the formal qualities of art...

So tonight in my docent class our teacher wanted us to practice having to talk about formal elements of art without much time to prepare to show us that it can save you if you're not as familiar with the subject matter of a particular exhibit. You can still create interesting discussion based on basic elements such as line, color, shape, space, and texture. Well one girl chose to speak about space in a few pieces and to open she used this question: "In art there are five formal elements: line, color, shape, space,and texture. Now which one of these is expressed in all art forms across the board: music, visual art, dance/theatre etc.?"
There was a pause and then after a few people offered their opinions she said: "space."

le sigh....ok, not that I'm being critical of her opinion cause she only had ten mintues and I don't expect the average person to have an in depth knowledge of music but.....come on! Not that I'm saying space is the wrong answer-sure it's right....of course she tied it to music by saying, "there is space between the notes on a page of music" tho i'm not sure if she was referring to the physical space left to right between notes in a melody line or if she was trying to reference what is called: intervals-distance between two pitches (up and down), but whatever. It works. It's just....

I don't know I was distracted the rest of her presentation cause I was just thinking about HOW incomplete her statement was. To be honest ALL of the formal elements in art run across the board in all artistic mediums-all of them not just one, though, again, I understand that this only matters to music geeks like myself but here we go incase anyone poses this philosophical question to you:
so...

-Line. I'm thinking I don't have to explain any of these elements' connections to art because it's frankly obvious in visual art. Music: ever heard of a melodic line or harmonic line before? whether it's stagnant or flowing due to rhythm/rests/pitches etc. and the chords themselves having certain structures that lead to the next chord and the next until a cadance (resolution) etc. totally applies to music. Dance/theatre- with choreography and physical placement of things this could also totally apply.

-Color. Again, art-duh. Music: there is such a thing as color in music but in music we refer to it as timbre (pronounced "tamber") which basically refers to the type of sound emitted by a voice/instrument-just think of how different a tuba sounds from an oboe-they have different timbres. A lot of times people will say how strings have a warm timbre and the winds have a colder/more sharp timbre-shrug i've heard some warm winds and some cold strings before-whatever, personal taste. but there ya go.
color in theatre/dance etc-duh.

-Shape. Music: there is shape in music...it's called dynamics and tempo as well as playing with personal feeling/playing musically-it's much more than notes on a page but the personal expression you give to it etc. Dance and Theatre-totally applies

-Texture. Now this is a tricky one for those who don't study music cause as opposed to the art world-music seems much more abstract or at least non-physical/hard to touch it etc. but texture is there too. texture in music refers to the simplicity or the complexity of the music. If there is just a simple monophonic line-one melody it's a light texture as opposed to a melody with a harmonized accompaniment-homophonic or fifteen different instruments playing all at once and all different melodies at once-polyphony. Either way, texture is a real part of music. Though I'm not an expert on theatre/dance-texture at least has reference to costumes and could, I think, be argued to be seen in how many people are on stage-one vs. a whole company or one person talking as opposed to a whole crowd shouting different things at once etc...

-Space. ok, space in music is relevent as far as intervals go (again ammount of whole and half steps between two pitches) as well as range or register-like flutes are obviously a high register while tubas are at a low register. space. But referring to physical notes on a page as music technically isn't right...cause that's not music is it? That's notation-a physical representation of music, but not what we hear which is what music actually is-finicky I know, but that's the nature of the beast-you got to be exact with it cause it's so abstract. and then theatre/dance-duh.

so you see? all apply across the board. That's why I love the humanities because we not only specialize in one thing but enable ourselves to see connections across the board that lead us to broader truths and realizations about a society,race,movements of thought/philosphies and humans in general etc. This semester I'm taking an art history class and music history class and they overlap in everything-sure there's different vocab words to describe the techniques but the background philosophies/mental movements/government influences/societal changes are all the same and their effects can be seen in music and art. It's cool.

and basically i'm so glad that I chose to specialize in music cause out of all the rest-no offense I think it's the hardest to grasp. I mean people hear it on the radio, they like it but that's pretty much where it stops for them. How often do people who like a song go buy a score to check out to really learn about it? But art you just look at what's infront of you and that's all you can do-look and think.

Dont get me wrong, the other fields in the arts are deep with rich histories etc. but they're just more tangible and therefore seem to be more accessible if one wants to learn more in depth about it where music is well...a little more abstract/mathematical/etc. you need to be able to do more than just see. You need to see, hear, feel/touch-if playing an instrument while doing critical thinking in your head etc. I dunno....

ok, geek session over now that I got that out of my system.

