Advanced Life Drawing-First Entry

It seems so strange to be back in Menomonie, WI for the semester. It was only a few weeks ago that I was living in a world of landscapes and nature photographs. Although I was only there for four months, it felt as though it were at least two or three years. When I first arrived in Sister Bay, Wisconsin, I was flabbergasted by the intense culture shock of the art world and the societal mannerisms which absorbed into a majority of the population. Everything was perfect in this place. Few people admitted to making mistakes in their life, as implying they are all subhuman (at least to what meets the eye). Once, I made the 'error' of speaking with an individual about something negative which once occurred in my own life, and the individual informed me not to speak of such things because it was, "Ruining her happy place." Such a widespread thought in this day in age seemed surreal and hard to comprehend, especially with the importation of tourists to the area and communal creative development. Although this place was only on the other side of Wisconsin, it seemed like worlds away. A few days ago, I went with another individual to this location for a photo shoot and his exact words were, "I feel like I'm on a different continent!" At one point I thought I would never leave, as the town seemed to have sucked me into it's vibrant puddle of the 1950s. I decided that if i was going to be stuck there, I had better find something I liked about it, or I was going to have to leave. At the beach resort I lived on, I met five of the most amazing people. The impact they made on my life will stay with me forever.
Aside from the sociological scene, I spent a lot of time exploring the visual aspects of nature, all of which I had a tendency to under appreciate prior to that time. Thomas Kinkade, a well known realistic painter who mass markets his work, has received large amounts of criticism for his work. A majority of such criticism derives from both his devoid of conceptuality and idiosyncratic marketing tactics. Such tactics contradict the definition of high art as it is vaguely defined in modern society, but he marks his art as above conceptuality and is, "of the highest art form." While I personally believe such a comment to be near or congruent with blaspheme, I decided it was important to look at his way of thinking from a different angle then I had before. I did this because many photographers and painters which I talked to in this place would quote him, reference him, and idolize him. This amazed me because .........