Jamie's Humanities Blog

Be the color blue. Colors represent so many things, even traits in a person's personality. Blue should be the color to live by out of them all. The color is commonly associated with sadness or depression, but there is so much more to it. Blue represents trust, loyalty, peace, intelligence, and more. Some people might take on traits of the color red, the entire opposite of blue. People who are the color red are associated with the characteristics of hot-headedness, danger, and impulsiveness. I think, as a whole, that people who are generally reliable, secure, and compassionate are more likely to be successful in life and happier with themselves. Those are all more traits that are represented in the color blue.  

In the film Moonlight, for example, the color blue is used throughout to represent the reveal of someone's inner truth. It also symbolizes the main character, Chiron's journey to finding peace and accepting his own truth, not letting others affect who he is. That's something essential always to remember. There's no way to live your life happily or honestly if you refuse to acknowledge who you are. You will especially never be able to discover who you truly are if you allow others to define that for you.

However, in life, sometimes people go through rough times, and sometimes they fall down. Like the color blue, sometimes people just have to put faith in their future and have the strength to get back up. In Bill Viola's "Ascension," you can see those themes reflected within the video. The man initially sinks into the water, but by the end, he's floated all the way back to the top, his hands and the top of his head breaking the surface. I also believe the color blue was especially prominent in this video because of its ties to spirituality and its representation of hope in many other Christian artworks.  

Out of these art creations listed, Pierre Alechinsky's painting, Gong, gives the most significant representation of what the color blue can symbolize. While all art pieces are open to interpretation, the Gong is a more extreme case of this as it is abstract. In my original analysis of this artwork, I understood that it could come off with a sadder mood. However, even then, I said it felt more calming than anything else. I also went on to describe the lines and how they all felt smooth versus rough. I think it is beautiful that Gong can represent many aspects of the color blue, depending on who views it.  

With all of this in mind, while I've given examples and statements of what to live by, there are, in contrast, some things to avoid living by. If a person is blue, they live with patience and empathy and can keep calm even in difficult situations. If someone is red, as mentioned before, they have traits in much opposition to this. This can be observed in the saying "seeing red" when people become very angry. Red is also used on danger signs and is often associated with this feeling. While there can be good associations with the color red, such as confidence, the idea is, as a whole, that if someone is blue, they are not the type to be impatient, aggressive, or violent, handling situations much more level-headed and thinking things through. That seems like the smartest way to go through a rough situation or any situation at all.

I lay in the grassy field, the late summer already turning the grass to shades of orange.  The pink dress I wear fits right in now with the warm tones.  My fingers brush across the ground, and the dirt shifts beneath my moving weight.  I reach, crawling towards something, a strong feeling tugging at my heart.  There is a life there.  One that cannot be mine.

This is a prose that I wrote based on the painting by Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s world.  This painting is one that’s very beautiful to me.  It feels both peaceful and longing.  It does not give off a depressing mood, however, we see this woman crawling in a sprawling field towards a house that appears so far off into the distance.  In this sense I think it is an art piece that conveys much emotion.  In my prose I wanted to focus on that longing feeling, as it is what stood out the most to me, and brought my attention to this painting in the first place.  To do this I decided then that it might work best for me to write as if I were in the woman’s shoes, sitting in that field myself.  I also wanted to stay true to this painting, attempting to describe the setting as I see it.  Of course, I used some imagination as well with this.  I don’t know what season this scene was painted in but I described it in the way that I saw it and best conveyed the imagery.  Overall, I think the painting is beautiful on its own.  My prose is simply my take and a way of giving the painting’s focus an added story!

