One down...seven to go
I just emailed my first Oxford essay to my tutor - all 2,293 words of it. Hopefully she'll think it's at least decent. I guess I'll find out on Friday...
Essay One
So my first essay assignment is designed to introduce me to court culture. I have to explore the relationship between art and the court then pick two images which represent court painting. Next I have to define why these paintings are representative of court painting and explain their importance by explaining the works. Lastly I'm to comment on who these paintings would've been important to and for what reason. I've yet to start writing it but it will be finished today. This is just an FYI as to what I actually work on while I'm here. The two images I'm utilizing are below:
Anthony van Dyck
Charles I in the Hunting Field
1636
[Image from artstor.org]
Anthony van Dyck
Charles I in the Hunting Field
1636
[Image from artstor.org]
Diego Velázquez
Las Meninas [The Maids of Honour]
1656
[Image from artstor.org]
Las Meninas [The Maids of Honour]
1656
[Image from artstor.org]
Some Pictures
The Bodleian - this is around the part where I study daily but this isn't quite it, hopefully I have pics of that up soon.
The Bod...again
...and again
...yet again, although the building on the right is the Sheldonian Theatre
Helwys Hall - the dining hall at Regents. It was just remodeled after break so all of the decorations and portraits aren't on the walls (the scaffolding usually isn't there either...).
All Right?
So this is a quick post - there is one part of British culture/English I can't adapt to. Rather than saying "What's up?" or "Hello" the Brits often say "All right?" (and yes, they say it as if it were a question). What's the correct response to this? Any American would say "Yea, I'm just fine" or something long those lines, but the correct response is "All right?" - yes, you answer a 'question' with another 'question.' It's quite confusing and I never answer it correctly. I've managed to start to hold my fork in my left hand with my knife in my right but I can't answer a 'question' correctly.
More info here. (Scroll down to "All right?" - continue to read around if you wish.)
More info here. (Scroll down to "All right?" - continue to read around if you wish.)
A Cold, Rainy Today
Today was the first real day of the term. I started off by walking to Regents for lunch. Afterwards I headed to the Bodleian Library, well more specifically the Radcliffe Camera (RadCam) to start working on my tutorial. After walking in and heading up to the Upper Reading Room, which first required that I allow the guard to search my bag for drinks, food and/or pens, and collecting my books from the front desk I got to work. I finished my senior thesis proposals for the Art Department back at Georgetown. I also finished half of my final assignment for my End of Impressionism class at Georgetown. After that I was able to read one of the books for my tutorial. Since it was cold and rainy I didn't really feel the need to walk around town which meant I was in the mood to get things done. I did realize that I rather enjoy a non-lending library. The Bodleian (Bod) doesn't check out books. Instead you have to go online, find the book you want, request that it be sent to a reading room and pick it up - you can't leave with the book (the guard also checks your bags on the way out), you must use it while there. I thought I'd hate this system at first, but really it makes things quite easy - the librarians do all of the work, you just go to the front desk. The Bod does have some books on open shelves, but they are very easy to locate. I also enjoy studying in such a pretty place, you can see a picture of the RadCam itself with the link above -it says RadCam- I hope to take some inside shots tomorrow morning when I go. Libraries are different here in that they are extremely quiet - no one talks to people or on cell phones. After that I headed to dinner at Regents then on home to Spencer House. I had some tea (Earl Grey with milk of course) with some Digestives (delicious cookies) then headed on up to my room for blogging, Facebooking and a bit of reading. Tomorrow I plan on being at the Bod by no later than 10:30, taking some pictures and getting some work done. I have to turn in my first essay by Thursday at 10am, that gives me time to have some fun Thursday and Friday. I hoping to go to London soon, perhaps this weekend, to go to the Tate Modern and Tate Britain (they have Van Dyck, William Blake and Turner exhibitions right now!!). Hopefully I'll go to London another time soon to go to The National Gallery (they have two Picasso exhibits right now) and The British Museum - I'll save The Eye, Buckingham Palace and such for when my mom crosses the pond in June.
