Kaleidoscope
“Some are transformed just once / And live their whole lives after in that shape. / Others have a facility for changing themselves as they please.”
-Ovid
It finds its way into my hands—the small kaleidoscope—a trinket my grandfather passes along to me after finding it at the bottom of his toolbox one afternoon. “Hold it up to the light, Lauren,” he advises me, upon witnessing my attempts to unlock the kaleidoscope’s magic by aiming it towards the shadowy pavement. With hands clasped, eyes squinted, and head cocked, I finally spot the colored chips, a glittering lattice of blue, green, and yellow, stagnantly arranged and defined. “Turn it, now,” my grandfather orders, smiling. Suddenly, the clear composition unravels. It becomes a moving color war, triangles and rectangles interacting, skirting around one another to form patterns that linger only fleetingly before changing again. I gasp, intrigued. “That’s the beautiful part,” my grandfather observes. “It’s beautiful when it’s turning.”
The challenge of cleaning out my desk drawers in preparation for the move to New York results in my stumbling across an old coloring book. I leaf through the pages, startled by the number of pictures I’d left only partially colored. With quick, shaky movements, it seems as if I had simply jumped from shading one image to the next, as if there were something complete about leaving the figures incomplete. Sitting at my desk, fourteen years older, I laugh at my rendition of Big Bird, whose characteristically yellow feathers I had made blue and whose feet (I suppose I had decided) were altogether undeserving of color. And yet I get a sense that thi...
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... of wholeness, but the acceptance that I’ll always be a work-in-progress that creates the satisfying illusion of completeness.
Although ignorant of his own words, my grandfather has gotten it right: It is beautiful when it’s turning. We, as human beings, are not able to ossify what we perceive to be our “identity”; it will be forever changing—a kind of surreal, confounding, and complex reflection of our human experience. We possess innumerable facets, like little tubes of color that remain separate until some creative force removes all the caps and mixes them together. It is that mélange that initiates a masterpiece of identity—a masterpiece that is ever changing and never quite finished, but fulfilling in its progression. And it is precisely this understanding that makes the next stroke of the brush a little bit clearer, the portrait itself a bit more revealing.
Besides bright or dim colors, and fine or rough brush strokes, artists use centralized composition to convey their interpretations in "The Acrobat's Family with a Monkey," "Amercian Gothic," "The Water-Seller," and "The Third of May,1808.”
... turning some who can be seen as a blank canvas into someone new. In both ways, Evelyn and Henry Higgins are the artists to their work. Though they might not treat the people they are working with as a human, in the grander idea they have made them better. Adam finally comes to terms with his true personality, while Evelyn exposes what society believes are the norms for a person’s appearance. While, with Eliza, she leaves the life of being a beggar and becoming a duchess, showing how through hard work a person can change, and it becomes hard to return to one’s prior self. Both instances show art playing a large role in shaping their lives. From learning about life through art, people then strive to be on the same level as the art the see, trying to live a grander lifestyle. Showing that to a certain extent art can influence life more than life can influence art.
The issue of Slavery in the South was an unresolved issue in the United States during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. During these years, the south kept having slavery, even though most states had slavery abolished. Due to the fact that slaves were treated as inferior, they did not have the same rights and their chances of becoming an educated person were almost impossible. However, some information about slavery, from the slaves’ point of view, has been saved. In this essay, we are comparing two different books that show us what being a slave actually was. This will be seen with the help of two different characters: Linda Brent in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Frederick Douglass in The Narrative of the life of Frederick
Before you begin reading this paper, look through the appendix. Are you shocked? Disgusted? Intrigued? Viewers of such controversial artwork often experience a wide spectrum of reactions ranging from the petrified to the pleased. Questions may arise within the viewer regarding the artistic merit and legitimacy of this unorthodox artwork. However, art's primary purpose, according to Maya Angelou, “is to serve humanity. Art that does not increase our understanding of this particular journey or our ability to withstand this particular journey, which is life, is an exercise in futile indulgence” (Buchwalter 27). To expand on Angelou's analogy, because everyone experiences a different life journey, art is different to everyone. In other words, art is subjective to the viewer. The viewer creates his own definition of what is art and what is not art. Some may recognize the artistic value of a piece of artwork, while others may find it obscene. Some may praise the artwork, while others will protest it. Censorship is derived from these differing perspectives on artwork. Through censorship, communities seek to establish boundaries and criteria that limit an artist's ability to produce “proper” artwork. However, some artists choose to ignore these boundaries in order to expand the scope of art and, in their view, better serve humanity.
The novel depicts the protagonist, Dorian Gray, coming to realization of how everything in the world is not permanent, including his beauty due to a painting from Basil Hallward and a lecture of life from Lord Henry Wotton. In response, Gray sells his soul to the painting for eternal beauty, and that the painting should take his sins.Gray is content, even purposefully using trial and error on the emotions of people around him. Yet, the past comes back to haunt him, and Gray has to come to terms with time passing even if it is against his
In the beginning of the book, Dorian seems to be an innocent, charming, beautiful young man, and even referred to as “a wonderful creation” (ch 2). Dorian is described as this amazing person, with looks comparable to a God, charm that could swoon any woman, and a mesmerizing persona about him with the ability to draw anyone near, yet he seems to be so imperceptive to himself. His attitude of simplicity causes readers to be fond of him, passing their first judgments that he could not possibly be evil. As the story moves along readers see the first inkling that Dorian may not be so perfect. Dorian comments on “how sad it is…[that he] shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But the picture will remain always young” (ch 2). This statement lets readers inside Dorian’s thoughts, showing how shallow and frivolous Dorian views life to be. He places so much value and esteem on looks alone, forgetting that being painted should be an honor, or at the very least...