Last weekend...

So some things we've been up to lately: I interviewed my Grandpa Adams for a genealogy class and am now in the process of transcribing said interview:



Here's one of all three of us (yes I realize this is a HORRIBLE angle of me but it's the only one that Cody is in and he matters more to me than a bad angle-now that's love!


And of course a trip to Grandpa's wouldn't be complete without the dog:



In other news, we went to the Hogle Zoo this past weekend. It was pretty cold but we still managed to have fun. Of course being at the zoo I couldn't help but remember the last time I was there as a surprise bday activity:



(i was bored so Gavin played rock paper scissors with me while I waited to be able to take off the blind fold.
and this weekend:


It was fun but kind of depressing-I don't recall cement being part of any animals' natural habitat but they had a ton of monkies:










Then it just started getting depressing as we watched these monkies try to escape and pretty much climed themselves into a corner once they hit the glass.





There was also a tiger that was kind of freaky. He would pace back and forth and then all the sudden he hunched down and his eyes were lazored in on this kid that was running around oblivious-just following his every move. It was really freaky and really made you respect these animals-they are not tame by any means. That tiger wanted a kid sandwhich bad and it's amazing how little a fence can make you feel safe.
I learned that animals who are oblivious can be just as annoying as people who are oblivious to all around them:









i wouldn't leave you in suspense on whether or not the poor lil guy got out from under this oblivious tortoise:

So I am wishing for more time and less time at the same time-make sense? well welcome to my world ;)
I want time to fly by so I can take my last midterm of the semester and be done, but I want more time to have time to get ready for the game and make fun treats etc. (obviously talking about BYU vs. Florida tomorrow) Now I guess I'll be wandering the store to find anything that's blue cause I don't have time to make custom things-cougs you better win so I can make basketball sugar cookies next time!

In other news we were reading one of the talks from the last general conference of the lds church and there was a quote that I loved and felt that-if you could do this you would be a wonderful mother/wife/friend etc.

"When we learn to handle the small and simple daily things in a wise and inspired way, the result is a positive influence that will solidify harmony in our souls and build up and strengthen those around us" -Elder Per G. Malm from:"Rest unto Your Souls"

How amazing would that be? To be able to react and handle everything that comes at us-the little things in every day life with wisdom and inspiration....you would never let gut-reactions take over and cause regrets etc. Pretty cool. Man I love general conference and I can't wait for the next one in April!
Here's a link if you're feeling confused right now-check it out! What's General Conference?

All's well that ends well

As it turns out that 6th source was no big deal. I picked the first book on industry that popped up in the library search, grabbed a relevant sentence out of it and slapped it in my paper----AND.....done! Nevermind that the book was in the juvenile section full on with illustrations, haha I almost hope she looks up the source and gets a kick out of it.
I also used a micro-film reader for the first time today-that was exciting ;)I also listened to an assignment for piano on monday, practiced my 30 minutes, and wrote a mini paper for my museum class next week (now all I have to do is come up with a tour to go with it) I seriously love this docent class and I LOVE giving tours!
If only I could get paid for it ;)
Um...what else....so we tried a new recipe that we got from our friends the stuarts-it's basically rolls with pizza toppings folded inside them baked with seasonings/oil on top and then you dip them in pizza sauce. They turned out pretty good though I think I need to get better at making my own dough...still it was pretty good. Also I made apple cobbler which I cannot wait to dish up with some vanilla icecream!
off to watch the prestige with cody ;)

not so fast george banks.....or er...whitney nolden

So you know the scene in father of the bride when he is dialoging to the camera and he's talking about how everything was going good in life and he thought he had it made but then it was like: "not so fast george banks" and something happened that kind of swept the rug from right under him? yeah....

So I am on the eve of turning in my last paper of BYU history-my last paper!!! Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy writing papers for the most part and have really developed my ability to write a good paper-heck I got A's on both of my capstone papers which were hefty papers and as all humanities papers go-dealt with a lot of deep subjects/philosophy etc. Being a humanities major I have written many papers-i would venture to say that only english majors write more than we do-but who knows maybe we're neck and neck. So I printed out my paper after having made adjustments/edited it etc. I was so proud and excited to turn it in-felt so on top of things and then......not so fast whitney nolden.......

