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For most schools in the US, the school year will begin sometime in either August or September, which is sooner than it seems. It's never too early to start thinking ahead! Here are some things you can do this year to keep yourself on top of your game. Get at least 8 hours of sleep a night While this may seem difficult due to the number of commitments and homework an average high schooler has, the CDC does recommend 8-10 hours of sleep a night for teens ages 13-18. Insufficient sleep has been linked to a variety of issues, including mental health disorders, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic conditions. It can also leave you tired and sleepy during class, which isn’t good for your academic success. This is your sign to spend less time gaming or on TikTok, and more time sleeping! Eat well This probably is a no-brainer, but getting 3 nutritious meals a day is instrumental to your success. You should be eating a diet rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, protein, and low-fat dairy products. Make sure to eat at least 5 portions of fruits and vegetables a day, and don’t forget to stay hydrated with 6-8 glasses of water a day, especially during the hotter months. Exercise daily Again, this seems difficult due to how busy your schedule might be, but exercise is instrumental. The CDC advises that adolescents up until 17 years of age should do at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise a day, including aerobic, muscle-strengthening, and bone-strengthening exercises. Lack of exercise has been connected to concentration problems, mental illness, and obesity, while exercising more keeps you healthy for school and improves your mood. Even something simple like walking to school can count as exercise. Take care of your mental health Having alone time is important to your success so you can unwind and rest. Make sure you have time to yourself every day. Practices such as meditation or yoga can help you destress and relax after a long day at school. However, having a strong support network of friends and family who you can talk to if you’re going through struggles is crucial. Study efficiently Studying efficiently means no distractions. Find a quiet place to work in and remove anything you might be distracted by, such as a phone or gaming device. The less time you waste while trying to do homework or study, the more time you’ll have to spare on free time or time with family. It can also help you take in information better, improving your grades.

If anything is for certain, every note played matters. We as a family of musicians, we play as we see, we play as we hear, we play as we feel. Each pitch comes out slightly different from the last, making each note distinct; some could even say, memorable. But is it the precision of the play, the pieces we choose to learn, the time spent learning, is this what counts? What if there is something so much more to becoming the next Mozart, Bach, Debussy, or Chopin? What if it is the music of one’s heart that carries the golden melody? So many musicians spend hours upon hours, slaving at their instruments, perfecting every note, and crafting it to where it is flawless in their sight. Backs start to ache, breathing starts to get heavier and quicker, and limbs start to naturally wear out. Millions mistake the time one puts into the craft as the one and only key to their success; however, the reality of the situation differs. Legends do not come to be as a result of their perfection, but instead because of their determination to arrive at their desired destination. This message, although hard to hear for many, is crucial to any musician’s journey. In fact, crucial might not be a strong enough word to describe it; maybe swapping it with vital will do the trick. For a true Mozart, the music stand, piano bench, or even the orchestral pit will always be the place that is returned to, even after suffering through hardship. Although there will come to pass, moments when one wants nothing more than to throw in the towel, the only way to fully unlock the inner icon is to return to the bench continually, consistently, and compassionately. Actually, scratch that last part, compassion may not always be possible. In fact, it may not even be the best option. Sometimes, as musicians, it is our job to pour our truest selves into the music, infusing every note with a feeling that clings to another’s heart like an unbreakable clasp. It is through this vulnerability, this passion that one will finally start to love, even cherish the music they create once more, especially post-trauma. But even after returning, what is there left to the music? Is there anything more to perfect? Anything more to change? Quite possibly, the answer could be no. This leaves one at a crossroads. Is it time to let go? Is it finally time to move on? How does one possibly discover the answer to this question? Believe it or not, there is no right, nor wrong answer. Or perhaps, there is no answer at all. Some questions are meant to be unanswered, pondered. But this question here has but one way to find out. There comes a point in time when the music is no longer just notes on a page. No longer is the music black ink on a white canvas, nor pitches picked up by the body. No, the music is felt, but even more importantly, it becomes etched into your DNA. It becomes your weapon, your soul, your mind. It invades every vessel, every artery, every cavity. Alas, the music cannot be contained any longer. At this point, when one turns into a beacon of purely music, one will finally know when it is time to turn the page. And at last, the notes can peacefully fade, all the while in utter completion.

