When viewing artwork, I tend to search for the artists’ message within the piece. In doing this, I neglect the thought of the process behind creating the piece. Garth Freeman helped me realize the importance of the creation process with the print activity done in class. Our class separated into groups and created prints, which is the first time I have done this. At first, I was not too excited for this activity because I do not think of myself as an artist. By the end of the class, I started to think more about how an artist gets to their final piece of artwork. Continue reading “Artist Intention”
For the white person who wants to know how to be my friend- Pat Parker
Within the packet of poems that Dr. McCoy presented to us, a few of them stuck out to me immediately. Similar to what Analiese stated in her blog posts, I would not usually go for poems if I were. There are certain poems, however, such as Pat Parker’s that draw me in almost instantaneously. Parker’s poem gave me a conversational feeling which sparked more of an interest than poems usually do. I found myself making commentary while reading along because I could relate all too well and there were certain aspects of it I found to be humorous.
Continue reading “For the white person who wants to know how to be my friend- Pat Parker”
The Human Clay Exercise
The human clay exercise inspired me into thinking more about the variety of perceptions that can arise based off of one word, thought, or idea. The class was separated into groups and given 45 seconds to create a sculpture based off of a word we were given, with one person acting as the sculptor and two people acting as the clay. Despite the fact that we were all given the same word I was stunned to see that everyone created something different/unique. As I was participating in this exercise, I tried to think about how this experience could relate to this class and particularly Steve Prince’s artwork. One of my first thoughts led to our different perceptions on Prince’s pieces and what each of my peers are able to get out of analyzing his work. The specific piece I thought of was the Katrina’s Veil Stand at the Gretna Bridge and one of the main topics of discussion being whether the horsemen were good or evil. Continue reading “The Human Clay Exercise”
A Deeper Look into Art
Mary Rutigliano discussed how her mind changed when Steve Prince came to talk about his work. With this statement, I couldn’t agree more. At first when looking at artwork, I never used to dig deep into the meaning behind the piece. My response would either be “I really like this work” or “This is not my cup of tea.” There was not many times, if any, that I expanded on what the piece was actually meant to do. Continue reading “A Deeper Look into Art”
Straddling between Two Worlds
Word-work is sublime, she thinks, because it is generative; it makes meaning that secures our difference, our human difference – the way in which we are like no other life.
Before reading Bernice Johnson Reagon’s article “Nobody Knows the Trouble I See”, I never thought about the constant switching between two worlds. There is an idea that we straddle between our own family beliefs while trying to master the more dominant society as a way of survival and being “who we are in both places or all places we move” (Reagon). Continue reading “Straddling between Two Worlds”