Day Forty Four: A Day not in class but in London

PICTURES: 1) View of the London Eye and the Big Ben. 2) The lion from Trafalgar Square. 3) The fuzzy lights of the blue trees under the London Eye. (THIS TIME I TOOK ALL THE PICTURES!)

Today I had to meet my Visual Arts: An Introduction class at the National Gallery. We were to spend the whole day learning about museums and what jobs you can go into at museums, so needless to day it was right up my alley. I took a lot of notes on the three main jobs they talked about 1) archivist 2) restorer 3) curator. Sad thing is, I think I would be happy with any of those jobs, so it did not really help me pick a particular one out. I guess I will just go into the business and fall where I fall until I really know for sure where I want to end up.

The National Gallery may very well be my new favorite place in the world. Minus the part where it smelled like the Baseball Hall of Fame, that was a funny discovery. I became uneasy in a weird familiar way and I realized that it was the smell. I almost laughed out loud when I recognized the combination and the smell which equaled my reaction every time i went to work at The Baseball Hall of Fame which is apprehension and despair, haha. It was really wonderful walking through the rooms though, I was seeing art work that I have been studying for the last three years! I knew things the other students did not, thanks to Allen Farber, such as all the old paintings being painted on wood.

I was especially excited when on our miniature tour we stopped in front of one of my favorite paintings. I love Rubens and we stood in front of one of his landscape paints, more specifically the one of the estate he bought to retire in. It was more glorious close up, the details, the large size, it was beautiful. I did not even listen to our guide for the first couple of minutes because I was so thrilled to be standing in front of it. Rubens is a fantastic artist. I could go on forever, but I will spare you the details of an art history minor. The rest of the paintings he had us look at where amazing historical and amazingly detailed, it was so great.

Afterwords, we could have wandered around a bit, and we did for a little bit, but I was very overwhelmed with the information we received and being so unexpectedly confronted by paintings I have looked at for years live. I suggested that I was ready to go home. We ended up walking around the city until 7:15ish (???) and then took the train out. So, I guess we walked around for 3 hours after the class trip ended. London is so pretty at night. Oh highlight of the night, I accidentally haggled for sugar covered almonds, haha. I was curious so I went over to ask the man how much they were and he said 2 pounds, a pound less than the other guy, and when I thanks and walked away he goes I'll give them to you for 1.50. Which I decided to take, because I haggled by mistake and I was excited. They were delicious, so it was a good buy, and 2 pounds 50 less than I could have originally paid, haha.

Next week is reading week, so when I get back from Wales (!!!) I am planning on spending that whole week, until I leave for Norway (!!!), in London. I am going to visit the National Gallery and explore it on my terms, the National Portrait Gallery (with an exhibit about the Beatles), I want to do at least one theater trip and I also want to be a tourist and ride around a double-decker take a tour of London Bus. SO, that is my plan.

<3 you!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that we went to one painting that the wood it had been painted on was so rotten and falling apart that they had to restore it. By restore i mean a 20 year process where they took off the wood base piece by piece, splinter by splinter off the oil based painting. Then when they managed to get it all off they put it on an aluminum backing. That is dedication. That is pretty much an entire career. I could do that.