http://tigre-de-papel.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html

The Agony of The Starry Night

Vincent Van Gogh is the artist that most people associate with cutting off his ear and sending it to his girlfriend in a manic state of depression. However although Van Gogh did go through bouts of madness and insanity, he still produced some incredible and eye-catching pieces of art during that time. One piece of Van Gogh’s work, The Starry Night, happens to be one of my favorite pieces of visual art. In her article, “Van Gogh’s Agony”, Lauren Soth discusses the piece in terms of its conceptual history, the circumstantial history, and religious undertones, arguing that the piece actually has hidden christian meanings.  

Many people do not realize the time and thought that an artist puts into just one piece of work. It is not as if an artist simply wakes up one morning and decides that he or she wishes to paint a specific subject and then does so. In fact, according to Lauren Soth, there is much evidence that Vincent Van Gogh was considering painting a starry sky long before he actually did so. Soth refers to the letters that Van Gogh wrote to his friend, Emile Bernard, his sister, Wilhelmina, and his brother, Theo, in which Van Gogh expresses his want to paint a starry scene. In his letter to his friend Emile, Van Gogh wrote, “The imagination is certainly a faculty which we must develop, one which alone can lead us to the creation of a more exalting and consoling nature than the single brief glance at reality - which in our sight is ever changing, passing like a flash of lightning - can let us perceive. A starry sky, for instance - look that is something I should like to try to do.” In her Article, Soth also includes an excerpt from one of Van Gogh’s letters to his sister, Wilhelmina in which Van Gogh tells her that he “absolutely wants to paint a starry sky.” Van Gogh proceeded to paint to different pieces that included starry nights, however as Soth says, these did not fulfill Van Gogh’s vision of what he wanted his starry night to be like. Van Gogh wanted his Starry night to be in landscape form and also wanted the piece to be an imaginative one, not descriptive. It was not until nine months later, says Soth, that Van Gogh was able to realize his more than year-long ambition of creating an imaginative starry night sky. He did so in the town of St. -Rémy, and the although the conceptual history of Van Gogh’s painting is important, it is just as important to understand the circumstantial history behind the piece as well.

In her article on The Starry Night, Lauren Soth points out that in order to understand the piece, one must also understand the circumstances behind the piece. It was May of 1889 and Van Gogh had just been admitted to a mental hospital in St. -Rémy, when he was there he made sketches out of his window of the landscape below (Soth). When he got out of the hospital, the date that he painted The Starry Night can be calculated almost to the day (Soth). On June 16th, he wrote a letter to his sister in which he did not mention The Starry Night and on June 18th he wrote a letter to his brother in which he mentioned the painting, therefore according to Soth, the piece was painted sometime in between these two dates. Although the view that is depicted in The Starry Night includes a village, the actual scene that Van Gogh used to paint the picture did not include a village, instead there was an enclosed field (Soth). In her article, Soth includes actual photos of St. -Rémy and the enclosed field that Van Gogh used as inspiration for his painting. Soth states that The Starry Night is partly a depiction of the village and landscape and partly Van Gogh’s imagination of the starry sky since historians have said that on the night when Van Gogh painted the piece, the moon was probably not in the shape that Van Gogh paints it. This was Van Gogh’s goal in painting The Starry Night, to paint an imaginative piece with subtle meanings. Some of these meanings, Soth argues in the next portion of her analysis, have religious undertones.

As Soth states in her article, in September of 1888, Van Gogh admitted to "having a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars.” Van Gogh was very interested in putting subtle religious messages in The Starry Night and Lauren Soth claims that Van Gogh was extremely interested in the painting, The Agony in the Garden, that both Dolci and Rembrandt painted. Van Gogh had a rocky relationship with the church so he was not entirely interested in painting an actual religious scene, however he was interested in conveying a subtle religious meaning through his artwork. According to Soth, Van Gogh viewed human existence as a long suffering and he believed that the most that anyone could receive in life is consultation for their suffering. Soth states that the blue in The Starry Night is symbolic of Christ, while the citron yellow of the stars and moon is symbolic of angels. These details about the painting are important in understanding Van Gogh’s meaning. In Soth’s opinion, Van Gogh’s main goal in painting The Starry Night was to display a Christian message. Obviously since Van Gogh had been in a rough patch with the church he felt that it would not be fitting to paint a purely religious depiction, however he did want to convey a good deal of Christian meaning. Soth believes that Van Gogh merged his need to paint Christ’s agony in the garden with his wish to paint an imaginative landscape and it came together to form The Starry Night. Van Gogh needed a painting that included a starry night in landscape view with religious meaning and The Starry Night fulfilled all three of these requirements. The painting is as much a religious painting as it is a painting of a starry night sky, with subtle religious messages throughout.

