Museum of Fine Arts

For our fifth trip for HOGS, we went to view beautiful painting and sculptures at the Museum of Fine Arts. In our list, we had multiple paintings and pieces of art that we were suppose to go and check out and write about them, but due that they had taken some down, we weren't able to see them all as we would of liked. The people at the museum where very careful about where people could and couldn't take pictures. I, usually don't like to go to museums for the reason that I get bored easily, but I had a good time there with my friends, and looking at the paintings and some sculptures. Some paintings were very detailed, while others I really couldn't tell what the meaning was or what was painted. There were some interesting paintings and some that really didn't catch my attention, but they all had something unique in them. I also liked the tunnel we went through. At first I thought the blue "wall" was an actual solid wall, but I changed opinion once I was about to fall in it, thinking it was a wall. I was also amazed at "Odyssey" by Cai Guo-Quiang. The room felt very peaceful I would say, and the walls were very well detailed, to the extent that it made you go like, "How was he able to do this?". In my opinion, this was the best thing I liked above all the other things in the museum. There was also a video that showed how it was made and who the guy from China was. Due to shortage of time, we were sadly, unable to finish watching the entire video about him. Overall I enjoyed looking at the amazing pieces of art in the Museum.

Cai Guo-Qiang 

Two Unique Cemeteries

The many trees in the cemetery helped provide shade to visitors. 

For our fourth trip we went to Olivewood, and Glenwood cemeteries. They were two completely different cemeteries in every aspect that you can think of. Glenwood was a very big, nice cemetery, covering 84 acres. The trees and the cleanness made it a really good place to walk around and feel peaceful. The sound of the wind and the chirping from the birds also made it feel even more calm and peaceful. On the other hand, Olivewood was completely the opposite of Glenwood. The grass was half  dead, instead of hearing the birds chirping and the sound of the trees, the only thing you could hear were the crickets in the dry grass and the zooming of the cars next to the freeway. There were some stones almost out of the ground and some of them were even cracked already. It was a major difference between the other one. There were some epitaph that were interesting to read, and some of them left you meditating about the true meaning behind those words. It was a really nice experience going to both of the cemeteries, because they show different aspects in all ways.

The East End

I really like what it says. Translated to English would say:
I paint-You paint-They erase
I live-You live-They Kill
I love-You Love-They Hate
I work-You work-They Steal

           For our third trip, we went to the East End, to see some interesting, and meaningful murals. At first we went to see three distinctive murals that had a different meaning but there was one that I like the most, which was, "No Olvides tus Raices", which translated from Spanish to English would be, "Don't forget your race", something like that. It represents, in my opinion that we should never be ashamed of our race, our self, or where our parents came from. That day we also went to see some graffiti painting. It was very interesting to notice that almost every painting had, "Nekst", written on it. There was this specific painting, or rather words written on the wall that drew my attention, and I really liked what it said. It is one of the pictures below. If you're interested in knowing a little more about "Nekst", you can go ahead and click the links below, or if not possible, just copy and paste into the URL.

http://houston.culturemap.com/newsdetail/01-03-13-groundbreaking-houston-graffiti-legend-dies-taggers-remember-a-badass-rebel/

http://glasstire.com/2012/12/29/ripnekst-ex-houston-graffiti-writer-nekst-has-died/

"Don't Forget Your Races"

                                                                                                 

Public Art

The Bridge where the mysterious button was to be found.

        Our Second trip was Downtown. We went and saw different sculptures representing different things. Some were hard to tell what the meaning of the sculpture was, while others were quite easy to figure out. They were all unique in their own way and were extensively detailed. One of them called, "In Minds", had to be looked at from different perspectives to see faces around it. Depending from the position that you were standing, you would see different faces. We also got to observe the "Seven Wonders", which were very detailed and fun to enjoy to look at. We also got to go to the bridge right next to the "Seven Wonder", where some classmates went in search of the red button to click it and find out what happened. As soon as they found it, they pushed it and water started bubbling from the stream or river that was under the bridge. We also went to Tranquility Park. The name says it all, it was very peaceful and quiet, and just really nice to be in.

A wonderful view from atop the bridge

As you can see here, when the red button
was pushed the water started to bubble.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Going through Tranquility Park.

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (Hindu Temple)

On Friday, the First trip for our HOGS Class, we went and visited a very quite interesting, and detailed Hindu Temple. It was very detailed in the aspect of architecture and how everything was perfect. The carvings around and inside the temple where very precise and perfect, that it makes you go "wow". Our tour Guide was very patient with us, and answered all the questions we had, and explained what the religion Hinduism practically is. He explained some aspects such as their rituals, their diets, and how they dress. It was really interesting information and facts to listen to. We also had the experience to be in one of their worshiping sessions. Inside there, we learned that men are above women, at least in this religion they put it like that. For that reason they always put men in the front and women behind them. I really enjoyed going here and learning new things about the religion.

This is from the Front of the Temple.

I believe this is The Main entrance in front of the Temple