Yay Art!

I'm blogging twice today because I didn't blog last week so I have this strange, unfounded feeling that I owe the blog world another post. And by blog world, I mean my family, since I'm pretty sure they're the only ones who read my blog. Plus, I did a lot more than wander through mountains and gardens in the past two weeks, and these things demand documentation. So, here's my top three artistic experiences in the past two weeks.

1. National Gallery. England has produced relatively few great painters, yet somehow they have a museum full of paintings by all of the most famous painters in the world. Monet, Van Gough, Claude, Turner... It breaks my heart that in less than a month, I won't have any Monet paintings just a couple miles away. This is one of the treasures of London.

2. Dove Cottage. I sat in the garden at Dove Cottage (Wordsworth's home) and wrote poetry. I can see why so many great writers spent their time in the Lake District. The landscape almost demands that you release the creative energy it inevitably creates in any thoughtful person. We also saw many first editions of books of romantic poetry. So cool.

3. Warhorse. Before it was a movie, it was a play. The horses are puppets controlled by three people at a time, and the artistry of the puppetry is amazing. They imitate the movements of horses so exactly that you forget that there aren't real horses on the stage. An inspiring story masterfully performed.

Thy Power Throughout the Universe Displayed

 "All things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth and all things that are upon the face of it." Alma 30:44

The past two weeks, I have seen the power of god manifest through nature like I never have before. Our BYU group has an interesting tendency to break into song everywhere we go, but it's quite telling that when we are at the summit of a mountain or the thick of a forest, those songs are always hymns of praise. How can anyone who has seen and felt the glory of nature doubt what Alma testifies, that all things denote there is a God?

We spent several days this week in the Lake District, the northern England paradise where Wordsworth spent most of his life and where he wrote these immortal words:

THE world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; 
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

As Wordsworth laments, I think it is one of the great tragedies of human life that we often spent our time "getting and spending" and not appreciating the beautiful world we have been given. Hiking around Ambleside and up Arthur's seat in Edinburgh (where Orson Hyde prayed and dedicated Scotland for Missionary work) has inspired me. There is natural beauty everywhere in the world, and I have made it one of my goals this summer to discover what Utah has to offer.

And it's not just the natural beauty that has inspired me. I have found that natural beauty combined with man-made objects is perhaps the most stunning. The old stone walls of the ruined Fountainhead abbey we visited are made more beautiful by the moss and grass that covers them. The carefully planned landscape at Stourhead gardens (planted to look natural, or "picturesque") mixed with quaint cottages and a classical-style temple have a charm that only human influence could create. (you know the scene form the recent Pride and Prejudice where Mr. Darcy asks Elizabeth to marry him the first time - I sang in that building. Best acoustics ever) People often complain about the destructive influence of humanity on nature, but out of destruction, new beauty finds a way to spring up. I'm sure that when Henry VIII destroyed fountainhead abbey, everyone thought that the beauty of the place was lost forever, but now the place is simply beautiful in a different way. Maybe beauty is just one of those things that can't be beat, or perhaps more likely, it is human nature to see things as beautiful. But there is one thing I'm sure of - as the great romantic poets believed, we have to look for beauty if we hope to find it.

Stourhead Gardens

Fountainhead Abbey

Arthur's Seat - Edinburgh, Scotland

Paris

This week we spent most of the week in the city of romance: Paris. We did some cool things in London, too, including seeing Phantom (it was phenomenal!), but the two and a half days we spent in Paris were definitely the highlight of the week (really the highlight of my life). We were practically running everywhere in order to see all of the most important things, but we did about a week's worth of stuff in less than three days, so the exhaustion was definitely worth it. We did so many wonderful things that I just couldn't narrow it to 3, so I'm doing this week's post Letterman style.

Top 10 Things I Did in Paris

10. Dropped some change in a street performer's cup who was playing french accordion music outside Notre Dame.

9. Waved at dozens of couples and groups of friends relaxing and eating dinner along the banks of the Seine (just like in a movie, only it was real life - this picture is a reinactment of one such movie -- An American in Paris)

8. Found the cutest bakery ever called Gerard Mulot. Tarts, pastries, cakes, breads, eclairs, macaroons, chocolates - every single thing was a work of art.

7.Saw the world's greatest collection of impressionist artwork at the Orsay. I had a Monet calender for 2011 and I never would have guess that in 2012 I would see all of those paintings in person. Amazing.

6. Came across the Lock bridge, also known as Lover's bridge (couples write their names on a padlock, lock it to the bridge, and throw the key in the Seine - so romantic!)

5. Discovered a love for sculpture at the Rodin Museum

4. Went to Shakespeare and Co., a famous English language bookstore where early 20th century writers hung out when they moved to Paris to find themselves after the war (Authors include Hemingway, Oscar Wilde, Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald)

3. Ate the best ice cream I've had in my life... and the best scalloped potatoes... and the best cheese... and the best crepe... basically three days of the best food I've ever had

2. Watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle at night

1. Saw Monet's Waterlilies at the Orangerie

Week 2 Olympic Medals

In honor of the upcoming London Olympics, I’ve decided to do this week's top three Olympic style. Cue the British National Anthem.

And the bronze medal goes to…

British Museum. I gave this the bronze for it’s potential, rather than how much I actually enjoyed the experience. We only had about an hour and a half to go through almost 100 rooms, so it was a very rushed tour. You just can’t contemplate the entirety of human existence in two hours, but I plan on going back to see the museum. This place is AMAZING. And I normally don’t do the all caps thing, so this is clearly a really big deal. When Britain ruled the world, it basically went around collecting relics from countries that weren’t preserving them very well. The have all of the remaining sculptures from the Parthenon, mummies, a preserved human skeleton from 3400 BC, the ROSETTA STONE, and art from basically every major civilization in human history. So much history in one place. I’m telling you, the British really have a proper appreciation for the past.

The silver medal goes to…

Evensong at Canterbury Cathedral. Evensong is an evangelical church service that is mostly sung by the choir of about 10 men and 10 young boys. It was ethereal with the pure young voices singing the soprano parts, the dissonant chords echoing around the huge vaulted ceilings of the cathedral. And I’m one of those weird people that really love religious choral music. I was so impressed.

And finally, the gold medal goes to…

Westminster Abbey. Specifically Poet’s corner. This is something I’ve wanted to see since I discovered it’s existence a few years ago. Dozens of famous British authors are buried or honored there, including my favorite novelist, Charles Dickens, and one of my favorite poets, Tennyson. Basically anyone who's anyone in British Literature has a plaque at the very least. I got there and just started crying. Yep, I was standing in Westminster Abbey weeping for joy over Charles Dickens’ grave. I know it sounds ridiculous, but you have to understand that this was a bucket list item for me. I’ve wanted to get here for so long and I’m finally here. I’m living my dreams. I’m doing things I never thought I would do. Literature is sacred to me, so visiting this sort of shrine to literature inspired me. I love that they love their literature here, enough to bury great poets among great kings and warriors. I want to honor these writers by perpetuating their legacy in America so that my future students will love these poets and authors the way I do – the way they honor and respect them here in England.