Visual Culture

Trash Art

2011-11-21T11:22:00.000-08:00

Trash Art has been in the back of my mind for a while now, not just because of the documentary Wasteland. As an art teacher, supplies are a big part of my job. Living in such a wasteful world, it makes sense to do more trash art with the kids. I have started to think of how to develop the projects, and started to create some of my own in the process. This website is very inspiring.

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/12/non-trashy-recycled-and-trash-art/

Tim Nobel & Sue Webster:

Tim and Sue met while they were studying Fine Arts in University together. Now they are best known for their art made from trash collected from the London streets, which shows an image when light is projected in front of it.

Sarah-Jane van der Westhuizen:

The art is created from old car parts, recycled metal pieces, and anything the artist could get her hands on. Van der Westhuizen has installed several of these trash sculptures all over Europe.

Michelle Stitzlein:

Stitzlein creates art from found materials such as piano keys, broken china, and other recycled items.

Mark Langan

Langan creates art from reclaimed cardboard and other materials. Scream was created from corrugated cardboard and other recycled materials. Langan works with non-toxic glue, an exacto knife, and a lot of patience.

Tyree Guyton

Guyton created the Heidelburg Project as an urban renewal project, transforming a rundown section of Detroit from a place where people were afraid to walk to an art exhibition that people wanted to visit.

Wasteland

2011-07-09T20:39:00.000-07:00

It's been so long... here's one that I don't want to forget... it reminds me of JR

http://www.fastcompany.com/1698070/wasteland-lucy-walker-vik-muniz-jardim-gramacho

Paintings without Paint

2011-03-29T17:24:00.000-07:00

http://nymag.com/arts/art/reviews/unpainted-paintings-saltz-review-2011-4/

JR - Ted Winner - Quickly Became a Favorite Artist for Me

2011-03-06T16:10:00.001-08:00

TED Prize Winner JR & INSIDE OUT from TED Prize on Vimeo.

Neuzz

2011-03-06T16:08:00.001-08:00

Street Art in the UK

2011-02-11T13:29:00.001-08:00

Street Art and Reality on Hanbury Street, London. from Shafiur Rahman on Vimeo.

Improv Everywhere

2011-01-06T15:10:00.001-08:00

An actor started various improv situations in public space, such as a food court musical about needing a napkin and this... no pants subway ride....

Do I have the guts and motivation to join?

I heart NY

2011-01-04T10:12:00.001-08:00

A few months ago the NY Times had a contest asking people to redesign the I heart NY logo. It was inspired after seeing what Milton Glaser did to the logo for Jet Blue.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/09/22/nyregion/nylogos.html

Organically Obsessed

2011-01-04T10:12:00.000-08:00

Although it's a few years old, it's still relevant. I think that it's becoming more popular, but we still have a long way to go...

People Watching

2010-12-20T06:32:00.001-08:00

People in the streets of NYC...

Old man playing the clarinet in Brooklyn Heights (smiled after the pic was taken)

Old woman searching through the newspapers near Union Square

Punk teens in the East Village

Playground Project - Success!

2010-12-20T06:19:00.000-08:00

During student teaching I had students create a playground sculpture using paper...

StoryCorps... What a great idea!

2010-12-20T05:02:00.001-08:00

As newspapers evolve and the news of what's happening is being communicated online more and more, storycorps is growing. It's an online archive of bits of life stories from people around the world.

The Human Voice from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

Paul's Uncle's Pens

2010-11-28T11:20:00.001-08:00

Speaking Out Against Trafficking in India through Photography and Video

2010-11-22T09:06:00.001-08:00

When Paul and I went to Arles International Photo show in 2008, we saw this video that stuck out in our minds... possibly forever. This photographer took photos of women who have been victims of trafficking and other aspects of women's oppression in India. Each woman dressed up to express her experience.... a character of protection.

Halloween Parade

2010-11-22T06:12:00.002-08:00

I didn't know about all of these giant paper mache puppets that they have every year. Would be a great project to create one.

Shaun The Sheep

2010-11-22T06:12:00.001-08:00

I am addicted to this animation by Nick Park, creator of Wallace and Grommit. However, I am sad to hear that the kids at school know Shaun the Sheep as a Disney cartoon.

Shaun The Sheep - Click here for funny video clips

Art Shows - Dumbo Arts Festival and MoMA's Rock Paper Scissors

2010-09-27T07:14:00.003-07:00

I attended two art shows recently, the 2010 Dumbo Arts Festival and MoMA's abstract expressionism exhibit titled Rock Paper Scissors.

The Dumbo Arts Festival did not show anything that stuck out in my mind. All of the galleries showed art attempting to push the boundaries of what we consider art to be. I sat in the park by the water and did some people watching around the neighborhood in addition to seeing the art. The art on the streets was as interesting as the art in the galleries.

(2629 take out meals are consumed every second in the USA)

The Rock Paper Scissors exhibit was unexpectedly very good. I usually think of painting when I think of abstract expressionism, but I loved the sculptures in this show.

The Sensational Josephine Baker

2010-09-27T07:14:00.001-07:00

Friday night I went to see an off-broadway show called The Sensational Josephine Baker. It's almost unknown because it has not been widely marketed and is only in the theater for a few weeks. For some reason, I usually love these types of performances.

The one woman show was written and performed by an emerging playwright, Cheryl Howard. She was really great! From her portrayal of Josephine Baker to her hilarious portrayal of a jealous show girl who knew Josephine Baker but was not as successful, all of her characters were full of emotion and the costumes fit well.

The play gave a summary of her biography and I thought that it highlighted the differences in the racial climates between America and France in the early-mid 1900s. Josephine Baker's reason for pursuing a career in France was largely due to the desire/need to escape racial oppression in America. It was well done.

Missing David LaChapelle

2010-09-18T21:46:00.000-07:00

Keeping up with the artists and gallery shows throughout the city is not easy when you are not fully in the loop. However, when you are involved in the arts, you often hear about various shows. I recently found out about a gallery show by photographer David LaChapelle, but was unable to attend. I really don't like when I miss shows, but it happens.

David LaChapelle had a gallery show called American Jesus at the Paul Kasmin gallery. I can just look at his website to see glimpses of this show as well as the numerous works that comprise this prolific photographer's career. His dramatic/theatrical scenes often incorporate celebrities and rightfully so... If I could be in his photos, I would be so excited.

Some of the American Jesus photos included Michael Jackson - "Shown for the first time in New York is part of a series which began over a decade ago including three large-scale photographs depicting Michael Jackson as a modern day martyr. Of all of the subjects LaChapelle has portrayed, Jackson unquestionably lived one of the most epic and dramatic lives of our time. Such sentiment is shown with biblical connotations and is hauntingly represented in these images."

Storm King

2010-09-17T08:47:00.001-07:00

As the summer came to an end, my husband and I decided to visit Storm King during a day trip to upstate New York. It was both of our first times being there. I did not realize that it is 500 acres! We stayed 2.5-3 hours and only saw a small part of it. However, it was enough.

We were able to see a variety of sculptures. There was one stone sculpture of a giant open peach pit by Noguchi that is a symbol for the famous Japanese fairy tale - Momotaro (Peach boy). It was fun to sit of it and the children around really loved it.

Other sculptures were more unknown and abstract. It was a sunny day and the shadows casted by the sculptures was a very interesting part of the day. Below are two photos of a white metal sculpture that offered lots of great shadows:

In general, it was fun to examine the textures of all the sculptures. The photos below show polished steel, bamboo, rubber tires and graphite covered wood:

This was my favorite sculpture because it kept us wondering how it was made:

Seeing and Listening

2010-08-22T18:27:00.000-07:00

I recently started playing the doumbek drum. It's a middle eastern hand drum. I have always wanted to play african drums, but I never found a teacher. I now have a great teacher and my experiences overshadow my dreams of playing African drums (at least temporarily).

Every weekend I go to 107th Street and Central Park East. I walk along one of the most beautiful parts of central park and enter the building that Amir calls home. Meetings are held in his living room. The floor and parts of the walls are covered with persian and persian-like tapestries, while drums, string instruments, percussion instruments and other miscellaneous things to play fill the room. About 5-10 people gather each week for the music circle that he leads. Most of us are drummers and some people sing. Amir leads us with a lute and singing, occasionally adding a flute, drums and whatever else he is in the mood for. The music fills the room and everyone participates. Some of us go to see Amir for individual classes to formally learn how to join in, while others continue to do whatever feels right. He takes his most advanced students to concerts with him. So, if I keep this up, that's where I'm heading.

As I learn to play the drum, the atmosphere of his living room has been a large part of the experience. Looking at the different instruments and international tapestries make me feel comfortable, looking at the hands of more advanced students helps me to check myself, and the passionate expressions on participants faces, including Amir's, communicate to me each week.

Mary and Max

2010-08-18T18:08:00.000-07:00

Claymation is so fascinating! To think that animation was created with clay and looks as professional as the animation that is drawn... I know how it's done, but how do they get it so such a level of professionalism?

Mary and Max was an example of amazing claymation and overall, a great movie!

The MET - Behind the Scenes

2010-07-25T19:48:00.000-07:00

When I invited a friend to see what was going on at the Met, I completely forgot that her husband was working behind the scenes doing conservatory work. Even when she mentioned that he could get us in for free and show us his studio, the extent to what I would be shown did not sink in.

We got to the Met and started our night with a tour of his studio. He works in the offices/studios where visitors cannot see. His particular office is for himself and one other guy who specialize in painting on wood panel. They were restoring a few at a time. With his chemical engineering background he tends to work on the structural part of pieces and even had one small piece in a homemade incubator because they were working on getting creases out of the portrait. It was famous, but I forgot the name.

He then brought us to a painting studio where they focus on removing old varnish and repairing painting damage. The lighting was amazing and, like the studio he works in, the rooms are newly renovated and fully equipped. This studio included a Velasquez portrait. We also walked through the photo studio. They take infrared and ultraviolet shots to see what's behind the surface of the painting, revealing older layers and sketches. They can print these shots and hung a few on the wall. They could have made an exhibit on their own. We also saw the studio where people work on the frames of paintings. It was so fascinating that these people are working with art that's hundreds of years old and made in such mysterious ways. Looking so close up makes you really appreciate the quality of these works.

I've never been a big fan of old European paintings and this section of the Met has never been a place I made sure to check out when I visit. However, this day it all came alive. For me, it's always been the skill and craftsmanship that are impressive rather than the subjects or what they communicate.

We walked from Alan's studios into one of the galleries where the visitors were roaming. We saw the paintings that were not under construction hung, knowing it's Alan and the people who work with him maintaining them. He showed us one painting where the varnish was starting to discolor, but it wasn't that bad. It would probably need to go to the studio in about 75 years! He showed us where paintings have seems because they were sewn together from the painter not having big enough canvas or from an art dealer who cut them to make more money. There's now one painting up in the Met where the first layer of the painting was taken off to reveal an underlying image and then paint was further removed to reveal a sketched portrait in the middle. The revealed layers gave it an interesting collage feel. Looking so closely at all the paintings got us into a conversation about color and it is so amazing how vivid some of the colors are after being hung for hundreds of years.... one of the ones I pointed out had not even been restored at all!

