Introductory blog post (Introduction and Favorite Artist)

     My name is Stella Jacqueline Versteeg, I'm 18 years old and I moved here from Europe two months ago. I grew up in California but for the past eight years I have been living in Greece. My mom is from Greece, my dad is from Holland and my sister and I have gone to nine schools because of frequent moving. My major is psychology because I'm fascinated by the human mind and why people do the things they do, but art has also been an interest of mine my whole life. As a toddler, I painted messy art with my favorite colors and as a child, I loved to color everything in front of me with crayons. As a young teenager, I spent my free time drawing portraits and designing clothes I would only dream of wearing. 

     I'm taking this course due to my love of art and how broad the definition of art is because I believe it is anything that is aesthetically pleasing to someone. The fact that we have the chance to make a blog, fill it with art-related posts and at the end of the semester admire our hard work is very satisfactory. This is my first semester of college and an art course involving the internet seemed interesting, challenging, fun and also ideal to what i was looking for which lead me to enroll. 

     My favorite artist is the dutch painter Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669). His work is intriguing because of the incredible expressiveness and intimacy his paintings portray. The quote "The deepest and most lifelike emotion has been expressed and that's the reason the paintings have taken so long to execute." is one of the few things Rembrandt ever said about his work and it shows his intention of capturing suffering and compassion that has existed in humanity since the beginning. My favorite painting is The Return of the Prodigal Son (1669) because of the lighting, coloring and simplicity. The father is overjoyed to see his son again and the reunion is emotional because it's relatable to many people, including me. There could be a sense of forgiveness or willingness to help those who have suffered through darkness. The painting mentioned is listed below. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/93/Rembrandt_Harmensz_van_Rijn_-_Return_of_the_Prodigal_Son_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/785px-Rembrandt_Harmensz_van_Rijn_-_Return_of_the_Prodigal_Son_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg