Free Essay

Calvin Tomkins

In:

Submitted By Katiewatson235
Words 485
Pages 2
Reading Response 6

Calvin Tomkins, “Christo’s Public Art: How to Win Friends, Outlast Enemies, and Make the Social Structure Work for You in Northern California,” is about the artist Christo and his Running Fence project. The project took place in Marin County, California and consisted of a shimmering white cloth that acted like a fence but rippled in the wind. The fence route ran through Marin County and down the coast into the ocean. When the nylon had been pulled as far as it would go into the ocean, Christo talked to Don Dickenson, of the Marin County Planning Department because Christo had been working in the forbidden coastal zone, which was a violation to the Coastal Commission. Christo has gone outside the normal art world to put all his time in projects that have no market for. It is projects only made for viewers to observe and not to buy. His projects only alter the environment only briefly before they are taken down. Christo creates public art and the involvement and the whole process is the crucial and most important part of the project. When Christo tried explaining the project to the Ranchers in which the fence would cross their land, he stated that it was a fence without function and a celebration of the landscape. I have seen a documentary on this project in one of my other classes and didn’t understand the project as much as I do now after reading Calvin Tomkins writing on the project. I didn’t understand the point of the fence on the coast at all and the reason or result it would bring for only being up for two weeks. I completely understand the ranchers concern for a fence to cut through their property. After completing the reading and having a better understanding of the project, I still can’t help but think that if you’re on the side of the fence not looking on the coast, then the fence completely blocks the view. The fence does look beautiful at a distance and from a planes perspective, but if you’re standing on the side closer to the inland, the fence blocks the beauty of the coast. If the fence were to stay there permanently I would have a problem with that because it is a massive long cloth blocking parts of the environment. However, the cloth ripples beautifully in the wind and follows the rigid form of the coast that viewing this fence would have been a spectacular scene. I have a great amount of respect for Christo and this project because he put his heart and soul into trying to make it happen and having trying to make the community be ok with it. To put in all that effort into a temporary standing project takes a lot of dedication and shows that he is really in it for the process and creation of the project.

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Affect Theory

...ESSAY #1 – Politics of Affect Affect theory has recently become a burgeoning field of study. In the most basic of definitions, affect is the visceral force that is around the body, something that is not consciously known, yet it can influence our movements, thoughts, and the way one relates to other people and objects. Many theorist from a wide variety of academic disciplines have contributed to the field of affect studies. This essay will look at selected works of Nigel Thrift, Deborah Gould, and Ruth Leys to show how they have contributed to the development of affect studies. The essay will also aim to show how they might differ or agree on certain concepts within affect theory amongst other prominent affect theorist. Nigel Thrift is a leading academic in the field of human geography and has made significant contributions to the field of affect. His article, Intensities of Feelings: Towards a Spatial Politics of Affect, attempts to show that the politics of affect are central to the life of cities, given that cities are inhuman or trans-human entities and that politics is understood as a process of community without unity (Thrift, 2004, p. 57). For Thrift, affect is an object or subject of manipulation, and it is closely tied to power and how it operates, affective life and emotional life is the setting for operation of power. He states “…it is so crucial to address affect now: in at least one guise the discovery of new means of practising affect is also the discovery...

Words: 1802 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Us Equal Employment Opportunity Laws - Into

...U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Laws: Small Business During his presidency the 1920’s, President Calvin Coolidge was famously quoted as saying, “After all, the chief business of the American people is business” . Over ninety years later, this quote still has merit. America is a country that was built on small businesses and continues to survive because of them. Small businesses currently employ close to half of American jobs and are responsible for a majority of job creation . Although small businesses must comply with government laws and regulations in order to operate legally in the United States, there are some exceptions to the rule. The Equal Employment Opportunity Committee states that, “Not all employers are covered by the laws we enforce, and not all employees are protected. This can vary depending on the type of employer, the number of employees it has, and the type of discrimination alleged”. More specific to small businesses, “If a complaint against a business (or some other private employer) involves race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, disability or genetic information, the business is covered by the laws we enforce if it has 15 or more employees who worked for the employer for at least twenty calendar weeks (in this year or last)”. In regards to age discrimination, an employer must have less than 20 employees to be exempt from this law (US EEOC , 2009). The Equal Employment Opportunity...