The video I have chosen to talk about is Bill Viola, “Ascension.” It greatly contrasts with the videos and films people often see today. There is no dialogue and no scene changes; in fact, the camera hardly, if at all, moves. In this short video, viewers are shown a man who has plunged feet first into the water and is slowly sinking away from the light and into the darker depths of the water while all of the bubbles and water leave him to float back up toward the light of the surface. As the video progresses, however, we see the man slowly rising back up until his hands and the very top of his head break the surface and the video ends. Bill Viola’s “Ascension” additionally appears to tie back to spiritual and religious themes. This is shown most evidently in how the man falls into the water, sinking and rising in cruciform. It is a very short and simply captured video, but the idea, point, and thought behind what was captured is clear. There was nothing extravagant compared to other films, there wasn’t even much music, just the sound of the water creating a very calming scene. I think that what really makes this video beautiful is what sets it apart from show series and films. It doesn’t need any explanation, and a story and purpose are told in merely one minute and fifty seconds. It feels less like the narrative stories that appear like visual novels and more like a moving piece of artwork. Overall, it’s a very spiritual and unique piece that has inspired in me a greater interest in viewing more experimental creations.

The two movies I chose to watch were Lost in Translation and Moonlight.  Two vastly contrasting films.  Lost in Translation is a romantic comedy-drama released in 2003 starring Bob Harris and Scarlett Johanson playing the two main characters, Bill Murray and Charlotte. The two characters meet while visiting Tokyo, Bill Murray there to film a whiskey commercial, and Charlotte to accompany her husband, who works as a photographer, both struggling with their marriages for different reasons. Both of them, on their own and unfamiliar with Tokyo, find an understanding between each other, knowing they can relate to the other's situation, forming an unlikely bond.  Lost in Translation explores themes of loneliness, connection, disconnection, and isolation. Many of the shots reflect this, as, while watching, you can observe multiple scenes where a wide shot is used despite capturing the character existing in only a small area. You can also see wide shots where the camera captures the characters in the city and the massive crowd around them, making them feel lost in their environment.

The second movie I watched was Moonlight, and it was by far my favorite between these two. Moonlight is a coming-of-age drama film focusing on the life of a boy named Chiron. This film is separated into three acts, splitting up three separate periods in his life. Act One, titled Little, shows the boy in his childhood and sets up the rest of the story. Even as a child, Chiron dealt with a lot of bullying from his peers. In this act, he also meets Juan and his girlfriend Teresa, who quickly become father and mother figures in his life. In Act Two, titled Chiron, we see Chiron in his teenage years. He still deals with a lot of bullying and harassment that, at the end of this scene, leads to Chiron getting into a fight. He doesn't throw any punches himself, but the next day, he retaliates by attacking one of the people who'd hurt him the day before and for years before that as well, leading to Chiron getting sent to juvie. In Act Three: Black, Chiron lives in Georgia. He is shown to be quite different from the person he was before. He claimed at one point that, after the incident in Act Two and after getting sent to juvie, he had to "build himself from the ground up." He didn't change entirely, though, and this is noticed especially when he visits Kevin, his childhood friend, after nearly ten years. Previously, in this act, Chiron was not shown smiling often or shown happy, not around or for anyone else aside from when he traveled to visit Kevin, clearly showing the strength of their bond.  

The scene that I found most impactful was the scene between Chiron and his mother in Act Two after he returns from the beach with Kevin. He finds his mother asleep on the couch and places a blanket over her. To this, she wakes up and holds his face, saying, "You don't love me no more…" and then, "You're my only. I'm your only." This scene switches from the wider shots used on Chiron's way back home to close-ups, emphasizing the expressions of himself and his mother.

Visually, there's nothing extreme, nothing making it incredibly unique. However, this conversation and his mother's words give so much context to their relationship. In this scene, we see a medium close-up shot of Chiron when his mom reaches out to cup his face. He tries to lean away, but she insists he comes closer. In act three, she's shown calling him multiple times, begging him to visit. Throughout the movie, she repeatedly says how much she loves Chiron despite her never showing it or stepping up to be a better mother figure in his life. I think she believes that she loves him, but after I watched that scene, I knew that her love for Chiron did not come from genuinely loving the person he was but because he was the only person who remained in her life. He was the only person she could hold on to and the only person she could force to stay in her life. By saying to Chiron, "I'm your only," (a statement not strictly true as he had found and been taken in by Teresa, who acted as a genuine and caring mother figure for him, though not related by blood) this revealed his mother's desperation for someone in her life. This was a very isolating phrase to say and showed her need to convince herself and her son that he only had his mother to support him in life as she truly only had him.

