Jen's Letter

To put it simply, my intentions for going on this study abroad program was to see a city I’ve wanted to see since I was a little girl. I remember first hearing about this awesome city from a little movie called Anastasia. The way they talked about it seemed like it was the best city on earth. It blew my tiny mind! My second interest in this trip was the famous deemed  “fashion capital of the world.” As someone who is aspiring to work in the fashion industry this is defiantly a huge step. I really wanted to see if it lived up to its name. Apart from that, I really wanted to see if their fashion culture would inspire anything for my designs in CD. My mind had envisioned this picture perfect city with great sights and a brilliant atmosphere.  

 I certainly appreciated Versailles because I have this odd obsession with Marie Antoinette, as well as the Opera. But what was most exciting to me, was the self-explore days. While both Chris and Eric did a wonderful job of teaching the course, I was itching to do more self-explore days. These days were the most important because it allowed me to break away from what seemed like a strict Architectural and Fine Art course. During these days, I did a lot of things I consider to inspire to me for my work. I ventured to the fashion district to see Louis Vuitton, Celine, Hermes, Chanel, and Dior. I even ate lunch at Chanel, where I proceeded to cry because Coco Chanel is a personal influence on me. Another thing was just venturing out on my own to see the city on a personal level and not as a teaching in a lesson. You got to know the city better this way because you’re not tuning your ears to hear a lecture about how Picasso sat at this particular spot to paint. You view and hear on your own and learn from that.

This trip has defiantly opened my eyes to experience a new look into what people are attracted to. As I stated before, my dream is to go into fashion. Just seeing all these women walking on the street has made me rethink that good fashion isn’t designer wear, head to toe. But it’s the one simple statement piece. Which usually comes in the form of a scarf. Even though I’m not a fashion designer, I can re-take that thought of one statement piece to create whatever I do in CD.

 The course is defiantly challenging. From the start of when you leave to the end of the final studio project/paper, expect a mix range of emotions. These will come in the form of anger from eating too much bread and not your typical dinner, to happiness because you saw that statue from the 1^st century BC that you absolutely adored in the Louvre. It’s not easy and you have to not let anything terrible get to your head. No matter how much you want to quit, it’s only two weeks and someday you can look back and laugh. The importance of traveling is to open your eyes to new discoveries. If you still keep your self cooped up in one spot, you remain with the same ideas of the world. This can influence you to be a closed minded person. If you’re an artist, designer, or writer, travel is the inspiration for your work. The mind grows with many new ideas and replaces the ones you’ve had that get repeated in your work.

Overall, Paris in its overhyped glory isn’t worth all the excitement if you go to traditional tourist areas. Find your niche and explore it. There’s a lot of baggage that comes with the city that you don’t get to see or hear about until you experience it for yourself. I guess that’s how you break from this comfort zone you’ve built up over yourself all your life. 

"I'm in a glass case of emotion"

Le Cartier and Maison de Verre were both spectacular buildings that were made almost solely out of glass and steel. You don’t find many buildings such as these in the US or in the world. I shouldn’t be combining these buildings together in a post, but I just love the architecture of glass buildings!

Maison de Verre’s exterior has circular glass blocks that form into panels. The glass however, has a transparency that blocks from someone viewing from the outside. It was considered, “private”, but on the inside held a wonderful display. Unlike the La Roche House, Maison de Verre’s interior was shown like nothing had changed from the 1930’s. Furniture was all in place and in pristine condition. It blew my mind that the house had desks from 1919 that looked like it wasn’t affected by any disaster or decay. There was this great staircase in the back of the house that was made completely out of black cement with cage. They way it turned reminded me of eerie stairwell. I think the most awesome thing about the house, was that it was able to light up at night via lights shining down on it. In all, the house had some qualities that was reminiscent to the Deetz house from Beetlejuice.

Cartier’s structure was nothing like I ever seen. Metal beams held together the building off the ground, something that was seen at the Branely. But instead of giving privacy to the offices above the Ron Mueck exhibition, the glass clear as day to the street. Of course before I get scolded for going on about the building in general, I should probably do a brief summary of the assignment given at the Mueck exhibition.

As a group we had to conclude a theme to his gallery. On top, there was a general theme of sacrifice. It shown people and things in these instances where they had to give up to support another. One thing that stood out from the rest was this chicken strung up from the ceiling. It was plucked and looked to be ready to cook. From a far, I had no idea what it meant and thought it was the strangest thing. But looking closer, I saw that the chicken had damp eyes and a single drop of water on the tip of its beak. It looked like it had cried in its last minutes of life before being sacrificed for human consumption. Though the top floor exhibition primarily shown human sacrifice, you kind of forget that animals go though the same thing. Whether it’s for the same species or differ.   