Realism, in contrast to the previous art movements, was a derivative-more specifically, a derivative of the earlier Neoclassic and Romantic art movements. The Realist style was inspired by the idea that painting must illustrate all the features of its subjects, including the negative ones. It was also showed the lives of ordinary people as subjects that were as important as the historical and religious themes that dominated the art exhibitions of the day. The artist who represented this movement most forcefully was Gustave Courbet (1819–77), a flamboyant and outgoing personality who outraged conventional audiences by showing a painting of ordinary workmen repairing a road at the official government-sponsored Salon. This work, called The Stonebreakers (1849–50), also had political implications in the context of a wave of revolutions that spread across Europe beginning in 1848. Realism can also be seen in the works of Honoré Daumier and Jean Francois Millet. Pictured below: The Stonebreakers(1849), by Gustav Courbet Impressionism grew out of disdain with the systematic rules that had come to dominate the Salons held to recognize selected artists each year. Édouard Manet (1832–83) is sometimes referred to as the first Impressionist. Although he refused to consider himself as one of the Impressionists, Manet’s work, which showed light by bright, contrasting colors, nonetheless greatly inspired and influenced the generation of artists following him. Manet’s painting Le Dejéuner sur L’herbe (Luncheon on the Grass) (1863) was deemed as unacceptable. The scandal surrounding this work resulted from its violation of the unwritten rule that the only appropriate nudes in contemporary artwere classical figures or women in suitably exotic settings. In Luncheon on the Grass, however, Manet based his work on an engraving with a classical subject matter: he showed contemporary clothed men with a nude woman as part of the group. This caused an uproar. While Manet continued to submit his work to the Salon, other artists who disagreed with the rigid artistic standards espoused by the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and favored by the Salon set about establishing Impressionism as a new style. A work by Claude Monet (1840–1926) was the source of the movement’s name. Monet showed a work that he called Impression, Sunrise (1872), and the critics seized on this mere “impression” as a means by which to ridicule the movement. Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) and Alfred Sisley (1839–99) were two other Impressionists of note. Pictured below: Impressionist:Sunrise, by Claude Monet

Towards the turn of the 19th century, the French Revolution sparked an uproar worldwide-not excluding the world of artisans, art, and artists. An era of great change and upheaval was ushered throughout Europe, and the idea of a democratic republic governed by the ideas and thoughts of people was often reflected in the art of the era. This art style became known as Neoclassicism. Neoclassicism is often characterized by by a revival in the interest of the arts of Greece and Rome-and also highlights influence by the ongoing Enlightenment. The Neoclassical style was a direct challenge to the earlier Rococo style, deviating from the portrayals of frivolous court life. Of the great Neoclassicists, the most well known individual would be Jacques Louis David, whose paintings, such as Oath of the Horatii, expressed republican virtues. Following the Revolution, David joined members of the new government as the master of ceremonies for the grand revolutionary mass rallies. Later he became a dedicated painter to Napoleon Bonaparte, and in this capacity he painted large propagandistic canvases that seemed to stray from his earlier republican ideals. David’s pupil, Jean Dominique Ingres (1780–1867), shows the sharp outlines, unemotional figures, careful geometric composition, and rational order that are telltale signs of the Neoclassical art style. Below is a portrait of Madame Ingres-useful for comparing to the Romanticism mentioned later. Ingres’s rival, Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), was a proponent of Romanticism. This style hearkened back to the emotional emphasis of the Baroque and had similar characteristics, though the subject matter was different. Whereas Neoclassical works emphasized line, order, and a cool detachment, Romantic painting tended to be highly imaginative and was characterized by an emotional and dreamlike quality—the Romantics favored feeling over reason. Romantic works are also characterized by their incorporation of exotic or melodramatic elements and often took awe-inspiring natural wonders as their subject matter. Delacroix’s works are characteristic of the Romantic movement in that they centered on exotic themes and included foreign settings, violence involving animals and historical subject matter. Théodore Gericault and William Blake are also among the noteworthy Romantic-era artists. Below pictured: Eugene Delacroix-A Greek Horseman. You can see that the painting is much sketchier in quality-but is highly atmospheric, with the background reflecting the colors of dawn.

