This was the first week of Visual Studies 185X and the theme was "Down in the Valley," a song that was recorded by everyone from Burt Ives to little girls with musical bells.
My favorite version of the song is the one by Solomon Burke that Tony posted on his blog. Songs that are classics and that have a lot of meaning are meaningful regardless of the musical interpretation. "Down in the Valley" is a sad song, but it doesn't necessarily have to be performed as a ballad for that sadness to be conveyed. Passion seems to be the only necessity. Solomon Burke clearly has it.
Here was my piece of art for the week:
Not very artistically sophisticated, but I had fun making it.
I've been doing a lot of research on positive psychology so that was really the reason why I drew what I did in the way that I did. Apparently, if you change the way you think (ie think positively) you become happier. Sounds easier said than done. But what if the person singing the song wasn't in a valley in the negative sense of the word (an emotional rut, an inescapable place, somewhere he didn't want to be?) What if he was in the valley relaxing? What if things were actually pretty good for him? His letter was coming, the love of his life is committed to him, nothing was really wrong, all he had to do was be patient. Nothing in the song really suggests it, but that's the scenario I was trying to depict.
In class, Tony asked what the river represented... I still don't know. I kind of like the idea of it representing the flow of time... everything will eventually pass... how temporary everything in life is. The river itself is permanent, but the water in it keeps moving.
My favorite version of the song is the one by Solomon Burke that Tony posted on his blog. Songs that are classics and that have a lot of meaning are meaningful regardless of the musical interpretation. "Down in the Valley" is a sad song, but it doesn't necessarily have to be performed as a ballad for that sadness to be conveyed. Passion seems to be the only necessity. Solomon Burke clearly has it.
Here was my piece of art for the week:
Not very artistically sophisticated, but I had fun making it.
I've been doing a lot of research on positive psychology so that was really the reason why I drew what I did in the way that I did. Apparently, if you change the way you think (ie think positively) you become happier. Sounds easier said than done. But what if the person singing the song wasn't in a valley in the negative sense of the word (an emotional rut, an inescapable place, somewhere he didn't want to be?) What if he was in the valley relaxing? What if things were actually pretty good for him? His letter was coming, the love of his life is committed to him, nothing was really wrong, all he had to do was be patient. Nothing in the song really suggests it, but that's the scenario I was trying to depict.
In class, Tony asked what the river represented... I still don't know. I kind of like the idea of it representing the flow of time... everything will eventually pass... how temporary everything in life is. The river itself is permanent, but the water in it keeps moving.
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