Opera-Versailles version 2.0

I tend to cry a lot with viewing the beautifully constructed Baroque styled buildings in Paris. Versailles was defiantly one of them early on, but visiting the Opera was certainly an experience that was so inspiring to me. Going into the Opera, the interior has this celebrated golden and decadent pattering that illuminati every inch of the building. It reminded me highly of Versailles interior, thus the continuous picture taking begun.

There was this long hall that reminded me of the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. The long corridor had paintings and golden bordering on the ceiling. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling like ornaments.

The amphitheater had this soft lightening that surrounded its circular dome. It was great for picture taking.

In an off center room, most likely used for a meeting area, was this dark romantic styled interior. Everything was nearly black with gold trim. On the ceiling were bats flying. It resembles a dark romantic style feel to the building.

Going through the Opera, I was memorized by the library of musical performance books. Some of the books I saw went all the way back to the 1500’s. I just happened to stumble upon two musical books written by Mozart.

I think what I got even more hyped up about was the beautifully designed costumes from past performances on display in the halls. What struck me was that even though these were meant to amplify the meaning of the character in the dance or opera, these designs were works of art. The intricate detailing was simply amazing. The Opera had information on how they create the costumes. It was remarkable to know that one person could put such detail and attention into each costume. Even from the most simple of costumes, you could easily see the care it took into designing, production and finalization of each piece.

Branly....museum of historical proportions.

Musee du quai Branly was interesting so to say. Walking to it, I thought we were viewing another art museum. The exterior had a lifted building. Underneath were gardens with a mess load of paths in every direction. The building had a maroon/dark brown exterior. I didn’t quite understand this until I got inside. When I got inside, I was greeted by this glass case that went on for several floors filled with musical instruments from all around the world. It was cool to see archives in view then from being stored away in the museum’s basement. Going up to the actual museum, the exterior’s color made sense to me. Major of the exhibitions focused on ancient history from Australia, Africa, Americas, and Asia. The dark brown represented the color of land seen in mountains and the maroon reminded me of a sunset. So for example, the Grand Canyon in the US could be one representation.

Going into our class discussion, we were asked to find something new that collaborated with something old. I chose a Mayan sacrifice table that was placed on top of a new table stand. The stand was built somewhat like the Mayan, but wasn’t the same color. That was the only difference.

 I ended up finding this Mayan skeleton that reflected back the shape of the windows on the Branly.

Overall, it was a cool experience both architecturally and historically. I thought it was especially wicked that I found these ceremonial skulls that were shaped in weird ways.   

Lunch at Chanel

The last self-exploration day was really the most important day since visiting Versailles for me.

 Self-exploration has allowed me to view a side of Paris that’s not covered in the trip, fashion. I may be a communication design major, but I’ve wanted to work in the fashion industry since I was 12. It’s a HUGE part of my life and coming to Paris-the fashion capital of the world-has intrigued my mind even further.

 During our days venturing around the city, I enjoy looking at what Parisian women wear. For most, it’s not the bounty of designer wear being worn; it’s simpler with one statement piece. Usually this comes in the form of shoes or a scarf. It’s chic and in good taste.

Sketches of women I viewed on the streets

 I ventured over to the Opera section of the city that’s known for its fashion district. It’s this part of town where I can see the famous French designers and admire from a far their imprint in French history. First and foremost, it was on my bucket list to visit the first Chanel store that opened in 1910 on Rue Cambon. With my lunch in hand, I searched for the shop. I ended up stumbling upon it after a good 20 minutes and plopped myself on a stoop. I was too afraid to walk into the store since I looked too much like a peasant and there were two security guards outside. So instead I pulled a “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” moment where Audrey Hepburn window-shops while eating her croissant. But for me, this was more “Lunch at Chanel.” I viewed the mannequins inside with the latest Chanel collection. This is when I started to get really emotional. Not only because I finally saw these beautiful artworks up-close, but Coco Chanel is one of my major influences. She crossed over the line of menswear and coined the jacket/blazer for women.

Coco Chanel in the 20's

In terms of fashion-it’s exquisite, but the graphic design for the brand is phenomenal. The double C logo is elegant but iconic because it’s so effective. The pattern work on the windows, help bring the clothing collection alive. It’s the perfect combination for me. Fashion and Communication Design interacting together in harmony.   

After sobbing tears, a small, old French woman came up to me. Asked me why I was crying VIA rubbing her hand on her eyes to communicate to me. I rubbed my hands to my eyes and pointed at Chanel. She nodded her head and said something in French I couldn’t comprehend.

