“It’s hard to find the correct interpretation of art because the artist could mean so many things but everyone has a different opinion,” said Vartan Matossian, after his recent visit to the Norton Simon Museum. “That’s what makes art, music and poetry so subjective.”

On April 17, English teacher Maral Guarino’s Modern Poetry Class went on a field trip to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.This trip was intended to be a follow up activity for the exercises that the students did in class. “We wrote poems in class on works of well-known painters to demonstrate a connection between art and poetry,” said Anastasia Pinal. “It was actually pretty easy, because after all poetry is a type of art.”

“I wasn’t necessarily inspired by the paintings we saw,” said Daniela Almeida. “But the tour guide made the experience really interesting.” Almeida said she liked how the tour guide explained the way certain parts in a painting could be described with different words.

They toured multiple exhibits featuring famous painters such as Van Gogh and Rembrandt. Many students such as Matossian and Artem Bojadzian admired these ancient works. Matossian said that the idea of seeing paintings that lasted through so many years was surprising to him. “The age of these painting amaze me,” said Bodjazian. “Some of these paintings were painted before America was born.”