1.

Select a painting, drawing or sculpture from the impressionist era and describe the
art. Then and more importantly, comment on how the art made you feel. What did
the artist communicate to you? Evaluate the work from a right brain response. Not
all art will elicit an emotional response in you. Find one that does.

This was the painting from the impressionist era that made a mark on my brain.
The artist has carefully depicted her eyes which had the biggest impression on my brain.
Something that was very noticeable from this painting was that it was from an angle in which he
could cover all the expressions in her body. The painting depicted a girl who was happily
spending some time with her sweetheart when some strange act of her sweetheart drew such a
response from her. She continued smiling but still had her eyebrows raised surprised at that act.

The right brain flooded me with memories of my ex-girlfriend in India with whom I had a
very complete relationship of a married couple although we remained unmarried. This painting
stimulated me her face as after some time I saw my girlfriend in the painting. She had similar
features with long hair and a cute smile.
It was the summer vacation in India when both of us enrolled for an externship in
a Multi-National company. The building was just two streets next to my house and so we
couldnt spend much time outside the company together. One fine morning both of us
came there very early and spent time talking. We were about to enter the company when I
forgot to get something. So, I asked her to wait and ran back home while all our mates
went in. I came back running and we got into the elevator when she gave me the same
look as in the painting with her eyebrows raised and a smile at the end of her mouth.
When I asked her why she looked like that she responded saying, Nothing!.

We went and took to our respective teams to work with. As our work in the office
was over by afternoon, she wanted to go to the beach. Both of us took a bus and then a
train and then went to the Marina beach, the second longest beach in the world. We held
our hands and started walking on the beach sand when a young boy of 10 or 12
approached us asking for some money. I took my purse and gave him 30 Rupees [Indian
Currency]. She smiled and again gave me the same kind of look again. Then a woman
who was selling flowers on the beach approached us. It is traditional in India for women
to adorn the hair with flowers. I got her one arms length of flowers for Rs.50 as the lady
spoke some pretty good words wishing us a happy life-long relationship. I knew the
money was way too much but I did not mind as I was spending one of my happiest
moments. She then pulled my wallet and said, You are spending like water. This wont
happen anymore. Her stare soon turned into laughter and we sat on the sand and spoke
for some time. We had some fun in the water and then decided to go back home in the
evening. I thought of going to my moms office and she wanted to go back home.

So, we both got down in the next stop for her to get the train. It started to drizzle
since we left the beach and the rain slowly became strong. I asked her to go and get the
ticket for her to go home when she asked me to get her. She remained adamant and then I
got her the ticket for her. We then waited till her train arrived. She left with a smile which
was similar to the one in the painting although it had a little more sadness in it. She was
worried whether I will get back home safely as it was raining. As messaging was the
most popular means of communication, she asked me to send a text message once I
reached my moms office. My mobile got switched off due to low battery as I was in the
train. Then I reached my moms office and called her to convey the message that I
reached home.

2.

Select a post-impressionist painting. Research and report on the societal context of that
work. What was the artist attempting to communicate at the time of the painting? Describe
your emotional response to this work of art.

The painting was done in the post-impressionist era. This painting depicts a building near a
factory site. The building was constructed with red stones which indicates it was not a very
rich building and it was not in a very developed part of the city. It doesnt have a fancy
architecture but instead is built in a very simple way.
It might have been a time when it was snowing heavily in one of the states in the
United States of America. It was very old and had stairs which were parallel to each other.
There are a number of buildings in and around which indicates this is an industrial area. The
big and high chimney indicates the factory manufactured materials which produced smoke in
the process. Some of the walls still remained incomplete which is an indication that this
could have been form one of the developing construction sites of a company. The building
seems to be very long and seems to have very little breadth with only one-way staircase
access.
This building reminded me of moments of my college life in Chennai, India
where my friend used to live in a bachelors room which was similar to this. It had a long
hallway and was facing the main road in the front side and a factory in the backside. There
were rooms built along the long hallway on either side. Every day after college our gang of
friends used to visit the room as we used to come together in motorbike. We used to play
cards there and then play cricket outside the house in the long hallway.
One day there was a strike in the city by all the college students as they started
protesting against the killing of Tamil speaking natives in Sri Lanka. As we were in the state
of Tamil Nadu, all the students in the city joined it. However our college was strict and didnt
allow us to go. But since many of them didnt come to college it was legalized to take leave.
Our entire bunch of boys in the class didnt go to college and instead went to the room to
enjoy. First all of us went one by one to the room. Five of them had come before 9 o clock. I
then arrived late by 9.20 and as I went in I saw five of them were sitting and playing cards.
They shouted Dei karthi vandutan da in Tamil (Indian Language) meaning Hey, Karthik
has come! Then seven more guys came and myself and seven others came out of the room
and started playing cricket. We divided into teams of 4 each and started playing cricket. Each
team won alternatively till a fight arose during one of the games. One of the guys was run-out
but he did not accept it. After a lot of arguments, we stopped the game and went for lunch.

We didnt have enough money to buy lunch for everyone. So, we put all that we had together
to buy lunch. We got 6 parcel packets and we shared it for lunch. After a good lunch some
went to sleep and the rest moved to the next room to continue playing cards. I joined to play
cards as I did not feel sleepy. At around 3 PM we all planned to go to the Marina beach to
join the strike.
All of us got together at 3.30PM and started talking about whether to join the
procession or not. Some of us wanted to join and some of us didnt want to join. Those who
didnt want to join decided to go home. Then one of the girls from our class who was in the
strike called us to ask who was coming to the strike. It was about 3.4 5 PM and the college
was over. I received an SMS from my girlfriend asking me not to join the procession. After a
fight with her, I lost my mood to go and I sat along with my friends to continue playing
cards. We finished playing at about 5 PM and walked out to stand near the wall at the end of
the hallway. We stood there seeing the vehicles plying on the road and our college buses
leaving. After the sunset we spoke a little about the assignments and I left the place to the bus
stand opposite to it to catch a bus back home.