12 December 2013

Springtime in December

Royal Mile Edinburgh Starbucks Royal Mile, Edinburgh

The weather has been so strange this week. It is so mild today that it feels very much like spring, and the weather, in true Edinburgh style, could be considered much the same. But I think the weather, changeable as it is, is a year-round thing here ;) Today there's a little sun behind heavy clouds that sometimes drip a little bit, but it's 55F!

I've been trying to narrow down a dissertation topic (the paper that I'm responsible for writing over the summer, a third of my assessed work for my degree), and after taking a brief hike to the art school library this morning (and passing a pretty high-falutin' fashion shoot on the way) to return a book and check out another, I popped over to Starbucks for a coffee and some good old-fashioned reading time. View from my seat, above... Starbucks is not necessarily my favorite place to get coffee, but for studying purposes I'm much more likely to find a table in their relatively large seating area, even when it's busy. And the odds of getting a table by the window are also usually pretty good, because they're almost all window seats.

I've been narrowing down my field of interest to Celtic art, or more correctly in scholarly circles (oooh), Insular art. A couple of faculty members at Edinburgh specialize in medieval illuminated manuscripts, but I'm thinking potentially more along the lines of Irish and Northern British metalwork, or perhaps a focus on the stone carvings and symbols of the Picts. No matter what, we're talking about some pretty old art here... well over 1000 years old. And it's so exciting! I think that officially makes me a nerd?

There are so many periods and movements and eras of art history that I'm interested in, but it seems to always come back to the old stuff. For some reason, the older and more mysterious, and the less information available, the more I want to study it. I'm only three months into this program and I can already tell that it's going to be of great value to have a well-rounded look at many periods of art, and all the better to narrow down what I really want to research. There's a difference between things I like, and those I actually want to devote hundreds of hours to studying!

I'd better get back to it. ;)

Cheers!
Kate x

2 comments:

  1. That's possibly the best view from a Starbucks I've ever seen! So exciting that you're narrowing your topic, although, half of what you said is way over my head!
    Lisa | c/oMKE

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    1. Really can't go wrong with a coffee shop that has a view! :D

      Kate

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