Hi, my name is Erin. I’m a second semester junior and I’m an art history major in the school of Arts and Architecture. Last spring was my first semester at Penn State, and before that I attended two other colleges. I was looking through my transcripts and realized that I had not fulfilled my science quota for my gen eds, thus spent hours pouring through course catalogues to find a less scientific science class. I read the description of Science 200 and thought that this could be a good fit for me. I was further intrigued by Andrew’s solid reviews on Rate My Professor. Science is interesting to me and I’m well aware that it plays a crucial part in the world we live in. That being said, I’ve rarely managed to be successful in a science class.
It’s not so much that I went out of my way to not be a science major; I just have passions for other fields. I first discovered art history when I was a senior in high school and was taking a Spanish civilizations course. As part of the course we learned about the history of Spain and then took a trip over spring break to experience it all first hand. During the year I really enjoyed the art history unit, but it was when we went to La Reina Sofía in Madrid that I fell in love with art and the importance of it when creating and retelling history. I particularly enjoyed Picasso’s Guernica, a painting depicting a mass bombing in the northern parts of Spain around the time of the civil war.
This is an absolutely massive and striking work by Picasso that no doubt took a lot of thought and time. This is when I realized that, much like scientific process, art has to go through many trials and needs to be worked and reworked until the artist has achieved something that the greater community can accept and appreciate as art. I then went on to do some web surfing to see if anyone had a more eloquent way to describe the relationship I had found and I read a great article that you can read here.
As it turns out, the ideas behind science are a lot like the artistic process and I’m looking forward to exploring this further through conversations rather than in a lab.
Erin
image found here .
Hi Erin! I really loved this post because I relate to it so much. I have a huge appreciation for artwork and took art all four years of high school. In my AP Spanish class last year, we spent a whole week studying La Guernica by Picasso, and I have to say that the underlying message of the work is ridiculously moving.
I’ve never been to Spain, but I’ve spent a good amount of time researching the work of the famous architect Antoni Gaudí and his many architectural feats in the city of Barcelona. Here is a video displaying his most well know projects! I hope you’re as in awe as I am.