Mona Lisa Smile

There's a peace that comes over a place after violence has passed through it. A silence. Darlene's never been in a war zone or even a natural disaster, but she imagines it would be something like this, when everyone's finished dying and the birds have come through to pick the bones clean. Times Square has been blocked off since last night, but the ground's still littered with discarded signs; there's a single shoe lying in the gutter across the street. She doesn't know why she focuses on that…

Harvest on the Campagna The piece I chose to write about is Harvest on the Campagna by John Gatsby Chapman. This piece is displayed in the Kentucky Museum at Western Kentucky University. The museum had a wide range of artwork both professional and local, although, this particular one caught my eye at the door as it was displayed in the front lobby near the entrance. This piece is approximately 8 x 3 ½ and was surrounded by a large golden frame that was surely a show stopper but, that’s not…

The thick wafts of steam drifting on the lake parted suddenly as the Cavaceccis swam excitedly towards Surina and woke her up from her reverie by tugging on her shoulder. “Hi Surina, fancy meeting you here!” Giuseppe exclaimed. “This thermal lake is the best!” Linda added while bobbing up and down in the lake. “Ever since I began swimming here for the past three days, my back feels more limber after the pain went away! We have many blessings on Gnaritus, such as a charming house in the…

Hitching a Ride on a Light Beam Physics is the most fundamental of the sciences, undergirding astronomy, chemistry, geology, biology, and—absent some paradigm-shattering revelation—human thought and action. Its analytical methods and machines have plumbed the unknown and the inaccessible, from the submicroscopic confines of the atomic nucleus to the billowing expanse of the observable universe. Physics has superseded our biochemically mediated perceptions of the world, replacing qualitative…

book. It has multiple literary devices but I could not resist using both sentences. On page 355 Preston writes with an eerie undertone "Nature seemed to be closing in on us for a kill, when she suddenly turned her face away and smiled. It was a Mona Lisa smile, the meaning of which no one could figure out. " Within that short passage one can see the presence of personification, allusion and imagery. One could almost visualize a powerful, mysterious smirk appear on Mother Nature's face as she…