Today was the day that we visited art museum number two, the National Gallery. Unlike the Tate Modern, the National Gallery was less about art that made you think and was instead more about the art that keeps you looking. There were no puzzles or riddles to be deciphered, every piece of art was at its fullest the moment you laid your eyes on it. This ranged from landscape pieces, to paintings of Christ, and most importantly to the thousands of portraits of people that I have never given a shit about. While exploring this museum I had a brief moment of understanding, is a piece of art that pisses me off more interesting than art that is just really boring? Who knows, all I know is that the stupid receipt from the Tate Modern still makes me angry. Now that I have rambled, let’s talk specifics. There wasn’t any piece of art that I really hated (other than the portraits), so I instead want to talk about two pieces that I simply enjoyed looking at. The first is a painting of a train chugging across the London Bridge on an exceptionally cloudy day, and the second is of our beloved baby boy Jesus Christ. The choochoo train was fascinating to me because of the fog effect the painter was able to create by mixing the paints in such a light fashion. It almost even looks like he made a full painting and then went back over it in order to sensor it. The image just kinda reached out to me and locked my eyes in place. It was a little hypnotizing. The artist did so much with so little and I can’t get that image out of my head. The other painting was that of Jeezy boy Christman. It was the polar opposite of the steam train, and it was intimidating to a certain degree. The image itself meant very little to me because I am not a very religious person, instead it was the specificity of the piece that I found so interesting. It was massive, and every last part of it was made with a clear and purposeful intent. It separated itself from the rest of the art in the room because, unlike some of the other pieces, it perfectly portrayed the artist’s heart. I could sense the importance of the piece through the detail that he added, and I could see how beautiful all the people were because I knew the time the artist put into making them. These were two pieces that elicited the same feelings in, but had completely different methods of creation. I’m not sure if I’ll return to the National Gallery, but if I do I would like to see if I still feel the same way about these pieces. But that is just a theory, an art theory. 

(the quality of these photos is really bad and I am sorry for that)

Long Title…but yesterday we went to the National Gallery. Upon entering I was sort of dreading it. I just don’t think art museums are my favorite to go to, but I will say I soon got excited. When I entered I saw many boring portraits and then decided to search up what famous painting were in this gallery. To my surprise it said Van Gogh’s Sunflower painting was being displayed in room forty- three. Back in February I saw The Starry Night at the MoMA in New York, so I was stoked. I was soon on a mission to find this painting, I’ve read so much about it in elementary. I found a map and went on my journey to find this room. It took a while because this gallery is so big, and most numbers of the rooms weren’t being displayed. This painting gives me so much joy; Van Gogh said that the reason he chose such bright yellows is because it reminds him of hope and friendship.

While exploring the room where Van Gogh’s painting were there were these two painting side by side of each other. They were each painted by the artist named Théo Van Rysselberghe. I was quickly drawn in by them since they looked like a similar style to A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by George Seurat. The simple brush dots is why I assumed they were by the same artist; I was shocked to find out they weren’t. They were both done with oil paints, which I can’t imagine how long it took them to dry. The first piece was called Coastal Scene which was done around the late 1880s. Rysselberghe was known for only painting coastal and boat scenes so most of his painting reflect his French Riviera summers . The second painting is where his style takes a turn. Taking Inspo from Seurat he starts using the same technique and moves to painting meadows and flowers instead of water. I thought that it was super cool to see up close how he uses solid colors more.

One last painting I want to talk about is, Christ Before the High Priest by Gerritt Van Honthorst. I remember Karl talking about Honthorst in our fundamentals of design class my sophomore year. When I walked pasted it I didn’t recognize it at first. I sat there staring at it for a good five minutes before I realized where I’ve seen it before. It also reminded me how excited Karl got about art and it really warmed my heart. It just felt like a good memory that I thought I would share. 8/10 Good Day!

Yesterday we went to the National Gallery, honestly I have realized that I really don’t like going to any kind of museum. I just don’t have the attention span and I don’t want to stand there all day and analyze each and every picture I find that they all start to look the same after a while so I just get really bored. Also, there are too many people in too small of a space trying to look at the same things so it is really cramped and really hard to see everything and really hard to take pictures. So yesterday it was very hard for me to find things to compare and contrast for this assignment.

