Another Productive Day at Work

Wow, it's been a whole week since I last posted, and I was on such a roll before. Expect less and less consistency from this point on.

So the real inspiration for the title of this blog, at least the puppies part, was one of my professors dogs whom he would bring to class and thus entertain me and keep me off facebook for at least a good 5 minutes. (Normally I'm a pretty awesome student, and by awesome I mean I take it all in, don't ask questions, and then forget it all after the final, but this class is basically the same as another one right before it and I get tired of taking the same notes twice.)

Obviously because I started a blog and needed her, my inspiration decided to ditch class for the last couple of weeks. But yesterday my prof. brought in his other dog who is WAY more entertaining. For one, she is far less self-involved and will basically stare at you in eager anticipation for a while if you make any sort of movement. She also keeps a running commentary of the prof's lecture going by falling asleep every 5 minutes, waking up suddenly and looking around guiltily, and during particularly excruciating parts she will do that thing dogs do to scratch their ears and nose which basically looks like a student having a mental breakdown. She fits in so well with us. She basically looks like this (I didn't take a picture of her I'm not that creepy, I just stalked the internets for awhile until I found one that looks like her) and I decided that I want an irish border collie when I grow up. I'm still in denial about my age and think that this will be years and years from now.

I'm kind of over the whole yelling at dbags anonymously thing. I mean I'll be back to it in like a week but I need to feel productive and concentrating on someone else's stupidity isn't really cutting it, at least not when I'm up this early in the morning.

So welcome to my first post about art! I enjoy b s ing about art because even if I don't like the piece I can at least find something to say about it. We'll start with my fav piece right now which I like because it almost exactly expresses my opinion towards the stress of exam week. It may be no Britney Spears with an umbrella but it works for me.

Melancholia I Albrecht Durer (supposed to be an umlaut over the u but I'm tired)

So the first thing I like about this piece is that its so jam packed with symbolism. I had decided once upon a New Year's ago to spend every day of that year analyzing something about this piece. Obviously I only got two days in. Mostly because I couldn't find a way to organize it. Do I go top to bottom, bottom to top, left to right, right to left, thematically, most interesting to least? I spent two days trying to figure out the best way to go about it, making lists of all the objects and their positions and what not before I realized that all of the sudden that I looked exactly like Melancholia.... tired, haggard, and frustrated as heck. I mean what the heck is she supposed to do with a bolder that's a little too cubed but not cubed enough that's perched precariously over a half starved puppy? Do we really expect her to solve the magic square posted above her head? Will the symbolism of the bell and the symbolism of the wights make a cohesive interpretation out of the piece that will suddenly make it more meaningful to me than it was when I was already feeling way too connected to the dominating figure. Durer, that tricky artist, was luring me into a trap but at least I can feel like he got sucked into it too. I mean dear old Melancholia is in the process of drawing something on her lap which is obviously causing her more than enough trouble. If there was ever a clearer representation of the author (which there are but I'm feeling hyperbolic today) then...yeah I don't know how to finish that sentence. way to go me.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share with you, pictorially, the place I'm at right now in my life. Take a long look and just try to absorb the mess that it is.