Looking closely at all these paintings occasionally evoked curiosity about the subject matter. This was unusual for me. I noticed that some of these paintings show women beheading men. I remember that years ago I felt that these old European paintings were very oriented towards male domination. I'm not sure if there were different paintings, if I just missed a few, or if I just glanced over these without knowing. There was one painting near Bosch paintings that had the cutest creatures in the bottom right corner of the right panel.

After looking at these we strolled through Picasso. It felt ground breaking to have Picasso at the Met with all of these historical works. It was the first time Picasso was at the Met and my mother thought it was because they recently hired a new curator. I thought it was a statement of how times are changing and Picasso is seen as more classic than modern. The collection that they had was very impressive with hundreds of works of sketches, printmaking and painting. Alan knew that the Met had an impressive Picasso collection and said that they just didn't display it. The Met has a lot of work that they do not display.

Finally we relaxed on the rooftop with a drink under the bamboo structure of Doug and Mike Stam. This work seemed so modern and interesting, but not as complicated as what Alan has been restoring. I originally wanted to go because of the bamboo structure on the rooftop. However, the unexpected storm that gave Manhattan a purple sky filled with lightning contrasting against the buildings which made them look white was the highlight of the rooftop. I did enjoy the bamboo structure, but the rest of the night had been just too amazing.

SVA Art Education Gallery Show

2010-07-25T19:17:00.000-07:00

I was walking down 6th Avenue and remembered that if I turn left on 21st street I might be able to catch the gallery show by the SVA art education graduate students. I was right and the show was great. The SVA professor had his students come up with art and/or lesson plans using a ball. It gave me inspiration and ideas for projects.

Karl Blossfeldt and Ellsworth Kelly

2010-07-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

I went to observe a Principal Retreat with Studio in a School (SIAS). My professor at Bklyn College pointed out that SIAS is focused on the end product and that they are selling a product. This is unlike her philosophies of children becoming artists naturally with the right guidance and facilitation, letting the work speak for itself as their expression is interesting enough. I was also agitated by the awe that SIAS inspires after I saw the amount of PD that SIAS artists get compared with art teachers in school. However, at this retreat we were given PD by being placed in the role of the student during their imaginary plant lesson. Surprisingly I was in awe as much as I was when I was an art teacher receiving PD from SIAS. I really think that their way of teaching is great and I would like to incorporate some of that style into my own teaching along with Bklyn College philosophies.

The lesson that I observed introduced me to two artists and I fell in love with their work, particularly Karl Blossfeldt.

The first part of the lesson was to draw plants from observations. The artist puts flowers on the tables, one for each child. She then models drawing from observation, using shapes and/or contour lines. After showing the students the way she draws with contour lines, she shows them the plant drawings of Ellsworth Kelly.

At home I looked online to see who she was and I fell in love with her minimalist painting. I think that I really love minimalism.

The second part of the lesson was to draw from photographs and notice the unusual shapes and lines in the plants photographed by Karl Blossfeldt. The students also think about how the parts of the plant help the plant to function.

The artist working at SIAS said that he was a craftsman who made iron fences and to train his workers he took photographs of unique plants for design inspirations. She said that he didn't even consider himself an artist. However, when I looked online it said that he was an apprentice at an art foundry, but later went to art school and taught sculpture. These photographs were made from a homemade camera and used to inspire sculpture students. I guess more investigation needs to be done to know more about him.

The unit goes on and students draw imaginary plants and paint them using watercolors. Their plants end up having imaginative functions. They then write persuasive essays about why their plants should exist in the world.

Daniel Merriam

2010-07-11T20:48:00.000-07:00

Very often I see an artist and I think about what a good idea he/she had. I get envious and wish I could spend money and time on an MFA, wishfully thinking that I could also create something beautiful. However, when I look at the work of Daniel Merriam I am just in awe of his talent and mysterious abilities. There are so few people who can create anything like this. I went to the Animazing Gallery in Soho and really enjoyed looking at his work. I thought that if I had 2000 to spare, I'd definitely get a reproduction. It was also fun to see reproductions of Dr. Seuss, Tim Burton and some beautiful glass sculptures by a new up and coming artist. I hope to get Daniel Merriam's new book.

http://www.danielmerriam.com/index.php?option=com_ponygallery&Itemid=0&func=viewcategory&catid=1

Fireworks on the Hudson

2010-07-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

I never get excited about fireworks, but last year when we were in Jersey City with a great view, it was really nice. Last year they said that the fireworks were on the Hudson side because of the 100 year anniversary of Henry Hudson's arrival in NYC or something like that. This year, they fooled us and had it on the Jersey side once more. If only I read the article that was in my bag before we went chasing the fireworks. The article said how many people in Bklyn and Queens will be disappointed because the buildings will block their views. Instead we watched bits of fireworks rise above the shorter buildings of the skyline from the promenade after leaving a rooftop party in Bushwick that had no view of Manhattan at all.

Kaleidescope

2010-07-11T20:38:00.000-07:00

I went to Kaleidoscope because I had fun at warehouse parties in the past. Kaleidoscope is a parade where people dress up and party during the day as they do in the warehouses late at night. It's run by the same people who throw warehouse parties. However, I actually didn't have that much fun.

It was fun to see the costumes people wore, but I some people frequent these parties and begin to make friends. I am not one of those people and although I was with three people, I felt like an outsider. I'm not sure I'd like to make that much of an effort to have fun, party and make friends. We'll see...

Northside Arts Festival

2010-07-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

The animation shorts that included the film from the last post was part of an arts festival in Williamsburg. I googled a few musicians and found Au Revoir Simone and also saw another showing of shorts. I actually did not pay attention to the gallery art!

Cool Short Film

2010-06-24T06:35:00.001-07:00

Louise Bourgeois, Influential Sculptor, Dies at 98

2010-06-01T05:20:00.001-07:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/arts/design/01bourgeois.html?ref=design

Exit through the gift shop

2010-05-30T06:19:00.000-07:00

Great documentary!! How could anyone who is interested in the arts (myself) have not known about the success of these street artists?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587707/

Sculpture - Paper Dolls

2010-05-22T07:54:00.000-07:00

For my sculpture project I chose to create paper mache dolls. I hope to continue and refine my craft. As for now, these images show 2 of the 5 dolls I made and my statement is as follows:

When I was growing up, it was always cool to be somewhat of a tomboy. Many feminine things were labeled “girlie” and had unspoken connotations of being frivolous, weak and/or annoying. I grew up with a single father and that further enhanced my distance from typical “girlie” things. The only dolls I ever liked were Cabbage Patch Kids and stuffed animals. I think I had 2 Barbie dolls that I never played with. I didn’t know what to do with them. I would have rather played kickball or with shrinky dinks.

As an adult I have more of an affinity towards dolls. I am not interested in dolls for entertainment media or traditional collectible dolls, but I am really drawn to “art dolls”. I particularly like the work of Virginie Ropars, a doll artist in France who went from being a graphic artist to becoming a 3D modeler and illustrator. She shows her work regularly in Europe and America. Dolls are loaded with gender concepts as in the work of Greer Lankton, who was born a man but led his life as a woman and used dolls to express his perceptions of gender in his installation art. Both of these artists have inspired me. (http://vropars.free.fr/ARCHIVESGALLERY_1.htm and http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/morton/morton1-26-07.asp)

This work celebrates the doll and the defining feminine side of women that is different from men and that we should celebrate in this post-modern world that aims for equality. They also represent the dolls I never had.

Krzysztof Wodiczko

2010-05-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

I'd like to blog about numerous artists that we discussed in class. I'm happy to have my resources expanded and to learn about many new artists. I decided to choose one of the last artists that we looked at in class to discuss - Krzysztof Wodiczko. His work is really amazing and the examples that the documentary showed really related to some of my personal knowledge.

When Wodiczko showed the women in Tijuana I thought of a friend who went down there, ignorant to the world of sex tourism and trafficking. I knew it was horrible when he went, but after learning about trafficking, as mentioned in a previous post, I realize that it's probably much worse than I thought over there. His work shed light on some of the atrocities. I hope that his work reaches people like the guys I have come in contact with that support dysfunctional sex tourism, and inadvertently support trafficking, without thinking of the women involved.

Living in Japan, I visited the building that is still standing after the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. Going to Hiroshima was an intense experience. We visited that building, went to the museum and saw the exhibit of the cranes... one origami crane for each child that died. The museum showed how people were walking down the street melting. It looked like a fictitious horror movie. When people were talking about their experiences I thought of one of my first students in Japan, who is now a facebook friend, Itchitaro Suzuki. He was one of my oldest students and a retired teacher. One day we were doing a lesson on past tense and one of the prompts had students tell the group about kindergarten. He burst into tears. I didn't understand what was going on. Finally, he said that's when the bombs came. He survived the bombings in Tokyo. I had no idea Tokyo was bombed during WWII, but actually Kyoto was the only place that was not bombed. We set off two atomic bombs, but dropped regular bombs over the rest of the country.

I think that Wodiczko's work moved all of us in class that night and must have reached so many people with each of his shows. He lets people explain why these aspects of our societies should not exist. It's really amazing.

Head Games: Engaging Popular Visual Culture - Reflection on Reading

2010-05-16T06:47:00.000-07:00

The article "Head Games: Engaging Popular Visual Culture" really interested me. I wish there were pictures to go along with the article so that we could see the project. The article is by a doctoral student, David Darts, who conducted his research with his high school students. David's research was focused on students' visual literacy and awareness of visual popular culture. They analyzed well known artists from history, as well as contemporary artists, who are socially engaged. They then created sculptures using donated mannequin heads from a hairdressing school with found object and cultural artifacts. They used collage and assemblage. The sculptures communicated social issues that were important to the individual student. Through the process the doctoral student tried to show them that they are active participants in their world, rather than passive, and quoted another article, "that they have a role in the making of their world and that they need not accept positions as passive spectators or consumers" (Trend, 1992 via Darts, 2006 inside Duncam, 2006).

The students chose the location for the installation, offering students the opportunity to actively participate in their everyday visual culture. They chose a gathering space that often held public rallies and protests and, inspired by artists included in their studies, they chose not to inform city officials that they would display their art. Some chose to stand next to their sculptures and engage in conversation with people passing by and others chose to blend in with the crowds or sit far enough away to photo document the experience. Students expressed their positive experiences later on and felt pride from having people interact with their sculptures. Some even expressed appreciation for the opportunity to engage in conversation with strangers about their work and about social issues.

When I read this it felt like a story of a teacher who had a very successful unit, more than doctoral research. Then again, I guess that's what some doctoral research is. I would love to do something like this with my students and put the book that the article seems to come from, Visual Culture in the Art Class Case Studies by Paul Duncam, on my Amazon queue. I also googled David Darts and he seems pretty amazing. I'd love to take his class at NYU. Even more so, I'm just jealous. I wish I was that successful doing something related to what he's doing. He even seems to have had most of his schooling paid for - http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/view/David_Darts.

Thinking of my own path, I'm looking forward to teaching and hope I am very successful. I'd love to master my job and keep up my own work. I look forward to finding what is possible. I hope that it works!

Visual Culture Friends - Behind the Scenes

2010-05-14T18:54:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it's my own personal choices and interests that draw people of like minds, but many of my friends have chosen to focus their careers on some aspect of visual culture. My two closest friends both have careers in visual culture fields (graphic design and film). Most, or all, of us started with a desire to create and to have a decent paycheck at the same time. I'd like to talk about the career paths of three of these people who are going through some changes that offer insight into the lives of people in these fields.

My friend Eddie went to SVA for illustration and taught himself to be a web/graphic designer for extra income. He currently has two websites - www.ashworld.com and artcharger.ashworld.com After 10 years of freelancing odd jobs, getting by, but not very comfortably, he is thinking of going to teach in Japan. I helped him write his essay today, which explained the influence Japanese visual media has had on his life. It was cartoons, anime and video games that sparked his interest to begin drawing at a young age. He never stopped and devoted his life to drawing and art. Unlike artists of traditional media, he decided to go towards technology. Still, without being a corporate office worker, he has struggled for many years.

In America, it's more often American visual culture/media that draws people in and offers dreams that may never be fulfilled. My friend Yaniv, from high school, wanted to be an actor. He stuck to it for many years, acted in movies like Toxic Avenger IV and then got a job with Desperate Housewives in the production department - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0788979/ - He kept his dream that one day he'd be able to be an extra on the show, but it never happened. Last month he called me and told me that he got fired for speaking inappropriately. A woman on set had a baby girl and he jokingly said, "When she's 18, I'll date her." Inappropriate yes, but worth being fired... I can't agree. He thinks that corporate America is getting more conservative and notes that he has been working in corporate America.

Like Yaniv, my friend Pam also loves American visual culture and gets lured in by celebrities and film. Pam wanted to be writer, but has also always wanted to work in film. In addition to her short stories and a novel, she wrote a screenplay, but nobody with power ever looked at it. Instead she worked her way up the film hierarchy from a production assistant to a production coordinator, with a few jobs in the art department. If she keeps moving up she may one day be a producer. She actually got fired from her last job. It was the first time she got fired and it was mostly due to personality clashes and unrealistic expectations. Pam described this last job as working in the movie Devil Wears Prada, but it was film instead of fashion and the Devil Wore New Balance.In between jobs she spends her time making cards and small polymer sculptures.- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1061975/

The list can go on... The last roomate I had before living with my husband was a movie editor and made a few of his own movies (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0596392/). He freelanced and worked all the time. All he did was work on his movies, but finally had one show on HBO last year. He might be the most content of all of these people that I mention. Then again, he comes from Connecticut (privilege), has a mom who was an art teacher and a sister who is a somewhat successful actress (Gretchen Mol - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001543/) A friend from college who is a photo retoucher who started out by working for a porn magazine, retouching breasts to take away scars. I remember when he was living in a one bedroom apartment with two roomates in his living room. Now he works office jobs as n art director and is fine with that, but he's still does his own photoshop work on the side. I can also talk about my close friend who is a graphic designer for Library of America and does fine art on the side, and a friend I met in jury duty who is a photo editor for Fortune magazine and hates her boss... the list goes on.

Art jobs are sexy... so sexy, many people go for an MFA and end up without work. Still, this option is not open to everyone. I remember when I first got my BFA. I wanted to go for an MFA, but I did not have enough money, even with a loan. So, I moved on. For many people who can do it, it's worth the gamble when you see the way of life when you are successful creating you're own work... what a great life that would be... to just do art and nothing else. It's like you're not working. However, many people end up compromising, going for commercial art jobs and/or forgetting about it all. Some people have more drive, more artistic talent or more of a need for stable living conditions. People are also starting from different places in terms of social support, knowledge, skills and financial support. I think that there are many, many factors that go into the career choices of people who are interested in the arts and many many factors that go into the result. This post is just a glimpse of the paths that a few creative people decided to take.

Children's Imagination

2010-05-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

I was walking down the street when I saw a little girl. She was at a distance from the adult she was with, so you could imagine her being alone on the street. She was turning around and saying, "I'm a pixie." She had a pink tool on which resembled that of a faerie. She seemed so comfortable in her element. She was able to freely speak her imagination on the corner of the street in the Upper West Side of NYC. She was adorable.

This experience reminded me of why I want to go back to teaching. I love the imagination little kids have. Just like when I went to see Leah and those kids were able to enjoy the idea that their paintbrush was named Beverly and to paint you made her hair dance. How cool is that? When I taught elementary school I worked with kids who had a hard time using scissors. I would tell them to think of the scissors as the scissor monster whose most favorite treat in life is to eat the line. Then I'd make eating noises as it chomped the line and the scissors cut on the line. The kids would love this and they would ask me what flavor it was. We were able to talk within the world of imagination. It's a really fun place! :)

ROSS GLOBAL ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL - CHILDREN OBSERVATION**

2010-05-13T04:55:00.000-07:00

I walked into the building and it felt like a regular public school. I walked towards the office it was very quiet with large posters in the hallway and I noticed a room with couches. I went to the main office which was much more informal than a regular public school. there was just a few desks and not that large counter separating the staff from the visitors. Finally, I was escorted to the art room.

Leah's art room is very large and everything looks brand new. It looks like it has been renovated. Two walls are filled with windows which gives a view down an East Village street and a view of a rooftop next door. All the furniture is new and the chairs and tables are wooden, not like regular public school furniture. The room is arranged nicely. She has drying racks, cabinets, a white board and a small stereo to play music. Below one big window is a cushioned bench and below the bench are cubby holes for storage; which is all part of a larger cabinet unit. I am in a charter school.

Leah explained to me that the charter school was created to model a school in the

Hamptons that infuses culture into all subjects and is very supportive of the arts.. The school in the Hamptons is funded by some owners of Time Warner, or something similar to that idea. So, the school in the East Village has a very large budget to work with. On the website it says that they were developed in collaboration with NYU. I went to observe a first grade class.

I came early and helped Leah set up. There wasn't too much to do. I helped her cut paper and she showed me around the room. She contemplated what lesson to do and decided to continue with what she was doing with the other students. She had them draw a spiral and then paint inside the lines.

The kids came in and sat down. They seemed happy to be there. They were eager to know who I was and Leah had me introduce myself. We told them exactly what was going on. Leah goes to school to be an even better teacher than she is now and I am in her class. I will also be an art teacher. They were surprised that she went all the way to Brooklyn to go to school. One boy said that he went to Queens College in the summer for a program. They were adorable.

She elicited what the spiral was called. The kids had lots of names, but needed help remembering the word spiral. They spelled it out, drew a spiral in the air and got started. Once the kids were painting, they seemed to get calm; at least initially. Towards the middle of the period Leah asked for quite for 5 minutes and put some music on. It was nice.

I helped give out the paint and went along with Leah's explanation that the brush is called Beverly and she dances on the paint with her hair. The kids like that. One group later discussed the different colors of her hair and laughed. They all painted their spiral in different ways and as they were finished they were able to get a new paper and "free draw".

As they finished, the few closest to me were showing me their work. I'd ask a question and/or comment. I'd ask how they got a certain color, tell them that I see LOTS of colors. One girl painted her spiral with the same colors as her shirt so I pointed out how it matched. I think they enjoyed talking to me because as they finished they kept coming to me showing me their work. I had to start cutting paper to give them new ones of the same size and they were the same size and at this point they were just coming for another paper. I sat for a little while and then it was time to clean up. I helped the kids who were lagging behind to clean up their tables. I didn't do much as there was not much to clean up. The paints were paint cakes and each child had a cup of water with a brush or two.

Soon it was time to go and they lined up and left with their teacher (who was a sub for the day). They were able to take their work with them or leave it behind. Most took it home. Leah complimented one girl and told her how much she loved the painting, "I love it so much I almost stole it from you." After a minute or two the girl gave Leah the painting and said, "It's for you."

Free Jazz in Harlem!

2010-05-12T08:54:00.000-07:00

Tina's sculpture sparked memories of that J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere's work and last night her presentation sparked memories of going to Marjorie Eliot's apartment a few months ago. Marjorie Eliot is a jazz pianist that loves to perform for people in her home. She invites other performers and opens her doors to friends and strangers and does not charge a thing. An article in the Daily News quoted her in 2009 saying, "I get more than I give."

A friend brought me up to her apartment for a night of jazz in January or February. At first I couldn't find it and felt annoyed at the out of the way location and the weather. I like jazz, and there is some jazz that I love, but sometimes I have a hard time getting into it. I didn't know what to expect.

When I finally got there, the apartment was packed. There were seats all the way to the front door and I was able to stand right in the entrance way next to the front door. It was uncomfortable. I was late and it was cold and raining. I wanted to go home. I listened to the jazz from the crowded doorway and thought how nice it was that she does this. The break came and I moved closer for the second set. In the room where they were playing, the lights were blue. I was able to sit next to the radiator and sit close to my friends.

When the second set began I was right in front of the jazz players and close to Marjorie. The music filled the room and it sounded great. It was played with passion and love and gave off a very positive energy. They played classics that I knew and a few songs that I didn't know. They came in and out of the during solo parts, taking their performance seriously and adding something playful to it. Everyone who played looked like they were really enjoying themselves. It wasn't about money or about being in a spotlight. It was about the music. It was also about remembering her son, who was a jazz musician. "Marjorie started the concerts in 1994 to honour the memory of her son, Phillip, who died of a kidney infection. She has not missed a weekend since. 'Back then, I just prayed for the doorbell to ring,' she said. 'Please let it ring, it means people want to come. So every time the doorbell rings now, even in the middle, my heart skips a beat.'" - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article408282.ece

The visual culture piece of this experience was the setting combined with the music. The visual aspect of her performance, her home, makes this experience like no other. The crowd is also a variety of ages and ethnicities/races (but primarily black and white). I looked around and the room was still full. There was an older couple in front of me that held hands as the woman looked at the man with a smile and when one of the classics started. I thought it would have been a perfect date for me and my husband, but I have not gone back yet.

At the end of the show she thanked everyone for coming and with sincerity. She acknowledged the Chinese New Year and said a few extra words for MLK's Birthday and the gratitude she has for what followed after his work. I'd recommend this to anyone who likes jazz.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/03/09/2009-03-09_marjorie_eliot_of_washington_heights_hos.html

http://www.harlemonestop.com/organization.php?id=84

A blog about blogs

2010-05-07T20:24:00.001-07:00

One of the last movies I watched was Julia and Julia. My husband felt mildly tortured as I watched such a chick flick. As we watched it, it felt so sappy and unrealistic that we both were really surprised when we found out it was a true story. The woman blogged about cooking every recipe in one of Julia Child's most famous recipe books. It had 500 pages in it and she cooked at least one recipe a day. People actually noticed her blog, she got fans, got work as a writer and even had this movie made. I was a little in shock. I wonder how many people have gotten any fame from their blog and I wonder how many people actually make a living off their blog.

I don't think anyone would be interested in reading my blog aside from my professor. I decided to google visual culture blog and the first one that came up is actually posting some really cool things - http://www.oberholtzer-creative.com/visualculture/ - so I'm stealing some of the images for this post. I loved the gory zombie stationary, the organic cheat sheets (would love to keep those in my wallet!) and the drum umbrella, which is a new korean invention. The blog has been created by a design firm, which would explain why the blog is so design focused.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine invited me to a blog party and I actually got to meet a few people who have started blogs that are successful and have followers. The blog party was for two blogs... www.hyperallergic.com/and www.artfagcity.com - the woman who does artfagcity was a friend of my friend and she was sharing the workspace with hyperallergic and the party marked their 6th month anniversary in their office space. (http://hyperallergic.com/5603/launch-party-photos/). They were having video screenings, so I thought I'd be able to count it as an observation for class. However, there wasn't much that inspired a blog except for the conversation.