“After his second-grade class created self-portraits last year, I noticed that he was the only one not hanging on the classroom wall. His teacher explained that his portrait was ‘a work in progress.’ The
Throughout the 1830-1840’s the opposing governmental parties, the Jacksonian Democrats and the Whigs, undertook many issues. The Whigs were a party born out of their hatred for President Andrew Jackson, and dubbed his harsh military ways as “executive usurpation,” and generally detested everything he did while he was in office. This party was one that attracted many other groups alienated by President Jackson, and was mainly popular among urban industrial aristocrats in the North. On the other hand, the Jacksonian Democrats were a party born out of President Andrew Jackson’s anti-federalistic ideals that was extremely popular among southern agrarians. A major economic issue that the two parties disagreed on was whether or not the United States should have a National Bank. Along with the National Bank, the two parties also disagreed on the issue of the Protective tariff that was enforced to grow Northern industry. Politically, the two parties disagreed on the issues of Manifest Destiny, or expansion, and ultimately Slavery. While the two parties essentially disagreed on most issues, there are also similarities within these issues that the two parties somewhat agree on.
The first bit of information shared at the beginning of the essay is a quote from Reynolds writings claiming that he wants to heighten the dignity of the art of painting. He considers it to be on the same dignified par as literature and poetry. Gill Perry claims that Joshua Reynolds dignifies painting in a variety of ways. The most prominent aspect of Joshua Reynolds female portraiture is the way that he disguises women as significant figures. This adds a lot of dignity and sophistication to his work because it adds layers of meaning to be interpreted by a viewer. He wanted to break the common interpretations of portraiture. Portraiture was considered to be much about likeness. This meaning that it simply looks like the person or makes a simple statement about the person. These concepts leave much to be
Surrounded by paintings. Surrounded by color. My eyes traveled from painting to painting, taking me to new places. Finally, I landed at home. Titanium white spread on with a palette knife, with burst of colors painted with a dry brush. I was drawn to Autumn Lilies like a magnet to metal. I saw myself taking the brush from Mary G. L. Hood. I saw myself painting this painting.
Marilyn is told many times by people close to her that undergoing the transformation will make her beautiful and powerful, whereas if she doesn’t she will be unattractive and unappealing. “But afterwards, you'll be beautiful.” (Number 12 Looks Just Like You). Lana mentions to Marilyn many times that the transformation was the best decision she ever made and she was very ugly before going through the process, despite Marilyn thinking she was beautiful even before the process. Marilyn’s good friend, Valerie, also tries to convince her to undergo the transformation. She brings up Marilyn’s family and her own, she also mentions how painless and easy the process is. The high praise put onto the transformation process cause people in this society to be brainwashed into believe anyone who does not undergo the transformation is ugly and foolish. Not wanting to be labeled as such, many people, including Marilyn and her father, decide to undergo the transformation against their heart’s desires. Although transformation improves physical appearance and allows humans to live longer, it deprives people of basic life experiences that are necessary to enjoy it. If you have forever youth, you would not cherish your youthful years as much as if it had a limit. If everyone looked perfect and extraordinary then no one would be beautiful, instead
Looking at landscape art, especially when painted by one of the masters, many have undoubtedly pondered: what would it be like to live there? Shapes and attention to detail are, of course, important in a painting. However, it is color that draws the eye and inspires the heart. Oscar Wilde, an Irish poet and dramatist, spoke well of this when he noted that, “Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways. (qtd in “color”)”. Vincent Ward had a similar understanding of this impact when, in 1998, he directed the movie What Dreams May Come. Looking at this film, one can easily imagine being inside a living painting. The use of color to emphasize the emotional state of a character or event is common in films; nevertheless, Director Ward goes even farther in using color to represent the actual characters themselves. Red is the shade chosen to signify Annie and likewise, blue is used for Chris. Both of these, as will be shown, are accurate in defining these fictitious people. However, it is the profound use of purple in this film that is the true focal point. When mixing red and blue paint, one would find that, after being mixed, they cannot be separated. Likewise, this is true of the life and love these characters build and share. Purple represents the many ways in which Chris and Annie are melded, and joined.
Beauty isn’t subjective. It’s one of the only things in the world that cannot be denied. Things are either beautiful or they are not. Art is beautiful. Art is not always meant to be interpreted, sometimes you just need to admire it for its beauty, not for what it means. Oscar Wilde, an Irish writer best known for his book The Picture of Dorian Gray and for writing plays like The Importance of Being Earnest, wrote this and almost based the book earlier mentioned on the whole ideal that beauty doesn’t have to mean more than just beauty. I feel like Oscar Wilde’s greatest strength is his play on words and often use of caricature that really livens up what he writes. He lived during the Victorian era, when art was meant to be used to teach and to influence the minds of society, so as he wrote the book The Picture of Dorian Gray, he strived to prove a great point and contradiction to the era he was living in, as well as the way he uses Dorian’s two best friends to show the hideousness of the bigotry he was living in, as he was arrested and imprisoned for being gay. Oscar Wilde’s use of irony, foil, and symbolism really portray his total disgust towards the age he was living in by rebelling and contradicting the use of art as a tool and the intolerance he was surrounded with during this Victorian age.
The use of social networking has both its advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is “an Internet social network can help you connect with other people who share your interest, and find resources to ga...
Even though one's physical appearance may change over time, deep down inside that person will always be the same. In Pygmalion, Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering met a young flower girl whose character was appalling to the men. Pickering said he would pay for all expenses if Higgins could pass Eliza, the flower girl off as a lady. With much work Higgins won the bet. He passed the flower girl off as a lady in the public eye, but even though he “changed” Eliza she was still the same flower girl she used to be. Because no two people are the same, no one should try to be changed into someone they are not.