Museum Response Assignment

            My museum response is on the painting “Winter Morning” by M. C. Heurlin.  It is an oil on canvas and about 4ft high by 8ft long. It is in the upstairs art gallery, towards the back about 7ft off the floor.  The painting is of a dog team traveling down a trail, through a forest with lots of ice fog, as the sun is rising. 

            There are 5 dogs pulling an old fashion cargo sled, with a full load covered in a tarp. You can see the puffs of white from their breath streaming over their heads. The guy on the back of the sled is wearing a fur parka, hat, and gloves.  His snow pants look as if they are made out of a light brown material.  The dog team is angling towards you from the left. 

            The forest is made up of some very ragged looking spruce trees.  They are thinly spaced, but more concentrated and taller in the distance and sides.  This makes it appear that it is the edge of a clearing.  A lot of the trees look as if they are dead with no needles.  The ones that aren’t dead look as if they are half dead.  The branches have a thick layer of snow on them and the trunks are lined with frost.  This puts somewhat of a gloomy look to the picture.

            There is a lot of ice fog and it is really thick at the bottom.  You can only see the upper halves of the trees further back.  You can’t see the sun itself, but the fog is lit up in brilliant colors. Starting with hazy red at the bottom, fading into pink, orange, and bright yellow at the top.  The tips of the trees are silhouetted against the red and pink areas. 

            All of this gives the impression that it is bitterly cold.  This really reminds me of times when it gets extremely cold outside and the ice fog reduces visibility to a few hundred feet.  When I look at the painting I can almost feel myself outside in the cold.  The painting is quite detailed and looks fairly realistic.  It is one of the larger artworks in the gallery.  

Exploring Places

The small parking lot we visited was on the side of a hill and it had a good viewpoint of Fairbanks.  It was gray and cloudy with some snow falling, but it wasn't too cold out.  You could see the outlines of some mountains in the distance.  We were supposed to go there to see the sunrise, but I could only see a strip of orange on the horizon.  There were a few planes circling the airport several miles away.  Since Fairbanks is ringed with hills there are plenty of viewpoints like this one and I didn’t think it had anything special about it besides its convenient location.  All said it defiantly wasn’t the highlight of the day. 

The fist thing I noticed about the wood center as I walked towards it is the entrance.  There are ten doors going into it at both entrances.  That seems like way to many for the size of the building and how much use it gets.  Inside it has a really high ceiling and is dimly lit.  On the lower level there is a lounge area.  The upper level is a big cafeteria with sushi, taco bell and a breakfast place for students to eat before and after going to class.  There is also a platform raised above the second level with a few tables to eat at. 

The third place that I am writing about is the student recreation center.  It has 3 courts on the first floor.  The weight room and locker rooms are in there as well. The second floor is a oval ledge that circles the entire building.  It is made into a track.  The whole building is brightly light and it has a high ceiling like the wood center. It makes me feel as if I am outside.  There always seems to be lots of people here.  It also has high rock climbing wall, but I’ve never been on it. 

The most prevalent thing that these places have in common is that they are all on campus and are mostly used by students.  They also make you feel small in comparison.  Home for me is where I grew up in Tanana.