So, since these are art blogs, there were artists at the party. Although I love fine art, as I mentioned in a previous blog, I kind of agree with Lukova's point of view on the contemporary fine art world. Fine art is often linked to pretension and an over-privileged crowd. I enjoyed the party, my friend's company and her friends as well, but this party fit this idea. At one point in the night, the conversation led to where people were from and there was a self-proclaimed conclusion that the party was filled with over-privileged white kids. It makes sense. Who else can afford a lifestyle like the ones many of these people lead.

When we first got there, my friend found a friend and they started talking. This left me with the friend of a friend and we did not start talking. Another guy came over and his first question to me was "Are you and artist?" My pretension radar went off and I could not help but to answer, "What do you mean by artist? People who make their living off of art can say they are an artist but after then aren't we all artists and aren't children artists?" He just looked at me, so I said, "Are you an artist?" He said, "Yes" and walked away. The friend of a friend and I started talking.

I love art and I think it's great to be an artist, but this privileged, pretentious culture makes me feel punk. I just want to fight it. The only way I'd ever survive within it would be if I was so gifted and talented that I would surpass the bullshit and head right for the top. That life must be amazing. However, I will embrace it all and stay positive.

Hipster Olympics

2010-05-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

After posting about fashion in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and then posting about Kate Gilmore's public performance art. I thought of the hipster olympics video I watched years ago. There is some cool and creative fashion in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but this video is also pretty funny because it's somewhat true (or at least used to be - maybe now more professionals in the area??). It's like mocking people walking around Williamsburg in a similar way that Kate Gilmore mocks mainstream society in midtown...

Pounding the Pavement From Up on a Pedestal - NY Times Article

2010-05-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

This article in the NY Times is about Kate Gilmore's public art showing women walking wearing the exact same thing, which will be showing in Bryant Park. When I first saw this article I thought that it's such a great idea to express the ridiculousness of one type of beauty. My friend Gale and I ate lunch together the other day and talked about this. She was saying that she thinks there is becoming only one type of beauty; that this always existed to some extent, but it's stronger now than it was before. I asked her if she's been watching a lot of tv. For me, ignoring mass media and spending time in the subway are two ways that help me to remember that beauty comes in all colors, shapes and sizes. It was nice to have the conversation with her and talk about how there is not just one definition of beauty.

However, Kate Gilmore is more so mocking our post-modern life and the office workers' routines. These women will be up on a small platform walking back and forth for hours. I think the piece is great.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/arts/design/08gilmore.html?hp

Women's Hair and J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere

2010-05-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

I remember when I was in Tokyo and every weekend I was going to The Muse, a club/lounge filled with expats, mostly guys from Europe and America, and some Japanese. I went every weekend with my friend Tara. We had fun meeting different guys, especially Tara. I met my husband pretty early on, so I wasn't really dating. One night we went out and I straightened my hair. I used to like to do that sometimes, but rarely do it now. Tara noticed that guys were looking at me differently. I wasn't too surprised.

“Whether it is working backstage at Fashion Week or styling a client’s hair at the salon, straight hair has always been in-demand look for women,” says Rodney Cutler, owner ofCutler/Redken Salons. - http://talkingmakeup.com/haircare/redken-straight-collection-straight-hair-for-all-hair-types/- I think that this quote supports the idea that straight hair is a symbol of beauty in this country. Within all of the mass media influencing our lives, beautiful women are most often depicted with straight hair. I think some men are not conscious of why they prefer women with straight hair and other men are conscious of the whole issue and can see through that.

I used to hate my hair and wish I had straight hair. I remember one girl in my high school who burned her hair trying to get a reverse perm and damaged her long curly hair that went down to her waist. Some black women go through a lot to get their hair straight, adding chemical [reverse] perms and using hot irons, both can burn the scalp. When black women do style their hair with braids and dreads, I must say, I love it. There are so many cool things black women do with their hair, which brings me to what made me start this post.

When I went to the AIPAD I saw a book showing the work of - J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere - http://www.gallery51.com/index.php?navigatieid=9&fotograafid=12 - I was recently reminded of these pictures in sculpture class because Tina is making a paper mache wig for a sculpture of a black woman. I don't know how famous he is, but he photographed over 1000 women with different hair styles, depicting them as artistic sculptures.... so cool!

Dolls

2010-05-02T19:22:00.000-07:00

Children's toys, in general, are loaded with gender concepts. I remember when I first became aware of gender differences in packaging design. Even the products themselves are most often created for either a boy or a girl. Numerous psychologists and a lot of money goes into marketing and creating children's products. I remember when I took psychology class we discussed this and this was also touched upon in a movie we watched in visual culture class.

It seems that traditional dolls are becoming less and less popular and that today dolls are becoming vintage memories or marketing tools for entertainment media. Dolls are often used to communicate messages about gender in fine arts. Barbara Kruger created a photomontage that showed a doll in pieces and it said, "Use only as directed." Cindy Sherman used dolls in her self-portrait photographs. Greer Lankton was an artist who was born male and became female, expressing her gender issues through fine art and dolls (see left). Meanwhile an entire world of doll making exists as an artistic craft. I love artistic dolls. There is something so beautiful, cool and creepy about them.

There are so many interesting dolls on the internet. On www.etsy.com (a website where people can sell hand made products) there are over 50,000 dolls [and miniatures]. Some people who have fully developed their craft and line of dolls have their own websites. For my sculpture class I've decided to make paper mache dolls. I looked for hours on the Internet and found some great stuff. I love what people call "art dolls". There is even a magazine called "Art Doll" (http://stampington.com/html/adq_summer10.html). Below are a few examples:

The Camera Obscura's Influence on History

2010-05-02T15:59:00.002-07:00

It's been a while since we watched David Hockney's Secret Knowledge in visual culture class and I just realized I never blogged about it. I remember when my father brought me to the MET for the first time when I was 12. We walked through the European paintings and I could not understand what was so great. I knew that the skill level is hard skill to achieve, but I didn't make the connection between these paintings and art that offered deep/interesting communication. As I got older, I continued to appreciate the difficulty of creating a painting with such a realistic image, but never really got into that type of painting.

I really enjoyed the Secret Knowledge and its emphasis on the technique involved with traditional European painting. I knew that people used the grid technique, I knew of perspective techniques, and I even knew of the camera obscura; but I did not know about using the camera obscura for painting. This movie stuck in my mind and I don't think I will ever forget it.

For my research in Professor Jiesemfoek's class I am part of a group that will be making a presentation on technological advances affecting the ways artists use materials. We are focusing on painting. My group members are investigating aspects of tempera, oil and polymer paints. I am investigating the way photography affected painting. I am including Hockney's research, but expanding on it and taking a slightly different perspective.

One interesting finding was that Hockney was not the first to discuss this technique and there have been numerous writings analyzing paintings by Johannes Vermeer, assuming he must have used the camera obscura.

I found another finding to be even more interesting. Louis Daguerre was a set painter for the opera in Paris and often used the camera obscura for painting. His paintings were so striking that they gained the reputation of being able to stand on their own without the theater. He soon created the diorama which became theater entertainment for Parisians in the early 1800s. The diorama included large landscape paintings, with lighting effects and I think the floor moved. Daguerre wanted the image projected by the camera obscura to be permanent so that he could create dioramas quicker. He sought out the inventor, Charles Niepce, who was also interested in making the image from the camera obscura permanent. Niepce loved lithography, but had difficulty drawing and tracing the images created by the camera obscura. So, he was also motivated to make the image from the camera obscura permanent. Niepce first made the image semi-permanent using sulpher chloride and paper and after a few years of working with chemicals he created the first photograph (below). Together Daguerre and Niepce wanted to perfect the process and commercialize it. After they started working together, Niepce died suddenly and Daguerre soon created the first Daguerreotype. He eventually got the exposure time down to a minute, as compared to the 8 hour exposure of Neipce's heliograph, or sun drawing, which is what he called the first photograph.

Nicéphore Niépce's earliest surviving photograph taken with a camera obscura:

View from the Window at Le Gras. 1826

The first successful Daguerreoytpe:

L’Atelier de l'artiste. 1837 by Charles Daguerre

Curious George Saves the Day

2010-05-02T15:03:00.000-07:00

My mother and I both grew up on Curious George children's books. We never thought much about who created them, we just enjoyed them for what they were. They were stories about a monkey who would get into trouble because it was so curious about everything. Each story was usually an adventure about the trouble he got into. As the New York Times describes, "He was a mischief maker, an innocent, born in the jungle and lured into the strange world of humans." The art was good and the stories were nice, but they weren't so phenomenal that we would consider them to be extraordinary. They were just a popular children's book series.

In fact, I didn't know that my mother read them as a child until recently when she sent me a New York Times article reviewing the exhibition of the artwork from the book. She was excited to send me the article because she knew I read them as a child, because she read them as a child and because of the life story of the authors. The authors were actually Jews in Paris during the time of the Nazi's. The New York Times article touches upon the possibility of Curious George's adventures paralleling their experiences running and hiding from the Nazis, but overall, there are no clear explicit connections. It could have been an outlet for them during hard times, but even the NY Times is unsure.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/arts/design/26curious.html

Visual Culture of Gentrified Brooklyn

2010-05-02T08:04:00.001-07:00

Brooklyn has become one of the trendiest places to live in the country and possibly the world. Brooklyn has always been something special, but it has evolved into what is special for generation x and generation y creative types and others. I guess the neighborhoods I'm referring to are Williamsburg, Park Slope, Dumbo, Carroll Gardens/Borem Hil, Forte Greene and even parts of Bed Stuy. Ditmas Park has always been really pricey with big mansions, but there are even similar cultural changes happening there also. For this post I'm going to focus on Williamsburg.

I remember living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in 1998. Rents were cheap, but they were already going up. I was paying 800 dollars a month for a 2 bedroom basement just a few blocks from the L train which was slightly more than a friend was paying for sharing a space in a loft two years earlier (300 dollars a month). A little bit more than 10 years later the rents have about tripled and that's even after the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. In 1998, my grandmother, who came to NYC from Russia in 1910 and spent her life in Manhattan and Brooklyn, came to visit me and we went to eat on Bedford Avenue and her first reaction was, "This is Brooklyn?" Bedford Avenue was a quiet strip of low-rise buildings with a few cute shops and restaurants. Today Bedford Avenue is increasingly getting more crowded, while the shops and restaurants continue to multiply. Bedford still remains the main strip, but locals often spend their time on other main streets as well, such as Grand Street. Williamsburg has extended into Bushwick as well and real estate brokers now seem to be calling as much of the area Williamsburg as they can. My husband recently read an article that gave the statistics of the increased passengers on the subway lines that go through Williamsburg and Bushwick, the L, J, M and Z lines. The J, M, and Z lines were only inhabited by local New Yorkers in the 90s.

When you walk the streets of Williamsburg, one of the most noticeable things is the fashion. Women are often wearing dresses and both women and men either have the latest fashions or unique styles. There are numerous vintage stores in the neighborhood that have already sifted through second hand clothes to bring shoppers fashionable things to wear at decent prices. There are also numerous boutiques that sell the work of local artists and designers. A weekend market called Aritsts and Fleas is close to Bedford Avenue and anyone can rent a space to sell crafts and clothes. Local fashion sends a message that creativity is close by. Although many new inhabitants of this thriving neighborhood are young professionals that are far from the arts, artists and designers still linger. There are galleries and studios in the neighborhood, as well as music and performance art spaces. Almost the whole neighborhood is filled with middle class, mostly white, people between 20 and 45.