The Greener Grass A Blog by Jessica Nino June 30 2021 Tip Of The Day: Understand others and be as compassionate as they are willing to be towards you.<3 How Sex Ed In The US Has Failed To Be Inclusive and Realistic Over the past few weeks, I’ve realized that sex ed has failed so greatly in the U.S due to its lack of inclusivity, weak methods of teaching and disregard for the LGBTQ+ community and women. My first approach was to ask those around me about how they felt regarding their sex ed classes and effectiveness. Here were their responses: Disclaimer: I hope you understand these experiences vary based on communities, districts, income, and every student's cooperation. “Honestly I don’t think it’s sex ed, it’s abstinence ed. They teach you about the diseases and how it’s better just to wait but they never teach about protection like condoms and birth control. I think it also fails to represent everyone because they mainly teach it with a guy and a girl. Also I think it would be helpful to teach how to do certain things and how to make experiences more fun and pleasurable so everyone can have a great experience. Also teach about not sexualizing everything, goes for both guys and girls, learn to keep it in your pants and how to give/ask for consent.” - Stephanie (16) (public High School) “There's a lot that sex ed doesn’t talk about when it concerns to the LGBTQ+ community. They only talk about straight couples so it leaves the rest to not understand that you can get STI’s from gay sex too. It makes those kids also not understand the importance of protection when it comes to same sex intercourse and it makes those kids not fell included in being considered “capable” of contracting those STIs and being considered important when they do fall ill. You never hear about gay sex until you’re older and by then people have already contracted something they weren’t told about when they were supposed to. It belittles gay kids because the education system doesn’t ever talk about it. They never teach lesbians that there’s protection for women too. Boys aren’t told about pills to prevent HIV or about how African males are more likely to get HIV or AIDS...Another thing education has failed at is that they teach girls to hide their periods from men and be ashamed if anyone finds out about it, but why not teach men that it’s normal? Everyone should be taught about periods because that's the way the human body works. Why not teach children their skin color is normal, but so is their reproductive system. It would be better if the education system taught kids more about transgender intercourse.” - Layla (16) (early college student in the nursing program) “Personally, I was taught nothing except basic abstinence because I went to a catholic high school. There was no discussion about LGBT people or sex at all. You might find this resource helpful as a survey of the different sex ed policies by state: https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-policies-on-sex-education-in-schools.aspx” -Sean Payne “everydaylawofficial’’ (lawyer)(also tiktok famous lol) Personally, I think that the school system fails many students everyday by only teaching about straight intercourse and overall favoring men. The first time I had any health-related class was one singular lesson in my p.e class. We watched a video on how the reproductive system in women works including the menstrual cycle. From what I heard from the boys, they watched a similar video referring to their reproductive system and how it worked. The next time I heard anything regarding our bodies and intercourse was during my most recent semester as a sophomore. I had a 5 year gap where Iearned, heard, saw nothing related on how to be safe or for that matter, sex at all. I truly believe that I learned about it last semester because I go to school on a college campus and the college offered the class to us as high school students. The class was 30 minutes long. It wasn't a weekly/monthly or hourly course. I remember learning about using condoms and how they were free over at the health and science building, how there were different types of STIs, and how they could be very detrimental to your health. I did not learn reinforced information about periods, sex that involved the same gender, or how to even make it fun. As a country with one of (if not the most) teen pregnancies, I think a way to help control this is that our education system needs to stop shaming women from participating in intercourse, teaching men the reality of it all (including periods), teaching everyone about consent, how to say no, how to react when told no, and how to stay safe. I think our country doesn't do us any favors either by having free condoms accessible to anyone in colleges and medical spaces, yet they sell a pack of pads or tampons for 7-15 dollars each. You can control your urges, you can’t control your bleeding reproductive system. Contact me Hi! I would love to hear your ideas, suggestions, and feedback on the content I am regularly publishing! I believe it is important I stay connected with yall and am able to positively connect and learn from yalls criticism and suggestions to help me improve as a writer. I encourage you to send me ideas and suggestions based on what you’d like to read about so that I can regularly connect with you all as well as better understand your interests, and help y’all destress, learn, and enjoy my content. -Love, J You can contact me through the following links and medias: Gmail: jessicanino2004@gmail.com Twitter: 1andxnlynino And Instagram: jjessicaninoo (also found at the top of the page next to the title, you can reach my profile by clicking the IG icon or looking it up through the username) The best way to reach me would be through either Email or instagram, I am constantly checking both. Don't be shy! Even if you don’t have suggestions, if you need a safe space, feel emotionally/mentally stressed, are