Happy Halloween!!!!

Hello Friends and family!
I love Halloween. I can't wait. This year I am going to be Smurfette. All my friends are going to be famous 80 cartoon characters and I grabbed the best as fast as I could. I will send a picture. I hope we do it. We sometimes tend to be all talk but this I really want to do. Besides that not much is going on. I am in the one class on gardening and the art history factors in a garden. I am actually really excited for my topic I am researching. I am studying memorial gardens and how we create a space for those you have passed on. For example, the Oklahoma City Bombing memorial is a field of empty chairs. The Pentagon 9/11 memorial is empty benches. The Holocaust Memorial is a field of cement blocks that create a filled space for those lost. The Vietnam Memorial is cut into the ground creating an empty space. Lastly the World Trade Center Memorial has two fountains cutting into the ground that creates an empty space. (I have included pictures to illustrate my idea). I love the idea that we create a space for those we love and have lost.



I also finished a rough outline for my thesis. I included here because mom thought it would be good for all to see. I completely understand if you don't get it but this little outline will turn into a 40 page article that I hope to get published.

Thesis Outline

I. Introduction

1. Painted Monasteries of Romania – basically a quick intro to the monasteries
1. Discuss what they are
2. Describe where they are and when they were built
2. The Previous Research
1. Discuss Paul Henry – The first and major scholar on the monasteries
2. Other scholarly info
3. My Theory
1. My theory of the paintings enhancing the Orthodox Procession
2. The layout of the rest of the article

II. First Section – The Iconographic Program of Exterior paintings

1. The Akathistos Hymn
1. It’s placement
2. It’s significance
2. The Siege of Constantinople
1. It’s placement
2. It’s significance
3. The Tree of Jesse
1. It’s placement
2. It’s significance
4. The Procession of Saints
1. It’s placement
2. It’s significance
5. The Genesis Scene
1. It’s placement
2. It’s significance
6. The Last Judgment
1. It’s placement
2. It’s significance
7. The Lives of Saints depending on the different Saints and other scenes including Jacob’s Ladder
1. Explain the different Saint’s lives discussed
2. Their placement on the different churches

III. The Second Section – The Orthodox Faith, Processions, and The Lentel Services

1. The History of processions in the Byzantine Empire
1. The Marian Processions
2. The Easter Processions
2. The Connection between the Romanian Orthodox Faith and the Byzantine Empire
3. The Romanian Orthodox Faith in the 16^th century
4. The Importance of Lent and its Set up in the Orthodox Faith

IV. The Third Section – Connection of Processions and art

1. Other Churches that have connected art with processions
2. The connection between the Lentel Services and the Images on the Romanian Churches.

1. The Last Judgment with the Sunday of the Last Judgment
2. The Genesis Scene with the Sunday of Forgiveness
3. The Procession of Saints (and maybe the Other images of Saints, I don’t know yet. They may fit under the Fourth Sunday Service which celebrates the day of a specific saint) with the Sunday of Orthodoxy
4. The Tree of Jesse with? (maybe the Sunday of the Precious Cross
5. The Akathistos Hymn and the Siege of Constantinople with the Saturday of the Akathistos and the Fifth Sunday of Lent dedicated to the Holy Mother
6. Maybe mention how the last Sunday deals with the passion week and those images are found in the inside of the church

V. The Conclusion

Anyways. I love you and hope things are going well. Nothing else is going on. I got to see some freinds of mine from when I was getting my undergrad and they each have 2 and 3 kids. Time sure does fly. My friend who I served with in Romania Sarah Evershed also had her baby and I got to go to little Rhett's baby's blessing which was nice. So just studying and spending time with friends anyways I love all y'all. Love Mollie

PS You should all be jealous. I totally get a massage fro Piikea tomorrow.