However, I did find two paintings that I really liked and wanted to write about. The first one was the chair painted by Vincent Van Gogh and the second one was the painting of the sunflowers coincidently painted by . . . you guessed it, Vincent Van Gogh! I didn’t intentionally try to pick two paintings by the same artist, but as I was going through the museum and looking at all the art those were the two paintings that I saw that stood out and really caught my attention. I think it’s because they are very colorful paintings and they stand out from all the other paintings because I noticed that a lot of the paintings that I did see had a lot of dark and neutral colors like brown, black, white, tan, with a little bit of color mixed in if someone had a colorful piece of clothing on. 

Some of the similarities that I noticed in the two paintings were of course they were painted by the same person so somewhere in the painting they had the name Vincent written in black ink so that people would know that I was painted by him and that it was his original work, I also noticed that each painting had a lot of yellow in it I’m not sure if he did that on purpose but I liked how they kind of resembled each other in that way even though they are two different paintings probably painted at different times. A difference that I noticed between the two paintings are that obviously they are two different paintings with two different meanings so both tell us two different stories and when you are looking at them you can kind of make up a story for them which I think is interesting. We probably don’t know the context or thoughts behind the paintings, but it’s kind of interesting to think about how he was inspired to paint these, like did he just paint a chair in his house or did buy sunflowers just to paint them or could he have bought them for someone and just ended up painting them instead. You can come up with so many theories.

Overall, I liked the paintings that I saw, but I don’t feel that need to go back again and I don’t foresee me going to many more museums in my life. It was a good experience and I’m glad that I got to see some art that I may have never been able to see before, but art museums are just not my thing. 

Last night we saw the musical Once on this Island at the open air theatre in Regents Park. I think that an open air theatre is a really creative idea and I really enjoyed being outside in nature where you never know what might happen. Weather, animals, or the environment around the theatre. I liked not knowing if a bird was going to swoop down into the middle of an important scene or whether or not it would start raining or we would hear people yelling or cars honking at each other. I liked the suspense of anything could happen during the show.

As for the show itself, I was a little disappointed I really wanted to like it but I didn’t. They didn’t really have a set which I heard was a really big part of why the show was supposed to be so good, the accents for me were very hard to understand so I was confused a lot of the show because I didn’t understand them too well, I don’t necessarily think that was their fault I think it was mostly on me because I could have read more about the show and done things to prepare to watch the show and know what was happening. I will say however, when I did understand them I really enjoyed the show I think they all sang amazingly. I think that all the actors did very well despite not being able to understand them sometimes, I really enjoyed the lighting design in specific moments, because it seemed like each god had their own specific lighting during their song to match what they represented. And I really liked how the fire came up from the stage, and when it tells us that the gods wept for her water trickled down the middle of the stage to represent the gods tears which I though was a great design element. Also, I liked the costumes, they were very creative and colorful. I think my favorite characters where the mom and dad because it reminded me of my own life being adopted, she wasn’t biologically related to them but they loved her anyway and just wanted the best for her, but my favorite god was Agwe who was the god of water, I really loved his song. 

Overall, I wanted this to be a good experience but struggled to make it one. I think that I would want to see this show again somewhere else to compare the two, maybe I would like a different production of this show where I’m not really cold and I’m not distracted because I don’t know what’s happening and can’t understand what they are saying. Even though I’m still a little confused about what happened in the show if I were to see it again I think that I would probably understand it better just by putting the pieces of each show together. And I also heard that this production cut a lot of things so maybe that is contributing to the confusion. Again, I really like the idea of an outdoor theatre it makes for such a different experience because not only do you have LED lights but you have natural light until the sun goes down. It reminded me of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. 

Yesterday, we visited Borough Market, one of the most popular markets in London. The first thing I noticed about the market was how incredibly crowded it was. I started with a group of about eight people that slowly went to four and then eventually two. As I walked around, I noticed the number of shops and food stalls that were around me. I was told that there are normally more than what was present, but there was construction that caused the location to change.

The amount of food was incredible. There were meat pies, something that looked like peanut brittle, donuts, fish, bread, and so much more. There were also baking and cooking supplies to buy rather than eat, like dried pasta and exotic fruits. I saw a dragonfruit and a large jackfruit with a label “I am a jackfruit.” There were so many varieties of food that I could have chosen from, so obviously, I had to choose one that I’d never had before… a chicken sandwich. NOW CALM DOWN. WAIT. I promise it wasn’t just a chicken sandwich.

