Linoleum

Mom dropped me beside the mailbox to wait for the bus. Then dashed across the street and through the woods to surprise Gramps. I’d begged to go, but Dad had insisted that school comes first. Minutes later, the school bus wheezed to a stop. I stepped through the glass doors and found Jacob Sanders an uber Emo kid wearing a vintage tee and dirtied up black chuck Taylors sitting by himself near the front. “What’s up Einstein?” He greeted me the same way every morning. He called me Einstein—formerly…

This person will never learn to be like the rest of us. He has no conscience, he only looks out for himself and is wholly incapable of feeling empathy. It is a sad tale. People like him exist and there is no treatment for it. Most people cannot protect themselves from people like Danny because so few people are like Danny. Conscience is so inherent, so automatic that even when we try to put ourselves first in life we will often look back. We can connect the dots to understand the world around us…

Maurits Cornelis Escher, also known as M.C Escher, was a graphic artist between 1898 and 1972. He is most famous for his unique works that incorporated mathematics, specifically the manipulation of perspective and space. He developed an innovative style of both print and engraved art (“M.C. Escher Biography”). Some of his most well-known works include, “Relativity,” “Ascending and Descending,” “Hand with Reflecting Sphere,” and “Metamorphosis” (Gallery, “Most Popular”). M.C. Escher was born…

“Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber and “The Mirror” by Haruki Murakami are both expressed as the struggle of the protagonist’s understanding of their own imagination and the identification of the difference between their thoughts wrapped with illusion and the reality, but having different techniques and messages. James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is a book with theme of desire of freedom from the reality where protagonist’s not acknowledge. In the text, the…

In the midst of a new era of development in Chicago, the firm Loebl, Schlossman & Bennett was commissioned to reconstruct the Loop Synagogue in 1957 (Figure 1) after the original building was lost to a fire. In order to reflect modern industrial life and provide a functional space within the transitioning city, the synagogue was designed to incorporate contemporary aspects in both the exterior and interior of the building, which is expressed through the materials and the layout. Additionally,…

As a small child, I loved to go to the store with my mom. The long aisles and slick floors presented endless opportunities for fun that I just could not have at home. And that is not even including the shopping carts that my sisters and I used for our grocery store x-games. We rammed into people; had jousting tournaments with the pool noodles; took turns pushing each other as fast as we could go; piled on the end, making my mom grunt and heave to get us around a corner; and, finally, crammed…

Isabella Isabella, the youngest girl of a family consisting of five brothers and three sisters, a serious and shy girl she didn’t have many friends. Ordinarily she spent her time with her mother helping her around the house. With 5 boys in the home there were innumerable chores to be done. The family was boisterous and active. Wearing his navy work pants and an undershirt, her father, often took off his belt and chased around one of the boys to settle an argument. An uncomfortable atmosphere to…

Sitting in my mostly white class in High School advisement, also known as study period where instead of studying everyone is just quietly talking in their little groups about petty problems. “Omg I’m not sure if Brad loves me enough, we need to go shopping to get a new outfit!” Ease dropping into the conversation three feet away I am wondering why the hell would anyone care about getting a new outfit and knowing this group of girls they would not even keep outfit for over a year because it isn’t…

CHAPTER ONE Kylissa swung her sword and chopped off one of the attacker’s hands. “Well, shit.” She had been aiming for his head. “You chopped off my freaking hand!” the vampire screamed, clutching the bloodless stump to his torso as he backed away from her. The sword stuck in the wall. “Gimme a second. I can do better than that.” She pried her weapon out of the crumbling drywall and swung it again. This time, he was ready for her and ducked away, shoving her to the ground. Kylissa rolled on…

1912 that Braque created what is generally considered to be the first collage where he added pieces of wallpaper to his work, ‘Still-life with Fruit-dish and Glass’. (See Figure 3, pg. 10) The pieces began to include other materials, sand, wood, linoleum and newspaper, as well as imitations of these materials. A piece of wood placed next to an imitation of wood grain further questions the issues of reality. When something can be so accurately reproduced which is the real thing? A piece of…