What this is all about:

This blog is going to focus on the artwork from different cultures. I promise this won't be a blog an art history blog, it is more on the visual side. I want this to be more of a look at how other cultures expressed themselves through paintings, drawings, symbols and sculptures.

I have always been intrigued in different art expressions and am in a constant growth process to broaden my skills and knowledge. For those with a mild or intense interest, this blog will cater to every type of art lover.

Cultural Destination #1: Mayan

I have always been intrigued by Mayan culture and their artwork. Most people have seen Apocalypto which was written and directed by Mel Gibson and Farhad Safinia, and have an image of the gruesome and almost hedonistic nature of Mayan men. I would like to show people that the Mayans where quite smart and developed civilization. The Mayan culture is well-known for having the only fully developed language of their time, and where just as talented with architecture, numbers and astronomical system.

The image next to the map is of Chaac, the god of Rain and thunder. The Mayans had many gods but each symbol and depiction of each god had as much of a meaning to them as the cross or Buddha does nowadays.



The sites that I found my research on where:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaac
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_civilization
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472043/
http://www.lost-civilizations.net/mayan-art.html

Challenges and Opportunies for Bloggers

I think the challenges and opportunies go hand and hand with eachother. As bloggers, we have the opportunty to share our thoughts, opinions, observations and personal experiences with anyone willling to read. Some of the downsides is the critiques that may be given that the author may not be expecting or because of the lack of professionallism by the author, they can lose their audiences.

This gives me as a blogger a forum to communicate and reach out to others, which is something I feel our generation has been constantly changing. I do believe we are moving away from face to face communication and enchancing our written communication. Which things like facebook, myspace, teting and blogging.

The downside to it all is people are lacking some verbal skills and because we are writting our thoughts, the inflections and ability to explain ourselves is lost. Therefore our readers may misunderstand or be over critical about what we write because they may not fully understand what we are trying to say.