My Favorite Bench

Several times a week I find myself with time in between classes and instead of hauling all the way back to my dorm, just to turn back around soon after, I explore campus. I promised myself upon arrival at Penn State that I would spend each day taking in a new part of campus. While there are beautiful spaces all over campus, one spot in particular that I eventually find myself at by the end of the day. Down on the southwest end of campus at the intersection of West College Ave and South Allen St, facing the Sacket Building is my personal escape. Under a canopy of oak trees sits a wooden bench, enough to fit two or three people, if you squeeze, that absorbs a just enough sunlight to keep you warm without becoming too overwhelming. In close proximity to downtown there’s a mixture of the blue loop coming and going, the shifting gears of bikes making their way up the daunting hill, students on the phone walking to and from class, the mouth watering smell of freshly baked bread and hot coffee from Irving’s, and possibly the most alluring characteristic is the family of ducks that wait by the bushes behind the bench for a kind student to spare some food. This particular spot on campus perfectly juxtaposes both the fast paced downtown with small town appeal that drew me to Penn State in the first place. It displays the best of both worlds, making it the perfect escape from the stresses in my life.

Palmer Museum of Art: Modern Limits

            Walking into the Palmer Museum of Art, I have to admit I was impressed. I’ve always been one for the arts and I’ve found myself in MOMA or the National Gallery of Art on random weekends, but Penn State displays art just as beautifully. As I made my way through the first floor I wasn’t struck by anything in particular, probably because I knew that I have an affinity for modern art. Upstairs I came across several striking pieces with vibrant colors and straight to the point messages, however, I wanted to be challenged by a piece instead of picking something easily understood. It wasn’t until the end of my visit that a painting titled Modern Limits, created by an American artist; William T. Wiley caught my eye. At first glance I didn’t understand anything about it, but I still had that visual appeal. Examining it more closely I learned the piece was made in 1975, using acrylics and charcoal on canvas, and beyond the technical components, the artist was predominantly known for his influence in the northern California Funk Art Movement; which can be “categorized by irreverence and self-consciously unrefined style.”

            The painting is in landscape form with a frayed and withered looking border. There’s a gray consistency among the painting, starting with its background and darker strokes of gray and black covering the majority of the canvas. Color such as red, yellow, orange, green and blue do appear sporadically throughout the painting however, in much smaller amounts, like a single stroke or line to add subtle variation. In the center of the painting there is a crescent moon with light beaming from the edges with a hint of yellow. Most of the defined images appear in the bottom left corner where an eye is peering through a telescope facing a skull with a broken smile. In addition on of the main focal points of the piece, a set of stairs drawn to resemble that of blueprints originates in the bottom left corner. Weaving and out of the painting are what seems to be smoke or a screen the envelopes the buildings, roads and workers. Another small reoccurring theme throughout the artwork were little quotes of ambiguous nonsense such as “well I think such and such and it has to be this or that or so and so because of such and such and we’ve named them this because of that.”

Upon first looking at Wiley’s piece I wouldn’t necessarily say it had an emotional impact on me, but generated curiosity.  What’s its purpose? What message is it sending me? I have to admit that that’s why I loved it so much, it didn’t have a literal meaning, I had to explore. With more investigation of the painting the colors, more importantly the juxtaposition of the hard and soft use of gray and subtle pops of color conveyed a somber and overwhelming emotion. It gave me the impression that the gray and black smoke serves to impose a feeling of miscommunication among society, and that it all has become just white noise, which in all honesty scares me a lot. I hope that with our fast-paced country, we don’t continue to progress and move forward without any real direction.

           

Wiley’s Modern Limits serves to support his belief in the Funk Art Movement, by means to “reintroduce social responsibility into contemporary art.” While it was painted in the mid-1970’s, the artist references his father’s job as a surveyor for the U.S. government when he was a young boy. Even though there is a significant gap in time from when he painted the piece and the point of reference, the underlying meaning pertains to modern day standards. My interpretation of Wiley’s argument is that there’s a conflict with the need to push boundaries and progress as society, when development must happen organically and can’t be forced. With the help of Wiley’s notes of complete ambiguity, it drives the argument that constructive and beneficial decisions are not being made, but we continue to build our society just for the sake of not being left behind or considered as inferior by others. I believe the name in its own describes the artist’s feelings that limits must be put into place for healthy progression. As far as Wiley’s credibly goes, the origin of the Funk Art Movement began with him and his colleagues at the University of California at Davis and expanded to a countrywide movement that influenced the art world immensely. 

 I had an amazing time walking from room to room throughout the Palmer, and I hope to spend more than just an hour there so I can take in everything it has to offer.