Well, this is all true in the gentrified world of Williamsburg. North Williamsburg still has some older people who have lived here for much longer than the mid 90's. There is also a hispanic population on the south side of Williamsburg, and further south the neighborhood is filled with Hasidic Jews. The area that borders Bushwick is very industrial and has more African-American residents. Williamsburg borders Greenpoint, which is also gentrified, but is filled with Polish immigrants. Since the boom of gentrification in Williamsburg and the banking bubble, many condos have been built around the neighborhood. These condos are in buildings with multiple units and are as expensive as houses (500,000 to over 1 million). Houses in Williamsburg are well over 1 million dollars, even after the financial crisis. Although Williamsburg had more foreclosures than all of the Bronx, people are still slowly moving in and purchasing the abundance of new homes in the neighborhood. People come here, mostly from outside New York City, and do not want to leave.

In the past few years, I've noticed that this type of gentrification is not only happening in Brooklyn, but seems to be happening in major cities throughout the world. Within the past 2 years I've traveled and noticed similar neighborhoods (young professionals, cool fashion, and condos in formerly working class or run down neighborhoods) in Paris, Barcelona and Chicago.I'm not sure about other cities, but gentrification is not very new to New York.

This was going on in the East Village/Lower East Side in the 90's when similar gentrification was taking place in that part of Manhattan. I remember seeing a show by Penny Arcade (http://www.pennyarcade.tv/biography/index.html) in which she told stories of people who were displaced due to the gentrification in the neighborhood. In fact, Williamsburg is the spill-over gentrification from the East Village in the 1990's. Last semester when I observed the art teacher in the elementary school in my neighborhood, she explained how the student population is decreasing because students' families are leaving. It's too expensive to live here. There is also an art show going on in Fort Greene until May 16, 2010 about the gentrification of Brooklyn and how it affects New Yorkers (http://www.mocada.org/).

Artists are the ones who typically start these trends of gentrification. They move into neighborhoods that are low-income and cheap. They beautify the space and it draws in young professionals who want to live a similar life. Soon, the rents, and the neighborhood prices overall, rise. This forces the original low-income residents, as well as some of the artists who have contributed to the changes, to leave. As the years pass by, I am becoming more interested in having a decent job and a stable lifestyle. I understand the issues of gentrification from one point of view; get these people to go back to where they came from and leave our neighborhood as it

was. However, there are some original residents who enjoy the beautification and increased socio-economic level of their neighborhood. There is also the point of view of the people who want somewhere to live and enjoy living in these environments. As the article below points out, it's a complex issue. I'm assuming that the talks The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (http://www.mocada.org/) will address these issues, but will they come up with a solution? I'm not sure, but I do know that they've created art that will add to the beautification of life that drives gentrification.

http://fort-greene.thelocal.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/artists-reflect-on-role-in-gentrification/

Fine Art vs Graphic Design

2010-04-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

For our class with Professor Jiesemfoek, we started the semester asking each other "What is art?" It seemed to me to be a starting point to open our eyes to the vast perceptions that attempt to define art, including the parts of European history that reveals the cultural construct of the concept not found in every culture. Still, a few times opinions of what constitutes art has come up in classes at Brooklyn College.

I got my BFA in graphic design from the School of Visual Arts (SVA). Whether or not people believed it was true, there was the underlying ambiguous battle between fine art and commercial art, with the argument that fine art is useless bullshit (from the designer point of view) and the commercial arts are not art (from the fine artist point of view). In fact, one classmate in my MA program for Art Ed. at Bklyn College even said, "Graphic design is not art." Although I understand that commercial/design art consists of many mediums such as interior design, textile design, film, photography, computer art, etc. I will focused on graphic design for the argument of commercial art in this post.

Recently a friend of mine from SVA came to my apartment and I was happy to show her the work of Luba Lukova, which I didn't know prior to the NAEA conference. My friend knew her because she taught a few classes at SVA, where we graduated from. My friend pointed out a quote from an article on Luba Lukova titled "Railing Against 'The Emptiness of Fine Art', Luba Lukova Fights to give Graphic Design its Due" - http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=3782

"I'm not personally inspired by contemporary fine art," she says. "To me, it has become something for spoiled people, very existential, for people who are in love with themselves. They don't think about the audience, just making something provocative for the sake of being provocative, but without saying something that means something to more people. To me, that's an empty shell, even more empty than the most superficial design. Design is something that people see every day, so why not use that?" Lukova asks in the end. "Replace the emptiness of fine art with meaning, which can be so easily in contact with the audience, using the form of the design."

I was very surprised to read this. It must have offended some people. There are lots of fine artists that are really inspiring for me and I love the work of many fine artists. However, I found her comments amusing because there some truth in what she says. One of the reasons I've loved the recent visual culture classes on outsider art and craft art is because it exists aside the art world and it's just as amazing as much of the celebrated art that we get to know when we are formally trained in institutions. In the art world it seems as though its about who you know, how much cultural capital you have, what school you went to and all of this goes back to class and your background. Rarely does an artist come from a less than privileged background. It does happen, but it's rare.

I can't say I'm passionate about arguing that graphic design is art, especially since I'm far from practicing and left that field a long time ago. I can see the point of view where graphic design is just a marketing tactic with advertising psychology behind it. It's one reason why I could not stay in that field. However, in general I think that lots of graphic design is beautiful artwork. There is such a gradient of what can be considered art that most of it, in my opinion is in the grey area. I've seen fine art in Soho that consisted of a white piece of paper with a staple in it and I've seen graphic design on PowerPoint by someone who has no interest or insight into art. It's all relative and at some points we all agree.

I think that as an art teacher, we should not disillusion aspiring fine artists, but we should not discourage them either. I think it's important to see both sides of the fine art vs. commercial/design art argument as a visual art teacher. I think teaching digital arts and preparing kids for careers is just as important as offering them experiences in the material that foster habits of mind, [therapeutic] self expression and all that traditional art materials/mediums have to offer.

I think that many people are not aware of the great work that has been created in the field of graphic design. Below are just a few examples:

David Carson - Editorial Designer

Paula Sher (illustrator turned graphic designer), Tibor Kalam and

Milton Glaser (illustrator and designer, winner of National Medal of Arts by Barack Obama)

Random Graphic Design Posters focusing on Typography

Barbara Kruger - Editorial Designer Turned Fine Artist

(poster on right - "Money can buy you love")

Undoing Whiteness in the Classroom - Reflection on Reading

2010-04-22T17:32:00.000-07:00

Before I comment on the actual reading, I have to say that I enjoyed finding the book on Amazon.com and seeing the two existing reviews. One is a rant about how racist the book is and, therefore, the reviewer will never read it. The other review is an appreciation of the book, "An excellent text for white people searching for an antiracist identity." The dichotomy is interesting and implies that the book touches on some deep issues, possibly in new ways or with a fresh perspective.

I'm all for "undoing whiteness in the classroom", but I think that it's often easier said than done. More practical ideas are needed in this discourse. Regardless, I agree that there is a need to address this issue; as individual teachers and as a field. It's a factor within the education issues intertwined with education reform and inequality. My reflection will address quotes from the handout given in class.

When the book explains the public discourse in America, it includes these quotes "Everyone has the same start in life, with 13 years of free education... It's up to you to seize the opportunities that this country affords you"

This past Wednesday, Professor Jiesemfoek brought us to listen to the author of Teaching by Numbers, Brooklyn College Professor Peter Taubman. In his book, Professor Taubman addresses the negative results of trends in data and assessment. In his speech he included clear explanations describing the educational inequalities that exist in America. He compared Harvard University to CUNY Brooklyn College (particularly around the issues of resources) and the comparison between private schools in Manhattan compared to public schools in Manhattan. Just looking at those differences, we can see that equal educational opportunities do not exist.

I can even think back to my own teaching experiences. I taught in East New York, Brookyn, a Black and Hispanic low-income community. The kindergartners came into the school with knowledge of MLK, but not the alphabet. Their intelligence was not lower, but they exhibited real evidence that they were starting school at a different level than most middle class students whose environment provides preparation that aligns with school achievement. The way this plays out later in life can be an entire PhD dissertation... maybe even multiple dissertations!

"Often individuals are unable to see the connections between racial, class and gender discrimination and economic power because our ideology on social equality creates a climate of denial around documented inequities."

Recently at work we wrote grant proposals for Magnet schools to get funding. Magnet schools are the government's attempt at desegregation. (who knew?) They are specialized, thematic schools that are given extra funding and autonomy so that they can offer higher quality education and attract a more diverse population. It doesn't always work, but they have shown promising results. Magnet schools get about 1/4 or 1/3 of the funding of charter schools. They both have similar tactics for addressing the quality of education, but with two main differences. Charter schools are assisted with private funding, often from large corporations, and charter schools are known to enable segregation. People leading the charter school movement argue that separate can be equal and do not address the issue of segregation. Obama is a big supporter of the charter school movement, so this is not going to change anytime soon.

Many people have heard multiple times that our schools are more segregated today than they have been since before the civil rights movement. There is even a group of researchers at UCLA that publish studies within "The Civil Rights Project" aiming to fight segregation and promote desegregation - http://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/. If I remember right, they (Director, Gary Orfield) were the ones to publish the findings of the current state of segregation in American schools. According to their numerous research studies, segregation does not lead to equality. Integration (racial and socioeconomic) is necessary for addressing the achievement gap. In fact, they say that White people are the most segregated group and White people who have gone to integrated schools are often advocates for desegregation and diversity. Desegregation studies show that all participants benefit from integration. Richard Kahlenberg (http://www.equaleducation.org/press.asp?staff=14), who often has his name attached to Harvard University, is another researcher working towards proving the benefits of desegregation and finds similar results. These prominent researchers have repeatedly published the benefits of desegregation. Meanwhile, there is little, or no research evidence supporting the concept that separate can be equal.

"Communication today between the privileged and economically stressed communities could not be more absent because their worldviews often derive from radically different assumptions and experiences."

When I researched desegregation at work, socioeconomic status came up a lot. It is now recognized that socioeconomic diversity is as strong, or more likely a stronger factor, regarding issues of segregation in schools. They even say that the average socio-economic status of the school is a large factor in determining success, regardless of the background of students. George Bush somehow got ahold of this point of view and outlawed decision making based on race, so that it could be replaced by socio-economic status. Why we have to have one over the other and what that's all about, I don't understand, but that's a whole other issue.

I think that class is stronger than race, although it's obviously intertwined. I just think that if someone grows up poor in America, they will have a very difficult time succeeding in achieving a comfortable socio-economic level, regardless of race. Race will hold you back even more, but it's the poverty level, that is the real detriment (along with a lack of cultural capital and lack of legacy). Unfortunately, especially in urban areas, this usually refers to people who are Black or Hispanic. I haven't studied this, so I can only speak my opinion and my personal experience.