I read and watched Hamlet Act 5, scene 1. I found this scene from the play on YouTube and found that its interpretation was similar to mine while reading. However, the performers definitely brought a lot more emotion and life to the characters. I think this was especially so because, while reading, I was focused more on interpreting the use of Early Modern English than anything else. I believe the watched interpretation of the scene also emphasized Hamlet's feelings of anger and grief mixing when he confronted Laertes about his own love for Ophelia. When I read it to myself, it only sounded angry and slightly boastful even, like a child bragging about how he can go higher than all of his friends on the swing. He was basically saying that he loved Ophelia more than anyone ever could, and it was outrageous for anyone to suggest otherwise, even members of her own family. Watching it brought much more insight into who Hamlet was as a well-rounded character, as I previously did not know much about the story of Hamlet. Additionally, during this scene, there definitely is a range in Hamlet's emotions, ending feeling angry and grieving but starting feeling very reminiscent, thinking heavily over the idea of life and death. Later, this even leads to sadness after the gravedigger reveals that he'd just dug up the skeleton of the jester Hamlet had grown up with, Yorick. Overall, the reason I decided to focus on this scene was because it is towards the very end of the play, without being the very last scene. It sets up all the final pieces and gives you an idea of what will occur going forward. In this case, that is the duel. It also gave me a brief idea of the story beforehand: Hamlet's relationship with Ophelia, why he hadn't yet learned of her or even Yorick's death, the tension between Hamlet and Laertes, and a good idea of Hamlet's character as a whole. I think after viewing this scene and reading the script of Hamlet, I've grown a lot more interested in watching the entire play of Hamlet and finishing the story.

Below is the interpretation of this scene that I watched:

The photos I have taken are of little critters that I’ve seen while traveling to different places. Often, I find more excitement looking back at the little creatures I saw than just photos of the place/landscape itself, and even without much context, I can always remember where I was when I saw them.

The first photo I have is of a butterfly(specifically what I believe to be a silver-spotted skipper, or scientifically, an Epargyreus clarus) that I saw in June 2022 while out-of-state on a nature trail in Virginia. I took the photo on a wooden bridge on the trail, the railing on which the butterfly rested.

The next photo I took was in my dad’s workplace in November of 2022. It’s of his coworker’s beta fish. That day, his coworker was not there, so I was told that I could/should sit in his office while I worked on some schoolwork and waited for my dad to finish up before we could leave to go and visit our family that had recently moved to Jacksonville for Thanksgiving. I don’t know if this fish had already been named, but I remember that by the time I left, he was named Scar and inspired me to get my fish(who is called Shark).

This third photo was taken in the summer of 2023 at the botanical gardens in Sarasota of their Koi fish pond. I have a lot of pictures from this place, but the ones of the Koi Pond are my favorite, also because of how pretty I thought the area was and how excited I got when I found out they had food for people to feed the fish and that you could pet them! I’ve never met such friendly fish!

I have so many lizard photos, and this fourth photo correlates with a silly memory to me. Over this past summer(of 2023), I attended Ringling College of Art and Design’s Precollege Program. It was by far one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. This lizard, I saw with my friends quite regularly on our way back from class to dinner most evenings. We always looked out for him in that gutter, and he was always there! He’d even been given a name, though I must admit I’ve forgotten it now. While all of those friends lived out of state, and I often miss them, it brings a smile to my face to look back on the little silly moments like this I shared with them.

My theme with these songs is "bugs." All the songs I've listed have "bug" written into their titles; most use it as a metaphor somewhere within their lyrics. I chose this to be my theme simply because I thought it would be a fun topic, and I believe there are many ways bugs can symbolize other things in writing.

