{"id":3869,"date":"2013-11-15T10:07:08","date_gmt":"2013-11-15T16:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/?p=3869"},"modified":"2013-11-15T10:07:08","modified_gmt":"2013-11-15T16:07:08","slug":"artists-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/2013\/11\/15\/artists-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist’s London"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"leepoem1\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

One really nice thing about London is all the little (and big) art galleries everywhere. I know in my Tate rant I may have given a certain impression, but I swear I\u2019m not an indiscriminate art hater\u2013in fact I quite enjoy most of it. I had an interesting interaction with an artist who had a display going on in this little gallery on my walk home today. The display was his in combination with a female artist. His works were very dark, ominous depictions of public transport in London\u2013scenes from the bus, tube, escalators, etc. Hers were abstract violent, revolting scenes which tied in themes of marketing and advertising with more serious connotations of murder and violence. Basically, a mash of the information we digest every morning along with our daily Starbucks. Her works were very ironic, and looking at them one couldn\u2019t help but grasp the ridiculousness of a story about children suicide placed next to an advertisement for a dating site, all taken in over a gingerbread latte. It\u2019s always nice when you can catch an artist at the gallery, and really get an understanding for the motivation behind the works.<\/p>\n

So I had a nice long chat with this fellow, and got a real feel for his artistic themes and the motivation behind his paintings, which were very large and mysteriously beautiful. He talked about the population of London as a whole, and the fact that everyone is here on some sort of set objective. No one is here just living. Consequentially, there are very few children and very few elderly people. The great majority of us here are between 18 and 60, with some set mission to accomplish while we\u2019re here. What this equates to, as he pointed about, is a population of people who are always running\u2013even if they have no place to be. Run, run, run. Also consequentially, this leaves people little time to contemplate life or death. And as far as most of us here are concerned, death does not exist here, as we\u2019re not faced with elderly or sick people. Such was the inspiration behind the ominous and contemplative nature of these scenes. I must say, the public transport theme tied in very well with the other artist\u2019s take on media. That\u2019s one of the great things about art; it really gets you thinking.<\/p>\n

\"leepoem3\"<\/a>So this got me thinking about life in London. Sure it\u2019s really cool, but would I want to live here permanently? No. There are just too many people, and the nature of the place is terribly cold. With such a large population, it can\u2019t be any other way. Plus it\u2019s so touristy that a lot of areas have a sort of manufactured, plastic feel. Yeah, there\u2019s lots to do and plenty of people to do things with, but it\u2019s still hard not to feel a bit isolated in the city. So, the thoughts evoked by this guy and his work inspired me to craft my feelings into a poem.<\/p>\n

Descension<\/em><\/strong>
\nWell I was born in a place where no one dies
\nRunnin\u2019 runnin\u2019 all they think about is time
\nCold, so cold, send shivers runnin\u2019 up your spine
\nSuit and tie, the cocktail parties and the wine.<\/p>\n

The smiling face bombards your space from every side
\nEmpty promises to keep you straight in line
\nElevator to the top floor in the skies
\nElevator to your empty dreams inside.<\/p>\n

The street musician shakes his tambourine and sighs
\nLooks out beyond the river bridges and the lights
\nThe camera fiend won\u2019t pay no heed to his demise
\nClicks his shutters to the jollities and lies.<\/p>\n

\"leepoem2\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

-Lee<\/p>\n

Lee Bartnik, a senior\u00a0at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point majoring in dietetics, is blogging about his study abroad experience in London<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One really nice thing about London is all the little (and big) art galleries everywhere. I know in my Tate rant I may have given a certain impression, but I swear I\u2019m not an indiscriminate art hater\u2013in fact I quite enjoy most of it. I had an interesting interaction with an artist who had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":3898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,44,23,24],"tags":[438,312],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3869"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uwsp.edu\/cps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}