Van Gogh made his wish to paint a meaningful night sky clear in letters to his friends, brother and sister. According to Lauren Soth, Van Gogh was very interested in the painting of Christ’s agony in the garden and although he did not want to actually paint a depiction of a religious scene, The Starry Night is a painting that includes religious undertones, something that Van Gogh wanted to include in the painting. In order to understand the painting and its meaning one must understand the conceptual history, circumstantial history and religious undertones in the painting. As Soth states at the end of her article, “At its most profound level, the Starry Night is Van Gogh's Agony.”  

-Chris Martin

Works Cited

Soth, Lauren. “Van Gogh’s Agony.” The Art Bulletin 68.2 (June 1986) : 301-313. Print.

Who is Cindy Sherman?

Feeder 3.1

    Author, director, make-up artist, hairstylist, wardrobe head and model are all just a few of the jobs that Cindy Sherman had to embody in order to create her dramatic, identity changing photographs. Her most famous work of art, Untitled Film Stills included pictures of her acting as the stereotypical female roles from Hollywood or European movies. It is important to know about Untitled Film Stills because it’s a globally famous work of that appeals to every audience, regardless of their language. In her academic article, Female Spectatorship and the Masquerade, Jui Chi’i-Liu’s thesis statement claimed a new interpretation against the grain of the established feminist readings of the photographs in Untitled Film Stills, which I see as the usage of photography in order to get her feminist ideals across, regardless of the audience’s lack of unity in language.

Feminist critiques of Cindy Sherman’s work can be divided into three categories. The first category attacks Sherman’s usage of masks as constantly conforming to man’s eroticised view of women under a male dominated society. Iversen's claim epitomises this line of critique: ‘Sherman's photographs present the female body in the third person: “she” poses as object of the gaze in relation to “he”, actively taking up a passive, exhibitionist aim’. The second group views Sherman’s masks as making fun of female sterotypes in Hollywood. They support this statement by showing that Sherman’s film still do not look like any of the heroines in film which are meant only for the fantasies of male viewers. The third group opens up a more mobile understanding of the reactions from the male audience. The male audience’s usual control over the female body has been reinforced but destabilized. All of these critics concentrate on the relationship between the male audience and Sherman’s masquerade. The author of this academic article thinks “this exclusive focus on the masculine gaze overlooks female spectators’ desire and identification in relation to these images...might not female spectators of Sherman's masquerade be tempted to negotiate their own female-centred reception?”

Feminist criticism of Sherman should not focus on the male but rather the female audience. Although the above female criticism does reflect a woman’s point of view, feminist critics should also think about how Sherman’s work addresses themselves, the female audience.This paper will deal with reception by female spectators individually and not a female audience. Kuhn asserts that the spectator ‘is a subject constituted in signification, interpellated by the film or TV text’, whereas the social audience is ‘[a] group of people seated in a single auditorium looking at a film, or scattered across thousands of homes watching the same television programme’. It will be beyond the length of this paper to analyze the patterns and consumption approaches of female audiences.

In this film still, Sherman is responding to the view of the erotic female portrayed in Hollywood films. In order to achieve this look, Sherman uses costume and feminine poses to expose the eroticism that is attached with the view of femininity. Roland Barthes well explains this strategy of clarification: ‘[T]he best weapon against myth is perhaps to mythify it in its return, and to produce an artificial myth’. Sherman creates a dissonant and elaborate masquerade in order to expose the myth of femininity as natural and essential under patriarchy. If the mysterious glamour associated with female movie stars causing female spectators to relate with the erotic images, Sherman’s use of irony shows her resistance to women being portrayed as glamorous objects to be consumed. Sherman once explained her intention to make such images: “There is a stereotype of a girl who dreams all her life of being a movie star. She tries to make it on the stage, in films and either succeeds or fails. I was more interested in the types of characters that fail. Maybe I related to that.”

