Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Narrative 1


I was in Geometry with Mr. Smith going over last night’s homework, when I heard my phone vibrate in my bag. When Mr. Smith went out of the room to get the test that he forgot to print before class, I pulled out my phone. The text said “Claire, come to the bathroom I really need to talk to you.” I responded saying how I have a test soon and that I couldn’t but we could talk after school. With a quick response Michelle said “This can’t wait, it’s really important.” Claire wasn’t the type of person who would ask for anybody help so I knew this was serious.
As soon as Mr. Smith came in the room I told him I didn’t feel good and had to go to the nurse. Of course, if I had told him the truth and asked to go to the bathroom he would tell me to wait until after the test. This couldn’t wait Michelle needed me. He believed me and let me go to the nurse wishing me to get better.
I took the shortest route to the bathroom possible. Usually when I leave class I go the longest way just to get out of class, especially during silent reading. As I was walking all the ideas of what could be wrong ran through my head. Is she moving? Are her parents getting divorced? She has mentioned that her parents had been fighting a lot lately. Did she and Ian break up? Ian always had treated her badly. No, those can’t be it; she could have easily told me after school since we were hanging out later.
I came across the door labeled Girls and was nervous to find out the secret. As I opened it two of the four stalls were full. I knew Michelle was in the first stall because I saw her favorite pink sandals under the stall. I waited until the other girl left the bathroom to talk to her. I stood against the wall next to the sink, waiting for Michelle to come out.
She came out of the first stall holding her sweater that she had worn over her blue dress in her hand. I could see her looking at something inside the sweater, her face looked nervous with fear. Michelle was never the type of person to be afraid of anything. I stayed against the wall waiting for her to talk. Her mouth stayed open as if not knowing what to say. So I walked over to her to find out what was in her hand.
I couldn’t believe what I saw. Everything that I thought was wrong wasn’t. I looked up at Michelle still not saying a word, but trying to understand where her fear was coming from. I hugged her for what seemed forever, not wanting to let go, just to let her know that I was here for her.
Michelle was the last person I thought this would happen to. Her boyfriend and she were serious but this I couldn’t believe. Michelle was an independent leader who always made the right decision. But this decision she could never take back. She did tell me about that night, but I thought nothing of it until now.
Finally the silence was broken, “What am I gonna do?” Michelle sobbed. I held her tighter as if hugging her any tighter would make it all go away. I reassured her that I will always be here for her, as if the hugging didn’t speak for itself. So many questions came out of her. She always knew the answer; I was usually the one with all the questions. But now it was my turn to be the good friend. With every question I made a reasonable answer. But one question I couldn’t seem to find the answer. She asked, “How am I going to tell my parents?” I paused not know what to say, Michelle’s parents haven’t been getting along and this would only add on to the fighting making things harder. Michelle’s dad was also a very protecting father. Michelle had a curfew, her dad had to meet every boy that she wanted to date, and Michelle had to get all A’s and B’s in school or she’d be grounded. Her cry got louder and louder, I had to come up with an answer soon. I finally said, “I’ll tell them with you.” I think she liked this answer because her crying lessened. She said she’d tried tested it two other times but they all came out the same, positive. This was the third time, she knew she was. She also said that after the second time she had told Ian that she thought she was. Ian was in college so he could easily disappear out of Michelle’s life whenever he wanted to. Discovering he could be a father he did exactly that and disappeared.
She told me she has felt more alone than ever before. I told her again that I was here for her. I felt helpless but being there for her was all I could do. We were in the bathroom until the last school bell rang. We waited until the hallways were clear. We left the building and hoped into my red convertible. I drove us to my house, knowing that my mom wasn’t going to be home until later tonight. We talked about how we were going to tell her parents and that we were going to do it tomorrow.
Before we knew it, the day came when she had to tell her parents. We called them into the room telling them we needed to talk about something serious. Sitting on the blue couch our nerves were getting to us. It was time to see how they would react.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Psychology

http://www.succeedsocially.com/notinterested
This website is about why some people don’t want to be friends with other people. It says that someone can’t be a match for everyone. It also says that maybe you just don’t hang out at the same events that they go to. The website has many other examples to why someone may not seem interested in being friends with you.

Psychology

http://www.succeedsocially.com/notinterested
This website is about why some people don’t want to be friends with other people. It says that someone can’t be a match for everyone. It also says that maybe you just don’t hang out at the same events that they go to. The website has many other examples to why someone may not seem interested in being friends with you.