I grew up in a working/middle class environment. My parents were educated and my father had a good job, so at home things were a little different. However, some of the people I grew up around did not value education and were skeptical of the government. My family was skeptical, but did value education. Still, we did not have a ton of money. I never thought I'd be able to go to a private college, but my grandmother helped me out. My high school friend called me a JAP (Jewish American Princess) when I went to the School of Visual Arts (SVA). She went to College of Staten Island on loans, but she did fine, especially after her cousin got her a job as an assistant casting director for commercials before she graduated college. I had another friend who also had connections to get him a job at Prudential in downtown Manhattan, so he didn't finish college... at least not on time. These were my friends from honors classes (I wish I had their connections!). My close friend who was on a lower track ended up with kids in her early 20s, not going to college and becoming a legal secretary. They all seem very happy today.

Anyway, when I went to SVA, I met people whose parents had a lot of money, whose parents were artists, who came out of high quality high schools with good art programs... I met many people and most of them had some kind of significant arts support behind them. Most of them were on a clear path to their career that they chose; something I cannot say for every 20 year old. It was a bit of culture shock for me. I spent my free time in high school hanging out with friends in parks, cemeteries and parking lots talking and drinking. I didn't do any art. I doodled/drew when I was alone and took lots of pictures, but art was not something serious. At SVA I learned a lot about class and privilege because I was always analyzing people's backgrounds and how they got to where they were. I also read about social issues in my spare time (loved belle hooks!).

I was being exposed to people who were more privileged and even though I never really struggled financially, there was a difference. At times it could have been the way our parents raised us more so than class, but class was definitely a factor. Most of the kids at SVA were white. There was some diversity, but it did not mirror the NYC population. Still, within SVA, I don't think that race determined success. However, as I mentioned before, it's definitely a factor that should not be ignored. Out of four black guys I hung out with, 3 are very successful. Out of the three of them the one from an inner city neighborhood had a tough time, where the other 2 guys from suburban areas did not, even though all three of them came into SVA with solid arts backgrounds.

I thought SVA was going to be filled with a bunch of kids taking risks to be artists and following an unsupported passion. However, most of the people I met had insight into different ways of life than I knew growing up and that I know many of the people I knew on Staten Island did not know about this either. If I knew how to prepare for SVA, how to research the field, how to network and what to expect, I might be someplace else right now. I might have known at the time that graphic design often lead to office and business jobs rather than very artsy jobs. This is not always about socio-economic status, but it often is. Class differences are often about lack of access to knowledge and experiences.

Now take my experience and imagine that there is a person who is coming from poverty, who has not been educated in a way that is relative to mainstream education in America and compare that to someone who is of such a privilege that they never struggled and easily continued on their life path that led them to an ivy league education. Many people in America believe that it's talent and hard work that lead people to such success, which is often true, but if someone was to investigate the socio-economic status of the people who go to ivy league schools, small private liberal arts colleges, or other high profile private schools, I'm sure that we would find a vast majority of privileged students coming from relatively high socio-economic backgrounds. I'm sure that if we looked at the resumes of the people in highly regarded positions we would see that they match these schools. This is true for people of various/all races. However, as I said before, race is not something to be ignored. It's very complicated, race is still an issue in America and the remnants of past racial issues are still affecting the people of our country. White people still have the power and sensitivity to other cultures is beneficial for all.

Here are a few interesting links that relate:

Gentrification and Schools in Williamsburg Brooklyn - http://www.nysun.com/new-york/unexpected-obstacle-in-plan-for-brooklyn-school/70595/

Climbing the Socio-Economic Ladder - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/17/social-immobility-climbin_n_501788.html

Generation X Parents - http://www.edutopia.org/generation-x-parents-relationships-guide

SOUJOURN/DINNER PARTY - MUSEUM OBSERVATION*

2010-04-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

I feel so fortunate to have such a great permanent feminist art exhibition so close to where I live, at the Brookyn Museum. When I first saw the Dinner Party installation I was excited to see what it looks like outside of photos published in books. It's existence is as much of an accomplishment as the celebration of accomplishments that it communicates. Judy Chicago put together a dinner party in the shape of a triangle, symbolizing the female sex, and each place setting is for a women who significantly influenced the history of the world. The place settings are created so intricately, each one of a kind plate is upon a uniquely stitched placemat and tablecloth. The stitching includes designs as well as the name of a woman. Each setting has the same uniquely designed flatware and wine glass. She is not only celebrating these women but she is celebrating art forms that have been traditionally created by women and traditionally undervalued. The place settings invite women from history as far back as the prehistoric Primordial Goddess, and span a long time line including Artemesia Gentileski and more contemporary women such as Sojourner Truth, who's place setting is shown above (far right) and Georgia O'Keefe.

Kiki Smith's temporary installation is adjacent to the Dinner Party. She asks viewers to walk through the Dinner Party after the first part of her show. Juxtaposing her installation with the Dinner Party insinuates an intention to illustrate what is behind the scenes of feminist art, adding to the content of her show. In this installation, Kiki Smith illustrates the development of a woman artist throughout the timeline of life. Her show includes drawings on Nepal paper that include pieces of collage that bring in other colors, textures and even glitter, but sparingly. Themes from past work reappear as main subjects, such as the crow and the figure.

When you first walk into the show you are introduced to these drawings and a figure is seated in the middle of the space. The seated figure seemed to be made of aluminum or some type of metal and had a disproportionately large head. All of the sculptures in this series had disproportionately large heads. As you walk through the first three rooms, the drawings on the wall are the most prominent visuals, enhanced by various sculptural pieces. The first room has a sculpture that is made up of silver pieces of wood, metal ornaments and a crow (below). It reminds me of a bird in a nest, although the wood does not create the traditional shape of a nest. As you walk through the rooms, sculptures include a [paper mache?] chair covered with floral paper garland and paper mache light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. The light bulbs have some glitter on them and mimicking the design of the silver pieces of wood, toothpicks hang from each. There also other metal figures, such as the one in the photo below.

Towards the end of the first part of the show, there are wooden coffins with glass long stem flowers inside. Finally her sculptures extend to the permanent exhibition of 18th century rooms. She places paper mache figures in these rooms and one on the stairs outside. She did this to connect the work to her original inspiration. She was inspired by a sewn image from the 18th century. The picture depicts a woman with a slave tending to a baby, a woman of middle age and a coffin on the other side of her; illustrating different stages of life. The sculptures in the 18th century rooms are intended to question women's roles of those times.

The entire show is intended to illustrate the development through life as a woman and as an artist. Kiki Smith is known for creating feminist installation art and the content aligns with her overarching theme. I enjoy Kiki Smith and envy her experience of growing up with a father who was a well-known sculptor. She had a very early start in developing her skills and craft. Her work is always somewhat ambiguous and rarely narrative, yet the female presence is often obvious. I really like feminist art, so a successful feminist artist is appealing to me. I think her form is the most successful part of her work.

Brooklyn Museum - CHILD OBSERVATION**

2010-04-22T12:49:00.000-07:00

I was reminded of my trip to the Museum of Natural History when I walked into the Brooklyn Museum and saw groups of children with their teachers. Again, the younger the children are, the more closely the teachers seemed to watch them. Also like my trip to the Museum of Natural History, the shows I wanted to see the most were the ones that had no children in them. I wondered where the children went and I found teens in the African art section. Most of the 10 or so students were sitting back to back sketching what they saw. They were talking, enjoying themselves and voicing their opinions; "That one is ugly... I like that one." They were all Black students, so it was interesting to see them in the midst of art of the same African decent.

As I looked through the art that was displayed I saw masks from 19th century Congo. I could not avoid thinking about the reading from class, Kongo to Congo and .... I just imagined that these masks and wooden sculptures were probably taken from the land, possibly without permission. I wondered about the other pieces that came from different time periods and/or different parts of Africa. How did the pieces get from Africa to the Brooklyn museum? What did the students I observed think about the context of these sculptures and masks? What kind of insight do they have and are they interested?

Since the whole group was Black it made me think of the group of pre-school students I saw on the train in the morning. The preschool in my neighborhood was going on a trip. All of the students were white except for one Asian. Although they were in preschool, they felt older as if they had more awareness of their surroundings and life in general. The preschool by my apartment is called the Williamsburg Northside Preschool and it costs from $1,050 a month (2 days a week) to $2,100 a month (5 days per week), making it only available to certain New Yorkers. They have a teaching approach based on the Reggio Emilia model, offering students a very high level/high quality start to their education.

So, in Williamsburg I observed a primarily White group, at the Brooklyn Museum I observed an all Black group, on the subway ride back from the Brooklyn Museum I saw a primarily Hispanic group of children and while I was at the Museum of Natural History I saw a group of girl students with Burkas. It's interesting to see this in a time when we hear about the segregation in schools across the country.

Hitler's Art - Auctioned

2010-04-21T11:14:00.001-07:00

On April 16th, Hitler's drawings were auctioned. I remember the first time I heard about Hitler's artwork. Around 2000, when Rudy Giuliani was still mayor of NYC, there was a controversy over the show titled "Sensation" at the Brooklyn Museum. The controversy was centered around a religious painting on display because part of the painting was made with human feces. Giuliani supported and participated in negative commentary about that show. He also had it closed down. I was attending the School of Visual Arts at the time and one of my professors showed us a video that compared Guiliani with Hitler. Hitler prevented artists from doing their work and expressing themselves during the time of the Nazi's. I also learned that Hitler was not accepted into art school. His experience of not being accepted is often contemplated as a factor that was potentially connected to his actions during WWII. Recent articles say that his professor was Jewish and I've also heard that his grandfather, who was unsupportive of his art, was also Jewish.

Now, in 2010, his art is being auctioned. Newspaper articles describe his work as mediocre, the reason for not being accepted to art school after applying twice, and that his work would be considered moderate today. Today he probably would be accepted into art school, possibly based on his potential to improve. It reminds me of a recent class discussion that touched upon the importance of who the artist is in relation to the artist's work and the artist's success. The auction sold Hitler's work for approximately six times the expected value. Collectors may have been interested in adding to their collection of WWII collectibles or might just have wanted to own the work of someone famous. I'm not surprised that his work sold and when I read who the buyers were, it makes sense. Still, I don't feel I missed out on anything and I, personally, would not want art created by Hitler.

Articles

Sensation Closed Down

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/10/nyregion/sensation-closes-as-it-opened-to-cheers-and-criticism.html?pagewanted=1.

The Auction Announced

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/7511134/Hitler-sketches-that-failed-to-secure-his-place-at-art-academy-to-be-auctioned.html

After The Auction

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/04/23/hitler.auction/index.html

NAEA Conference

2010-04-21T07:54:00.001-07:00

I was so excited to go to the NAEA conference that I planned a four and half day trip, allowing myself time to leisurely attend the entire conference. I ended up attending 3 to 5 full workshops a day plus a few that I only attended for part of the time. It was interesting to gain insight into current research, art teacher best practices and the differences and similarities within field of art education across the country.

Getting to know some of my classmates and professors a little better was fun, including being able to see our professors in a different context and to see them present their accomplishments. Senior teachers who presented their successes were inspiring; particularly Adrienne Hunter who spoke about her successes in special needs contexts. The number of workshops on new/digital media surprised me. I understand that teachers are interested in gaining digital skills and it’s relevant to our time, but there seemed to be very few workshops focusing on traditional media such as painting and sculpture. There were, however, multiple workshops on photography, Manga and digital technology. I was happy to learn about simple ways to create stop-motion animation and clay-mation videos.

