Shirt Doll

One item that is very important in my life is the doll that my Grandma Sorensen made for me out of my grandpa’s old button-up shirt. “I think you’re old enough for this now,” she said to me on my thirteenth birthday. She made one for all of her granddaughters when she knew they were at an age where they would not play with it and ruin it. Because my grandpa has not been with us since I was two-years-old, this meant a lot to me to have something to remember him by.

My doll’s body is made of white cloth, stuffed to a plump, and it is wearing a dress out of my grandpa’s shirt. The white material of his shirt has dark pinstripes aligning in a vertical fashion, which adds a sense of elegance to the doll. The bottom of the dress is long and covers her white legs and feet. Around the edge of bottom, it is lined with white lace. She has no face, for her head is, too, made of the white material. A bonnet made of the same shirt material covered the top of the doll’s head; it looks like a old-fashioned bonnet like they would have worn in the olden-days.

This doll is my connection to not only my grandpa, but also my grandma. The material on the doll makes me feel closer to my grandpa, knowing that I have something that once belonged to him. The doll itself resembles my grandma’s notorious sewing ability and consistency in always thinking of others. Because she is no longer able to sew, it brings tears to my at the thought of her being incapable of creating such magnificent masterpieces such as that shirt doll.

My Object

It started out as an “in case of an emergency” type of possession. I was mainly to use it if I needed anything on my way to or from school, which was a fifteen-mile drive. My sixteenth birthday hadn’t come yet, and that’s when I was supposed to get it, but since I drove to school when I was fourteen, I was an exception. My cell phone has been with me through thick and thin, and it is very important to me.

Its age is starting to show. Come January, it will have been two years since my dad brought it home in a square box with a picture of my new Motorola Razr on the side. Its dark grey appearance cannot hide any of its scratches from the countless times I have dropped it. The scratches show up as black and silver outlines emphasizing the edges of my phone. When one looks at the front screen, the first thing brought to attention is the cracked screen; I guess that’s what I get for accidently stepping on it. No matter what it looks like, I am still thankful that is has been faithful to me over the past nearly two years.

My phone reveals a key to my world. When I was younger, it was mainly my lifeline in times of need, but now, it is my tool to keep in touch with friends and family. Now that I am older, it helps me communicate with loved ones who live far away and even nearby. Without my phone, I would be lost.

As the two-year mark approaches, I wonder if my phone will make it much longer. I could get a new phone, but I know that parting with this gray, beat up Razr will be more difficult than I anticipate.

Love Story-Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift’s song “Love Story” is about exactly what the title implies, and so is the video. The video is reenacting this fairytale story that Taylor Swift is singing about. The beginning scene is an ordinary scene; it is based at either a college or high school area. Once she begins singing, it transitions to another time, a time that exists in fairy tales. The elegant dress she is wearing and balcony at which she is standing helps contribute to her story she is singing about. The dresses she wears throughout the music video really add to it, also.
The lighting dims often throughout the video; it creates a more “relaxed” tone. It goes from being light to dim, accentuating different aspects of the video. When it shows her singing alone on the balcony, the sun is shining, and it is bright; however, whenever Taylor Swift is with her “prince,” the light is a little dimmer. When she is in the garden outside, it appears to be night time, and it is so dark that she needs a lantern to find her love.
It is good that parts of the video go along with the story that she is telling. After she sings, “So I sneak out to the garden to see you…” it shows trees and such, which must be the “garden” she speaks of. It is dark, and she has a lantern, which adds to the fact that she is sneaking around trying to see her “prince.”
The change of scenes is effective. Instead of just showing the story that Taylor Swift is singing of, they also show her singing the song. When she is singing the song, she is shown in the same old-fashioned dress, which keeps the audience in “dream” mode.

Observation

Taylor Swift is a country-music singer who recently graduated from high school. She is nineteen years old with her twentieth birthday approaching. For girls her age,
they dream about prince charming sweeping them off of their feet. With Disney Movies and others showing just that, what else are they supposed to think?
She begins the video walking through grass, admiring a boy sitting against a tree. After looking at him for a short while, she drifts off into a picture-perfect daydream. In her head, she goes to a moment where she is dressed in a beautiful dress, looking out from a balcony. She begins recollecting about the love story as if it had happened years ago. As time drifts back to a place where women dance in Elizabethan dresses and men dress in old-fashioned suits back before the time of technology. They dance with their hands joined in the middle, twirling and stepping to the beat of the song.
Pathos is filled throughout the song “Love Story” and its video. That feeling of love is present. Every girl dreams of being swept off of her feet by the cute guy in the video. They all want that feeling of love, that magical feeling that is present in the video. The emotion through love is heavily represented by this video and the characters in it.

