Friday, January 20, 2006

The Science of Art


Art is Science made clear.
~Jean Cocteau

What is it that made me love science? I obviously had (have) a passion for the subject throughout the end of high school and the beginning of university, to the point where I still really enjoy learning about it. And yet, here I am now, an arts student. When I think back to Fogarty's class, or Beatty's class, or Gallant's class; when I think back to Astrophotography and taking pictures of nebulas and meteors hitting the moon; or Aventis and blended fish guts smelling up an unplugged fridge all summer; when I think back even to Wednesday's Anthropology class on genes and evolution, I am struck by this thrill of excitement! It certainly is not a desire to learn more math equations or name carbon bonds or understand formulas.

No, it was none of those things.

What I love about science is the intricacy of it all. To learn about science is to learn about how everything works together from the very smallest building blocks of our world, to the wonders of our universe!
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2006/01/

That's the great thing about it. Instead of pushing the science that I love aside, I have instead embraced it! That is what I fell in love with when I encountered my English and Philosophy classes. Art is taking the natural world, and looking at it in a way that isn't blinded with formulas and equations, but instead looking beyond that and finding beauty. I am not in any way denying our science around us. We are biological entities. But art is what lifts us above our biology. I believe that science unifies us with our humanity, but art attempts to connect us with the divine. Oh, how sublime.

This idea however presents me with a dilemma, one which I find myself at an impasse. If art really has this power to enlighten and evoke contemplation; if beauty is really something above our purely humanistic elements, then experiencing art should be much more of a sacred event than it is now. Instead, because of how easily art can be reproduced, we just glance over it. Anytime a photograph or a poem is added to my blog, I am further endorsing the mind set of our society to merely glance over to figure out what the quick and hard point is.

Maybe there isn't a point. Maybe art has no simple formulas. Maybe art is the language of the gods.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Success


Old, stone staircase, what do you know
Of success?
You know the coming and going of seasons;
Summer, winter, autumn, and spring.
You feel the load of each freshman,
Stepping up to undertake the pressure.
You feel the steps of each graduate -
Walking out of one world and into another.

Oh, old stone staircase,
what do you know of success?
When I would rather sit on you
and weep,
Than walk one step further into this unknown place.

-picture taken behind the library at Mount Allison University.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Apples and Oranges

I remember when I was just a wee girl (well, in middle school and high school), my dad used to tell me that someday, I'd be the type of girl that all the right guys would fall for. At the time, I felt ugly and lonely and would constantly wonder why I wasn't good enough to get a boyfriend. My dad told me that someday, the boys would notice the smart girl, who was beautiful to boot (I never felt beautiful, but Dad told me I was).

Now I stand, and look back with my 20/20 goggles, and realize that he was right. When Dan fell for me, it wasn't my looks that grabbed him. It wasn't my sexuality, or my flirtatiousness which caught his attention. No, it was when we started to talk about what was important to us; when I talked about my faith and my lifestyle, and who I was underneath my clothes, underneath my makeup, underneath my skin, and in my heart and mind.

So, to my sister and to the boys who are missing out, I give you this quote (I thank nc_martialartist for bringing the quote to my attention):

Girls are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. The boys don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they just get the rotten apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy. So the apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they're amazing. They just have to wait for the right boy to come along, the one who's brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.

I wish someone as beautiful as you could know that you're going to be so loved by someone. And don't feel bad about being lonely, but don't think that finding someone is the ultimate bliss either. You are beautiful. The bible speaks about Eve being the crown of creation, the thing that made it perfect. Some day, you will fell as beautiful as you are meant to feel. You are worthy to be loved for who you are, for everything you are.

I sometimes wish that we aren't always searching for constant reassurance. Sometimes we go above it, or find it in the wrong places if we can't get it how we want. But many times this desire just leads to pain. I wish no one had to go through the pain. I wish the difference between our emotions and our realities weren't like comparing apples and oranges.

Friday, January 06, 2006