Artwork #1

 

In his article Nature, Emerson wrote, "..It is certain that the power to produce this delight does not reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony of both." In this painting by Mioke, you see a modern man taking time to understand the Earth a little better therefore becoming one with nature. The most serenity is found when we "Simplify" (as Emerson said in Self Reliance) and pause to look up from our screens and appreciate what's around us.

To look into this idea of looking outside of ourselves, please see THIS song titled tiny glowing screens.

Artwork #2

 

This painting is called Daddy's Little Girl, by Greg Olsen. It is a beautiful piece and indirectly contains many transcendentalist ideas. What if the little girl in the painting doesn't want to get married? What if that isn't apart of what she wants to do with her life? While she is so young and impressionable, are her parents forcing her into this way of thinking: that in order to be a good woman you have to get married and have many kids? "It is easy to see that a greater self-reliance must work a revolution in all the offices and relations of men; in their religion; in their education; in their pursuits; their modes of living; in their association; in their property in their speculative views..." Says Emerson in his article titled Self Reliance. The girl this art is portraying needs to know that if she wants to get married, that's awesome, but if she chooses not to, that's OK too. She's still a good person.

Song #1

This is Cheap Sunglasses by RAC. This song talks a lot about the mold everyone is expected to fit in. Some wear it well and others don't. The singer talks about how it's better to be yourself than it is to be fake. In Walden, Emerson questions this saying, "Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises?" The chorus of the song says, "Your limousines get stuck in traffic, and we all know you're made of plastic and you may seem like something classic but you're cheap sunglasses and we see right through you."  It's better to decide who you are and rock it than to waste your life away going along with what people tell you you should be.

Song #2

This is Jack Johnson's Times Like These. In this song Jack is expressing the patterns of human behavior. He compares the ethics that are shared as a whole human race and the morals that make us different. One of my favorite lines goes as follows: "Those for peace and those for war but God bless these ones not those ones but these ones in times like these." This lyric really communicates the transcendentalist idea that everyone has a general view on what a utopia would look like. We all have an idea on how to make society better. "Most men gamble with her (fortune), and gain all, and lose all, as her wheel rolls But do thou leave as unlawful these winnings and deal with Cause and Effect, the chancellors of God." writes Emerson in his article Self Reliance. If we're all gambling with our different ideas of what a perfect society should be like, does true perfection even exist?

Song #3

This is Pulled from Addams Family the musical. Wednesday is portraying Transcendentalist ideas in this song because she is going against what her family wants her to be and is beginning to think for herself. In Self Reliance, Emerson writes, "In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty." In this song, Wednesday is deciding that even though her parents want  her to be dark and creepy, she wants to explore new territory.  Emerson, like Wednesday asks, "Is it really so bad to be misunderstood?" (Self Reliance).