Louis Vuitton 

After my moment at Chanel, I went to see Louis Vuitton, Celine, and Dior. Needless to say viewing these designers and how Parisian women dress, it’s simplicity that wins over fashion. You can see it in the top-notch designers collections. I guess this is why Paris is the fashion capital of the world. It’s simple.    

Minimalism...what the hell?

Going to the La Roche house confused me at first. It was so minimal compared to other museums such as Rodin and Versailles, that I was disgusted. Walking inside, it was completely bare. Of course there was photos to show what the house look like before, but I was wishing it was still all-intact. It would have made me a lot more interested in it. The first room I went into was the dinning room. Here was a table, a couple of chairs and a shag rug from the 60’s. Then I wanted to find the gallery space. In my mind, this was the best room since it was filled with furniture. I didn’t get why only the dinning room and gallery space only had a full interior.

In class, we were asked to discuss how Corbusier used his paintings as motivate for his designs. I only truly found this through his gallery space. Here, it held the same color in his painting that was hung on the wall. The dark brown, white, black and cerulean blue that was seen in the painting was found in either the interior space or furniture. Even the gallery space included the circular and linear quality that was found in the painting. The roundness of the room reminded me of the head in the painting. The curvature and black table reminded me of the lines and circles included in the painting.

Pom Pom museum

Through out this trip I wanted to find history of graphic design through Paris. I wanted to see what trended through the years and how it has changed the way we see things. As a communication design major, it’s highly important to see what other countries besides the US communicate through imagery. Unfortunately, a lot of the places we attended to didn’t cater to such history. When I got to the Pompidou, I found a couple of interesting subjects that did serve as a history of graphic design.

Walking into a dark wing of the Pompidou, I found post WWII political propaganda. The posters and book wasn’t normal propaganda. It ended up being a revision of the Morse Code translated into a new secret code. After that, it was taking into poetry. What really caught my eye was the open book with the two pages. On the left, was a poem built into the letter “E”. Unlucky for me, the description of the page was in French so I couldn’t convey what it meant. I was looking on how the layout of the poem was, since when it comes to communication, a designer must understand how the eye leads to another section of a page, advertisement, etc. Then I looked at the second page, which was more graphics but had some poetry to it. I looked at that and see how it related back to the previous page. It had almost the same element of flow, but the illustrations switched gears up. In whole, the poems connected together not just by subject, but how they presented a flowing pattern.

Front cover of book

Open book with two pages

Personal sketched of the layout

I was just really excited to see this stuff. It may have been more on a fine art level, but the elements of communication design were present. 

But let's just check out the Kate Moss print outside the Pompidou. Ironically, the artist or whom evers name was right next to it was written as "Konny." It reminded me of back in the early 90's when Kate and Johnny Depp used to date. So I laughed.

The Pantheon in Paris was quite spectacular.  From the outside, it didn't look that large to me, but the inside changed my mind. The middle of the 1st floor had this exquisite marble design. On the right of the building were these Roman esque styled paintings. What I was even more excited was to visit the crypt. I knew Marie Curie was buried their but I had no idea many other French influences would be there. One such was Victor Hugo who wrote the famous, Les Miserables book. Not going to lie, I kept singing the final song of the Les Miserables song from the movie during this tour.

Hugo's grave marker

Right side of the Pantheon. 

  Musee Rodin and Musee D'Orsey were the stops next on adventure through Paris.

 I don't know if it's just my personal opinion or something, but I couldn't find interest in the Musee Rodin. I respect the artist but I honestly have little interest in fine art. Instead, I found myself looking more so at the design of the Rodin House. It was this chateau styled house with a garden in the back. It reminded me closely of Marie Antoinette's Petit Triannon. Which is why I think I fell in love with it. The stair case/main hall was exact to a t to the Petit. Upstairs was this round room with a beautiful light blue paint. The light shown through this like crazy. 

Outside of Musee Rodin

Round room in Rodin

Musee D'Orsey was another thing I wasn't too interested in. What really sparked my interest was the Dark Romanticism exhibition-The Angel of Odd. This included works from Max Ernst, Francisco Goya and Carlos Schwabe. Even though I'm not into fine art much, I'm into the creepy and eery things that roam this earth, and these works included them. Paintings about death, cults, mythology and creatures that go bump in the night all were included in this exhibition. 

This is a title for the past 3 days in Paris

The three days that we have ventured through has been an overall positive insight on historical monuments. I appreciate history in its utter most glory. I enjoyed viewing Notre Dame, Versailles and Louvre. But when looking at other tourists, it seems they were more into it’s beauty and don’t understand the full meaning of what they are looking at. So I guess my theme for this blog post is beauty.