Words: 470 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

A Wrinkle in Time

...The Underlying Courage in “A Wrinkle in Time” Typically in novels there are many supporting themes to create the storyline in the novel; in “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeline L’Engle a major theme in the novel is courage. It shows in almost every chapter, through Margaret (Meg) Murry and Charles Wallace Murry. The quest the kids go through in the novel corresponds to Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s journey also the type of courage found within the Christian framework. Courage is having the strength to resist and endure fear, danger, and difficulty; it is the main thing that can keep the children together on the journey. In the very beginning, of the novel, Meg is the first to display courage. She does so by defending her little brother, Charles Wallace’s name, because “…one of the boys had said something about her “dumb baby brother” at this she’d thrown her books…and tackled him with every ounce of strength she had” (L’Engle 4). Even though all the characters portray some type of courage, Meg shows the most throughout the novel. Meg’s personality, in the beginning, was a little off, as she was still trying to find out who she was and how her quirks are her strengths and how it makes her who she is. Her parents, before her father left, have been trying to prepare her for the greater things she has to overcome in the future by giving her IQ tests and teaching her complicated mathematics which caused disruptive problems in her class. Even though she thought she was dumb, which is not...

Words: 1365 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Hero

...American Life in the “roaring twenties” The republican “Old Guard” returns * Warren G Harding was inaugurated in 1921 and was unable to detect immoral people working for him-hated saying “no” to people * Charles Evans Hughes was secretary of state, Andrew W Mellon was secretary of treasury, Herbert Hoover was secretary of commerce * Were bright and capable officials * Senator Albert B Fall (anticonservationist) was secretary of interior, Harry M Daughtery(a big time crook) was attorney general GOP reaction at the throttle * The newly elected officials almost direction the presidents actions in government and business * They wanted the government to have no control over businesses and for the government to help guide businesses along the path to profits * Supreme court ruling on Adkins v CHildrens Hospital in 1923 declared that under 19th amendment, women no longer deserved special protection in the workplace * Corporations under president harding could once again expand without worry of the anti trust laws * Interstate commerce commission came to be dominated by men who were sympathetic to the manages of the railroads The Aftermath of War * Wartime government controls of the government were dismantled * Esch-cummins transportation act of 1920, congress returned the railroads to private management * Merchant Marine Act of 1915 , authorized American shipping board to dispose the wartime fleet of 1500 vessels at extremely...

Words: 1176 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

None

...the work was completed within 12 years. Borglum, who was, like others involved, a Ku Klux Klan member, was engaged to design the memorial, and proposed expanding it to include a colossal monument depicting Confederate warriors, with Lee, Jackson, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis leading them. The work proved expensive, and the Association advocated the issuance of a commemorative half dollar as a fundraiser for the memorial. Congress approved it, though to appease Northerners, the coin was also made in honor of Harding, under whose administration work had commenced. Borglum designed the coin, which was repeatedly rejected by the Commission of Fine Arts. All reference to Harding was removed from the design by order of President Calvin Coolidge. The Association sponsored extensive sales efforts for the coin throughout the South, though these were hurt by the firing of Borglum in 1925, which alienated many of his supporters, including the United Daughters of the Confederacy. A 1928 audit of the fundraising showed excessive...

Words: 350 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Hu4640

...HU 4640 Week 5 Analysis Freedom vs. Predestination Maynard Azurin July 21, 2014 ITT Online What is predestination? Predestination is believed to be a doctrine which God determines if a person will go to Heaven or Hell. This gives everyone in society an opinion towards their beliefs to teaching what choices we have in accepting Christ. Predestination is also the belief that everything that will happen have already been decided by God or fate and cannot be changed (Webster (2014). Predestination. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/predestination.) What is freedom? Many of us in today’s society see freedom or free-will as to being liberal. Freedom is not just being free as it is more of being free to what you have to express in what you believe and do. Many call freedom as “free as a bird” but to an extent in certain ways. Freedom can be simplicity, such as relaxing to live as well as others. Freedom also gives us the ability to make decisions without other influences from other people or governments. In today’s religious views, freedom teaches us the facts of God’s plan for salvation that every individual person has a choice to make, to either accept or reject God’s gift of salvation (Bennet (2009) http://www.freewill-predestination.com). Christians today see life towards destiny. We live and die after we live our lives. Fate is usually a predetermined course of events beyond our control. Whatever happens, happens, and there is nothing we...

