Day Five: Field Trip Days are the Best Days

Sentani house post figure. Used as
decorations in the dwellings of chiefs

Both sections of Paul and Frank's classes took a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art today. The beauty of the NY metro is that although the Met is eighty blocks uptown, it only takes ten minutes and three subway stops to get there. It's so convenient, I would like to go again. In fact, I have to go again. The Met is just so big. The size of the collections, and the many wings of the museum is stunning. Losing yourself in the Met is all too easy. Not only is remembering the location of the many different exhibitions a challenge, but all of the works are so beautiful that you could spend weeks there without becoming bored. I think museums like the Met should sell tickets like theme parks do - offering multiple-day passes so that visitors can appreciate all the attractions. Nonetheless, a student ticket is only $12, so I'm sure I'll go back.

Marble statue of a youthful Hercules
(AD 68-98)

We spent the day in four main parts of the museum. When we arrived, Paul led us straight the travelling exhibition, which featured punk fashion and highlighted its influence on couture fashion. The exhibition focused a lot on the designs of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm Mclaren. Their designs centered around anarchy, violence, and sex. Punk's used a lot of destruction, graffitti (spray paint) art, and use of hardware to create their attire. Even more interesting than punks' choice to diverge from the path of fashion and culture norms was that their movement in the 70s served and still serves as inspiration for (very famous) fashion houses. The "historical" punk fashion from the 20th century stood alongside the modern renditions of the statement pieces. Big names like Givenchy, Prada, and McQueen featured in the exhibit. I was blown away with the scale and ingenuity of the dresses and separates. After seeing the exhibit, I've found a lot of inspiration for my group's design project, and aspire to create something as beautiful, unique, and thought-provoking as those seen in the exhibition.

The rest of the day was filled with drawing in several locations within the museum. We drew in the Roman/Greek art gallery, the Medieval armor gallery, and the Island/Pacific art gallery. This was my favorite part of the entire day. All we did was sit, and look, and draw. It was great. I found that a lot of my pieces were too complex, and that I didn't have the time to shade them as I liked. Though Paul dismissed class at 3, I decided to stay later to finish my drawings. Eventually, I stayed until 5 and I managed to completely shade 2/3 drawings. It's interesting to draw in a museum, because other visitors are always so interested in your work. There were several people who took pictures of me drawing, which was strange, but flattering. It's nice to know that your art is appreciated by other people.

On the subway ride back to Union Square, I stuck my admission sticker into my sketchbook, and I really like the way it looks. I want to fill my sketchbook more with drawings like the ones that I did today, because  I really enjoyed the process as well as the product.