The Farmers Market

So today I went to the Provo Farmers Market, and I must say I was a little disappointed. I went to the website for the event, and saw pictures of:
People playing music

Enormous cotton candy!

Cute babies


None of these were there! There were a lot of stands selling vegetables, home-made clothes/accessories, and random chain food like Subzero Ice Cream. The atmosphere was annoying, as everything was crowded, hot, and loud. There were a lot of little kids running around, and NO cute babies. The people seemed to be kind of hickish, and there were many plaid shirts. Surprisingly, the people attending the market seemed to be more of rednecks and farmers than the people running the booths themselves! Some of the booths themselves were interesting. One was selling LDS art, and it had some good paintings of the prophet and his wife. Most of the paintings were extremely similar however, even though they were painted by many different artists. One stand was selling tie dye clothes, and there was a tie dye poncho, which is probably the greatest thing ever made.

                                           Awesome!

 
I was disappointed that there was no live music, and the stand keepers decided that blasting country and pop was a viable alternative. It wasn’t. The best thing about the market was defiantly the smells. There was grilled teriyaki chicken, kettle corn, French fries, and all sorts of random deliciousness. So in conclusion, the Farmers Market, was disappointing, and I certainly did not feel any more “enlightened” or cultured. I imagined local farmers peddling goods; not chain restaurants like Subzero Ice Cream. However, some of the booths did seem to be family run, and there was a booth for signing up to donate blood, which I was glad to see. So, overall, I would have to give the Farmers Market a mediocre 5 out of 10.

My plan for cultural events:

Week 1: Farmer's Market

Week 2: Provo Gallery

Week 3: SLC Twilight Concert

Week 4: Ballet Under the Stars

Week 5: Sundance Screening

Week 6: Springville Musuem of Art

Week 7: Salt Lake Gallery

Week 8: Dance Sport

Impressions from Class: Week 1

In class, we had a brief overview of the history of art. While it was pretty funny to see that the Romans shamelessly copied the Greeks, I was most interested in the eras of art from the 20th century to now. Here are some of my favorites from each of these eras:

Impressionism 

In this painting, you can see the extreme care that was taken to perfectly portray the way the artist saw the sun illuminating the clouds and reflecting across the water. The people boating across the lake are barely discernable, and the same goes for the dark city in the background. The painting is vibrant and emotional, capturing a fleeting moment of perfect lighting and atmosphere. 

 Post-impressionism 

This self portrait of Van Gogh struck me because it has a haunting tone to it. It uses dark colors and swirling patterns to create a discomforting atmosphere. I liked that this portrait was able to make me feel a certain way (distressed). The portrait seems to reflect Van Gogh’s troubled mind, much in the same way Dorian Gray’s portrait mirrored the condition of his soul.

Modernism

This painting is extremely surreal, with clocks melting away. To me this seems to signify how our perception of the timing of memories is often not lined up with reality. It may be a reference to the telescopic effect, which basically states that as we age, we view distant events as having occurred sooner than they did, and recent events as occurring more distant than in reality. The phrase “it seems like only yesterday …..” is a perfect example of this. The distorted clocks are bent, changing the path of the hands of the clock, just as our memories seem to follow a bent timeline rather than the straight path of reality.

Post-Modernism

This picture is a mockery of The Persistence of Memory. I liked it because it is funny, mocking the art elitists by centering the picture on popular culture, allowing everyone, not just those with advanced degrees to appreciate it.

The Importance of the Arts

Reading the first few chapters of Coming to Your Senses and Taylor’s article “End the University as We Know It” has certainly changed the way I look at the place and purpose of fine arts. Majoring in neuroscience, I have always been more of a logical and scientific thinker.
See also: Sophic
See also: Apollonian
See also: Left-brain
See also: Socratic
What I have learned is that liberal and fine arts, reason and emotion, science and art are often intertwined. Looking back to the Greek Classical era, you will see beautiful sculptures that are not only artistic and aesthetic, but also anatomically precise.

Likewise, contemporary art can have a scientific foundation.

I have also realized that the fine arts can be a powerful way of expressing liberal arts. Art can express:

Political Science

Philosophy

Sociology

From the article “End the University as We Know It” I have seen the advantages of a more holistic education. Our college system of narrow specialization in fields has created many specialists, but at what cost? Without a cultural literacy, and an appreciation of the arts, these specialists have missed part of the human experience! As Charles Darwin lamented late in his life “The loss of [my taste for the arts] is a loss of happiness, and possibly injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character.” As a boy, Darwin took great pleasure in music and Shakespearean plays. As he grew older, and devoted literally all his time to science, he lost his ability to appreciate those arts; therefore losing a part of himself. Hopefully I will not suffer this same fate.