History

http://www.infed.org/biblio/friendship.htm
This website describes friendship over time. During earlier time Aristotle had his own view on friendship. It also describes modern vies on friendship. Also the age of friendship has different experiences with friends. It describes a five stage model with ages between 3-15. The final stage after these stages is adulthood.

Website

http://www.squidoo.com/traditions-of-friendship
This website describes the symbols of friendship. There are certain types of fruit, plants, flowers, jewels/ jewelry, and animals that are symbolic of friendship. On this website you can also find friendship quotes. It also tells you the traditions of friendship.

International

http://www.ipfusa.com/
This website is about Pen Friends also known as Pen Pals. This website provides people with pen pals around the world. This allows people from foreign countries to become friends through letters. The people are matched by their age, their interests, and their hobbies. It also allows school from all around the world to sign up and get pen pals.

Psychology

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Psychology-of-Friendship-and-Success&id=728330
The psychology of friendship and success is described on this website. This article is saying to advance in success you will have to put aside your friends and family. It also says that we say yes to all of our friend’s invitations but then regret it the next day for not studying for a big test you have. This article shows how sometimes friendship can get in the way of success.

Psychology

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200611/friendship-the-laws-attraction
This website goes well with my concept of Friendship. On this friendship it tells you how people become friends. It explains that we are more likely to become friends with people we see on a regular basis. The article also tells how some friendships last while others seem to fall apart. It also says that we are best friends with the people who support our own views on ourselves.

History

http://www.friendshipday.org/friendship-day-history.html
This website is about Friendship Day. Friendship Day is on the first Sunday of August. In 1935 the United States Congress made Friendship Day an official event. Also below the history of friendship is an article about the importance of friendship in the bible. The article explains how Jesus and his disciples’ friendships are constantly expanding.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Poem

Follow Me
By : Michelle Newton

Take my hand and follow me
to that place I long to be.
Take my hand and trust my way,
in that place forever stay.
Follow me toward the sand;
we'll run and play, hand in hand.
Take my heart and hold it true;
forever I'll stay close to you.
Seize my words and listen well,
then forever I will tell.
Release your heart and feelings too,
just as I will do for you.
Trust your heart and follow me,
to that place we long to be.

Raphael Soyer Biography

Artist: Raphael Soyer
Title: My Friends
Location: Russia
Medium: Oil on canvas
Regarded as America's leading advocate of realism, Raphael Soyer devoted his long, productive life to "painting people ... in their natural context-who belong to their time." During the 1930s, Soyer's poignant portrayals of New York City's office workers and the unemployed secured his reputation as a major Social Realist. The painting My Friends reflects the shift in Soyer's work of the 1940s from urban environments towards interior scenes. In this work, he has combined two common themes of his oeuvre: intimate studies of solitary women, often nudes, and portraits of fellow artists, reflecting his great affection and admiration for them. In 1941 his show, My Contemporaries and Elders, featured portraits of Raphael himself, his twin Moses Soyer, Chaim Gross, and David Burliuk. All four artists, along with Nicolai Cikovsky, later appeared in My Friends, one of Soyer's largest paintings. Represented in Soyer's studio, from left to right, are Cynthia Brown, Cikovsky, Moses, Burliuk, and the figurative sculptor Gross. In the background, Raphael is seated at his easel, painting an unidentified nude model. A scroll in the foreground proclaims, "Friendship is the wine of life." Among Soyer's closest friends were the painters Cikovsky and Burliuk, who shared his Russian heritage. Soyer's favorite artist-model was the pioneering cubo-futurist Burliuk, who is seated in the center of My Friends.Since 1917, Soyer's most frequent model was himself, often with pencil or brush in hand. "I always paint myself appearing introverted.... I never make myself entirely like myself. I always appear older looking, or unshaven, or all alone. It's the result of looking a little bit more deeply." Like Soyer, his friends are, in his works, portrayed as introspective, "dissociated from one another even when they're painted together." He felt that this interpretation derived not only from looking at the world from hisperspective but also as a result of New York City's "certain coldness and hardness and dissociation," which compelled him "to dig, to scrape, to unearth the beauty." Soyer appreciated this combination of aloofness and penetration in the work of Edgar Degas, which he regarded as a reflection of the artist's personality and profound psychological modernity. Soyer was "fascinated by the art of Degas-worldly, analytical, refined." The casual cropping of the nude model behind the space-dividing screen recalls Soyer's appreciation of Degas's compositional devices. Likewise, the subtle color scheme, the disassociation of carefully arranged, introverted figures, and the sense of the honest, unguarded moment in My Friends all suggest Soyer's admiration of such Degas group compositions as The Belleli Family (1858-67, Musee d'Orsay, Paris) and Portraits in an Office (New Orleans) (1873, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Pau).My Friends pays homage to the venerable tradition of group portraiture. According to Soyer, "the two greatest portrait groups ever painted" were Rembrandt van Rijds The Syndics (1661, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) and Diego Velazquezs Las Mefiinas (1656, Nacional Museo del Prado). Velazquez's masterpiece reminded him of another work with the artist at his easel, Gustave Courbet's The Painter's Studio (1855, Mus6e d'Orsay, Paris). Soyer admired Courbet's "eloquent ... restrained color harmony" and "complete absence of melodrama." My Friends was featured in the major exhibition, Painting in the United States 1948, and in a solo show, both at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, that year. Reviewing this exhibition, Robert M. Coates praised Soyer's "design [which] in such pieces as the large studio group called My Friends ... has become at once sounder and bolder."
GAIL STAVITSKY

