{"id":1025,"date":"2016-10-25T01:00:43","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T05:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/allen-island\/?p=1025"},"modified":"2016-10-28T12:36:34","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T16:36:34","slug":"paint-on-canvas-finding-personal-validation-in-landscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/allen-island\/2016\/10\/25\/paint-on-canvas-finding-personal-validation-in-landscape\/","title":{"rendered":"Paint on Canvas: Finding Personal Validation in Landscape"},"content":{"rendered":"

For me, Mitchell’s “Imperial Landscape” answered questions I have long harbored about\u00a0why<\/em> humans\u00a0are so taken with landscape, both in concept and in physicality.\u00a0Let me clarify this quandary: there is\u00a0a delightfulness that comes with immersing oneself in a landscape that feels distinct and special, whether that’s an NYC street or\u00a0a dreamy seascape, and I constantly find myself asking why this is true. Engaging with landscape is\u00a0certainly addictive; it’s why we (humans) like to hike, swim, read in coffee shops and sightsee. But why are we drawn to these activities? The strength of their allure suggests something far more powerful at work than mere aesthetics.\u00a0I found Mitchell’s “Theses on Landscape” compelling because they not only shed light on this question, but also\u00a0helped me apply these questions of landscape and meaning to the\u00a0content of our class\u2013specifically, Betsy Wyeth’s illustrious affair with island life.<\/p>\n

“Landscape is not a genre of art, but a medium,” reads Mitchell’s first thesis on landscape. This statement is striking for a few reasons. First, it suggests that the building blocks of landscape: geological forms, human infrastructure, and of course, the life that inhabits place itself, are all instrumental in its creation. This thinking allows us to imagine our own active role in the creation of any landscape we find beautiful;\u00a0we cultivate our own aesthetic in order to complement that of our\u00a0surroundings. I imagine it’s why\u00a0bean boots\u00a0more fashionable at Colby College than in Manhattan. In this way, we become integral to the landscape we enjoy. As Mitchell says, we are “medium”: paint on canvas. Immersed.<\/p>\n

Translating\u00a0this metaphor to Betsy Wyeth’s endeavor to make a project of Allen Island reveals fresh commentary on the question Ben asked us through an in-class worksheet: “What stories do the Wyeths tell themselves about themselves?” It’s probably the same story we are all drafting: that our existence is important, that our story enhances that of our surroundings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For me, Mitchell’s “Imperial Landscape” answered questions I have long harbored about\u00a0why humans\u00a0are so taken with landscape, both in concept and in physicality.\u00a0Let me clarify this quandary: there is\u00a0a delightfulness that comes with immersing oneself in a landscape that feels distinct and special, whether that’s an NYC street or\u00a0a dreamy seascape, and I constantly find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5611,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[331777],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/allen-island\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/allen-island\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/allen-island\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/allen-island\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5611"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/allen-island\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1025"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/allen-island\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1027,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/allen-island\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025\/revisions\/1027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/allen-island\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/allen-island\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/allen-island\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}