Words: 569 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Calvin Klein - an Overview

...RESEARCH ON BRANDS/DESIGNERS CALVIN KLEIN ABOUT BRAND AND DESIGNER: Calvin Klein Inc. is an American fashion house founded by the fashion designer Calvin Klein. The company is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City and is currently owned by PVH. It is one of the leading fashion design and marketing studios in the world. It designs and markets women’s and men’s designer collection apparel and a range of other products that are manufactured and marketed through an extensive network of licensing agreements and other arrangements worldwide. Product lines under the various Calvin Klein brands include women’s dresses and suits, men's dress furnishings and tailored clothing, men’s and women's sportswear and bridge and collection apparel, golf apparel, jeanswear, underwear, fragrances, eyewear, women’s performance apparel, hosiery, socks, footwear, swimwear, jewelry, watches, outerwear, handbags, small leather goods, and home furnishings (including furniture). Calvin Klein was educated at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York from 1959-62. He then acted as assistant to Dan Millstein for two years, before becoming an independent designer. He also spent a number of years designing clothing for other New York stores. Klein married Jayne Centre in 1964 and the pair had one daughter. In 1968, Calvin Klein set up his own business, Calvin Klein Inc., with a friend Barry Schwartz. Barry dealt with the business side of the venture, while Calvin designed. Initially, the...

Words: 1345 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Stock Market Crash

...Zachary Shelsby List and describe the causes of the stock market crash of 1929. Was the crash inevitable? Explain using examples from the presidencies of Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover. It was the time of the Roaring Twenties; where in the wake of the War jazz music was becoming prominent, Art Deco became popular, and cultural dynamism was emphasized. The twenties also led the United States into unprecedented industrial growth, inventions and discoveries of major importance, as well as significant changes in US lifestyle and culture. Though must prosperity was achieved during the Roaring Twenties, much despair would follow by the end of them. The 1920’s saw an increase in consumer spending as well as a large increase in economic growth. The 1920’s was also an era dominated by Republicans. The Republicans took a rather conservative approach to the economy. They forged tight and close relationships between government and big business. President Warren Harding took the White House in 1921, when the United States economy was seeing the time of a depression. Runaway inflation and a high unemployment rate swept the nation. At the time of World War I the United States economy enjoyed prosperity because of the agricultural industry. With the increase of demand came the increase of prices. With the increase of prices came the increase of output used to supply Europe. With the conclusion of the War the American agricultural industry had a massive surplus of farm goods that by...

Words: 891 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Chrym

...light compared to dark is 100% better overall. The chloroplasts grana were very distored and the chroloplast also had wierd boundries between the thylakyoids. In conclusion of this experiment, they were able to indicate that the seedlings that were placed in the light had a higher photosynthic performance, and with a normal ultrastructre and organized grana. The article that i've chosen relates to Chapter 7: Photosynthesis. The structure and fuction of the chroloplast is very important to the growth of a plant. The grana that were observed in the experiment look very wierd and distorted compared to the ones in the powerpoint handout. The grana in a well developed chloroplast are very well structred. This helps the light reactions and calvin cycle, abling it to produce ATP efficiently. I choose this article because I thought it was intresting to find that even the way food seedlings are stored, can have an overall affect on the growth and development, weather its a negative or postive effect. Some new information that I have learned from this article was that high photosynthetic ability during storage helps the growth of the seedlings after storage. Meaning the photosynthesis performance overall of the watermellon seedling has a great amount to do with the storage process. I also learned the purpose of seedling storage. It is to help stop or slow the growth of a seedling, while perserving the quality for future growth. Some questions that raised from reading this article were:...

Words: 480 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Calvin Coolidge

...Calvin Coolidge entered into politics at an early age and eventually became America’s 30th president. He was born July 4, 1872, in Plymouth Notch, in central Vermont to parents John Coolidge and Victoria Coolidge. He was the eldest of two children, with a younger sister and grew up on a small farm. His father served in both the Vermont House of Representatives, and the state senate, and was well respected within the community. His mother was chronically ill and died in 1884 when Coolidge was 12 years old. Several years later, in 1890, Coolidge also lost his sister Abigail. Shortly after the death of his mother, Coolidge was sent to Black River Academy in 1885, graduating in 1890. Coolidge then attended Amherst College in Massachusetts, graduating in 1895. Following college, Coolidge apprenticed at the law firm Hammond and Field, passing the state’s bar examination in 1897, then opening his own law office in 1898. Coolidge married his wife Grace Anna Goodhue, a schoolteacher for deaf children, in 1905. They had two sons John Coolidge, born in 1901 and Calvin Jr. Coolidge, born in 1908. Coolidge was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1906, and went on to become the mayor of Northampton in 1909, and then returned to the state legislature in 1911, serving in the senate. In 1915 Coolidge was elected as Lieutenant governor, and then as governor in 1918. In 1919, many Boston Policemen went on strike forming labour unions demanding for better pay and...