feeling anxious, depressed, or just need a friend, I am always available! FAQs Who Am I? My Name is Jessica & I am a blogger for the CPSB (college prep student bubble) I was given the wonderful ability to create content for you all as a way to relax or entertain/learn while you prepare for AP/college. What Are My Interests? My interests include painting, volleyball, discovering music, reading (mostly sci-fi or romance), writing about absolutely anything and interacting with new people! I believe having hobbies and consistently participating in them helps you mentally and physically destress, so if you haven't done something you enjoy today, take the time to do it :). What Do I Intend For This Blog? This blog was created for you as a student to get some daily reading in on something that interests you. This became a resource because AP and college can very often be stressful and a handful, my purpose is to entertain you and help you stay motivated. My writing can be seen as a brain break or relaxer to those who are interested in it. I intend to make this a very chill spot for you all and to bring weekly content on any topic imaginable you suggest/want. What Grade Am I In & What Courses Am I Taking? I am an incoming Junior for the 2020-21 year, and will be graduating with the class of ‘22. I am an Early College High School student, so half of my classes are highschool and the other half are college. My classes this year will include: English 4 dual credit, Geometry PAP, Environmental Systems PAP, US History, (high school). For my first semester in college I am taking College English, Texas Government, and Philosophy. More About My Writing: How did I come up with ‘The Greener Grass’? Very often I heard the saying “the grass isn't always greener on the other side” I decided to name my blog after this to give it a positive connotation: it doesn’t matter what side of the “grass’’ were on, sure it may not be the greenest, but I think that by being positive & interacting we can make our grass greener. To me this means we can help each other out, we can teach and learn from each other; we will all eventually feel stress, pressure, & frustration, but together we can make the most out of it and encourage each other & grow. Cites used, referenced and helpful related to this content: https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-policies-on-sex-education-in-schools.aspx https://www.seeker.com/which-countries-have-the-best-sex-education-1792604688.html

I’ve been wondering what to write about for my first blog post and decided to share a poem I found that I wrote a while ago. It’s not the best but I thought the topic was pretty interesting. To Humanity People repeat days of their unvarying lives Ages and ages of following time And never once do they stop to look and see How humanity has came to be The world is separated into two gaps Where you’re put depends on your social class There’s the people across the world Not having anything to eat With water that’s hard to clean Living life like an obstacle to defeat While the others get to live carefree Having the luxury to complain about pointless things And wanting everything that the world can bring Material objects keep them complete And their minds are filled with nothing but greed Walking past the struggling people as if there’s nothing to see Pretending there’s no such thing as people in need The two gaps never came together No one ever thought of sharing what they own But it doesn’t matter whether you’re rich or poor Everyone is born to feel greed It’s a question we all naturally ask “What is in it for me?” We all were born different and have our own opinions It’s what makes us unique And it splits us into even more gaps All put in order from best to least People are filled with oceans of hate Swimming higher to feel superiority Leaving the others on the ocean floor Suffering a horrible, unforgivable fate Why must people discriminate against someone because their race? We’re all human at the end of the day And people hate others because of their religion When all religions are okay No religion preaches violence and loathing So why must people think that way? We put others down just to feel validation about ourselves We are all the same Due to this, people have started countless wars And looking back, it was all for nothing What was it all for? Humans are fragile and vulnerable And they sacrificed themselves not to save others But instead to kill War did not bring any good into the world It just had the winner’s pride shortly fulfilled Then the cycle repeats again and again With more pain and hurt that comes in Why can’t people ever learn? They suffer endlessly from war yet War never gives anything good in return We all walk on the same ground And live under the same sky We all grow old as the years pass And in the end, we all die The similarities are endless So why don't we get along? And live in a world where we share our possessions Not feeling the need to have it all A world where we admit our faults And apologize for what we did wrong A world we don’t start conflict but instead Listen to other sides of the story And a world where we unite as one No individual wanting all the glory And have a world full of happiness With no sight of selfishness No such thing as hate And everyone feeling like they belong… Is it too late for things to be like that? Has humanity slipped out of our grips? Can we all change the world as a whole And find out why things are like this? We instantly point our fingers to society Saying it’s the reason why the world is this way We say it’s where all our problems have been compelled Yet fail to realize that We are society ourselves