So for some reason I started thumbing through my rough draft that we turned in for peer review. I noticed that my reviewer had written on my actual paper plus on the attached review sheet. So I'm looking through her comments-all of them complementary and then at the end she writes that 6 is the minimum source requirement. I have 5 sources.....CRAP. Now, I have two sources on one painting/artist that I have, 2 sources that provide cultural/historical context, and only 1 source for the other painter/artist I have-because it is SOOOO stinking hard to find sources on the painting I chose! I seriously searched for weeks, even the library staff were trying to help me but couldn't find anything. They even gave me the number of a staff member that could help me-I wrote an email and never got a response. Eventually I gave up on finding that second source cause I was so convinced that the source requirement was 5.

I wrote my TA to see what she'll say-ugh. I just want to be done!!!! luckily I think I'll work from home tomorrow rather than going into the museum since Jessica is gone and they have no computers plus what I'm doing can be done anywhere with internet connection. I just hope I won't have to be at the library trying to find some vague yet applicable source to throw in there somewhere. sigh. I'm right at my page limit too.
drats.

oh yeah....happy st. patrick's day!!! let's hope the luck of the irish will be on my side.

So what is it with all the tech??

So as I was impatiently waiting for my class to roll around at 1:00 so I could take my test I was talking to Code. He was telling me about the "skuttlebug" in the tech world-apparently someone got ahold of the new iphone that's supposed to be coming out soon and found out that it wasn't that cool or different from the last iphone-finally someone who sees things my way!

I swear it seems like every other day I'm hearing about something new that is coming out that everyone is excited for, and I wonder....how can there have been enough time from the last thing for any excitement to build up at all??? Maybe their product would actually be distinguishable from their last product if they would-oh I dunno...wait more than 6 months-then they'll have time to get new ideas and implement them!
I thought of the perfect metaphor for how I see the constant "unveilings" of the tech world:

It's like seeing a bunch of people getting excited for a bunch of sequels of Land Before Time that are coming out in 4-6 month increments...and getting excited about each one because they think that it's somehow different/better than the original. I'm standing here wondering....ok, the original was good....but am I the only one who sees this?! It's Land Before Time 7!!....what's there to be excited about??? but they look at me like I'M the crazy one for not seeing the coolness or uniqueness of it.

But I know it saddens Code's heart to see me harp on techies so...that's all I have to say about that. :)

p.s. the flowers you see below in the pic are still sitting on our table and no, not because we forgot to throw them out. I've been changing the water periodically and, sure, they don't look as good as they did...but they are still living-it's crazy! We have the flowers that would not die-the petals aren't wilting or drooping-even the center yellow part of the daisy is starting to shed but the petals just keep on going. I wonder what the record is for keeping flowers alive in a vase/out of the ground...

March 8th is Women's Day

Congrats all you girls for being girls! (shrug, I dunno but I don't mind getting presents :) I first learned of this glorious holiday on my mish in Russia-it's very big there and the men take it seriously. You can expect to see guys running all over with flowers, chocolates, etc. for the different women in their life-that's what I like about this holiday-not just for those with girlfriends/wives, but any women in their lives....plus it gives us a better chance to get more than one present :)

In Russia I remember the elders came over and cooked us breakfast and gave us flowers. Well today was no different-I had mentioned to Cody that it was women's day but specifically told him that I wasn't hinting for him to do anything-just remembering the mish etc.

So then I come home from the museum to this:




Does my man know how to make me happy or what?? of course now I'm torn cause it's tuesday and I'm trying to swear off chocolate during the week...humph....maybe I will only have a little bit for my study session tonight ;)

Xmas came a little early with tax returns

So Cody has been dreaming of the day that he could once again own a mac computer. He has been slumming it with his dell and was patient in his sufferings these past months :) Here he is unwrapping it: It's finally here! Basking in the warm glow of the cool welcome intro once we turned it on-it was kind of cool cause they had Korean and Russian on there. an interview from the excited boy:


Meanwhile I had a good weekend helping Amanda take pics for her cuz up at temple square. It was so fun to just hang out again. Sometimes I worry if I'll ever have as good of friends as I have from before my mish in my future wards etc.
Also I managed to get a 100 and a 98 on two tests this weekend and yet it is still not finished cause i have an art history test on wed. It's hard for me to feel motivated with this one cause I thought I did great-A work on the last one and only got a B, and frankly I don't want to work as hard as I did last time if it's only gonna get me a B. O well I guess we'll see.