I think "Bug Like an Angel," by Mitski, does this very uniquely. The dynamics of this song are very soft and gentle, excluding the chorus when Mitski's voice grows louder and takes more emphasis, regaining the listeners' attention. The song itself in terms of lyrics, has many religious themes as well as a central theme of addiction. The importance of mentioning any sort of bug is solely to emphasize this. The song opens immediately with "There's a bug like an angel stuck to the bottom/Of my glass." The "bug" that looks "like an angel" can be interpreted as the temptation of the devil.

The second song on my playlist takes quite a different approach and uses bugs to symbolize the people who are like pests in a person's life. Like someone who is rude and won't leave you be. This song has really nice consonance and is "Bug a Boo" by Destiny's Child.

"Stink Bug" by Beastie Boys is the third song on my list and is entirely instrumental. The tempo stays the same throughout basically the entire piece and has a lot of harmony among all the instruments and sounds you can hear being played. The sounds really make it interesting, especially towards the end, where you can hear almost a spring-like sound growing louder in the background before the song finishes.

The next song I have is "The Bug Collector" by Haley Heynderickx. This song is about Heynderickx's dedication to her partner, who, as is implied in the song, has visual hallucinations possibly caused by past religious trauma. A few different types of bugs are used as symbols in this song, such as a centipede, millipede, and most notably, a praying mantis, who Heynderickx's partner swears is a priest. It's likely this creature was also explicitly chosen for its symbolism that often ties back to religion and prayer, in some cultures even being viewed as a reincarnation or symbol of God. Throughout the song, however, Heynderickx's unconditional love is expressed through lyrics such as "I must make you the perfect evening/I try my best/To put the priest inside a jam jar," showing her intended continuous support and love for her partner through challenging moments as well as the good.

Fifth is the song "Bugs" by Pearl Jam. The background music for this song is very unique while being repetitive throughout the entirety, with the most notable sound being from an accordion that only changes its tempo at the very end when it slows down and then speeds back up again as the singer sings the last lines. It's a song that can be interpreted in many different ways. The lyrics describe how the singer feels almost like the bugs are consuming him and every aspect of his life. The singer, Eddie Vedder, even explained the inspiration behind his song came from a moment when he had bugs crawling all over him, and he realized how little-in the grand scheme of things and the universe-significance he had.

There was a young boy around the age of twelve named Avery, and he wanted nothing more than to find a mermaid. He'd lived on a beach his whole life with his father, and he grew up fascinated by the lifeforms that inhabited the ocean. He'd read and been told many stories of mermaids and became obsessed with the idea of finding one. The only issue was his father didn't believe in mermaids in the slightest and said Avery shouldn't bother looking. Then, he'd gone out for the remaining hours of the day to catch fish to sell. It'd grown into an argument by the time his father decided to leave, and Avery impulsively decided to go out on his own boat to explore until he could prove his father wrong. He doubted his father would come looking much. He was out on his boat for so much of each day who knew how long it would take for him to notice. That was Avery's thought process, anyway.

Under his arm, as he trudged through the sand, was his journal of shells and aquatic organisms that he'd compiled information for himself. That was all he'd brought with him. He slowed, opening the book momentarily to flip through the pages. He'd written stories about mermaids he'd been told within as well. As he turned past one of the pages, something fell loose, and he knelt to pick it up. It was a photo of his father and himself standing side by side, his father wearing the same necklace that now hung around Avery's neck. He reached for the jewelry piece, a conch shell strung onto a cord, with a pained expression. His feelings of invalidation and frustration were recent and brought immediately back to the surface. He tore the necklace off and swung his arm back, hurling it as hard as he could into the water. He kept walking. The small canoe he would use to get off the beach in sight pulled up onto the shore. Upon reaching it, he shoved all his weight into it, trying to get it off the sand. It'd barely budged at all before he felt something hit the back of his head.

Avery turned around and looked for what possibly could have hit him. He froze, glancing to his feet. Uneasiness settled into his gut. It was his necklace. He hesitantly picked it up, examining it to ensure he wasn't seeing things. He wasn't sure how it was back in his possession, but he knew that it wouldn't be for long. He threw it back into the water. He turned back to the boat, and barely a few seconds had passed before he felt something hit his forehead. The hairs on his arms raised as he looked down to see his necklace at his feet again.  

