Art and Museum Visit/ Experiences Summer 2017
Alright. A lot happened so far throughout the summer, and only within the first half! The list of things I saw within June is insane, just by itself. But I can't talk about everything. So instead, I'll just highlight the main events.
June:
First of all, I was able to do both a day camp and residential camp at DAAP. I have to say that those both were incredible and extremely tiring (in a good way) experiences. The Day Camp I did was the Art of Fashion Camp, where we designed and produced vests, and talked about the ecological/environmental impact that the Fashion Industry has on our planet. At the end of the week, I, along with all my other fellow camp mates, walked the catwalk in our designs we made in a week. I had no idea I had that kind of work in me. Other than me obviously passing out on the way home at the end of the week, Wednesday was also a crazy exhausting day. We visited a soft goods manufacturer, and saw the 100s of 1000s of products they were in charge of producing and also fixing (like Kate Spade's purses- boy, if you heard the stuff the designers and manufacturers used to try and skimp by with, you'd be cringing as hard as I was). After that, we went onto the Cincinnati Art Museum (there's your local art museum requirement- which I am not using for my art museum visit; sit tight) and looked at the historical costumes in paintings - which, you can imagine I was eating up, but more exciting than that, we got to see 1800-1900 and contemporary garments down in the ARCHIVES. I mean, that was a huge deal to me at least. Here are a few photos:
There wasn't a lot of fine-art-related things to see in Copenhagen. Of course, there was excellent architecture. The first thing we visited of course was a "tourist-trap", the statue of the Little mermaid dedicated to Author Hans Christian Andersen's original tale- of the same title (Danish translation: Den lille Havfrue).
We also visited Tivoli, a historic (but nonetheless awesome) theme park and gardens right in Copenhagen. We were able to stay out late as we had two days in Copenhagen. It basically looked like Epcot,
Moving onto DAAP's Residential Camp, which I was in Shoe Design for. Interesting experience. And let me just say as a disclaimer, I was the only girl who chose to be in there. The other two wanted to be in ID (keep in mind there were 18 total in this discipline. Yes, it's the the kind of joke you're sent cry-laughing about... mostly crying).
But I mean, GEEZ, every guy was doing "athletic street wear". I was in Teenage Boy Sneaker-head Hell. Just to give you an idea, the presentations went a little something like this: "my shoe is built for the court but also, like, for the street" or "my shoe's built for the street but can also be worn on the court." Ah, yes, extremely creative.
July:
I didn't choose a "local or regional art museum" as you asked on the assignment paper, so let me just get that out of the way. No. I went bigger. International level "bigger". from July 4th to 20th I was traveling Scandinavia, on a cruise (but I don't think i should be docked points for my mode of transportation). Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, just to name a few. There was never a dull moment. Again, way too much stuff for me to talk about, here at least. I can just tell you it all in person. For now, I'll just give the highlights.
Stockholm, Sweden:
Stockholm has an INCREDIBLE museum on the history of war. I mean, absolutely INCREDIBLE and bone-chilling. What was supposed to be a quick visit actually took a whole half of a day. It was my fault. Whoops. But look at these garments, they're incredible!
I could easily spend days in there.
St. Petersburg, Russia:
I think I saw so much gold, I almost had a heart attack. I mean, Russian Royalty goes hard.
Day 1:
Three Words: Pushkin Catherine Palace
I can't say anything, and no picture will do it justice, but just look anyway.
(There was a Francois Boucher painting on the ceiling! Actually, there were a couple rooms with Boucher's paintings!)
As an important note, they're actually going to be switching the marble statues out- in these next few pictures- with plaster replicas.
I can say with confidence that I have never, nor do I think I will ever see this much gold in my life in the amount displayed. and those are just a few of the pictures!
Day 2:
Church of the Savior on Blood:
The outside looks like typical Russian architecture (like Saint Basil's Cathedral in the Red Square of Moscow), but have I ever mentioned how intimidating the inside architecture was in some of these cathedrals? It gave my acrophobia just looking up!
The Hermitage:
It's insane, because there are Egyptian artifacts that are 3,000+ years old, but everyone wants to see all the "Madonna and Child" paintings they could possibly ever want or need, and then some. I say that, though I do understand and did get to see some of Rembrandt's work. I took little to no pictures this day, to the advice of the cruise's art director (you can understand why), so I don't have a lot to show, but if theres one thing to be said, it's that there"s way too much art to be seen and too little time. Common issue in modern society among us art people, I guess.
The Peter & Paul Fortress, Saint Petersburg:
After being in the Hermitage earlier, I was kind of underwhelmed by the outside appearance of this place (Besides the gold accents. Couldn't get enough of that!)
But I had no clue of what was on the inside. Because besides this being the burial location of the Romanovs (you know, like that not-Disney-Disney movie, Anastasia?), It was so beautifully decorated.
Copenhagen, Denmark
Incredibly I got a picture of a swan. I was able to get close to it, but not as close as some other people, which is amazing, with the reputation of swans being more aggressive than they appear to be.
We also visited Tivoli, a historic (but nonetheless awesome) theme park and gardens right in Copenhagen. We were able to stay out late as we had two days in Copenhagen. It basically looked like Epcot,
Amsterdam, Netherlands (Holland)
This is where we got off the cruise ship. We did have a Shore Excursion Tour to go visit Zaans Shans,
a town famously known for it's windmills. This is also a cheese farm (Cow, Sheep, and Goat), and a clog-making factory.
I really wish we had more time in Amsterdam, as we really only had a day, before flying back. If I can, I will surely be visiting there again. Although i didn't get to go see Rembrandt's works at the Rijksmuseum or the Rembrandt House museum, I did get to go to the Van Gogh Museum! I had no idea until that day, and basically wiped myself out taking in all the possible information I could. Although I don't have any pictures off the works, because they have a strict no-pictures policy (which I appreciate, because that way people can actually take in his works).
I really wish we had more time in Amsterdam, as we really only had a day, before flying back. If I can, I will surely be visiting there again. Although i didn't get to go see Rembrandt's works at the Rijksmuseum or the Rembrandt House museum, I did get to go to the Van Gogh Museum! I had no idea until that day, and basically wiped myself out taking in all the possible information I could. Although I don't have any pictures off the works, because they have a strict no-pictures policy (which I appreciate, because that way people can actually take in his works).
(I don't have any pictures of paintings, but I do have a picture of the sign from within the museum)
Other than the Van Gogh Museum, we went on a Canal Tour.
Back Home in Cincinnati
Cincinnati Art Museum
I was invited to go along with my grandmother's "Antique Club" (Except for, are they really antiques if they're the same age as the members?...Just joking). We visited the Tiffany Glass exhibit. I don't really think I need to talk about it, as I'm pretty sure a lot of people have seen the exhibit. I was more interested in the details of the process and the chemistry of the glass, and it gave me some ideas for color mixing and palettes for future art.