    In Untitled Film Stills, Sherman establishes the female stereotype from a female-centered perspective. Although in several of her film stills, Sherman embodies several glamorous, powerful stars she also tries to assume feminine manners and wardrobe that would satisfy the male fantasy. Plus Sherman staged ambiguous scenes and narratives in which female audience members could imagine many fantasy versions of themselves. With the first fantasy self, they sympathize and relate with the active and powerful female roles. The could also feel both intrigued and angered at the female stereotypes which serve only to appease the male fantasy. With this the female spectators may have several types of identification or desire with their imaginary communication with Sherman’s disguise. By using multiple visual pleasures, Sherman’s masquerade provides female spectators with the ability to juxtapose the images with patriarchal presumption. With her usage of photograph as her media of communication, Sherman is able to communicate her message to a broader, global audience.



Bibliography:
Liu, Jui. Female Spectatorship and the Masquerade: Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills 34.1 (2010). 12 Feb. 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03087290903361399#preview>.

Monet's Water Lilies

          The Impressionist Movement in Europe during the 19^th century completely transformed the ways in which people portrayed and perceived art, for it focused on light and shadows to bring out a more natural view of art, which had never been done before. The artistic changes that impressionism brought about contradicted much of what Europe had known to be true art. Although many did not receive this new art well, many artists rose to the challenge to accomplish this fresh art form. Desmond FitzGerald argues that Claude Monet was a monumental forefather of the Impressionist Movement in 19^th century Europe, for no other artist could achieve such realistically natural works with use of color and technique.

            While Monet may not have founded impressionistic art, he represents the genius behind the movement and the artist that comes to mind when associated with impressionism. Camille Pissarro founded the movement, and Claude Monet quickly followed in his footsteps. Born in Paris in 1840, Monet grew up as a caricaturist, but quickly transitioned into an aspiring painter on the streets of Paris. Boudin, a famous French painter, took Monet in and inspired him with the nature around him. “Monet’s path was rapidly leading to success, when he suddenly left the road, throwing himself heart and soul into the plein-air movement” (190).  This transformation dealt with the problems of separating colors, subdividing tones, and challenging the effects of light. For example, Monet’s depiction of a Venice twilight shows the importance of color in the Impressionist Movement, for no other movement encourages a blending of colors to achieve such a natural look.

Intermonet.com

Before these ideas, mixing colors “produced a dead nature,” rather than a work that truly depicted the reality of nature, as Monet accomplished (191). He began to find his own path and set the stage for many other artists to follow. He focused on many different mediums and focuses for his works, which led to different phases including the Poplar Series, the Matinée Series, the Cathedral Series, the Thames Series, etc.

Image from Monet’s Cathedral Series (Rouen Cathedral)

collections.tepapa.govt.nzm

Unlike most artists, Monet explored just about every kind of landscape and nature in order to broaden his repertoire. “No other landscape artist has surpassed Monet in the richness and variety of the problems which he has attacked in his active careers” (188).

            Fitzgerald argues that what makes Monet stand out amongst other artists is his variety and diverse takes on the world around him. Monet did not always have an easy time, yet he was a “genius of patient and continuous study and improvement” that got him to the status that still holds today (182). Monet sought to progress his talents, which makes him a unique artist that never just settled, which Fitzgerald credits a lot of Monet’s successes to, for “he constantly seeks new worlds to conquer and nothing seems too difficult for his technique to accomplish” (188). He transformed old art forms into modern depictions of nature that differed from anything people had seen to date. Other artists truly admired Monet as they caught on to impressionism themselves, and it became a huge movement.

Camille Pissarro, Apple Trees in Bloom                          Renoir, La Grenouille

sandiegojewishworld.com                                              raymondpronk.wordpress.com

In this way, Monet led the movement even though he may not have founded impressionism. He took nature and transformed its perception unlike any other artist could. “We have in Monet the great and steadfast revolutionary from all the precepts of landscape art that preceded him” (195). It is no wonder that artists followed in Monet’s footsteps, for he did create a sort of revolution in the modern art world that remains popular and well-accepted even today.

            It can be controversial whether Monet or Pissarro truly founded the Impressionism Movement, since Pissarro came many years before Monet. Fitzgerald tries to point out that while the art form may not have been Monet’s premier idea, he practiced it and transformed impressionism to the form that it is today. In my opinion, that makes Monet a key founder of the Impressionism Movement. “He will be regarded in the future among the greatest landscape artists” for his persistence and dedication that made him famous in the first place (195). His keen determination to revolutionize art in the 19^th century attributes to Monet’s success, for he took the view of nature to a new level through color and reality.

