Author: Bean

The first person who got my attention is a medium height guy with short black hair. The reason I specifically noticed him is that he looks very energetic and confident even though he is wearing simple clothes. He is around twenty years old, and he is a mixed. He has clean face with deep eyes and thick brows, and he wears a white gold necklace and I have feeling that is a gift, which is probably form a very important person. I guess he is a very nice guy because it seems like he has a lot of friends. He always say “bless you” when people sneeze, and always hold doors for others. People seem happy when they are around him like he is sunshine. However, if I have to give an analogy, he would be a deep ocean rather than sunshine because I feel he is someone whose life is full of stories.

The second person I want to bring up is a very strong man. He is a black guy with very short curve black hair, and he is really tall. I guess a place he usually go is gym because he is so robust. I just assume that he loves sports and maybe plays a lot too. I would say he is around twenty years old. He is wearing silver earing on his left ear, and he always has headset on him probably listening R&B or Hip-hop music. He has big feet and several tattoos so I just feel like he is probably crabby, and I would afraid to talk with him. By watching the way he talking with his friends and the way he act, I believe he is a pretty straight forward guy. I guess he would not hide his feeling, and if he likes something or dislike something, he will just say it.

The third person I am impressed is an international girl from China. I believe she is a kind of girl who likes fashion very much because she’s clothes are all big brands. She is medium height with brown curly hair, and I guess she probably did hair permed. She is wearing heavy makeups and she just wear short skirts and T-shirt, which are all in light colors, in such cold weather. I don’t mean to judge her but I think she maybe come from a very wealthy family. I guess she probably likes party a lot, and maybe love drinking too. I can feel that the expensive brands stuff make her feel good, and I can understand why as a Chinese student. But my point is I probably would not dress like this go to school. If I give an analogy to her, I think she is like a beautiful cat. She could be herself and she don’t care what anyone else thinks.

I have to say that all these assumptions are all just based on general guessing or first impression. In real life, I am not a kind of person who can read someone by looking at dress, instead, I always find out some people is totally different than I thought when I actually start getting know them.

Do I see food as art? I asked myself this question after reading Elizabeth Telfer’s article. The author used a lot of different ways trying to figure out this question; for example, she define art in the classifying and evaluative sense, and she tried to differ art and craft in the respect of usefulness and creativeness.  She concluded that food is a kind of “minor art” because “works of art in food, whether creative or interpretative, cannot gain the same stature as those of greater permanence” (p.25). I guess I understand this conclusion but I see this in a different way. Again, I was trying to think if I see food as art, and I concluded that it all depends on how people treat that food.

• Some food are definitely can be called art. Chiefs are creating and carving an art instead of making dishes for feeding people. Of course, people can eat these because they are made by real food, but these be called art not because they are food. Here are some examples:

http://www.theendearingdesigner.com/creative-food-architecture-and-sculpture-designs

http://www.theendearingdesigner.com/creative-food-architecture-and-sculpture-designs

http://yunying19808.blog.163.com/blog/static/137491370201271052636711/

• Some food could be called art for some reasons, or they could be art for some people. This is similar to what Dissanayake defined art which is “making something sepecial” (p.10). People did these for special reasons and these also are dishes. They are dishes but probably its main function is not feeding people, so the taste is not important here. Just like Telfer mentioned that “it deserves to be apprised aesthetically, even though it may then be found wating” (p.13). So for people who created, these would be arts, but to some other people, they might not see these as art because they have no special meaning for them. Here are some examples:

ttp://weheartit.com/entry/19986670

http://weheartit.com/entry/19986732

• Some food show a lot of creativeness, but they just might not lead people have “aesthetic reaction”. I know some arts express feelings of humor, but whether or not call them work of art depends on different people. To some of people, they would think it is genius and grateful while some other people would think that is rubbish. Here are some examples:

http://artsfield.net/2013/05/07/food-art-4/

http://www.gmw.cn/cg/2013-02/04/content_6622506.htm

http://www.gmw.cn/cg/2013-02/04/content_6622506.htm

• When is comes to food that we eat very day, which is meals, I don’t think we should count them as work as art. People who eat them rarely think of aesthetic feelings, and people who made them don’t think they are creating art as they cooking. I cook for myself, and I don’t think I am making art even I really enjoy cooking. I guess this is more depends on how people see that dish. For example, the most common food, instant noodles, when we look at it in different ways, it will lead to very different feelings and conclusions.