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari – review A swash account that starts from the source of the species and ends with the after humans At least six human species lived on earth 100,000 years ago. There's only one today. Us. Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens. How was the fight for dominance successful in our species? Why have our forging ancestors gathered to build cities and kingdoms? How were we to believe in gods, nations and rights? How have we been able to trust money, books and legislation? And in the coming millennium what will our world be like? Yuval Noah Harari spans the entire history of mankind in Sapiens, from the earliest people in the world to the radical and sometimes devastating breakthroughs of the cognitive, agricultural and scientific revolutions. Harari strongly disagrees that it was inevitable, or even desirable, for sapiens to rise to the top of the food chain. Instead, he writes “humankind ascended to the top so quickly that the ecosystem was not given time to adjust. Moreover, humans themselves failed to adjust. Most top predators of the planet are majestic creatures. Millions of years of dominion have filled them with self-confidence. Sapiens by contrast is more like a banana republic dictator. Having so recently been one of the underdogs of the savannah, we are full of fears and anxieties over our position, which makes us doubly cruel and dangerous. Many historical calamities, from deadly wars to ecological catastrophes, have resulted from this over-hasty jump." The bulk of Sapiens is a tour-de-force explanation of the vagaries, accidents and inexplicable events that took “an insignificant ape" to “the verge of becoming a god." Have we become happier as history has unfolded? Can we ever free our behaviour from the heritage of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come? Bold, wide-ranging and provocative, Sapiens challenges everything we thought we knew about being human: our thoughts, our actions, our power ... and our future A SMALL SUMMARY Sapiens: One of the most interesting and informative books I have ever read is a short history of humankind. This book, because of its incredibly good writing storey and facts, has changed my view of things and inspired many others who I know. This book should be an example for all books on human history, because we are hateful and selfish, but are able to do great things, even if we will not admit it, and have destroyed almost all the world's fauna. We can create myths and stories that last tens of thousands of years. We can combine and co-ordinate at an unbelievable speed like the world never before has seen. This is the story of our kind and its beginnings are by far as or more important than the present and the future. And the future. For this breathtaking masterpiece, I congratulate Yuval Noah Harari and recommend it for everybody out to at least twice read.

6/24/2021 Likhita Velmurugan What inspired me to draw this piece was the saying "I can't wait to grow up" I wanted to show the older version of someone pulling their younger self towards their "future". Since many seniors will have already graduated by now or at least going to graduate I hope they can relate to it. And for all the younger students I want them to remember to keep pushing through school and study and achieve their future goals because it will all pay off in the end! :)

Historically, the study of arts and humanities in European society was almost always restricted to upper-class men. We remember Renaissance men like Galileo and da Vinci, thinkers like Locke and Montesquieu, and composers like Beethoven and Mozart, but none are ever women. Only in rare cases did upper-class women receive an education, and even fewer delved deep into and produced literature, artwork, or music; most could barely read and write. If a woman became well-known for her work, there was a 100 percent chance that men would criticize her simply for her gender. The history of women composers in western classical music is widely regarded to have begun with Hildegard von Bingen. A German Benedictine abbess in the eleventh century, she was a woman so brilliant that some believed her works had been divined straight from God. Due to her gender, her works were only performed by and for other women when she was alive and remained largely unknown for centuries. During the decades she spent at a monastery in the Rhineland, Hildegard managed to be an artist, writer, theologian, and composer, a feat that the people of today would still struggle to accomplish. At the turn of the nineteenth century, female composers rose somewhat in significance. Fanny Mendelssohn, the older sister of the better-known Felix Mendelssohn, wrote over 450 pieces of music but never had the career her brother did, largely because of her gender. In the prime of her career, she hosted people such as members of Russian royalty and the famous Franz Liszt in her music salons. However, she would also become a homemaker and mother, partially adhering to the social norms of her time. A dear friend of Fanny Mendelssohn’s was Clara Schumann, whom Fanny met with often shortly before she died. Clara married the famous composer Robert Schumann when she was twenty and remained his closest friend and confidante even as he suffered mental breakdowns and attempted suicide. She was an extraordinary pianist, having achieved international acclaim in her teens and becoming a Royal and Imperial Austrian Chamber Virtuoso, Austria’s highest musical honor. Much like Fanny, society did not favor women as performing artists, and Clara once wrote, "I once believed that I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman must not desire to compose – there has never yet been one able to do it. Should I expect to be the one?” She stopped composing in her mid-thirties. Paris-born Cécile Chaminade was yet another significant female composer and pianist of the nineteenth century. She studied with faculty at the Conservatoire de Paris but never formally enrolled, as her father believed it was improper for a young lady to do so. Cécile gained international acclaim in Europe, becoming popular in her