Journal Entry #11


 I enjoyed going to the Amon Carter Museum during class today to admire and learn about the art work depicting the natural world. The detail displayed in some of the paintings was remarkable. The immersion that the artists had to complete to capture every detail of that which they painted, is comparable to that of the authors we read in class. Highlighting the smallest of details in perspective and lighting, illuminated the flora and fauna of the scene in which they painted. However, despite the obvious beauty of the artwork we saw, it reminded me of the quote from Aldo Leopold, “Our ability to perceive the quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty.” These artists do a masterful job at creating these exquisite pieces of art and showing the beauty in nature, but that’s just it. Most of the paintings and art we saw were of these angelic glimpses of scenery, but little required much thought of interpretation of critiqued the treatment of the natural world. While granted, most of the paintings were older and not created in a time like today with the current issues we had, but that will be something to pay attention to going forward. It will be interesting to see how people look back at environmental art from our generation and see how the depictions have changed from what we saw at the museum.

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