The thread of social justice was interesting, including the art that was highlighted, such as Luba Lukova’s graphic design posters and the work of Mexican printmakers who voiced opinions of social issues through their work. Current trends in education leaning towards social justice and digital media arts engage me. I think it's important for teachers to raise awareness in students about current global issues that the majority of the world is trying to address, such as poverty, racism, classism and environmental issues[1]. Traditional media is important, such as painting and sculpture, but so are more contemporary mediums of visual communication and expression. Due to visual literacy, digital media/commercial arts and the deep communal connection naturally embedded in the arts, I believe that visual art class is a great platform for addressing social issues and incorporating technology. There are plenty of artists in the world who provide art teachers with great examples/resources. I look forward to fine tuning my craft to incorporate all of these things into a curriculum in a successful way.

Overall, it was a good experience and I look forward to going to the conference again after a few years have past. I would like to go as a teacher, when I have a more specific focus on the information I’d like to gather, and benefit from a deeper exchange and networking experience.
[1] I really enjoyed one environmental issues workshop that discussed environmental/outsider art that is created to assist people in poverty, such as architectural structures for shelter and bamboo bicycles for transportation.

AMERICAN VISIONARY MUSEUM - MUSEUM OBSERVATION*

2010-04-18T16:22:00.000-07:00

"Visionary art as defined for the purposes of the American Visionary Art Museum refers to art produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training, whose works arise from an innate personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself." (American Visionary Museum, 2010)

When you visit the MoMA, or even galleries in Chelsea, there is an underlying connotation that the artists who are exhibiting are superior to other artists. Although this perception is being challenged among some people, it still exists. Much of the time there is good reason for it, such as the current Tim Burton show. He is so prolific, talented and widely respected, possibly nobody can compete.

On another side of the spectrum, there is the outsider art that we discussed in class. Art made by people with no formal training, just passion, interest and time. I went home after class and watched Calvin Black's Possom Trot again, showing my husband. I loved it because it exhibits raw creativity, not conforming to the realm of academia or the art world.

In Baltimore, there is the American Visionary Museum (http://www.avam.org/), a museum dedicated to outsider art. I visited it twice because it was one of the best shows I've seen in a long time. I had to go back for a second look to make sure I could see a few things I missed the first time. It was great to see artwork that is so unpretentious. It communicates to anyone and everyone, not just a small portion of the population who are well versed in the arts and/or have read the appropriate writings. It's also lots of fun and easily accessible to children. I don't think children would need to be persuaded, or guided through how to appreciate this genre of art as much as a lot of "high art". For me, it inspires a rebelion against critique and just invites viewers to revel in the enjoyment of creation.

There were a few things in the museum that caught my eye, particularly the large sculptures, such as a large ball of bras. It was like a rubber band ball that some people make, layering rubber bands until it gets bigger and bigger, only it was bras. It was funny. There were also these robots made of metal, possibly found objects, that were moving. They were so fun to look at; almost like giant children's toys. There were also wooden sculptures that you could move by pressing a button. There were objects outside, such as a giant egg covered in mirror mosaic and an architectural structure, made of logs of various shapes and sizes, that you could walk into.

The second floor of the main building was curated with the theme of social justice, coinciding with the NAEA conference. There were works from artists in prison, such as an Al Qaeda prisoner who created drawings of flowers. His drawings almost looked like they were derived from stencils and was interesting to see; as if it should be unexpected and we should expect something violent. There was also a series of work created by a man who was schizophrenic. During his life he was in and out of institutions and looked at as nothing more than a crazy person. After he died a relative cleaned out his apartment and found that he was a prolific artist who depicted various social issues including racism. There were many works on this floor relating to the experience of being African-American.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated

2010-04-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

When I was doing my BFA at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) I took an art history course called "Women in Film". In the class we watched movies made by women and critiqued movies from a woman's point of view. I was introduced to the movie "Romance" and she told us that it was only playing in a small theater in the West Village and it would never get rated in the US, therefore, it would never become a well-known movie in the United States. According to IMDB it was actually banned in the United States (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0194314/). She explained to us that American Pie is fine because it's from a male point of view, but if a female version of American Pie was ever made, it would never get funded because it would never get rated. Although there is a lot of sexual content, Romance shows the female perspective, unlike other movies which are always showing sex and sexuality from a man's point of view. We briefly learned about the rating system. We learned how ambiguous it is and that it's sexist. I put This Film is Not Yet Rated in my Netflix Queue a while ago because it reminded me of this class.

I watched this documentary about a director hiring an investigator to find out who actually rates American films and how the rating system works. They were able to find out who some of the raters were and the guy who runs the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA - http://www.mpaa.org/), Jack Valenti. Jack Valenti worked in the White House before working in the movie industry. He is connected with leaders of the few major media corporations. These leaders are a part of an appeal board, as the final say when movie makers appeal their ratings.

Ratings are a big deal in the movie industry because if you don't get rated, you can't get funding. The rating system seems to ignore levels of violence, but censors sex. I found it strange that the movie somehow appeared to advocate more sex in movies. I tried to look past that at other criticisms, such as the discrimination against movies depicting gay sex. It can be the same as straight sex scenes, but if the scenes are gay, they wont get rated.

One director commented on the making of war movies and explained that war movies need to be watched by representatives from the military to make sure that they show America in a good light. At one point the movie said that the rating system has gotten worse over the past 20 years, which would explain movies like Platoon and Casualties of War. Still, he brought up a good point. He thinks that having the media always depict the military as being benevolent ahs made the American people more pro-war and warlike. I'm not sure this is true, but it's interesting.

At some points the interviews with directors/movie makers seemed to be them trying to justify why their movies should have been made instead of critiquing the rating system. The most successful part of the critique, I think, was definitely the ambiguous connection to the six corporations that not only own all major media companies, but they are involved in the rating system.

POST NO BULL - GALLERY OBSERVATION*

2010-04-08T05:01:00.000-07:00

I went to see the show of that my former professor put together in the lobby of the School of Visual Arts (SVA), my alma mater. She used her current students and also reached out to previous students to ask them to design posters. The installation was based on advertising posters pasted in public space throughout the city, such as on a wall of a building under construction. Instead, the posters are anti-advertisements, advocating for social change. She is the professor for Graphic Design for Social Change at the SVA, a course she created.

Graphic Design for Social Change was one of my favorite classes at SVA. During my BFA, I was always admiring graphic design that was socially aware, such as the work of Tibor Kalman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibor_Kalman) in Colors magazine or Barbara Kruger (http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/feminism/kruger/kruger.htm). I always wished I could do work like them even though I knew that I do not have that kind of talent. I was really looking forward to seeing this show.

There were a few pieces of work in the show that exhibited talent in illustration and a few pieces of graphic design that were inspiring. There were logos redesigned to be anti-ads instead of advertising (above right). This idea is not innovative and I was surprised how big they stuck out and how much they were on display. In the entrance there were two canvases displayed that I liked. One with a B and one with an E and below the E, in small lettering, it say "be open". I liked the corner of the exhibit, shown below.

She made a facebook post to recruit people to make posters. Although I'm sure she doesn't remember me after these 10 years have passed, she somehow friended me on facebook a few months before posting this, so I emailed her and she welcomed me to participate. The assignment was to do a poster for an issue you are passionate about and she gave a list of suggestions. I have always enjoyed reading about social issues, so getting ideas was easy for me. I decided to look into women's issues. I came across mass amounts of research trying to investigate women's trafficking, which brought back memories of rumors, facts and images I saw from living and traveling in Asia. I sent her a poster and she said she would definitely use it (below left) and she wanted me to do at least one more. I worked on a few posters and sent them to her, but they didn't really fit what she wanted. She wanted me to revise them, including the original. I think they were too editorial. I got caught up in all the information I found and was more interested in communicating that information than making a poster to communicate a message to the viewer quickly, as poster design is meant to do.

I couldn't revise them again because the semester started and I also had minor stomach surgery during the semester that interrupted schoolwork that needed to be done at home. At least she gave me credit for participation.

I think that this was the first time she did a group show in the lobby. She said that she'll never know when she'd get the opportunity to do this again. I wonder if the opportunity arose because of the increased awareness of the need for change to address global issues. I think that more and more people are becoming aware of global issues that need be addressed, such as global warming, food production, and the not-so-new desire to end war.

THE ARTIST IS PRESENT - MUSEUM OBSERVATION*

2010-04-03T19:25:00.000-07:00

Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present is the first performance art show held at the Museum of Modern Art and it is going on now, until May 31st. After studying various art forms for years, I feel that I can usually understand what I see, even if I have to read the artist statement. She uses naked bodies, her own body, interactive performance and re-enacting previous performances. This I get and I appreciate her innovation. I was surprised to hear she has been doing her work since the 1950's. She is also known for pushing boundaries and peoples' comfort zones. I had to walk around a few times and I still did not get the appeal of her content. Perhaps because it challenged my comfort zone, rather than giving me an enjoyable experience.

There were naked women in the show. One was attached to the middle of a wall, half way to the ceiling. There were two in doorways where you could choose to walk through them. There were people with clothes on. Two were facing each other, pointing, almost, but not touching pointer fingers. On the other side of the wall behind them, there were two people, also with clothes on, sitting back to back with their hair tied together. This all seemed to be communicating something about human relationships and, possibly, sexuality.

There was a room where there was a woman massaging her breasts on video along with a few other video screens that I did not fully understand. This was behind a wall that displayed Abromavic with a pile of animal bones, some depictions of them are clean and some are bloody. There was photography and video throughout the exhibition.

After I walked through it, without being moved by much and not understanding much, I went to read a book about her work to gain more insight. What stood out for me is that the Balkans have a very different view of sexuality than most cultures and that is where she is from. "For example, if it rained too much, the women of the village would run into the field and lift their skirts in an attempt to scare gods and end the rain" as it says in the description to a previous show - http://www.likeyou.com/en/node/2923. I keep thinking I remember it wrong, but that book I read at the MoMA said that if an animal was sick a man would rub his penis and then rub the animal for good luck... or something like that. Are these traditions the inspiration for pushing people's comfort zones in regards to sexuality?

I guess she was a pioneer of shock art, since she's been doing this since the 1950's. I guess her work challenges peoples' notions of sexuality. I guess it's just not my favorite art, but I can definitely respect all her accomplishments.

The one part of her show that was separate from the rest, her latest work, The Artist is Present. The other live people are representing her past work, in which she was the live person in the performance (sometimes her husband). For this new piece, she sits in an open space in the MoMA in a chair facing an empty chair at a table. There is not much else there for visual stimulation. Her dress is simple and the table and chairs are plain wood. The space around her is closed off, but people are allowed to sit opposite her in the empty chair and interact with her. She sits quietly and stares and everyone who goes to sit opposite her mirrors her tableau. It's interesting to see the artist actually present and interacting with their audience regardless of how it's done. I guess she is a living still life that can be interacted with by individual viewers.

I guess I can say that her work is interesting.

Why should the arts increase student achievement?

2010-04-03T18:50:00.000-07:00

There has been so much writing published about education and recently there is so much being published on the crisis in education. There are numerous vantage points and a lot of sub topics. For this blog entry, I'm going to focus on the buzz around academic achievement and how it affects arts education.

According to Rupert (2006), the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is driving the data craze. Since Bush enforced NCLB, accountability is a new buzz word and data, another new buzz word, must justify what educators are being held accountable for. This is a very scientific way of thinking and scientifically-based research is expected to be the driving force of education reform. I work in education evaluation research and our company never did as well as during the Bush years. Politicians say that the United States will not leave any children behind. We must work harder to improve student achievement so that they will be prepared to compete in the global economy. People in other countries are developing their skills and competing for our jobs. Even worse, other countries will compete with America to be the most powerful, and richest, country in the world.

