When I finally got to the museum, I drug my feet a bit at the thought of having to take another art history class and about having to write another art history paper. I flashed my yellow pass and got my clearance to enter. I clamped the DAM purple badge to my oversized jacket and was on my way to the elevator. I don"t even like Chinese art work. I staggered around like a zombie whining the whole time.

             There were a few pieces that I admired, nothing that I loved though. The large and intricately painted vases really stood out from everything else. I don"t like things that are too complicated to even remember when you can"t see them. I thought about writing about the little porcelain cups, but thought that tea drinking really couldn"t be all that important to teach me about art. I circled the exhibit at least twelve times before an hour had passed and I had to get going soon. I sat down by this rather sloppy scroll of a landscape and found it much more real than anything else there. I selected Along the Wu River. It was done by a man named Shen Zhou who was born in China in 1947 and died in 1509. I liked some of the pieces that were showcased on the floor, but this is the one that I found to be a little mysterious.

             When I first saw this piece of work I questioned its value and just why it was in the museum because two feet away on either side of it were beautiful inkings and paintings. I looked back in the middle and found this piece of art to be more of a piece of crap. So I looked harder. .

             The work is painted on part of a horizontally unraveled scroll. The exposed part of the scroll is one foot high and four feet from left to right. To the far right the re-scroll had a few feet rolled up into a tube. To the left an unknown amount of the scroll is still hidden from view. It looks like at least another fifteen feet.

             Black ink is applied delicately on the buff and textured paper.