Bundle 3: Ask Someone

When this bundle began I had no clue what to do it on. I made a list of possible topics but couldn't decide which one. While at work one day I was talking with my supervisor and found out she is an art major. From her I learned a bit about each topic I was considering. She recommended I do something different that people don't realy think about. She seemed to think things like surrealism was to easy and that impressionism would be a challenge and possibly fun. I asked if there were any art museums around here and she referred me to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. She didn't know much about the history besides that its a Paris based art form. She knew of some famous impressionist painters like Monet and Renoir. What I didnt even realize was that Van Gogh was an impressionist. With these names in hand I was able to do some research on these guys and use them for my brochure which will include a list of artists and their history. Every once and a while over the course of this bundle I would bring up some artists names and see what she knew. She knew of the artists but not much about their life history. Although she was not much of a help with the history, she did help me in choosing my topic a giving me a place to start with a couple of names.

Bundle 3: Go There

For this bundle I decided to create this impressionist gallery at a real existing museum, the Wadsworth Atheneum located in Hartford, CT. I was planing on going to this museum but saw that the hours were 11-5 on weekdays and 10 to 5 on weekends. Sadly I work during the times they were open including the weekends. I was looking forward to going but then saw that they had an online gallery on their website at http://www.thewadsworth.org/collection-2/  

and

http://www.thewadsworth.org/exhibitions-2/

Through these I was able to get a taste at what kind of art they have at the Atheneum. I was also able to study the layout of the online gallery for my bundle which will include an online gallery composed of only impressionist paintings. I notice each page has the Wadsworth logo so I will be sure to include the logo into my designs. Also for each picture you can click on the image and view a larger picture of the painting including a description of the painting underneath. When creating my website I will see if I can accomplish the task of enlarging the pictures when clicked on. If not, I learned from my workshop that I should make the pictures bigger and include a description of what impressionism art is. I noticed that the Wadsworth does not include a definition of any of its styles of arts, just a description of the painting. 

Bundle 3: Read More

On Thrusday July 14, I took a trip to the library to find a book about impressionism. I first went to the catalog computer and looked up impressionism. One of the vary first results was a book by John Rewald called The History of Impressionism. This seemed perfect so I searched the library for it and found it.

From the book I learned that impressionism originated in Paris, France around the 1870's with the first exhibit in the spring of 1874. The founders Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cezanne and Morisot were just trying something new that was going to break from the tradition of the existing paintings. For the first couple of years the artists did not get much credit for their new style of painting. People though this was just a ploy to gain attention. Because of this they say the true beginning of impressionism was the next 20 years as the painters gained support and refined their technique. I also learned that the term Impressionism was coined by a satirical journalist to mock the painters. The painters latter embraced this title and called their work Impressionism.

Bundle 3: What I know

For bundle 3 I'm doing a gallery exhibit on Impressionism. At first when given the topic of art I had to brainstorm a list of types of art I know of. I thought of surrealism, modernism, cubism, abstract and impressionism. I then looked at some pictures of each and decided impressionism was something different. With impressionism its nice to see paintings that are not perfect replicas of what the image is portraying. With impressionism its painted from the painters eyes and can deviate form artist to artist even if they paint the same scene. Its different from many other styles in that you clearly see the brush strokes and the soft lines where colors seem to blend together with no distinct edges.

Bundle 2: Go there

Recently I decided to go to a local Italian restaurant in my town called Lu Lu's. I wanted to take a look at their menu organization and to see if I could describe a meal as practice for my review on my fake restaurant. I decided to get a pizza with bacon and broccoli and began to see if I could taste things as if I was a professional food critic. I found it to be extremely hard. As a food critic it's hard to distinguish and describe flavors. I found the pizza to be excellent but hard to describe and critique it. Besides it being good, how do I explain it? Good thing with my restaurant, I can make things up and create a picture and flavors in my mind that seems to be enjoyable.

Bundle 2: Read more

I decided to create a menu as one of my documents. therefore I needed to take a look at a lot of menus and find a style I liked. I went through a couple menus I had lying around the house and studied them closely. I took note of the way the categories were set up, what order to put the categories, and the prices. For the most part all the Italian restaurant menus I looked at they seemed to be very similar in content. The thing that was different were the prices. The prices seemed to very depending on the quality of dinner. I choose to go with average reasonable prices that a family my want to pay for.