It might not be art but it might be a beautiful thing when we look it like this:

http://www.0086lady.com/health/yinshi/201310/8897.html

http://www.0086lady.com/health/yinshi/201310/8897_2.html

http://www.0086lady.com/health/yinshi/201310/8897_3.html

However, for the same thing, it could also be like this:

http://bbs.tiexue.net/post_6198304_1.html

To sum up, food is a too general thing to say it is art or not. It all depends.

Paleoanthropsychobiological is a new term created by the author of What Is Art For Ellen Dissanayake to point out that art is a kind of thing which shows human history, includes all human societies, and has psychological effects (p. 1). It is really smart to illustrate art in this way because people will notice this very long word and start to feel curious why art did these much things. Dissanayake used this word to show that art is such a natural thing and it appears in everywhere in people’s life.

It is so hard to define a term like art especially it changes a lot along with human history. The author gave an outline of the changing or history of art in Western concept and mentioned several important turning point. Go back to the very beginning around early treatises, “technē” is a word people first used to describe art, and it meant “having a correct understanding of the principals involved” (p.2). Even though art at that time was not as same as it is now, it was still a very important word in art history. Art has developed very fast, and in the nineteenth century, people turned their attention to “aesthetics” which is “a concern with elucidating principles such as taste and beauty that govern all the arts and indeed make them not simply painting or statues but examples of art” (p.3). People started to separate art with other things in their life and try to make art as an independent area with universal ideas and concepts. Now, art becomes a very general thing and it has so many sub-fields and forms. Like Dissanayake said in her book, a Pandora’s Box was opened as a new term called “postmodernism” appeared (p.5). It becomes less focus on realistic nowadays and starts being diversion; in other words, art is far beyond the view of “reality”, and now it can be anything as long as people think it expresses what they want to.

At the near last part of the reading, Dissanayake gave art a very interesting definition, which is a behavior or an action to “make things special” (p. 10). When art became a part of human life, people were getting tired of seeing same kind of thing every day, so they start to create new types of art. The author regard this new kind of art as something that every people can do and do it for different reasons. She think the common reason that people want to do art is they using art as a tool to make something special. Although personally I think this definition is too general and abstract to be called a definition, it does nicely summarize the reasons that people doing art recent years. It is obvious that art, as a kind of manifestation, changed a lot from the start during centuries, but nobody knows what art could change to in the future. I guess this is the reason why it is really hard to be predicted and defined.

It is very interesting that Ellen Dissanayakewho has fifteen-year lived abroad experience in non-western country start to think about the real meaning of art and the. She starts from discussing that both definition and expression of art are varying along with time goes by. She pointed out that when the concept of art was firstly talked, people took it as beauty or poetry things, and Aristotle expressed it with poetry and tragedy (p.2). In medieval times, “renaissance artists replaced god centered with man centered concerns”, and in 18^th century, “modemity” formed since “a number of social and intellectual trends came together, intertwined and influenced one another” (p.2). Art starts to become unprecedented from nineteen century when “a disinterested attitude that is separate from one’s own personal interest in the object, its utility, or its social or religious ramifications” (p.3). When comes to mid-twentieth century, which was nearer to my life, I can feel what she saying that “paintings became less and less like mirrors, and more elaborate ad abstract” (p.4). In recent years, I find out that more and more art work are very abstract or “postmodemism”, and I can hardly know what the artist want to express without looking at the interpretation, or sometimes I cannot get it even with the explanations.

Dissanayake defined art as “a behavior of making something special” (p.10), and she believed that art is shifting from a kind of objects to an activity. I understand it as saying that art is not only a noun but also a verb now. Personally, I can understand that people don’t want to be alike, instead people want to be more creative or special, but I disagree to give art such a general definition. I once had the honor to attend an art exhibition, and when other people keep nodding towards a painting, I really don’t know what that piece of abstract work trying to express. I know I am not an artist, but I don’t like people regard one thing as Art once they can’t understand it. Dissanayake mentioned that “while there is no abstract concept of art, everyone may be an artist” (p.7), and I think this is just another way to say some “art” works cannot be called “art”. To sum up, I wish art can retain the basic form even through this is not special. We can classify abstract paintings and postmodemism objects into another new category, and just keep “art” simple.