How?  He wondered. He looked past the canoe to the big rocks that protruded from the ocean and onto the sand. That was where it had come from. Was someone playing some sort of trick on him? Avery stepped past his boat wearily. He needed to know how this was possible. Arriving at the edge of the rock structure, he paused for a moment before looking around to the other side. What he saw caused him to stop short. In the water was a boy around his age with his hair tied into a long braid. Only he wasn't a boy, not like Avery was, because in the water were not, in fact, legs but a tail!

Fear quickly replaced itself with excitement, and Avery raced toward the merperson, holding out his journal for the boy to see. The merboy smiled nervously, and Avery took it as confirmation that he could flip through the pages of his journal. He wanted to talk to this merboy, to express his excitement. However, the merboy reached out gently, trying not to cut him off too sharply. He had a reason for being there. He nodded his head to the left in the direction Avery had come from. Pointing first at the necklace discarded and forgotten beside him and then past the rocks. Avery frowned. Why did the merperson care so much about him having the necklace? The merperson pointed back at it again, and with reluctance, Avery picked it up. Just as he did, he heard his name called in the distance. Avery jumped to his feet. It was his father! He peered past the rocks and saw him walking from where he'd pulled his boat up onto shore close to the canoe.

Finally, Avery thought. Finally, he could show his father that he was right, that what he believed in was real. But as he watched his father, he also felt relief and surprise. His father looked worried, and he'd come looking for him probably as soon as he had returned to their empty home. He suddenly wasn't sure why his father wouldn't have. He'd been so upset he couldn't imagine his father caring about his disappearance.

He put his necklace back on and called as loudly as he could to grab his father's attention. The moment his father caught sight of him, he ran for him, reaching him at the rocks and wrapping him into a big hug.

"I was so worried," his father said. "I'm so sorry." Avery shook his head, hugging him back tightly. He peered to where the merboy was, a slight pang of disappointment to see emptiness in his place. He was less disappointed than he had expected himself to be, however. He realized that his father didn't need to believe in mermaids. Avery knew what was real to him. His father would still support his ocean-centered curiosity even if he didn't understand it entirely, and that was all that mattered. Avery smiled faintly to himself, knowing that he no longer had anything to prove to anyone. He'd proved everything he needed to himself! He'd seen a mermaid!  

“Trees” by Mark Haddon is a beautiful poem drawing attention to themes of nature and the beauty of life and living.  Right off the bat it’s clear of Haddon's thoughts on the need to show more appreciation and attention to nature as a whole, using trees symbolically to represent that.  In the poem, Haddon utilizes metaphors greatly such as where it reads, “...your sleep broken by a coal train on the empty hill” (Line 9).  Mark Haddon is, of course, not talking about an existing train but referring to the sound of a strong wind blowing through the branches of a tree.  He uses metaphors like this and “a shoal of olive-green fish” (Line 6) that describes the leaves dancing gently in a breeze until the closing, where Haddon seems to point out in one final line that we, as humans, don’t show nearly enough appreciation to our earth and to nature.  Those last five lines of the poem seem to imply the reader is not outside, showing interest in our trees, but that they are elsewhere, “reading poetry.”  This might only be my interpretation of it. The main thing that pulled me to feel this way was the structure and when the word “outside” was written in the second to last line as if the reader was not there to begin with.  Additionally, when he is describing metaphors such as the ones I listed above, he creates a situation beforehand: visits to your aunt’s house, looking outside the window, and playing an instrument.  All of these create a distance between the person, or reader, and nature, none of them taking place outdoors.  This emphasizes Haddon’s point that, too often, people are, at most, mere observers of nature instead of ever interacting and appreciating it directly or within a shared environment.