Notre Dame is the oldest thing in Paris. It has seen every war Europe has fought within nearly the last millennium. It’s not just the house of god, but also a historical story of Paris. The neighborhood around Notre Dame is old itself but also built pretty to mock what Notre Dame is. Gift shops line the streets and that’s there way of getting tourists to keep the memory alive with their horribly printed Eiffel Tower shirts. Taking in the history, Notre Dame was a place of worship. Monasteries lined the cathedral and people flock to worship God. It was pretty then, but it had meaning. In today’s context, the building is flocked to because it’s “pretty” and that’s only what it’s seen as. Looking around tourists took pictures and walked away. They didn’t stand off to the side to look a bit closer and understand what they are really looking at. Notre Dame was built on blood and tears, and every detail shows it. Looking at a particular stained glass window, I saw that window had the light shining bright through it. The sunshine reflected back this beautiful pattern within the frames. As someone who works with pattern work, I know it’s insane to create them. But thinking, people had to etch them into glass, which takes hours, if not days. So once I got that notion, it triggered that people only enjoy the beauty it gives off and forgot what it took to create that.

The Versailles palace needless to say…was tacky. I used to be so obsessed with it, but now as I look at it in real life, I’m not exactly phased with it. All I saw was gold everywhere and nothing else. I’m more guessing the reason behind that thought was because everyone on the planet was inside. Pushing and shoving their way because they lost their tour group. It ruined the time looking at everything. The experience was a loss. I more enjoyed the gardens and Marie Antoinette’s Hamlet & Petit Triannon because nobody cared really about them. They were like the hidden jewel of Versailles. So my focus was on those. The area around the Petit Triannon was calming. Not many people pushed and shoved themselves through. Going along with what Marie Antoinette wanted, the Triannon was defiantly an escape of real life. Tourists didn’t want to make the trek to view everything it had. Tourists wanted the one thing that was pretty, which was the palace. The Petit Triannon was lavish but it wasn’t over done like the palace. Decorative ornaments a-lined every inch of the building, but it wasn’t dosed in gold. Looking closer, I saw the clever design strategies. On the grad staircase, was a logo. It was Marie Antoinette’s. It had the M and A cross over. The first communication design element I saw from an early time of this subject. I was immediately drawn to it because it was of course pretty but it had charm and wit to it. It was simple yet effective. Even if you didn’t know it was Marie Antoinette’s the initials logo spoke for it’s self. 

The Louvre held it’s own beauty, without all the artifacts and artwork. Viewing around, the Louvre was centered off it’s own scale. It was majestic and in all honest opinion, better than Versailles. Just like the Petit Triannon, it was decorative but not in an ultra lavish way. But the palace it’s self isn’t what people want to view, it’s what’s inside. The two articles I decided to get a sneak at were what I could see in relation to Louvre. One such object was a jewelry box from the Islamic exhibit. The box was small with exquisite patterns. It wasn’t dosed in colors or imprinted with some king’s image. It was simple yet effective. The space it was in had this flowy movement that made Lauren all giddy but me, I was like meh. I was more involved with the history of this object and what it held. The beauty was there but the history of it was what intrigued me. Unfortunately everything was in French so I couldn’t grasp that part. But it still held a positive reaction to me, but as far as other viewers go, people just walked on by it. A second article I chose was the Sleeping Hermaphrodiotos. The statue was placed right smack dab in the front of the entry. It was moving and spiked curiosity. It wasn't something I've ever seen before. I think why I liked it was because the female figure was laying down and covered on the front side of the body. Usually Greek's exposed almost the entire front side of a lady.  

I guess this is a summary of the last three days. Here's to many more. 

Jennifer's Exciting Travels of Misfortunes with a Side of Optimism.

Currently, I am sitting with Robbie in Toronto's airport waiting to get through the hell hole that is Customs. Within our two hour wait, we made a few travel buddies that are in the same boat we are. While these silly shenanigans are going on I'm wanting a bowl of Poutine (a delicious national Canadian dish with fries smothered in gravy and cheese curds.) Also on my mind at this time is, "I really need to get a stiff drink after this."

Rolling on to what we really need to blog about-Paris. Anyone who knows me personally will tell you that I'm a fashion addict. About 80% of my favorite designers are French. So with this trip, I want to indulge in why Paris (and France) is considered the fashion capital of the world. Did it all start in more recent times from such fashion icons like Coco Chanel and Christian Dior. Or is it from a further beyond history time frame such as Marie Antoinette? 

France is also a really great time to learn how to be extremely independent and open to new ideas. Learn how people on the opposite side of the world sees things and overall live like a madam.

Until Paris, au revoir.

P.S. The dashing actor who plays Jon Snow (Kit Harington) on Game of Thrones is in Toronto filming a movie so I'm kind of screaming on the inside right now.