native France as well as England, and also toured the United States performing her original compositions. In the U.S., she quickly became an American favorite, and “Chaminade Clubs” sprang up all across the country. Cécile was awarded the French Legion of Honour, the highest order of merit both military and civil, a first for a female composer. However, her career was marred with sexism from her contemporaries and a large amount of criticism she received was motivated solely by her status as a woman. Despite her popularity, after her death, her works largely disappeared into obscurity. Last but not least, pianist Amy Beach was an American composer from New Hampshire who was unique for two major reasons: first, she was an American woman in a time where most composers were European men, and second, she was the first woman in the world to have her symphony performed by a major orchestra. Amy was largely self-taught in the art of composition and the premiere in 1896 of her symphony by the Boston Symphony Orchestra skyrocketed her to fame across the globe. At eighteen, she married Henry Beach, a surgeon in Boston twenty-four years her senior. Though she expressed that she was happy in her marriage, she also fell victim to the pressures of society on women in her day. She agreed to the limits her husband placed on her, which included a maximum of two public recitals a year, more focus on composition rather than performance, to function more as a patron of the arts than a pianist, never teach piano, and not to study composition with a tutor. Even today, the world of classical music remains male-dominated; a study of 20 top orchestras in the United States done by Classic FM reveals that on average, a mere 37 percent of their members are women. The New York Times reported that 4.1 percent of the conductors of the world’s major orchestras were women in 2020. Ricky O’Bannon, content director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, surveyed 22 of the largest orchestras in the U.S. during his time with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and subsequently discovered that only 1.8 percent of the total works performed during the 2014-2015 concert season were written by female composers. If the composer was living, that statistic rose to 14.8 percent. Although still extremely low in modern times, these percentages would have been nearly nonexistent a hundred years ago. We consider people such as Beethoven, Mozart, and Chopin when we think of classical composers-- those who have studied an instrument may be familiar with some lesser-known names. However, one thing remains the same: the vast majority of composers you can name off the top of your head are men, even though women played a pivotal role in the world of classical music. Notable works: Clara Schumann - Piano Trio in g minor, Op. 17 (1846) Fanny Mendelssohn - Piano Trio in d minor, Op. 11 (1850) Amy Beach - "Gaelic" Symphony in e minor, Op. 32 (1896) Cécile Chaminade - Flute Concertino in D Major, Op. 107 (1902)

If you are an art connossieur, you may often hear Baroque and Rococo strung together in many galleries all over the world. But are they different? Or are they similar? While the two styles impacted French and European architecture more than other types of artistic expression, the realm of painting also witnessed notable transitions between the time period when Baroque would later shift and give way to the Rococo movement. First, let's start with origins. Baroque art started from the growing extravagance of the Renaissance(Latin: rebirth) period. In the early 17th century, Baroque movement began to have deep rooted meanings for artists with deeply held convictions towards the Catholic church-this was unlike any style-or school of art before. The movement was characterized by stark differences in contrast and deep levels of detail, as well as moving figures that were often of a religious nature. The Baroque movement began in Rome, Italy as the Renaissance finally tapered down to a halt and later spread throughout other parts of Europe before making its way into parts of Russia and Germany. The movement left a lasting impression on much of European society as many of the most wealthy and aristocratic families in the continent sought to display their wealth by acquiring extravagant paintings, sculptures, and furniture. The period finally came to an end around the middle of the 1700’s after artists of the Baroque movement began to create increasingly flamboyant works-giving way to the Rococo movement. The Rococo movement art style began as a means to oppose the increasingly rigid and straight-lined methods of French Classicism. The Rococo movement began in France and would later spread to every other part of Europe by the end of the 18th century, including parts of Russia. The style is most commonly associated with the grand manors owned by affluent aristocrats. Many of the most notable Rococo pieces of architecture and other works were known for their elaborately decorated shapes, scrolling curves, and illusions of dramatic motion. The term ‘rococo’ comes from the French word ‘rocaille’ which pointed toward an elaborate method of decorating the exterior of grottos and other exterior structures with pebble-like patterns. However, this term was not used to describe art of this period until the early 1800s. Where Baroque painters had used large amounts of dark, shadowy colorations surrounding their works, Rococo painters preferred to capture the light of the sun and painted scenes that were often full of light. The most clear divulge from the Baroque manner of portrayal was in the nature of the subjects themselves for many Rococo painters. These paintings displayed an increasing level of playfulness and frivolity, which would have been considered highly scandalous if seen by Baroque painters. Take a guess with the two paintings below to deduce if they are Baroque-era or Rococo era!