Works Cited

Fitzgerald, Desmond. "Claude Monet: Master of Impressionism." Brush and Pencil 15.3

(1905): 181-95. JSTOR. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25503805.

Abstract Expressionism as a Means to Fight the Cold War

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Jackson Pollock was an abstract expressionist artists who was able to perfectly encapsulate motion into his works of art.  This sense of movement was created by laying the canvas flat on the floor rather than on an easel and allowing his movements to dictate where the paint was dipped and poured.  This created an almost three-dimensional look that was also achieved by using very specific viscosity's of paint that were thick nor thin.  This unique style of painting was completely new and had a sense of freedom that linked it to American culture.  The movement filled and abstract paintings that Jackson Pollock created stood in stark contrast to communism and strict ideals and therefore promoted the United States and the freedom within the country.

            Jackson Pollock was able to capture something that was rarely expressed in its full glory in other paintings, movement.  He was able to capture the motion of his hands by laying the painting on the ground and letting the paint pour on the canvas where ever his hands moved.  This space between his hands and the canvas allowed him to create a dynamic painting without ever making direct contact with the canvas which added to the three dimensional nature of his works.  This style had challenges though because he could not stop his hands from moving while he was pouring the paint.  He was required to keep making movement until the paint ran out.  Thomas Hart Benton was his mentor and he is the person that caused many of his ideas about rhythm, energy and body movement to be created.  The abstract paintings did not contain subjects that are difficult to paint in a dynamic state, the ribbons of liquid paint made the perfect form for movement and portraying the movements of Pollock’s hands above his work.          

            Jackson Pollock was able to convey movement through the techniques that he utilized.  Both the viscosity of the paint and the orientation of the canvas influenced his artistic process.  Most visual artists place their canvas on an easel at a vertical angle, but Jackson Pollock laid his canvas on the ground horizontally.  This orientation caused him to rely on gravity to allow the paint to pour downwards with every stroke of his arm.  In order for this paint to be poured and dripped, it needed to be a very particular viscosity.  Pollock was known to experiment with different paints and he normally used an enamel paint that he thinned.  Without gravity and the very specific viscosity of the paint, Pollock would not have been able to create the painting Number 23 or any of his other masterpieces.  

Jackson Pollock’s art was classified as part of the Abstract Expressionist movement.  This movement took place post-WWII and included many unique styles that put the United States on the forefront of unique and creative new art.  The time after WWII consisted of a lot of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union that is formerly called the Cold War.  Jackson Pollock’s art is very unique and representative of freedom due to its abstract style.  This free form stands in stark contrast to the ideological straight jacket that the Soviet Union was trapped into.  Pollock’s style showed the joy and the freedom of the west while simultaneously showing the strictness and censorship that existed in the Soviet Union, here the Cold War was fought through art.       

Works Cited:

Cernusch, Claude, and Andrzej Herczynski. "The Subversion of Gravity in Jackson Pollock’s Abstractions." Art Bull 90 (2008): 616-39. Print.    

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Johannes_Vermeer_%281632-1675%29_-_The_Girl_With_The_Pearl_Earring_%281665%29.jpg

The (Fictional?) Girl with a Pearl Earring

          One painting finished during the 17th century has incited curiosity, prompting the viewers to desire to know more about the girl with such sad sorrow in her eyes while adorned with a turban-like headdress and an exquisite pearl earring.  Part of the mystery surrounding the paintings is due to the enigma of the painter himself, but also to the unknown background story of the girl.  This mystery has led to Jan Vermeer’s delayed fame and also to a historical novel titled after the painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring.  Walter Liedtke attempts to describe the tantalizing painting by explaining how Vermeer did not intend for it to be a portrait, but an artful depiction of the facial features and accessories, the style for which could be attributed to the influence from other Dutch artists focused on the tronies trend. 

