a face with a carved flower for the “hair.” Last year he stepped it up a few notches, proceeding to create a fierce watermelon shark. The mouth, with many large teeth, was opened wide with a human foot made out of rind in its mouth… truly terrifying. Next, he added grape eyes and a rind fin. We all viewed it as a masterpiece, to say the least.

Amazing works of art can be created from foods other than watermelon I soon learned, such as eggs made into baby carriages, cauliflower sheep, and sushi nintendos. I was surprised to discover that people actually devote their time to crafting food into art on a daily basis. My favorite ‘piece of artwork’ that I found was an orange rind created into a man that was carrying an orange to the blender. The orange seems to weigh heavy on his shoulders as he takes a step forward. Although the artist is unknown, I have to give him/her major creativity points. I only wish I could be as cool as the food genius who created the orange man…maybe in a second life.

Mozart in Paris

Saint-Chapelle
Paris, France

When I was in 7th grade, my family went to Paris for spring break. The trip there ended up being much more stressful than any of us had imagined. It all started when we were informed that our first flight would not be taking off. Panic stricken, we searched for any mode of transportation to get us to Philadelphia in order to make the flight to France. After endlessly searching it seemed as though the reality of our Paris excursion was coming to a close. But finally, with the help of some southwest workers, we managed to get on a flight to Baltimore, at the expense of some other travelers. Thankfully, I don’t think they ever knew, hopefully we wont have to deal with karma later in life. The rest of the day was one of the most hectic and stressful days in my life. After renting a car in Baltimore we raced to Philadelphia in the middle of a massive snowstorm, as cars swerved off the road left and right. I remember sitting in the backseat of the cramped car in a dream-like state, attempting to divert my eyes from the crazy scene outside our warm car. At long last, we reached the deserted Philadelphia airport, jumped out of the car and ran inside to the AirFrance desk. Believing that we didn’t have enough time to take the rental car back, my dad simply parked the car in the airport lot and hurried inside to meet my mom and me. Thankfully security was a breeze considering we were the only people in the terminal because all other flights had been canceled for the night. We ran with our bags swinging and scarves flying until we reached our gate, only to find out that the flight had been delayed another hour. We took a satisfied but somewhat defeated breath and sat down, becoming known to those around us as ‘the crazy running Americans’.

Yet, I would go through that hectic day again if I could go back to France. Walking next to the Seine eating a homemade crêpe, listening to live music in the streets, viewing beautiful architecture, it doesn’t get much better than that. One of my favorite, yet coldest experiences was when we visited Sainte-Chapelle. The alluring building is known for its incredible stained glass windows. From the outside one can’t appreciate the multitude of colors, but the interior is astonishing. I remember walking inside and looking around in awe as the light shone through the windows. The wall-dissolving style of Sainte-Chapelle exemplifies High Gothic architecture in France. An astonishing 6,450 square feet of glass make up the high windows all around the building, the largest designed during their time.

Enticed by the concert flyers tacked up in the front of the building, my family and I decided to go to the Mozart concert that night in Sainte-Chapelle. Not surprisingly, the building did not have a heating system… none of us were fully prepared for this considering we had never been to a concert in an ancient stone building lacking the seemingly simple technology of a heating system. Needless to say it was a very cold surprise. Saint-Chapelle at night was a different church altogether from the shining, colorful building I had seen earlier that day. It was a perfect setting for a horror film: ominous shadows bouncing off the dark walls, the notes of Mozart wafting throughout the interior, as a group of innocent American tourists sat shivering in the cold. Still, we couldn’t have listened to a French string quartet in a more desirable setting.

Let the good times Roll..

The other day in class we created our own tympanums. My partner, Gracie, and I brainstormed many ideas: jungle, United States, anti-religion, apple computers…etc. But finally we decided to depict a rock band. We first divided our arch into three registers: crowd, stage, and backstage. In the center of our tympanum we drew a singer with spiked hair, skinny jeans, and chains. Around him is an almond-like shape, similar to a mandorla that would have surrounded Christ in the Romanesque period. He is depicted as the leader of the band, with his co-rockers on either side of him. The drummer and guitarist sit on his right, while the shaggy pianist plays away on his left. In the lower right hand corner above the lintel are speakers, sending the music towards the audience. Screaming silhouetted figures crowd the bottom register above the lintel. At either end of the audience, buff body guards stand watch to protect the rock band above.
Similar to the tympanum of the center portal of the narthex of La Madeleine, our voussoirs have images inside of them. Yet, while La Madeleine has images depicting people of different cultures from around the world, we drew images meant to symbolize different rock bands. From right to left, the bands depicted are: ACDC, the beatles, guns n’ roses, the rolling stones, the eagles, the police, red hot chili peppers, and earth wind and fire. Each voussoir, separated by bands of design, has a stage light protruding from the bottom shining towards the central figure. This is similar to the South Portal of St. Pierre, where all figures face Christ. Throughout the entire background of our tympanum, interlacing designs swarm, disguising various musical signs. Patterns such as this bring back the interlacing style of the warrior lords from the medieval period. Except in the case of our tympanum, music notes take the spot of animal figures amongst the interlacing designs. The central image above the lintel is a Latin phrase, translating as ‘let the good times roll:’ a summation of our tympanum.