Listening to the raindrops land on the glass window like a steady, light percussion, I seated myself at the piano. With deft hands I flipped open a collection of Chopin's works. A page is bookmarked. Prelude, Op. 28, No. 15, it read. I scanned the sheet music with curiosity-and it dawned on me that this was one of the maestro's most famous works-but the more conventional name was simply "Raindrop Prelude". Besides being one of Chopin's most famous works, there are a few other characteristics that sets this prelude apart from other pieces-it is quite long for a Chopin-esque prelude piece, and has a repeating note of A flat, observed by many listeners as resembling the sound of raindrops. Raindrop Prelude was written during Chopin's stay in a monastery at Mallorca, in 1838. According to his then-lover, George Sand, Chopin had a dream during a terrible rainstorm outside of the monastery, where "He saw himself drowned in a lake. Heavy drops of icy water fell in a regular rhythm on his breast, and when I made him listen to the sound of the drops of water indeed falling in rhythm on the roof, he denied having heard it." There is also much to be noted about the general layout of this famous prelude- opens with a "serene" theme in D♭. It then changes to a "lugubrious interlude" in C♯ minor. Following this, the prelude ends with a repetition of the original theme. A linked performance can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OFHXmiZP38

Many of us have heard of Pop Art, of Conceptual Art, and of the umbrella term, “Modern Art”. But not many of us have heard of Sots Art. Sots art is a relatively lesser well-known art movement that originated in the Soviet Union, in the 1970s-mainly as a retaliation against the official state approved “Socialist Realist” art style. Invented By the two-man artist collective Vitaly Komarand Alexander Melamid, this artistic tendency was called Sots Art, combining the “sots” from Socialist Realism (sotsialisticheskikh realizm in Russian) and the “art” from Pop Art. Though Komar and Melamid originally gave the name “Sots Art” to a specific series of works from 1972–73,it has come to refer to the work of a number of other artists, including Leonid Sokov, Alexander Kosolapov, and Boris Orlov, who all worked in a kind of socialist pop style. Rather than turning away from politics and disappearing into the rarefied sphere of art (in imitation of Western Modernism, which was banned in the U.S.S.R.), the Sots artists turned a critical eye to the subjects and modes of Socialist Realist visual culture, an approach that was just as, if not more, politically risky than avoiding politics altogether. Insight into the Creators: Komar and Melamid were trained at the Stroganov Institute of Art and Design in Moscow, the oldest artistic educational institution in Russia, and graduated in 1967. This year happened to correspond with a very important date: the fiftieth anniversary of the Russian Revolution. In 1972, Komar and Melamid were commissioned to create a program of visual décor for a young pioneer camp in the Moscow countryside to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the organization of young pioneers-with the two artists put in charge of decorating the camp with signs, slogans, and plaques. Two of the works in the resulting Sots-art series were typical red signs with white lettering,resembling the ubiquitous signs that one might see proclaiming Communist slogans on the wall of a meeting hall, on the side of a building, in a classroom, or carried during a public demonstration. However, Komar and Melamid altered the familiar Soviet sign in several crucial ways. In one work, Quotation(1972), they replaced the slogan's letters with white rectangles, suggesting that the contents of the words were of no importance since Soviet citizens were already deeply conditioned to understand white letters on a red banner as being typical Communist propaganda. Our GoalIs Communism! (1972), Komar and Melamid Produced the famous slogan word for word, but instead of citing the author of the quote, Vladimir Lenin, below the text, they signed their own names, the way an artist might sign their name at the bottom of a finished canvas. We shall end this introduction to Sots Art with a quote by Komar and Melamid in their Sots Art Manifesto: they are not “craftsmen who support the aesthetic needs of the middle class.”