According to Liedtke, based on Vermeer’s past paintings, one can assume that the subject of Girl with a Pearl Earring was painted with a distinct likeness to the real model.  However, certain aspects of the facial features seem a bit undefined or simplified.  For example, the slim, straight nose arcs continuously into the eyebrows (Liedtke 131), without the use of shading to define it distinctly from the right cheek.  Liedtke remarks that “the lines of the brow and cheek are blurred by very thin brushstrokes, but the pristine smoothness of youth is conveyed at a normal viewing distance by the seemingly perfect contour, which descends from the turban in three gentle segments before softening at the chin.”  In addition, the girl’s lips and eyes seem to reveal a different level of reality from that of the rest of the face.  This is due to the moisture and specific lighting effects, which draw the viewer’s attention.  The vivacity in the eyes and the lips contrasts with the undefined nose and brow, causing doubt as to whether this painting is a portrait or more artful in expression (Liedtke 131).  Thus, the appearance of life in the eyes and lips attracts one into believing that everything depicted in this painting corresponds with the actual features that the painter saw, but the undefined features of the nose and brow reveal perhaps the liberties that the artist took in portraying the model in an inexact fashion. 

The Dutch tradition of painting during Vermeer’s career in the middle 17th century centered around tronies, which referred to heads, faces, or expressions based on live models but sold as studies of interesting characters (Liedtke 131).  The influence of this tradition from other painters can be seen in Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring.  Liedtke gives examples of these types of painters, such as “Jacob Backer, Govert Flinck, and Samuel van Hoogstraten painted bust-length tronies that display their talent for recording (or inventing) facial types, capturing expressions, conveying textures and light affects, arranging poses (which are far more diverse than in portraiture), and imagining personalities.”  Vermeer owned two such tronies, each painted by Van Hoogstraten and Carl Fabritius (Liedtke 132).  Therefore, the influence of the tronies on Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring remains possible if Vermeer approached the painting as one portraying a character, rather than merely painting exactly what he saw.  It remains possible that through the manipulation of light, such as the sparkle on the pearl earring, and an arranged pose in which the shoulders of the girl point forward, while the neck strains to the side, Vermeer’s actual purpose was to depict a fictional girl with inner turmoil. 

The most important similarity in comparison with the qualities of Girl with a Pearl Earring to outside works remains in the Brussels painter, Michiel Sweerts’ works.  Like the Vermeer subject, Sweerts’ figures are usually bust-length and in front of a dark backdrop (Liedtke 132).  They are also highly noted for their “simplicity, immediacy, sidelong glances, and sensitive handling of light” (Liedtke 132).  Furthermore, Sweerts occasionally painted his subjects in oriental clothing, similar to the turban that Vermeer’s subject wears in his painting.  The artistic influence of the popular tronies genre of painting, especially Michiel Sweerts, remains evident in Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring (Liedtke 132).  Therefore, in accordance with the other tronies, this painting should be observed as a character based off of a model, not as a portrait of a real person.

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer still sparks debate among art historians today.  What is she thinking behind those big, dejected eyes?  But one question that remains pertinent to the physical embodiment of the girl is whether or not it was intended as an accurate portrayal of a young girl, or as a painting with fictional embellishments meant to serve a purpose.  According to Walter Liedtke, based off of the contrasting lively and indistinct facial features, and the influence of the tronies art movement at the time, Vermeer endeavored to create a painting that would be considered art.  Furthermore, since the subject’s social status remains undetermined, the likelihood of a portraiture is not high.  The mystery behind the girl in the painting and behind the artists’ intentions makes Girl with a Pearl Earring earn the title of “the Dutch Mona Lisa."  

Works Cited

Liedtke, Walter. Vermeer: The Completed Paintings. Belgium: Ludion, 2008. Print.

From China, Living in the US

    Although my parents have lived more than half of their lives in America, they feel most connected to their roots in Tianjing, China. They are more fluent at Chinese than they are at English and their parents, brothers and sisters all live there still. Everyday my mom cooks Chinese food for dinner and when they speak English there is still a hint of a Chinese accent. Being from China is a big part of who my parents are in terms of language, culture and ethnicity. The current generation of my family includes my parents and myself as well as my brother. The current generation of my family relates to Tianjing China because for me it provides a sense of myself that I never knew and for my parents it developed their personalities.

