Author: Laurel Bellomy

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes (Post-Trip Post)

Here I am, back at one of my favorite Columbus coffee shops. I went to work and went to classes today. Sometimes it feels like last week was a wormhole, a pocket of time folded in on itself. I came back and it felt like I never left. And yet–I think back on the trip itself, and it seems like it lasted for an eternity.

Have I changed? Well, I think every experience changes us in some way, so certainly it has. Maybe in small ways. I’m drinking way more tea than I even was before, and I am a tea person. I’ve already been going to more cafes and just sitting and working, probably because I miss the comforting mass of strangers that was always surrounding me in London.

Maybe the biggest change I’ve noticed in myself post-trip is how re-inspired I feel to make art. Maybe it was simply the break in schoolwork that gave me time to become reinvigorated, but I don’t think that was it. I think it was the way art was truly integrated into every aspect of society there.

This Tichard Serra sculpture in the heart of the business district invites its audience inside the art.

This Richard Serra sculpture in the heart of the business district invites its audience inside the art.

Here at the cafe, I bumped into a friend, and we just finished talking about how it feels almost impossible for us as Americans to wrap our minds around buildings that are 600 years old or ruins from Roman structures just chilling outside our office window. I know I’ve already touched on this subject, but thinking more about it, I think this complete cocoon of history that enshrines the British may be a major contributor to why they value art more than Americans.

Oh look, this beautiful piano was hanging out in the street in the theatre district.

Oh look, this beautiful piano was hanging out in the street in the theatre district.

Think about it, British culture goes back to ancient times (we all saw Stonehenge), so they have this rich history, and art is an intrinsic part of that history. American culture, compared to the rest of the world, is barely in its adolescence. Maybe when we get a few hundred more years under our belts, we too will have a greater appreciation for the art that we make. It’d be nice if it happened a little sooner than that, of course.

Maybe that’s where I come in. As an artist myself and as a person with an interest in teaching art, maybe I can help make a difference in the way Americans value art so that we can find installations in our churches and poetry in our museums someday soon, too.

Maybe it was about time for us to come home. I'm not sure how much more of London could take. ;)

Maybe it was about time for us to come home. I’m not sure how much more of us London could take. 😉

Day 5: The Things I Love the Most

“‘I don’t feel very much like Pooh today,’ said Pooh.

‘There there,’ said Piglet. ‘I’ll bring you tea and honey until you do.’”

― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Today was fancy tea day, and let me just say I have been looking forward to it! I am one of those tea people with the cute cups and a diffuser, etc, plus I’m an Anglophile, so I am always more than ready to enjoy any experience that will make me feel like I am on Downton Abbey. And the cafe at The Natoinal Gallery was so nice, too. I really did feel like I was having a very distinct cultural experience.

Tea time is the best time!

Tea time is the best time!

I have always been jealous of cultures  that rest in the middle of the day like the Spanish with their siestas and the British with teatime. I have a bone to pick with American culture for not allowing a time to rest during the day. I think we all need it. I tend to fall asleep in weird places without my midday nap. I also wonder if tea during the day doesn’t help to bring the country together around a proverbial table. It is a tradition which has changed in time. Needless to say, I really enjoyed the experience.

Sophie Ryder's installations at Salisbury Cathedral created a contrast between the medieval and modern, asking the viewer to think about their surroundings in a new way.

Sophie Ryder’s installations at Salisbury Cathedral created a contrast between the medieval and modern, asking the viewer to think about their surroundings in a new way.

 

I’ve been fortunate enough to have two friends living in London currently who I have been able to meet up with. One of them asked me tonight what I would miss most when I went home. After thinking for a moment, I answered the value and variety of public art. Many museums are free, books are advertised in the Underground, and contemporary art appears even in places of worship like Sophie Ryder’s sculptures at Salisbury cathedral. Appreciation of art, especially in the public sphere is not very common in America. I am becoming more and more inspired to work on my idea of finding  my own responses to the city captured in image and poetry for my final project. I want it to take the sprit of this place, and use the inspiration that it gives me to create even more art.