Bundle 2: Ask someone

I told my grandfather I was doing a project on an Italian restaurant and immediately he came up with the name La casa del Sarno which is Italian for the house of Sarno. It sounded good to me so I used it. I also got some ideas from him on what I should include on the menu. He told me to go family friendly with fair prices. So I decided to go with the the basics; pasta, pizza and grinders.

Bundle 2: What I know

In this bundle I am deciding to create a restaurant. My family is Italian and I feel and Italian restaurant would be the best choice. I know how to cook various dishes from pizza to making my own pasta and sauce. My dad has always wanted to open a restaurant so what better way then to create this fake one and see how easy or difficult it is.

Bundle 1: Go there

On Tuesday June 7th, I visited the Captain Thomas Abbey Memorial. And not surprisingly it is pretty bad. From the road it looks just like the statue is turning black but being right there, it looks terrible. I found cracks in the seats, grass growing through the pavers, and inscriptions that were impossible to read. I think the main reason it is in sore shape is that no one actually sees this up close. To most people it just looks dirty but getting up close you see its even unsafe as the benches are about to fall apart.
Here are some pictures from my visit:

In this picture you can the front turning brown.

Here the inscription on a bench is nearly illegible.

A major crack in one of the benches looks like it will break off if someone sat down.

Back side of the statue also turning brown.

Here is where I found who put this statue up.

As you can see the statue is in desperate need of repair. My bundle deals with 4 documents relating to the renovation of the Captain Thomas Abbey Memorial.

Bundle 1: Read More

Much to my surprise after much research I have found very little on Abbey. On the Internet I found only 2 sites they mentioned him.
http://find.mapmuse.com/details/revolutionary-war-sites/19/Thomas-Abbey-
and
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=39170812
And these sites only had 3-4 sentences about him.
What I got was that it was erected in 1916 for $20,000 by his great granddaughter Frances Moria Abbey. It was created by Sherry Edmundson Fry and depicts Thomas Abbey, a man who alerted the people of Enfield CT to the British invasion during the revolutionary war.


Then I took my research into books where I found one book written by his ancestors back in 1917 called Memorial of Captain Thomas Abbey: ancestor and descendants of the abbey family. I found a copy online and found it very interesting. 
The site is http://www.worldcat.org/title/memorial-of-captain-thomas-abbey-his-ancestors-and-descendants-of-the-abbey-family-pathfinders-soldiers-and-pioneer-settlers-of-connecticut-its-western-reserve-in-ohio-and-the-great-west/oclc/277221360?title=&detail=&page=frame&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.archive.org%2Fdetails%2Fmemorialofcaptai00free%26checksum%3Dd9a335e5f8f64c5b34010ed3a6305f2f&linktype=digitalObject 


It had everything one would want to know about him. It had pictures of the carving process, the opening ceremony and everything about Abbey life and ancestors. It explained that each bench around the statue represents a member in his family. each bench has there name and there name seal. It then goes into detail of the history of every relative from the first immigrant to the great granddaughter in 1917. The book even includes the bulletin from the service of the day Abbey alerted the people who were attending church that day. What was the most interesting was seeing the pictures of the opining ceremony with all these people surrounding this statue and thinking of today. Back then he must have been a hero and well known but today he is someone people just past on a busy road and don't even realize who he was.

Bundle 1: ask someone

I have asked many people if they knew who the man was on the statue and not surprising was that no one knew anything about him. The only info I got out of a couple people was his name. They didn't even know his full name,  they just knew him as Abbey. Then to those people I asked if they knew anything about him and they though maybe he was the first minister of the church that the statue is near. They are then surprised when I tell them he was not a minister but a Paul Revere type of person. This furthers my proposal to renovate this statue because hardly anyone even knows who he is.

Bundle 1: What I know

I am choosing to write my documents about renovating The Statue of Captain Thomas Abbey on Enfield Street in front of the Enfield Congregational Church. I know very little about this person and who he was. I believe I speak for the majority of Enfield, Ct in the fact that most of us pass by this statue on a main road and don't even know who he was. I do know that every once in a while he is dressed up for high school pranks. He might have a cone on his head and lays around his neck or sometimes he is dressed in colors of one of the two high schools in the town during the big thanksgiving football game between the schools.