Words: 766 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

How Far Were the Policies of the Republican Party the Main Reason for America’s Economic Success in the 1920’s

...How far were the policies of the Republican Party the main reason for America’s economic success in the 1920’s [50 marks] Although America remained neutral and did not join World War One until 1917, they were already increasing their country’s profits by selling goods such as: weapons, food, equipment and other ammunition to both sides of the war. During World War One, as well as selling goods, America became ‘the banker’ to the rest of the world: loaning countries money at a very high interest. According to the First World War commissions “Britain, France and Italy owed the USA $22 billion plus interest”, this is showing that USA was at a very stable place financially even before the 1920s began. When the war ended Woodrow Wilson put forward his 14 Points which included a League of Nations. The League of Nations’ overall aim was to prevent war from breaking out again. America’s congress at the time decided that it would be best for America in the long run not to join the League of Nations because, congress believed that the USA should not interfere in any European or world affairs. Refusal to join the League of Nations made America an isolationist country. When Warren G. Harding won the presidential election and became president in 1921 a political party called the Republicans took over from the Democrats and the American government. 1920s America was known as the ‘Roaring twenties’ because of the entertainment and the crazes sweeping the country. There were lots of...

Words: 2565 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

John Calvin Research Paper

...A Frenchman, John Calvin, introduced Calvinism and created a theocracy in Geneva. John Calvin was born in 1509 and died in 1564. Calvin was the son of a lawyer, was born in Noyon, Picardy, and was therefore a Frenchman. Calvin developed a love for scholarship and literature (Trueman, 2015) Calvin studied to be a priest and later trained as a lawyer. In 1528, he went to Orleans to study Law, and one year later Calvin went to Bourges to study Law. Pressurized by his father to study Law but in 1531, his father died giving Calvin the freedom to resume his religious studies. In the same year that his father died, Calvin went to the College de France in Paris to study Greek. This college noted for its Humanistic approach to learning. In fact,...

Words: 1215 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

John Calvin's Inherited Corruption

...Reading through how Calvin looked at the different aspects of the Fall, has deepened my knowledge, but also arose few additional questions that I am wrestling with. I would like to bring in few historical evidences from Calvin’s area to further discuss my understanding; however, I fell the necessity of referencing the Scripture as Calvin explains his points by looking at the Scripture. Furthermore, throughout my response I will mainly focus on the issue of inherited corruption that we believers often tend to struggle with. Calvin opens the chapter by describing the we are dependent on God, and there is nothing worthy in us unless it is from God. He also highlights the importance of that God has fashioned us in his image, therefore, we are...

Words: 753 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Jacob Arminius

...of Leiden, his opions were open to public debate. He did not reject predestination; instead he questioned its basis. Although he remained solidly Calvinist in nearly every other way, Arminius had come to the conclusion that predestination takes place on the basis of God’s foreknowledge of who will later have faith in Christ and who will not. This position seems to presume human beings have free will. Francis Gomarus, another professor at Leiden, led his opponents, claiming to be true Calvinists. Gomarus insisted God simply predestines all as an expression of his sovereign will. The controversy quickly assumed political overtones, as Arminius also believed that the state ought to have greater control over ecclesiastical matters than Calvin had allowed. Arminius died in 1609, and in 1610 his followers issued a document known as a Remonstrance outlining their position. For this reason they are often called...

Words: 273 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

The Puritans

...The Puritans The Puritans once held a position of power among the religious world. Their beliefs were strict and they did not compromise their morals or standards for any outside individual. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Puritan religion reflects the attitude and values of the common man during that particular time period. The main belief among the Puritans was that they were God’s chosen people. In their eyes, they held supremacy over the average man. They believed in Pelagianism based on the Doctrine of Elect. This was the belief that man could redeem himself through acts of charity, religious devotion, and by living an unselfish life. Many of these strict beliefs were based on John Calvin’s principle of predestination. Predestination was that through God’s grace, one would reach heaven and that this special grace could not be earned; it was predetermined at birth. This principle of predestination forced Puritans to truly believe that their actions did not matter and their devotion to God had no bearing over their destiny. Puritans also believed in the degradation of one’s self, which meant that they had to make themselves worthy to God so that he would not instill his wrath on the Puritan community. They feared God and his special power, but considered themselves God’s special elects. Basically, they felt they had the right to perform any necessary deeds that would satisfy God’s will. Sin was thought of as an unavoidable element of human nature...

Words: 329 - Pages: 2