Painting that I wish I could do

Thomas Cole, The Fall of Kaaterdskill, 1826

I chose this particular painting because it seems to relate to what we have been talking about in class, Dark Romanticism. It has a dark background, on person in nature all by himself. Ruskin talks about the "difference in the impression we convey, because we cannot approach her light. All such jues are usually given by her with an intensity of sunbeams which dazzles and overpowers the eye, so that it cannot rest on the acutal colors, nor understand what they are". In this instance the rain clouds in the background lets the colors in the foreground appear more bright. In this way the observer is more apt to concentrate on the color in the foreground and the single person in the middle of the painting. If the dark clouds were not there, the color of the trees, the waterfall and the small person would be lost. "I think that nature mixes yellow with almost every one of her hues, never, or very rarely, using red without it". The yellow helps to give the red a more vivid color than with red alone. The red and yellow counter balances the dark shadows of the trees and the dark clouds. In nature, espically in the fall, one can see these same colors in person. With the darks there are reds and yellows all balancing. After looking at this peice you can close your eyes and just imaging the smell of the on coming rain storm, hear the rustling of the leaves on the trees and hear the distinct flowing of the water, the coldness of the air, one can just see the passion and power of the art.

Wonder and Mystery

There is an air of mystery from the begining of this story. It is Sunday, services are about to start when the parishners notice that there minister has a black veil on.
This veil makes the people wonder what may be wrong with the minister or even if it their minister at all. " Are you sure it is our parsons?"
Most importantly what is it the minister is wanting to hide? Is there a sin that he wishes to hide from? This little peice of cloth changes the whole persona of the minister. From the accounts of the story, the minister was an outgoing and personable gentleman and not gloomy at all. Now for the most part ministers are already dressed mostly in black and the veil just adds to the mystery on sunday moring. Sunday morning services are supposed to be full of light, praising God; this would be contrary to atmostphere of the morning. For the funeral scene the veil is enhances the mood of the moment. Something like the black veil would not be questioned. With the veil the minister can see the dead women in the casket, his eyes watching the dead, making peace with the dead.
Just one peice of cloth discourages people from talking to the minister, kids make fun of him, people talk about him and yet they do not ask as to why he wearing the veil, at first. Elizabeth made the attempt to find out but was unsuccesful. For catholics, confessing ones sins is an important part the their religion. The black veil is just like a confessional, in which the priest is conceiled behing a closed door and a screen. People can confess their sins, he can visit the dying so they can confess.
The veil hides the eyes, the mouth is were truth comes from. Even on their own death beds, people flinch at the sight of the veil, but comfort and truth give them relief. The moral of this story should be, its not on the outside what counts, but whats on the inside.

Circles

Nature centres into balls,
And her proud ephemerals,
Fast to surface and outside,
Scan the profile of the sphere;
Knew that what theat signified,
A new genesis were here.

"We are all our lifetime reading the copious sense of this first of forms".
"St. Ausgustine described the nature of God as a circle whose centre was everywhere, and its circumference nowhere".

Like St. Augustine, Emerson studied Plato and what Plato came up with is aptly named Plato's Theory of Forms. After reading Emerson's essay it dawned on me that he was refering to Plato's form theory ( I did a paper on it once). Take a ball for instance, basketball baseball any ball, and look past it, now what you see is just a cirlce. Take away it color or properties, seperate it from that object, the ball, and consider it by itself and you are contemplating a form. Now you are just thinking about the roundness or circle. Plato believed that this property existed apart from the balls, in a different mode of existence than the balls. The form is not just the idea of roundness you have in your mind, it exists independently of the balls whether someone thinks of them or not they are there.
Nature centres into balls. We can think that makes balls(circles) and life revolves around these circles. We can contemplate the meaning of life and come to no concrete conclusion, because life is just a circle. It is there if you think about it or not. You can scan the profile of the shpere and make no conclusions about what you think because the sphere is never concluded.
St. Augustine described the nature of God as a circle, he is everywhere and yet no where. We have to contemplate this cirlce and come to a conclusion as to wheter or not God really exists. Plato explained this as transcendent. A form does not exist in space in that it can be in many places at once, even if one does not believe in the existance of God the form still exists.
Emerson gave up the ministry as an antiquated profession and that people worship in the dead forms of their forefathers. He thought that people will still worship reguardless of what he had to say on sunday. People will still worship in a way that their forfather worshiped or not, the circle is still there to contemplate.