    This past summer I traveled to Tianjing China to visit my aunt, cousin and grandparents. While I was there I also had the opportunity to travel to Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing. While I was there, I felt rather alienated which was strange because in American not everyone looks like me while in China everyone does. Not only that but I was staying with my own flesh and blood, and yet I felt as if I was staying with a group of strangers since I hadn’t seen them since I was 5 (Cite: Image #1). When I would go shopping with my cousin everyone knew I was a “foreigner”, as they called me, because they could hear an accent when I spoke Chinese. I felt like a jellyfish in a sea of octopuses. I didn’t feel as if I belonged, and because I was from America, the other Chinese people saw me as an outsider. I didn’t understand customs or manners. For example, people would expect you to eat as much as you can at each meal because this shows respect to the cook, but when I first got to China I didn’t eat that much because I wasn’t used to the food. I was also very cautious about eating food from street vendors because I was concerned about the sanitation of the food, but the Chinese eat it all the time because it’s cheap and tasty. However, the more I stayed in China, the more I felt at home because of how at home my relatives made me feel. I also became accustomed to speaking Chinese on a daily basis. According to Wang Gungwu in his book Ethnic Chinese, “The ethnic Chinese living overseas acknowledge the given or known history of their own community for as long as possible by reproducing what is approved and considered desirable. That they weave their own personal pasts in an inclusive way. This is something that modern education and technology have begun to make possible” (Wang 4). I use technology to connect to my Chinese roots by using skype with my aunt. I have become more aware of my culture and even though I will always feel like a visitor when I go to Tianjing, it makes me proud to know about where I’m from and my heritage. I feel connected to Tianjing because it is part of my history and even if I don’t feel connected to it, it will always be a part of me.

My parent’s names are Liu Hong and Wang XiaoChun but in order to adjust to American culture and to avoid awkward pronunciations of their given names, they adopted “American” names. My mom goes by Sharon and my dad goes by Alex. Even though they lived a poor childhood in China, my parents have lived a fairly well-off life in America. They first moved to South Carolina in order to attend graduate school at the University of South Carolina on a full scholarship (Cite: Image #2). They then moved to a “middle class” apartment for a couple years before buying their first house (Liu, Hong. Personal Interview). As Brownstone explains in his book The Chinese-American Heritage, “new Chinese-American immigrants immediately moved into the mainstream of American life. They tended to live in high-income mixed communities, rather than in ethnic communities, though many of them also became active in Chinese studies” (Brownstone 112). Since then, we have moved to a new house in a upper middle class neighborhood where most of our neighbors are white. Living more than half their lives in America, my parents are fairly adjusted to life here, but they are prime examples of the fact that where a person is raised is more influential than where they end up. My parents still don’t understand some slang, never watch football and until a couple years ago when I finally learned how to cook, we never had a traditional turkey Thanksgiving dinner. My parents are connected to Tianjing, not just because it was where they grew up but because it developed their personalities, manners, language, everything about them was molded and shaped by their upbringing in China. Even though having “two cultures is a blessing to have” Tianjing will always be my parent’s “first home” (Liu, Hong. Personal Interview).

Although my parents and I are thousands of miles away from Tianjing, China, it will always be an important city in our lives. For my parents, it will be their home. For me it will be a part of my background. As shown through academic articles, my own photographs and personal interviews, Chinese people living overseas have been able to easily adjust to middle class life but are still connected, through technology and communication, to their roots.

Bibliography:

Brownstone, David. The Chinese-American Heritage. 1st ed. USA: Facts on File, 1988. Print.

Wang, Gungwu. Ethnic Chinese . 1st ed. Brisbane, CA: Fong Brothers Printing, 2000. Print.

Liu, Hong . Telephone Interview. 11/20/11

Image #1:

Image #2: My mom as a graduate student at the University of South Carolina.

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San Francisco, California is one of the top tourist destinations in the world and is home to a wide variety of cultures and unique people.  It is a highly developed area with many skyscrapers and an overall urban setting, yet there are pocket parks and community gardens sprinkled throughout the city.  Within the city is also a great cultural center, known as Chinatown, that represents Chinese foods, decorations, clothing and music all in one area of the city.  The Chinatown in San Francisco is the oldest Chinatown in North America (San Francisco Chinatown 1).  Growing up in such a liberal area influenced my ideas and the way that I was raised as a small girl.  San Francisco had a major impact on my family because of the environmentally conscious attitudes, deep cultural variety and liberal ideas.       

San Francisco is a unique urban city because it combines a highly developed area with gardens and open markets and an overall great consciousness for the environment.  Community gardens are in high demand and many people want to grow their own organic vegetables and work on a green project with their community.  The variety of food in the city is also very vast and a lot of the culture surrounds eating and gathering together.  I still vividly remember gardening for hours with my mother and little sister and even being able to name all of the plants at such an early age.  This love for the environment and gardening has followed my family and me into the future.  My dad started his own community garden in Atlanta, my mom got certified in the rigorous master gardening program, and I planted a sustainable garden for the homeless in Atlanta.  

