Artistic Value Of Place

I always tend to think of the world around me in a romantic way; it’s all for the aesthetics. I am and always have been focused on the artistic value of the landscape. Because of that, the place that influenced me the most was over the course of my freshman year here at UF. I lived over at Trusler Hall, the west side of campus and right outside of our dorm was this set of tables right near a pond. I sat there daily, doing work, and just watched the world go by. At this place, the table was fixed at an angle where there was always light, and in my view at all times was grass and flowers. This place was a place I went to every day because it made me feel at peace, plain and simple. In the article, Nature Has Lost It’s Meaning by Ross Andersen, …show more content…
Another note is that I usually go backpacking and kayaking with a program here at UF. With that, you have to pick the locations that you want to backpack and/or kayak and how I distinguish the sites I want to travel to is by looking at google images. Thus, re-admitting to the belief that I am there for the aesthetics. After all, the land that is set aside to be pretty; everything deemed ugly or dirty is removed. That being said, I never once thought about the other uses of the land. In that way, that makes me feel like the biggest jerk in the world. I never once thought about the ecological life affected by the creation of my space. Animals can’t speak after all, and because of that, we never know the true damage to their way of life. Since animals can’t speak, people deem themselves to be the speaker for animals, thus creating the way they believe nature should be. I’ve come to the realization that nature shouldn’t be emulated just for the view, but instead, we should focus on an ecological view; everything is connected to one …show more content…
I, as well as others, tend to believe nature is this grand teacher and always has lessons for us to learn. For example, Purdy specifically states an example of Lion’s hierarchy. Lions follow a king, and because they follow a king, their way of life is stable and never in jeopardy. People then believe that we should follow a king. Purdy even goes as far as to mention “ants that enslave the pupae of the colonies they raid”. What lesson should we take from that? Enslave the weak? As humans, we are selective in the lessons we want to learn from, and that’s natural. I remember one day spent at the tables I saw an alligator in the pond. The alligator was doing absolutely nothing, just minding his own business. I remember thinking that since the alligator is living in harmony with us, we should be doing the same. I overgeneralized the fact that an alligator was doing nothing and turned it into a lesson. I bet there are countless other stories in which I did the same exact thing. But as Purdy stated, “nothing in the natural world teaches us how to relate to it, how to value it, or how to relate to one another.” Lessons we learn from nature are just in our minds, and they should stay in our minds as