A few things to know about me: I like bland foods (with the exception of a few tested and approved seasonings/flavors), if I don’t like something, I won’t eat it, and I have an affinity for textures (specifically if something looks like it should be one texture and it’s not, I won’t eat it – ex: lettuce should be crispy). So, when I was walking around, the steak and ale pie didn’t stick out to me. It’s possible it didn’t because the location is close vicinity to the supposed peanut brittle and fish. The smells confused my brain and made me more nauseous than hungry. But, regardless, I settled on a chicken sandwich.

First of all, I was originally going to get a burger. It’s a failsafe, and I know I’ll eat it. And in my opinion, if I’m going to be spending money on food, I’d rather get something I know I’ll eat rather than buy something I may not like and then not eat and just waste food. But, when I was standing at the counter ready to order, I smelled something so good my jaw tingled, and I just decided to order the chicken on a whim.

The chicken wasn’t a chicken breast or patty, but a collection of fried chicken on a bun. It’s supposed to come with cole slaw, but I’m not a slaw gal and opted out of it. Additionally, there was a pretty heavy drizzle of mayo that was supposed to come also, and I took that out as well. But, as the man was assembling my sad collection of chicken on my bun, I realized how bland it would be but also how much I’m not trying. I’ve had cole slaw before and knew I wouldn’t like it, but I’ve never had mayo. And then, I saw it. It wasn’t just mayo. It was GARLIC mayo. A FAILSAFE FLAVOR.

That’s it. I got a drizzle of garlic mayo on the chicken, and after a search for around 20 minutes for a table, I DEMOLISHED it. It was so spectacularly good. But as I was walking, trying to find somewhere to sit so I could eat my food, I came across a whole section of new food ranging from Indian cuisine to Thai to Iranian. I do have goals to try butter chicken at an Indian restaurant before I leave, but I had already paid for my food.

While I still stick to my go-to foods most of the time, I am proud of myself for slowly branching out and allowing new experiences. It’s like exposure therapy for my mouth. One day I ordered a burger plain, but I bit into it, and there was sauce. But, I didn’t send it back. I didn’t like it, but I ate most of the burger before offering the rest to someone who would like it. I ordered a chicken schnitzel at a pub, and it turned out to be the most delicious meal I had up to that point. I’ve tried sips of terrible alcoholic beverages that left me contemplating crimes against the bartender. But at least I’m trying them, which is a huge step for me. If I have it in my budget, I hope to go back to Borough market to either get that chicken again or at least look for some other options of food to try.

After weeks of anticipation, we finally went to the market I’ve been craving since we’ve gotten here: Borough Market. While preparing for this trip, I started seeing more and more TikToks and Instagram posts about London, tourism, and studying abroad. After two of my close friends sent me the same video of Borough Market, I realized I had to go there to get the iconic chocolate strawberry pot. Once we got to the market, we noticed it was much larger than it used to be and we started to get lost in all the people gathering around shops, restaurants, coffee stands, and sweets. After doing a round to survey my options, I decided on Beef Payang Curry for lunch at a local Thai street food shop. Based on some of my meals the past few days, I went for foreign food due to the lack of flavor in the past few British meals I have encountered. However, the curry was a huge disappointment. The meat was on a bed of rice covered in a curry sauce and bright green cilantro, which gave me hope in its presentation. However, after the first bite, I was confused about what I had just purchased. The meat and rice were both undercooked and the curry had flavor, don’t get me wrong, the flavors just tasted incorrect. I ate as much as I could, threw it away, and headed over to the strawberries. My failed attempt at lunch meant nothing to me with the looming chance of strawberry happiness hanging over my head. We quickly made it through the line as we watched them create the treat right in front of us. After they handed me the cup of bright red, succulent berries covered in layers of slowly hardening milk chocolate, I felt as if I had finally found peace. I ate the entire cup raving about the fantastic flavor the entire time and I have already started planning on when I can go back. I even visited Greenwich Market today and tried their version of the same sweet because it was still on my mind. My new goal for this trip is to try to get the chocolate pot as much as I can before I am forced to go back to the States and be far from the strawberry heaven that I once discovered.