The Getty Villa

This sunday, I had the opportunity to visit the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, CA. I had to go for one of my classes- so of course I had a sense of dread going into the whole trip. I had to wake up early (for a sunday) pick up my friends, drive there, and then drive back after only an hour. The day before the trip (and during almost 50% of the trip itself) I was worried about traffic, the time it would take out of my day, wasting money on gas, etc. Even though it was free, it still took a chunk out of the little money I had.

Once we arrived, I was so tired that I wasn’t really taking in what was around me. I had to draw and write down my observations about a specific artifact that interested me. As horrible as this sounds, all of the pottery and statues did not grab my attention- probably because I have seen many examples of them in text books. It wasn’t until I came across the coins and jewelry exhibition that I was finally intrigued. I drew and analyzed a pair of dolls made out of bone from 1100 A.D. for my project. They fascinated me because I could relate to them and saw similarities between the values of that culture and our own. It surprised me because they came from a completely different era!

In the end, I’m very glad I was “forced” to go to the Getty Villa. It is probably not something I would’ve done on my own (because I am quite lazy) and I actually learned something new that interested me. I didn’t even waste that much gas!