The variety of people from different cultural backgrounds and social classes make the city of San Francisco a very diverse area.  One of the most culturally strong areas is Chinatown.  The Chinatown in San Francisco is the largest Chinese community outside of Asia.  The area has typical Chinese foods and every item that relates to the culture.  As a young child this variety of cultures allowed me to develop a world view.  I can still remember walking through Chinatown and getting fresh fortune cookies that were being hand folded by elderly women sitting in a circle.  If the hot fortune cookies were not molded in time they would stay in circles and would be bagged up and sold as “rejects”, but I always thought those warm fortune cookies were the best.

Statistically San Francisco is a very liberal and open minded area.  In 2010 San Francisco was named the most liberal county in the United States (Kulczuga 1).  San Francisco is a city where many types of diversity are included in all areas of life, such as Nancy Pelosi who is a Speaker of the House and a very powerful and influential woman.  Growing up in this city I was taught from an early age to be accepting of all kinds of people, and that if I set mind to pursuing something I could achieve whatever I wanted.  This accepting attitude has followed me through my life and I now consider myself an ally to many different types of people.  Without these beginnings my family may not have been able to understand and relate to more liberal ideals.  When we moved to Atlanta from San Francisco there were many people who were more closed-minded and conservative, but our beginnings in San Francisco kept us grounded to more accepting ideas.  

The city of San Francisco had a huge impact on my families environmentally conscious attitude and acceptance of a variety of people.  San Francisco is a city full of community gardens and pocket parks that allow people to grow fresh vegetables and help reduce their carbon footprint.  The city has a vast number of cultural centers including Chinatown, which has a wide variety of authentic foods and clothing.  San Francisco also houses many types of people with contrasting political views and a large homosexual population.  All of these factors shaped me and my family and will continue to create open-mindedness and consciousness for the world for generations to come.

"San Francisco Chinatown." Chinatownology. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. <http://www.chinatownology.com/usa.html>.

Kulczuga, Aleksandra. "San Francisco: America’s Most Liberal County." The Daily Caller. The Daily Caller, 14 Apr. 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. <http://dailycaller.com/2010/04/09/san-francisco-americas-most-liberal-county/>.

Charleston In My Mind

Hannah Hollon

         

         Moving to a new place without friends or family for support can be a scary thought, but it is oftentimes a reality for young adults setting out on their own for the first time. Both of my parents moved from small southern towns to Charleston, SC in the 80’s to follow their career paths in the medical field. My parents represented two different attitudes toward this kind of move; the thought of leaving a small, rural town to pursue nursing excited my mom, while my father was nervous about residency in a big city, as any medical school graduate would be. Charleston made the transition easier. Charleston is such a great city, and the hospital where both ended up, the Medical University of South Carolina, provided such a great foundation for a medical career. Both places made the move for my parents easier and more exciting as they made connections quickly and settled into their new lives. Setting out on one’s own can be a scary thought, yet starting fresh in Charleston, such a revered southern city, made the transition for both of my parents following their career paths easier as they found their independence, and my immediate family has been located in Charleston ever since.

            Charleston gained the reputation for second best city in the world by Conde Naste this year because it has been known for many things such as its southern history, downtown, the port, beaches, and world-renowned restaurants, and the city has held this status since its founding in 1670. Such characteristics make Charleston the ideal place to live, for it used to be “the most eminent and by far the richest city in Southern district of North America” (Lesesne 64). Living there my entire life, I have witnessed the great influx of northerners who migrate to Charleston and the increasing number of tourists that flood downtown in the springtime, and these numbers are no coincidence. Obviously, Charleston is most well-known for its history during “the slave society and ante-bellum South” time period, for we depended heavily on slave labor in the agricultural sector (Radford 395). Charleston used to be the sixth largest city in the country as the “capital of plantations” and founder of the “agrarian nature of South Carolina,” yet the city transitioned into a port city in the modern era (Radford 395). Charleston started out as agricultural and free of technology, but by the twentieth century the city moved toward industrialization with highways, bridges, an army base, boats, and the port. This transition late in Charleston’s history created the famous “old city” environment as compared to other great American cities. Charleston stands apart from all other American cities due to this type of foundation, making it almost an independent city containing southern charm in a worldly environment. These reasons have drawn natives and tourists in for centuries, including my parents, who were instantly drawn to Charleston, and medical careers soon followed. This opened up a chance for independence and fresh perspective, and the idea of a fresh start in such a unique city appealed to my parents despite their expected nerves. They moved in pursuit of medical careers, however, Charleston is the reason that my family remains there today.

