My Day at the Art Museum

My Day at the Art Museum

By: Zachary Mitchell

What is art? According to the Oxford Dictionary, it is the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. What I believe is art is anything that is appealing to the eye, it has meaning in some form or fashion, and it has artistic value to someone.

When I started contemplating about a community scene that I am not familiar with, then suddenly I got the perfect idea from my friend Ray in my WRD class. That idea was to go to the Reynolds’s art building, but I didn’t know where that building was, so I decided to go to The Art Museum in the Singletary Center. Currently at this moment, I am undecided in my studies as a student, but I know one thing, I am not an artist. I have never great at drawing or painting pictures. I could say that I don’t have the fine motor skills for drawing or painting. The only thing that I could ever draw was swords.

When I first walked into the museum, I got the feeling like I didn’t belong there. I also noticed that there wasn’t much sound in the museum. This caused a feeling of stoicism in the museum. The reason why I think this is so is that they want to observe and contemplate the meanings of the paintings and sculptures. I looked around, than a museum attendant called me over and asked me if this was my first time being in the museum. From there I said yes and I’m here to do my WRD scene depiction project. Then she said are you a student here and if so, show me your student ID. I showed her my ID and she told me I couldn’t take any pictures downstairs and I could take some upstairs. The reason why I couldn’t take any downstairs was that they putting on animal show art show. They had different types of animal painting and sculptures hanging on the walls and on stands.

From there, I proceeded up the stairs with a museum attendant in tow. The first thing I noticed when I got up the stairs was a square sculpture that was made of twigs. It was supposed to symbolize rain. It took a couple minutes to see how it symbolized rain and how they were arranged in a vertical fashion. From there I walked around the floor and noticed different types of paintings and sculptures: impressionist paintings, portraits, landscapes, etc. Most of the paintings I didn’t understand, but I did know one of the paintings and it was the portrait of George Washington. It was a very nice portrait of him. I believe that it was a portrait before he died in 1799.



This is me taking a picture next to the portrait of George Washington



While I was there, the museum attendant who followed me upstairs told me that one of the lamps they had displayed in one of display cases was very expensive because it was made by Tiffany. I told her that I didn’t know Tiffany made lamps.  

 

The only senses you are allowed to use in a museum is the senses of vision, smell, and sound. One smell that was prominent in the upstairs in the museum is the smell of oil from the oil-based paints used to paint the oil paintings. The smell wasn’t too bad, but I didn’t mind the smell. You are not allowed to touch anything. If you was to touch anything, you could potentially damage a valuable or priceless art piece and as the old saying goes,” you break it, you buy it”. There was one art piece that only the attendant was allowed to touch with a glove and it was this metal string thing that made sound depending on how you moved your hand. I found that was an interesting object.

On that day I didn’t notice a lot of people in the museum. I would describe people who go to museum on a monthly basis as a stoic type; People who can just observe art for hours at a time. I did notice a grandma and her granddaughter walking around the museum. One museum I would love to go to is the Smithsonian museums up in Washington D.C. and the other places it is at.      

Upon my departure from the museum, I thought that it was an interesting experience and the art I have ever seen was that of Da' Vinci, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Andy Warhol, etc.; famous artist like that; Out of these entire artists, my favorite artists are Leonardo Da’ Vinci, Rembrandt, Michelangelo . My favorite art piece by Da’ Vinci is the Last Supper. My favorite art piece by Rembrandt is the Gates of Hell and the pieces that were took off of it: the thinker, and the kiss. And my favorite piece by Michelangelo is The Moment in Men’s Creation in the Sistine chapel at the Vatican. I would say that I like the fresco paintings. I know that I’m not an artist, but I do appreciate great masterpieces.