I am looking at the photos I took of the St Patrick’s Cathedral church which is the place my partner familiar with. My partner specializes in sketching and she has the ability that staring at something for several seconds then she can sketch out what she see. She also told me that she is interested in drawing interior architecture and that’s why she chose church as her place.

Through one of the pictures, I think the exterior of the building is magnificent and beautiful which is very close to the one in my imagination. I was also shocked by the holy architecture inside of the church. The structure and decoration is really amazing, the interior of church is full of golden and  and it reminds me of solemnity. By looking back these pictures, I notice that there are eleven double windows, five of which are filled with stained glasses in the church. I did a further research of one of the stained glass window named The Great West Window. It depicts:

▪ Our Lady and eleven apostles with Bishop Geoghegan as St John the Evangelist to the right of Our Lady

▪Our Lord ascending into Heaven

▪Angels carrying scrolls with Latin texts from the Acts of the Apostles ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up to heaven’ and ‘This Jesus who is taken up from you into Heaven’

▪Old Testament prophets, priests, patriarchs, kings and holy men and women

▪The Book of the Apocalypse

▪The Blessed Trinity

Through the deep research, I realised that the patterns on each window has the moral behind the surfaces. Ancient people wanted to tell people stories through the patterns.

Besides, comparing all the photos I took, I think the most noticeable thing is that the sunlight in the afternoon was poured in through those huge windows, so that the whole space was immersed in a peaceful and warm atmosphere. I also notice that some people sat on the chairs and read books, they may try to find peace and quiet so that they are able to 100% focus on what they are doing. Furthermore, I took a picture of inconspicuous candles which were placed at the corner of the church, there are few prayers lighted candles, it may indicate their intention to say a prayer for another person I guess. I notice the chairs, windows, doors and pillars are absolutely symmetrical in the church as well.

The place I gave to my partner is State library which I am familiar with because whenever I had essays, I normally chose to write them in the library. She showed me a picture of the different letters and number on each of bookshelf. Actually, I was a little bit surprised when she showed me this because i had not noticed those before. I usually bring my material and stuff to the library which means that I never borrow or reach out the books from the library. Apparently, I do not understand what do those letters and number stand for and why librarian categorised books in this way.

We played all our photos back, we had a good communication and discussion with each other. We talked about our own new discovery and ideas to each other. We found there are some common features and differences between St Patrick’s Cathedral Church and State Library. As for the similarities, as we all know, both of the church and the library was build up for hundred years so that we found that both of them are very old and classical. Furthermore, I noticed that both of these two locations place the sculptures outside and historical paintings on the wall inside of the buildings. A strong sense of period was evoked by those kind of paintings and old design.

Besides, the environment in these two places is very quiet and peaceful so that both of these two places are good choices to find peace and calmness. For this reason, we think people will go to these places to read books or think about something because people will be comfortable with meditation then totally focus on doing something. When it comes to the differences between them, we noticed that the library provides a transparent glass rooftop, it allows the sunlight brightly shine into the library. However, the church was lighted by amount of windows instead of transparent rooftop.

At the end of our discussion, I felt regretful when Nagini mentioned about prayer’s facial expression. I suddenly realised that this is the one thing I ignore to notice. She told me that due to her sketching experiences, she always pay a lot of attention on people’s facial expression. However, I forget this important element even though I reminded myself that try to notice things as many as I can. These details remind me that although I used to do something or go to somewhere, I am still incapable of noticing every details even though it seems like very obvious and important around you. Indeed, this is what I had not noticed before. Therefore, I realised that people should be aware of small things that easy to get ignorance and try to think further.