 

Day 3: When Beauty Is Common

“I start really missing London when I go away. I have a little flat, but very central. I live above a pub and you’d think it’d be a nightmare, but I like hearing the music and it’s quite comforting.”-Ellie Goulding

It’s Day 3, and I am finally starting to feel at home in this city. In particular today, I got a taste of what life in London is like from our visit to Greenwich.

I was blown away by the Royal Banqueting Hall, Royal Chapel, and Queen’s House, today. I was really hit by this idea that has been flickering in the back of my mind thus far: All of this is normal for Londoners! That awe we felt when we saw St. Paul’s peeking between two high rises for the first time? That excitement we felt walking along the Thames? These treasures are simply a part of the fabric of Londoners’s lives-they might even be used to them! What would that be like, to live in a place where you could expect to see so much beauty on a day to day basis?

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Afterwards, some of us stayed in Greenwich and shopped and ate at Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant. The shops were so cute, and the restaurant was so quaint and the food was amazing. Since it was all in this cute suburb, it felt like I was getting to see a real slice of London life, which was awesome. It was so relaxing just to get to shop and eat and ride public transportation.

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Jamie Oliver’s Italy was the perfect way to end our day!

I started thinking about what effect it must have on Londoners to live around such beauty, and I started wondering if their love and acceptance of the arts didn’t come from the beauty and history that surrounds them. Art and history are important to them, because they are surrounded by it. Perhaps American culture could come to have the same kind of appreciation for art if we were to put more value on what we already have around us and provide for new art to be made for the public to enjoy in their regular lives.

Even this sketch I did of an Anglo-Saxon cross fragment in the British Museum Great Court, situated between two incredible marble pillars, demonstrates the beauty which is commonplace to Londoners.

Even this sketch I did of an Anglo-Saxon cross fragment in the British Museum Great Court, situated between two incredible marble pillars, demonstrates the beauty which is commonplace to Londoners.

Day 1 (Differences, Differences)

“One might fancy that day, the London day, was just beginning. Like a woman who had slipped off her print dress and white apron to array herself in blue and pearls, the day changed, put off stuff, took gauze, changed to evening, and with the same sigh of exhilaration that a woman breathes, tumbling petticoats on the floor, it too shed dust, heat, colour; the traffic thinned; motor cars, tinkling, darting, succeeded the lumber of vans; and here and there among the thick foliage of the squares an intense light hung. I resign, the evening seemed to say, as it paled and faded above the battlements and prominences, moulded, pointed, of hotel, flat, and block of shops, I fade, she was beginning. I disappear, but London would have none of it..” -Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

Today was a marvelous first day in London! While we spent most of our time out during the day, Virginia’s description of the London night as a woman getting ready to go out made me think of the differences I’m already noticing between London and the U.S.

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  1. Arts are everywhere!

From the ads at the tube station, advertising novels, to the lovely and dominating Barbican Theatre, the arts seem to hold a much larger place of prominence over here. My two favorite examples were Bill Viola’s art installation, Martyrs, at St. Paul’s and the poems of Bernardine Evaristo in the Museum of London which frameded the Paleolithic exhibit. I love how both of these examples really show London’s willingness to use art as a way to appreciate deeper (as in The Museum of London) and to use art to serve contextualize other art (as in the interplay between Viola’s video and the church decoration at St. Paul’s.)

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2. Everything is Elegant!

Everywhere I went today, I felt like the space was elegant. What I mean by that is that it is filled with soft edges and curves and design that felt planned yet seemless. Even the Barbican today was softened by a well laid-out water feature and green space. I feel like everything seems more up front in your face in America, but here my eye was always captured rather than demanded.

I cannot not wait to see what tomorrow brings and what else I will learn about the differences between London and the U.S!