Two Moms and a Bop
Last night was quite fun, it was Regents first bop (dance more or less). The theme was "Room 101" (from the novel 1984) so people dressed up as their worst fears. Needless to say there wasn't anything too scary there, mainly a group of bees (well they called themselves wasps), some clowns, a shark, a pregnant girl (costume of course) etc etc. It was a bit different from a Georgetown party in that there were fewer people (Regents is much smaller) and the music was a bit different - there was quite a bit more techno and a few random other songs. Perhaps the largest difference is the bar. Side note - the Regents bar is the cheapest in the Oxford system.
As an incoming student you are assigned a college mom and dad - upperclassmen who answer your questions and help you get settled in. Not many students come in for just Trinity Term, so I ended up with two moms - Amanda and Sarah. Both are quite wonderful and have introduced me to quite a few people here. Both are also Theologians but insisted we took a round of family shots last night - photo below.
As an incoming student you are assigned a college mom and dad - upperclassmen who answer your questions and help you get settled in. Not many students come in for just Trinity Term, so I ended up with two moms - Amanda and Sarah. Both are quite wonderful and have introduced me to quite a few people here. Both are also Theologians but insisted we took a round of family shots last night - photo below.
HOA...and I don't mean Home Owner's Association
One of the first things I learned in Oxford is that my subject area, art history in the U.S. is known as the history of art (HOA) here - if you say "art history" they surely understand what you mean but it takes them a minute to realize it. So I'm starting to use "history of art," well really "HOA," instead.
Today I had my first meeting with my tutor, Yu Ping. Yu Ping is a graduate student in the HOA Department. As an undergrad she studied Western art history but her research focus now is imperial patronage of art in early modern China. My tutorial topic is early modern court culture which means I'll be studying the art and history of the [royal] courts of Europe from about 1500-1750 or so. It should be quite interesting. Basically we meet once a week for 8 weeks - we meet on Fridays at 11am in the History of Art Faculty. Each week I am to produce an essay based on assigned readings. The best part is that Yu Ping isn't like most Oxford tutors with her reading lists. Most give students a list of 15 or so books each week, some you have to read others are "recommended," and a very general topic. Yu Ping only requires about 100 pages of reading per week which she has carefully selected. She also recommends essay topics each week but we are free to write about anything relevant to the reading. Basically when I told this to the other Americans here in Oxford they weren't too happy with me, they all have much, much more reading to do each week. My first essay is rather easy. I read a few general readings about court culture, pick two images then write a paper on them (introduction, formal analysis, contextual analysis, compare/contrast, conclude). The goal of this paper is for Yu Ping to see how familiar we are with art history and to see how we write. Yes, I did say "we," there is one other person in my tutorial. Her name is Ashley and she is a history student from Yale. It will be interesting to have an art history tutorial with a history student as she will surely bring different material to the discussion.
Today I had my first meeting with my tutor, Yu Ping. Yu Ping is a graduate student in the HOA Department. As an undergrad she studied Western art history but her research focus now is imperial patronage of art in early modern China. My tutorial topic is early modern court culture which means I'll be studying the art and history of the [royal] courts of Europe from about 1500-1750 or so. It should be quite interesting. Basically we meet once a week for 8 weeks - we meet on Fridays at 11am in the History of Art Faculty. Each week I am to produce an essay based on assigned readings. The best part is that Yu Ping isn't like most Oxford tutors with her reading lists. Most give students a list of 15 or so books each week, some you have to read others are "recommended," and a very general topic. Yu Ping only requires about 100 pages of reading per week which she has carefully selected. She also recommends essay topics each week but we are free to write about anything relevant to the reading. Basically when I told this to the other Americans here in Oxford they weren't too happy with me, they all have much, much more reading to do each week. My first essay is rather easy. I read a few general readings about court culture, pick two images then write a paper on them (introduction, formal analysis, contextual analysis, compare/contrast, conclude). The goal of this paper is for Yu Ping to see how familiar we are with art history and to see how we write. Yes, I did say "we," there is one other person in my tutorial. Her name is Ashley and she is a history student from Yale. It will be interesting to have an art history tutorial with a history student as she will surely bring different material to the discussion.
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