Image 8

Artist: Pablo Picasso
Title: La Coiffure
Location: Spain
Medium: Oil on canvas


Image 7

Artist: Raphael Soyer
Title: Annunciation
Location: Russia
Medium: Oil on linen

Image 6


Artist: Mary Cassatt
Title: Young Women Picking Fruit
Location: Allegheny City, Pennsylvania
Medium: Oil

Image 5

Artist: Jesse TreviƱo

Title: Mis hermanos

Location: San Antonio

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Image 4

Artist: Washington Allston
Title: Hermia and Helena
Location: Waccamaw Parish, South Carolina
Medium: Oil on canvas

Friday, March 5, 2010

Image 3

Title:Girl’s Best Friend
Artist: Unknown
Medium: Photograph
Location:Unknown

Image 2

Title: Telling Secrets
Artist: Michele Hawes
Medium: Photograph
Location: Canada

Image 1

Title: Friendship
Artist: Pablo Picasso
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Location: St. Petersburg, Russia

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Critique 2


The artist of this painting is Romero Britto. The name of this image is friendship. The media of it is graphic edition, silkscreen. The subject matter of this piece is friendship. The image is made up of different shapes and patterns.
In the field of this piece there are many squares and rectangles with various patterns and colors. Some of the patterns in this image contain lines of different colors. All the parts in this piece make up a composition. The compostion parts make the image a whole. A balance is made between shapes to make the piece to make separate parts become equal. Harmony is well used to put the figures together using shapes. There is a good amount of tone seeing as though there are many different colors. The colors of this piece make it much more interesting and set a happy mood. It is subtle that the white figure has two different patterns on its face. The foreground is the two figures that seem to be embracing each other. The water droplets coming from the cat licking the other figure implies that there is movement going on it this piece. The cat licking the other figure renders that they like each other and that they are friends.
The focal point i see in this image is the cats face. The reason why I think the cats face is the focal point is because its face is a solid yellow. Also that cats face is in the center of the image. The story that I see within the piece is a cat with a person or something that has taken care of that cat. The cat is thanking the other figure by licking its face. Also the white figure is hugging the cat showing that they are friends. There are some characteristics that make this piece strong. Such as the use of shapes,along with patterns used to put this image together. The amount of color makes the piece pleasing to look at. There are also characteristics that make the piece weak. A weak characteristic is not being able to tell what exactly the figure on the right is.

Critique 1


This piece of art is name Friendship. The artist of this art is Oleg Zhivetin. The subject matter is friendship. In the composition of this piece I see three faces on two people. I also see a lot of shapes and designs that make up the two people.

There are many components in this image. First the person on the left has a subtle house on their chest. Also in this image there is chiaroscuro between the light skin tones on thier faces and their hands, and the dark tones of their clothing and the backround. Color is shown; the person on the right face has more light reflecting off of their face than the other persons face. There is more values of darkness than there is light. The person on the right shows motion by reaching for the flower in the other person's hands. There is harmony of parts to create the two people. Also many shapes make up the two people. In the field there are many lines in the air. Behind the people is a black shaded oval. Also the background consists of linear colorful lines. The shapes that make up the people seem to show a texture. There is not much of a good tone of colors, they are mainly the same tints such as blue, yellow, and red.

The focal point in this picture is the persons face that is on the right. The reason why I believe I see this as the focal point is because that face is the brightest piece of the image. The story I see within this piece is two girls who are friends with each other. One of them is being nice to the other one and is giving the other a flower. The characteristics that make this picture strong is the use of different tones in the image. It also is made effective by the fact that it tells a story about friendship. Even though there are many characteristics that make this piece strong and effective there are characteristics that make this piece weak. The characteristics that make this piece weak are the shaded backround between the two people.