The Stages of Life Miguel Orduna
Museum Description
This Museum will contain twelve pieces of art to represent an important stage in our lives. The goal is to use artworks and artists to visually represent life by the paintings and art of previous centuries. This will contain a major part of the mental part of life and be explained by the paintings and reasons why. They will also contain the physical parts of life, being represented by different art pieces as well.
Impact Statement
The meaning of life is a tough question to answer because it doesn't have a definite answer, its all subjective and unique to one person, we make the meaning of life by living our lives the best we can. Though we control our lives, we go through the stages of life that is a mixture of physical, mental and emotionally that can all be represented by art. It's amazing what all the meanings of art can be created by even just one piece of art. The theme i want to showcase is the stages of life as the pieces of art are unique and can showcase a part of life, whether it be emotions, physical growth or mental growth. I want to evoke nostalgia, a fondness for the more simplistic days when we were younger, the emotional stages that represent the highs and lows of life and future ahead of us, despite the implication of venturing into the unknown.
Room 1
Children on the Beach By Mary Cassatt (1884)
CONTENT: For the first image, I chose this painting as it reminds me of the days when we were younger, evoking memories when life was simpler, the colors seemed more vibrant and the innocence we had in our lives. It has a nostaglic feel to it that digs into our eariler memories and moments that we remember fondly. There was no responisblity, our lives felt like an adventure everyday because we never knew what the next day would be, the excessive energy we had would prompt us to talk, play and explore everywhere, regardless of consequence.
Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Casper David Friedrich (1818)
CONTENT: This art piece represents us looking ahead, staring into the abyss of unknown decisions, moments yet to be had, choices yet to make, nothing is set in stone ahead of us and despite us not knowing if tomorrow will come or if we made the right choice. Some of us may yearn to turn back, but the path has already been set, and the people are long gone so it wouldn't be really worth it to go back. We all move forward, to look forward to a good today, a better tomorrow and a bright future but its not guaranteed that we'll see it through yet that's the beauty of life. We can never be so sure of life, that everything will be fine and the path will be straight and narrow because tomorrow is covered by mystery and we will only find out when we wake up in the next day.
Ship-Wreck By Pierre Cassatt (1774)
CONTENT: This third art piece perfectly represents the lows and the emotional spectrum as the sea can either be calm or destructive with high waves that crash into the ship, such as anger that makes our blood boil or sadness that causes us to cry and act out emotionally. It can also represent an excessive of happiness, excitement, hatred, sadness, any emotion that seeming causes the tides to move stronger, crash down harder and effecting our thinking. We often will fall to these feelings in the heat of the moment, to say its a good or bad thing is a debate with both sides having valid points.
Madonna with a Flower by Leonardo Da Vinci (1478)
CONTENT: The piece here, seems like just a sibling bond but its more than just that, which is our compassion, our empathy and our caring. The compassion being that we treat everyone like the baby, nice and fair, as the baby has no faults and we should treat everyone the same, even if they have faults. Our empathy is how we relate to the person and how we care to help them, like the girl helping the baby out in the painting. This all together is what truly makes us human, making us people instead of heartless monsters.
Room 2
Suomi: Ranskalainen viinikapakka by Eero Järnefelt (1888)
CONTENT: The colors are seemingly blandish, almost as if they are somewhat mundane, not too vibrant nor full of life. This piece represents the feelings of boredom as well as the associated feeling of being directionless and the mundane feeling of our everyday lives. Think about it, The day seems long, the colors don't pop out as bright as they used nor does the day seem interesting at all as it used to be. Unlike the children on the beach, we are familiar with our routine, our lives and we have grown up. We've adapted to the colors that were once very bright, that seemed to dim down as we've grown more mature and older yet at the same time, we also grow accustomed to it.
Fishing in Spring, the Pont de Clichy by Van Gogh (1887)
CONTENT: The scenery is calming, nothing to disturb the man on the boat as well as the lake is seemingly still and calm. I feel that this piece represents wisdom, calmness and peace that we often feel in life. The wisdom aspect being that we've experienced it, we've known it and can help others along the journey of their lives, keep them from making our mistakes. The calmness being that of a simple cozy night snuggled up with a loved one, meditation to ease a worried mind or perhaps the comfort of sleep. The peace is whatever eases us, makes us forget the modern world and our problems.
Starry night by Van Gogh (1889)
CONTENT: When we sleep, we often see darkness and wake up instantly to a bright new day but often times we can see ourselves in a new world. These are dreams, dreams we've felt like we've seen with our eyes but are usually fleeting. It's our creative minds processing the reality of life, perhaps even making it into unconscious entertainment for us to enjoy. It's so interesting that we often place those dreams into our actual memory banks of our lives and those dreams were made by our memories of everything in our lives.
A Pair of Shoes by Van Gogh (1888)
CONTENT: To think that a pair of shoes would only be for walking and nothing else is a valid thought, from another angle, it represents our life's well. We will do, but we cannot last forever as we will eventually break, become worn out and destroyed. It's the cycle of aging, we will become old but we can live longer, extend our condition and health. Its not a hopeless cycle if you treat your body like you would those shoes, repairing them nicely is like eating healthy or getting a decent amount of exercise.
Room 3
Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase by Van Gogh (1890)
CONTENT: The flowers have been symbolized with beauty, decoration but most importantly, love. Love comes within many shapes, sizes and levels, platonic, romantic and admiration, family love as well. Flowers, are perfect in expressing love, they can be given to family as a token of love and graditude. They can be given as a romantic gesture to a potiental lover, showing interest within a couple of beautiful plants. This is love, a strong attachment to someone or several people that is as strong and healthy as these flowers.
The Virgin Of The Nativity (Artist Unknown) (1405)
CONTENT: This piece, may seem to do little with life except the position of the hands, as the person is hopeful and expressing hope. Hope, along with two others, are the three drives in our lives, motivation, Hope and determination. The hope part being that we really can make a difference, that we can accomplish our goals or improve ourselves where brings forward the motivation to begin the journey forward. Our determination being made of two components, Disicipline and Consistency, that's what will keep us going after the hope and motivation wears off because without those two, there can be no determination. These three combined make the difference, its what drives us forward within life, striving to improve and be better than we are
The Lamentation by Scipione Pulzone (Il Gaetano) (1591)
CONTENT: We often expect life to continue how it is, getting comfortable but we often forget this final piece of life. It's a grim topic that is not usually a comforting fact but its that death, death will come for us all. Even as the greatest as the son of God, Jesus Christ, is shown in the painting as a dead body after the crucfixtion. He, like the rest of us, will experience death and move on from this world. Perhaps we will return, though that's not for us to say until we cross the road, which stresses the importance to live life as if there was no tomorrow guaranteed, before we die.
Still-life by Wilhem Van (1660)
CONTENT: The feelings within the art, the colors and fruits seeming represent the feelings of being content. We are fine with our path and perfectly satsified with our lives as we simply don't yearn for more nor wish for less but we rather enjoy what we have. We enjoy it because its like harvesting the fruits of our labor, which can be a synonym to a job. We put in the work, the hours, the effort and at the end of the week, we get paid and we are happy and content as we continue on forward, enjoy our break.
End of The Musuem Tour
And that's the conclusion to the tour of my museum of the stages of life. I've Hoped you'd enjoyed the tour and seen the meanings that I've seen within these pieces of art and come to enjoy these beauties as much as I have. I want you all to take from my museum that art, is life itself, representing the stages of life in the biggest, smallest and moderate ways possible. I want to say that life, like art, is one of a kind, sure there may be replicas but nothing will beat the original experience, I hope you all are well, Thank you.