            My parents came to Charleston because of the Medical University of South Carolina, and due to positive experiences, have never left. Charleston alone would have been reason enough for them to stay, but MUSC’s great reputation and plethora of opportunities really lured them in. This hospital and medical school was founded in 1823 “for the purpose of improving the quality of medical practice and to advance medical education in South Carolina,” and these standards have remained for almost two hundred years (Edwards 13). “In that early period Charleston had become a center of cultural and scientific interest and endeavor” due to its reputation as a hub of intelligence, innovation, and advancement above other cities in the country (Lynch 6). Hence, their medical successes needed to move with their growing reputation and population. Charleston attracted “a considerable number of qualified men” to their developing institution, and they represented “the best education and training available” (Lynch 9). With this constituent underway, the Medical University could not fail, and it has not. This is what individually drew my parents into Charleston, thus shaping the future of my immediate family.

            Being bound to both Charleston and MUSC, both of my parents were excited for what lay ahead in terms of opportunities and the chance to live in a bigger environment. My mom graduated from college and immediately set her sights on becoming a nurse at MUSC’s hospital. She had previous experience working as a nurse’s aide over the summers, which made her transition into the hospital easier. She was attracted to this nursing unit because of the influx of young people already working there and the chance to see surgeries and medical wonders that could not be seen at a regular hospital; “the early faculty included men of national and international reputation, who gave the college a prestige which placed it at once amongst the foremost institutions,” and the hospital has continued to maintain this reputation (Lesesne 124) She jumped right in and made the two best friends whom she has had ever since. She started pump school to become a nurse focusing on the heart, when she met my dad, an anesthesia resident at MUSC. He had moved to Charleston after graduating medical school in Memphis, Tennessee. Like my mom, he grew up in an even smaller southern town, and the thought of Charleston seemed huge at the time. He interviewed there, fell in love with both the city and hospital, and began his residency soon after. He lived with his college roommate who made his transition slightly easier, yet being a resident in a substantial hospital is both stressful and frightening. Once he and my mom got married, he moved to a different hospital but appreciated and recognized the foundations that MUSC laid for him. I am inspired to become a doctor myself just from growing up and hearing stories about their time spent at MUSC. This is why I see MUSC as such a pivotal place to my family, for this was where it began and where I hope to be one day. None of this could have been possible had Charleston not been innovative from the beginning so as to attract renowned medical experts in the early years of MUSC’s founding. I credit my family’s significant history to both of these places.

            My parents’ choices to leave their friends and family in their hometown to start fresh in a thriving city have impacted the ways in which we live our lives today. Big cities are usually associated with a faster pace, lively activity, and independence. Charleston possesses all three, which inspires me to always be on the go and involved in something. Being an only child, I could have grown up completely dependent on my parents, but instead, many would say that I am just the opposite, and I think this has a lot to do with my upbringing in Charleston .Oddly enough, I do associate Charleston with independence. It is the place where my parents set out individually, alone. They had to find their way, which they did successfully. My parents taught me the virtue of independence growing up, and I feel that I have carried it into my own life as I ventured to UNC without knowing many familiar faces. Needless to say, independence is a characteristic of my family, resulting from the energy of Charleston and experience in the medical profession. It all relates back to Charleston’s founding and the establishment of MUSC, which lured my parents years back. The thought of independence can be scary, yet my family has grown as a result of independence and the offerings of both Charleston and MUSC.

Works Cited

Edwards, James B. The Southeast's Oldest Medical School. New York: Newcomen

            Society of the United States, 1986.

“Family History.” Telephone interview. 6 Nov. 2011.

Lesesne, Thomas. History of Charleston County South Carolina. Charleston: A.H.

            Cawston, 1931.

Lynch, Kenneth. Medical Schooling in South Carolina 1823-1969. Columbia: R.L. Bryan,

            1970.

Radford, John P. "Testing the Model of the Pre-industrial City." Transactions of the

            Institute of British Geographers 4.2 (1979): 392-410. JSTOR. Web. 7 Nov. 2011.

<http://http://www.jstor.org/stable/622059>.