Here is a link to the poem:

The Romeo and Juliet statue on the Florida Southwestern State College-Lee campus depicts the two star-crossed lovers from the famous play written by Shakespeare(Romeo and Juliet).  It was first brought onto the campus in 1994 by Dr. Richard H. and Mrs. Julia Rush from the estate of George T. Delacorte, Jr,  a statue inspired-if not made-by sculptor Milton Hebald.  This bronze statue stands directly in front of FSW’s L building, also known as its Humanities Hall.  This is quite fitting and likely not by coincidence, as the main reason it was brought to campus was to show support for the arts and humanities programs offered at FSW.  In shape, the Romeo and Juliet statue is round and full, displaying much movement from the two characters who are holding each other and look almost as if they could’ve been gently swaying or dancing had they been in existence.  The statue is also placed within FSW’s garden(also created by the Rushes) next to where the koi pond is centered.  It’s surrounded by bushes and trees and beautiful hanging vines, all of which are ever-growing.  While this may be viewed as quite interpretive, the growing and lively garden the statue sits in could represent the evergrowing art and humanities students and courses on campus as Romeo and Juliet is meant to be in support of.  It greatly adds to the peaceful and calming atmosphere of the garden.  I would certainly agree with the Rushes that Romeo and Juliet is a very beautiful statue, representing the art and creativity that FSW’s Humanities Hall was made to embrace.  Here are photos I've taken of the statue below:

The artwork Gong by Pierre Alechinsky was painted in 1967 with acrylic paint.  I was drawn to the piece because of the fact that it is entirely monochromatic, made up of only the color blue.  I enjoy drawing myself, and something I find to be really fun is creating monochromatic paintings in watercolor.  I especially have wanted to create one in blue recently, so when I saw Alechinsky’s artwork, I knew that it would be the one I wrote about.  

Something that really caught my attention with this piece is that almost all of the painting is made up of not only blue but a deep-nearly black shade of blue, excluding the two areas on either edge that pop with a brighter hue and draw the observer's eye to them.  Because of the light shade, it also allows the viewer to see the dark shapes outlined within that are just barely visible throughout the rest of the paper.  These curving lines are prominent and solid over the larger abstract shapes, twisting and overlapping each other.  Additionally, despite this total use of the color blue, the artwork did not feel saddening or depressing to me, as this color often suggests.  Of course, the interpretation can change from viewer to viewer, or even after looking back upon it after a long period has passed, but my initial impression was that it felt calming.  As the title could imply, Gong might have been inspired by music and the flow of sound.  At least for me, I can see how the lines’ structure connects to this representation of music.  None of the lines are sharp, harsh, or scratchy.  They can be erratic in a sense, but at the same time, they flow throughout the entire canvas and intertwine with one another.  Gong is a very beautiful and expressive piece, conveying much in its use of color, lines, hues, and shapes.

Here is the painting below:

The work I have chosen to talk about is a song by Finneas O'Connell, also more simply known as FINNEAS, called “Only a Lifetime.”  Like the title hints, the song is about making the most of your life, and not wasting time and letting it pass by you.  In the lyrics, you can also hear the singer asking himself what makes living worthwhile and what a “successful” life might be labeled as.  As the song continues, he sings that the only way to really enjoy life and not “waste it” is to surround yourself with what you love and the people you love.  He additionally sings that it’s not worth spending your life holding on to anger and resentment and implies that the best parts of life are the good memories you make with those that are most important to you.  FINNEAS wrote the song during quarantine and during a period of time where he felt stuck waiting for the days to pass and for things to change.  He realized, though, that even though things had slowed down, he had been given time that he could now spend doing other things that brought him happiness instead of just letting his stress take over.  I think that this is a feeling that can be applied anytime.  Sometimes, you’re put into situations that can be very stressful or into places where you feel stuck, times where you just feel like you’re just waiting for the days to pass.  I think that, as the song says, you can surround yourself with what you love in those moments, whether it's a thing you enjoy doing or the people you care about most; you can adapt to the changes and the stressful times to still find ways to create good memories to look back on and keep living your life without feeling like you’ve wasted any of it at all.