Ordered list:

1. Family
2. Health
3. Friendship
4. Wealth
5. Enjoyment

—————————————————————–

6-20:

Leadership，Loyalty,Wisdom,Creativity, Security, Personal Accomplishment, Integrity, Independence, Personal Development, Prestige, Expertness, Community, Service, Power, Location

I put family, health, friendship, wealth, and enjoyment as my top five in my value list. I know lots of people think putting wealth to the fourth position is very worldly, but honestly I think wealth is the basic of many things except family, friends and health in the real world. Take today as an example. Sunday is the last day of this week and I have a lot to do. I have three roommates and we share a two-bedroom apartment because this is much cheaper, and our agreement of sharing room to save money represents that we care about wealth.  We are all international students studying abroad that show our independence, and we became close friends since we lived together that show our friendship.  We also watched a movie called Gravity for enjoyment since we all like movies. I contact with my parents everyday using WeChat, which is an app like Line, and I love to talk about my day with them and I know they love to hear. I ate two times a day and an apple at night to keep healthy, and I believe I am responsible for my own health.

I am the only child in my family, so my parents gave all they can give to me. When I was little, my father kept saying he wishes me noting but three things, be healthy, be happy, and be aspirant. I don’t understand what these mean at first, but I start to understand now. My family was very poor when I was born, and my parents played an exemplary role to show me their positive quality. They are strong, optimistic, and frugal; they respect to each other and they dutiful to their parents. I would keep these positive qualities, but there is one thing I will get rid of. They are told to be a person who their parents want them to be, but I won’t. My parents want me to be a doctor because they think doctor is a very good career, but I don’t like to learn medicine. My goal for myself is to be who I want to be and show my parents my decision is right. They love me so they did not force me to learn medicine in college, and I am finding my way to achieve my goal. Although I haven’t decided my major, I am happy now because I took different courses in different area and this is fun. I will find my interests and I know I will insist it till the end.

After reading “A Question of Values: Six Ways We Make the Personal Choices That Shape Our Lives”, I start to consider how human value be shown in real life. Press did not define the term of value because he said this is a “relatively recent one and is sometimes dismissed as a piece of barbarous jargon” (p.7). It is hard to just ask people what value is so the author gave six characteristic systems based on different attitude or way that people behave, which are authority, deductive logic, science, intuition, experience, and emotion. It is very interesting that Press discussed why people believe something, and I agree with him that there are mutable reasons can let a person believe something. For example, I don’t believe there exists one thing called UFO, at least not now. I keep seeing news says that some people saw UFO and even took a photo of it, but I still don’t believe them. However, one day my best friend told me that she saw a UFO once when she was very little, and she seriously pretty sure that was that. I start to kind believe there might have UFO because I trust my friend. Lots of examples like this can show that people’s belief or mind is very marvelous and hard to explain.

It is smart to put intangible idea into categories, and people will find one class that suitable them the most. Press also pointed out that people might not just belong to a single category, and it can be “cross-fertilized”. Although that six categories seems very professional and it makes they can categorize most individual, I think they are too general at some point. To be specific, male and female has different attitude about life, and the value of one person also might change along with he or she growing. People change and so do their value. Myself is a good example because I can feel my value and my thoughts are quite different compare to three years ago because of the study abroad experience, and I believe my parents’ value also change because of me.

In short, our values are the different not only just because of different life experiences, more importantly, we are totally different individuals, and each individual has independent way of viewing the world.

I took the advice searching on Technorati to find something I interested, and of course I went to women section. I saw a article with title “Horse Girls, Meet Your New Favorite Makeup” and I knew I will love it because I am a horse girl.

This short article introduces a new makeup produced by Chantecaille. This pretty product contains a cheek color, a highlighter, an eye shadow, and an eyeliner. Each of them has a horse shape on it, and I was attracted only by looking at the picture.

I love horse so this make up is just what I want. However, it is not cheap. It is available on Chantecaille for $84. This price is higher than I can afford right now but I still want share this to every horse girl and I know you will love it as I did. It is so lovely and if I could own it someday, I think I would never use it.

Picture: Courtesy of Chantecaille

Original blog: http://www.refinery29.com/2013/09/53318/chantecaille-wild-horses-palette