Out of the blue

I was netflix surfing today and I finally got around to a movie that's been sitting in my instant queue for a few months now. I feel a bit silly for admitting this, but I had no clue who Jean-Micheal Basquiat was prior to watching "The Radiant Child". The name sounded like a Caribbean singer or something. But either way he was a famous artist in the 80s. His work now featured on my unworthy blog momentarily turned art gallery.

 I really didn't like Basquiat's art at first, second, or even third glance. However, through the course of watching the documentary I found myself becoming more and more attached not only to the images and themes of his work, but also his story away from his art. Its under my skin I guess. The main thing that caught me both about Basquiat and his art was the effortless control he had over not living for what people expected him to be. His art is a beautiful expression of who is, where he came from, and where he wanted to go. I feel so inspired and actually kind of guilty right now. 

I know this is not the regularly scheduled program but,

I hope I have the chance to see his work up close one day.

and I hope you have a chance to see the documentary or his work as well  

snippet from "Jean- Micheal Basquait: The Radiant Child"

Death by Finals/ Study break

Wrapping up my last semester has been consuming my time. I've been spending a lot of time at the Library of Congress (easily one of the most beautiful buildings in DC) doing research. On my most recent trip I decided to take a few pictures. Mostly I was procrastinating....

I was at the library researching for a Russian Literature paper. I really liked this portrait I found of Anna Akhmatova (Russian writer my paper is on)

The ceiling in the European reading room

Luckily the project is nearly done and the light is now at the end of the tunnel.

I'll be back to my regularly scheduled program next week.

Sticker Warfare 2.0

This past Friday I watched a pretty interesting documentary. Completely by chance it was about the street art phenom that was/ still is taking place around the world; the phemon that I seemed to have covered just the tip of in my last post. "Exit Through the Gift Shop" shows the life of some of the people who have become notorious for their art and trials of their expression. It also has an interesting twist. I caught it on Netflix, it not too long ago hit BluRay in America though. Check out the trailer and a word from Banksy (Director of the documentary and street art revolutionists) below.

Sticker Warfare

All is fair in in love and war.

.. I guess stickers are no exception?? As I've been walking around DC for the past few weeks/ months I've been noticing stickers...everywhere. Some pretty cool ones at that. I was on a walk in Adams Morgan today and just took some pictures of some I came across.

The trend is a great expression of art, politics, social issues, and of course self. Its also a lot cooler to see a sticker on the back of a street sign than tags on the sides of buildings. Philly has murals, maybe DC will be known for its stickers?

Maybe an "Unraveled" sticker will be coming soon

Presidents Day Excursion

There was no school Monday so some of my Classics friends and I got out of DC for the day and headed to New York to explore the Metropolitan Museum of art.

I started off in the Egyptian Exhibit

beautiful view through glass window in the main room of the Egyptian exhibit

Of course I spent most of my time in the Greek and Roman art section though

I have a thing for sculpture

Some of the guys admiring Aphrodite

Although it snowed I couldn't get out of New York without a walk through Central Park