The Red, White, and Blue

The Statue of Liberty has many important meanings to her presence and is known all around the world. She was originally called Liberty Enlightening the World. Her statue in New York has her wearing an elegant robe and spiked crown that has seven spokes branching from it, which represent the seven oceans and continents. Her right hand holds up a torch while her left hand grasps a book of law that reads, “July 4, 1776.” At her feet lie busted chains, showing the United States’ conquering of tyranny. France gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States as a gift of friendship, but since, it has become a well-known, world-wide representation of freedom. The message the statue of liberty is trying to relay to the audience is much more than just freedom. When many look at the Statue of Liberty, they think of the United States of America. It brings makes foreigners imagine life in the States filled with freedom and happiness. It is known as the first sign of American that immigrants see on their way to America.
September 11, 2001 was a horrible day in the United States. It now marks the anniversary of when terrorists destroyed the two Towers in New York by running into them with planes. Hatred and spite made many American’s blood boil while people at home were watching the tragedy on their television sets. Many rescue teams risked their lives, and many gave their lives, trying to save people trapped in the burning buildings. The terrorists who did this were trying to tear apart the United States, thinking these acts would cause conflict among citizens; however, it did the opposite. Rather than turn United States residents against one another, it made them closer, stronger. The flag had been neglected, but once these acts happened, everyone brought back their patriotic spirits and came together, united, as a nation.
Ione Citrin is an artist who has based some of her work on world catastrophes. She focused this piece of work on the tragedy of September 11, 2001. She used many different techniques to reveal a meaningful message through her artwork. In this piece, she depicts the message through analogy and use of widely-known symbolic images like the Statue of Liberty and the American Flag.
By bringing out select colors, Ione Citrin illustrates analogy in her artwork titled 9/11/01. The first object brought to attention is the red, white, and blue American Flag. This icon brings out ethos. It is draped over the statue of liberty like a sort of poncho, covering everything but her two hands, neck, and head. The way it wrinkles and does not lie flat shows that it is not perfect, just as though the United States is not perfect. Many people come to the United States thinking that this country is perfect, but it is far from. The next color of importance is gold, and this is where pathos shines through. The statue’s hands, neck, face, and crown are shown in gold. The real Statue of Liberty appears to be a tint of green, so why is she gold? This is an instance of conflating icons. If one compares this to a picture of Christ on the cross, he or she will see a resemblance. The way at which her arms are stretched open are the same as Jesus’ were on the cross. As she stands there, holding onto what’s left behind of the Twin Towers, she is representing a higher standing that just any ordinary statue. The sky behind the statue is blue, and it goes from being darker at the bottom to getting lighter towards the top. This goes along with the religious view of the picture. With the light shining from the top, it’s as if the heavens are shining down on her. The color red, which is also present in the flag, is also seen on the remains from the Twin Towers. The red is showing that it is still glowing with warmth from the fire that was set to the two buildings. Although the red could possibly be standing for the fire, it could also be symbolizing all of the deaths that were caused on that tragic day of September 11, 2001. This is how the color is an aspect of Ione Citrin’s artwork, but the objects in this artwork are very symbolic, as well.
The real statue’s crown has seven spokes, but the one in this picture has eleven. This could be symbolizing the eleventh day of September, the day of the terrorist attacks. The way that they are extending out from her crown is much like rays of light from the heaven are shining down from on her, helping her bring out unity among the citizens of the United States. Both her left and right hands are grasping the two pieces left of the Twin Towers. The flag that is covering her is filling the gap between the two weak structures. This is much of what the United States had to do after the terrorists invaded the country. They were torn apart by the devastating acts and harm done to the United States, but it was not a time for them to go their separate ways. Instead of driving the United States away from one another, it actually brought them together. Many more residents of the United States pulled through for their country, becoming more supportive of the colors of the flag: red, white, and blue. This is what the nation did; it did not get torn apart, but it did become closer as a whole. The focus of this picture is Lady Liberty bringing the two structures together, holding them together by the flag. Two things that distinguish the United States are the flag and Statue of Liberty, and those two objects are centered in this art.
The 9/11/01 picture reveals more than one might realize at a glance. To figure out the entire message, one must closely examine it from all directions, picking it apart and looking at it in a different perspective. Ione Citrin created this piece of art with great care, and now that one has done that, they will be able to look at 9/11/01 with great thought.

Works Cited
“World Catastrophes.” Ione Citrin. 16 Nov. 2008 .

“9/11 By the Numbers: Death, destruction, charity, salvation, war, money, real estate, spouses, babies, and other September 11 statistics.” 2008. 18 Nov. 2008 .

Music

Art in the 21st century is a very broad topic. There are paintings, drawing, objects, and many other types of art. All of them revolve around different messages and include different themes. The Harp of Love by Michael McCrinck portrays many different aspects of art.
At first glance, one sees musical instruments that seem to be joined in the middle of the painting. The painting has a center of median. All five of the musical instruments seem to be being pulled into the center point as if there is some kind of a vacuum sucking them in. None of the instruments are showed in whole. With things like part of the piano keyboard twisting and half of the violin faded out, they still seem complete. This represents the connection of music.
Music can be a person walking down the street humming or a musician playing a piano piece. Music is music. However, when multiple objects that produce music are put together, they form a beautiful sound. The single instruments by themselves do not matter much after that because once they are put together, they are a whole. In this picture, the reason parts of the instruments are gone is because they are meshing together to form one thing, and that thing is music.
This contemporary piece was done in the 21st century. It brings back the feeling of relaxing, classical music. Today’s world is filled with such fierce music by artists like Eminem, it sometimes feels like that harsh music is all that Americans hear. When it comes down to it, classical music will always be relaxing to the soul. All of the objects are surrounded by a harp, which helps pull it all together.
Music is all around. Sometimes it is good, and sometimes it is bad. However, no matter what type of music one likes to listen to, instruments make up most musical tunes for the public to listen to.