Teachers are being criticized like no other professionals and student achievement is discussed as though the fall of the United States is dependent upon its outcome. Assessments are test based and quantitative. People are criticizing the movement towards testing and the push for student achievement. Much of it is unclear. Have education programs been compared across countries? What factors are included in standardized test results for each country? What are the differences in preparation for these tests across countries? How sure are we that tests tell us so much? How much have we questioned and dissected empirical research in education? Nobody questions using scientific research, developed by psychologists who wanted to make their field more scientific, for something that's questionably science.

How does this affect arts education? The No Child Left Behind Act recognizes the importance of the arts by naming them a core subject. However, there is not enough time or money to provide children with visual arts, music, theater and dance instruction. There are already 4 other core subjects (ELA, math, science and social studies) that will remain intact, as well as other subjects such as foreign language and physical education. Many schools, districts and states cannot adhere to the arts requirements and they often seem as though they do not exist. However there are still pockets of successful public school arts programs, such as CAPE in Chicago - http://www.capeweb.org/

Arts education is feeling the pressure of accountability. School administrators must justify their programs as they are held accountable for students' academic achievement. With the lack of money invested in schools, and the current financial crisis, allocating money for the arts can be a risky decision. NCLB has inspired numerous research studies that "scientifically" prove that the arts offer intangible benefits such as self-esteem, engagement, etc. We can even say that the arts enhance 21st Century Skills such as problem-solving skills, persistence, and creativity. Yet, there is no scientific evidence that it directly enhances academic achievement. Researchers are still trying. However, more and more, support is shifting to arts-integration. If the arts are infused into other content areas then students can have the benefit of the arts, while still focusing on academic achievement. The arts can indirectly enhance academic achievement and arts-integration seems like a great way to do this. Teaching artists and arts organizations are being hired to temporarily go into public schools to offer coaching that will transfer their arts skills to classroom teachers and arts instruction to public school children. Some administrators say that quality arts teachers are hard to find, and teaching artists can offer more art forms (they can hire more than 1). Will arts integration take the place of arts classes taught by art teachers? I'm not sure what this will mean for arts teachers. Hopefully when the economy gets better, arts teachers will benefit. For now, it seems as though the arts are still being eliminated due to budget cuts.

Currently the NYC DOE is trying to mandate that all children have access to all art forms. They must first figure out what arts are in all of the schools throughout NYC, which is not an easy task for them. They are currently attempting to measure the quality of the arts with a survey that investigates quantity. A qualitative investigation is just too much money. Can they really measure quantity and quality in the same way? With the same survey? Surprisingly, they, people with arts education backgrounds, seem to think so. Is it just that they are pressured for time and money? I don't know. It seems as though it all comes down to time and money.

Rupert. (2006). Retrieved from http://www.keepartsinschools.org/Research/Materials/CriticalEvidence.pdf

TIM BURTON - MUSEUM OBSERVATION*

2010-03-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

This must be one of the most crowded exhibitions in history! I went to the museum in the beginning of January for a film and didn't even think to check out this show then because the museum was such a madhouse. This time I made sure to go during the day on a Thursday. Perhaps it was spring break, but I'm not sure. The rest of the museum wasn't as crowded as the Tim Burton show, and when I went inside it was completely justified.

Outside the exhibit there is a wall that documents Tim Burton's milestone accomplishment and they can fill the wall. Inside, you can see so many of his sketches, drawings and paintings. There were sculptures, props and fashion displayed as well. Of course, there was video too. There is just about every visual art medium exhibited. His work is completely mind blowing and I really loved the show.

The sculptures were my favorite and I was so impressed to see the credit given to the artist who created them. Of course, at this point in his career, Tim Burton cannot be creating everything he does and it's impressive if he's still doing a decent amount of it. Anyway, these sculptures were mostly made out of Sculpey, which surprised me. I normally think of small sculptures when I think of Sculpey, but these were pretty big. They were all in his usual style of fantasy creatures. There was one wooden house with a window that you could bend down and look in to see one of his human-like creatures next to a Christmas tree with a bright red light. It had that touch of goth that his art usually possesses.

I thought about how often very successful contemporary artists often show work in more than one medium. Saturday night I went to see an aerialist performance. It was the dj, the aerial performance and the costume design that came together to create the experience. All elements were equally important. My last post talked about Siouxsie Sioux and referenced Lady Gaga. Musicians that use visuals to enhance their concerts really seem to stand out. Fischerspooner is another example of musicians using visual performance art as part of their work. I guess this is natural in film. In film, there needs to be attention paid to fashion, dialogue, sound and image manipulation. Tim Burton has really perfected the art he creates and can communicate his ideas in a variety of media consistently.

MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY - CHILD OBSERVATION**

2010-03-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

The first thing that I noticed when I walked into the Museum of Natural History on a weekday afternoon, was that the whole building felt like it was filled with young students. The younger the students are the more close the group is in physical proximity. The youngest children have partners with whom they hold hands with while walking in a line, usually guided by two or three adults, one in the back and one in the front. The older elementary school children still form a double line, walking around the museum, but it seems a little looser. A few girls stopped to look at some animals as one said, "Eww! It looks real!" and then an adult in the back of the line reminded them they needed to keep moving. The teenagers seem to form their own smaller and are even more loosely organized. They're conversations are louder and there were even a few girls skipping in a line through the photography exhibit depicting Aztec culture in Peru. The adults that escort the older students are not always easily found.

The youngest children seemed to be most easily amused and the older children seemed to notice that some things caught there attention more than others. All the students seemed happy to be there and seemed to be enjoying themselves. I observed the children in the photography exibit as well as in various animal exhibits. There was a group of children waiting to see the butterfly exhibit, but I did not go inside.

There were almost no groups of children going to the Silk Road exhibit. This exhibit told the story of the history of silk and showed how it is made. There were even live silkworms on display. A group of girls with burkas escorted by a few adults were outside this exhibit, but none inside. Inside I was able to observe three girls with their mother. They were of different ages ranging from about 5 or 6 to about 13 or 14. They were all very interested to learn and read about the exhibition. They discussed what they saw as they walked through it and asked their mother questions. It seemed as thought the individual attention of the small group and the family connections inspired an interest to gain deeper knowledge of what they were looking at. It made me think of how important context is. I would love to have taken a group to visit this exhibit during a study on textile design and thought about ways to build up context and relate it to studio skills. I also thought about how important the relationship between people involved in studying is.

YouTube - Souxsie!

2010-03-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

I could easily say that Siouxsie and the Banshees is my favorite band and has been since I first heard them when I was a teenager. I recently looked at her videos and interviews on YouTube. I am just as fascinated by all of it as I would have been if YouTube existed when I first heard them. After collecting all of her music and listening to it for years, I can easily sing along as I click on each video, including a few videos I knew and a few I didn't know from the late 70's when she was more punk than goth. I was able to find two interviews that took place in America, one was 8 minutes and the other was 2. I missed those ten minutes of television when they aired. Through the interviews I can better grasp Siouxsie as British pop as well as American underground goth. It's really amazing how many videos she did and how many of her concerts were filmed. Without YouTube I would not have access to these clips.

Siouxsie Sioux is known to be the "Goddess of Punk" and the pioneer of goth. She could easily be classified as a leader of feminism as well. She transformed the conventional feminine beauty of blonde hair and smiles into something darker, cooler, more intelligent and stronger. She was heavily involved in fashion and the visual aspect of art. She challenged female sexuality by portraying her sexuality abiding by her own rules, similar to Madonna in that way (not as raunchy though). She incorporates aspects of global culture in her work by commenting on Israel and Hong Kong in her songs, having one CD called Juju, a West African word for supernatural object (derived from the French word joujou meaning toy), as well as naming herself after a Native American tribe. You could even say her make-up resembles iconic images of Cleopatra and, in one of her interviews, she explains the Flamenco influence incorporated in the music of The Creatures (a side project with the bassist and her husband, Budgie).

Her influence carries on today and it's the element of Siouxsie, or punk, that I saw in Lady Gaga that inspired my first post. I think many critiques would gasp that I would even suggest such a thing. Lady Gaga is often criticized for not doing anything innovative even though she is looked upon as an artistic pop star. I see why they say that. However, I don't think any musical artist can compare to Siouxsie. She really had an insatiable energy and almost magical creative stamina that carried her through the past 30 years. I can spend hours clicking around YouTube to see her live performances, array of music videos and interviews. There is such a variety posted on YouTube; it's hard to choose what to post here.

An old concert clip -

(Yes that is Robert Smith from The Cure on guitar - he filled in for a year or so when they had problems with getting a stable guitarist)

A French Christmas Carol -

"In November 2006, within a year of its launch, YouTube was purchased by Google Inc. in one of the most talked-about acquisitions to date."

AIPAD PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW OBSERVATION*

2010-03-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

The Association for International Photography Art Dealers had its annual show last weekend at the Armory located in Manhattan's Upper East Side. I originally thought it was purely an exhibition and then I realized that it an exhibition specifically geared towards dealers. There weren't any under $1,000 except for a few small prints on tables, that went as low as $700, sold in a matte. I didn't think that photographs were worth so much and I began to fantasize about life as a photographer.

Photography may be my most favorite medium. I do not agree with people who question photography as an art form. Painting is expected to alter the reality of perception, but photography is often assumed to capture the real thing. Two people who photograph the same thing easily produce different photographs. Photography is an expression of one's point of view, if nothing else. However, photography can elicit emotions in people to the same extent as other mediums.

My favorite work at the AIPAD show was by Kendall Messick. He was there so I was able to speak to him. He said that he went to SVA and then ICP, two of the top schools for photography in NYC. The work he was displaying showed his house after it burned down. At first, all I noticed were the textures. I love visual texture and he did such a great job capturing them. His work was flawlessly printed with vivid contrasted colors in framed squares. I fell in love. It's obvious that his house burned down was not as romantic as he depicted it. Some of his images are below:

I also attended a panel discussion featuring some of the members of the Photo League (http://www.moma.org/collection/details.php?theme_id=10464) and learned that the photo league members were the first group of photographers known for social documentary. The Photo League eventually closed due to the Communist scare and rise of Marxism in America. It goes to show how impressive photography, and art, can be and how much of an impact it can make on people. One of the photographers, Arthur Leizpig, laughed about how little he sold some of his work for. He said that he was looking at some vintage photography in the show and one piece was 300,000 dollars. Then he turned it over and on the back it showed that it was originally 10 dollars. Below is some of are two of his well known photographs.

It's interesting to see the two different styles, depicting two different time periods, two different points of view; yet, both are documenting life in the New York, New Jersey area.

Teenage Girls Explore Their Lives Through a Camera’s Eye - NY Times Article

2010-03-20T10:25:00.001-07:00

I love the idea of giving students a camera to photograph their lives. It's great to see that the photographs of a group of teenagers were recognized in the New York Times and displayed in the Studio Museum in Harlem. The group was comprised of high school girls who were assigned to photograph their life as a part of their involvement with the photography program at the Studio Museum in Harlem. The expression of their lives gives valuable insight into the city we all live in and I think many adults in this city, especially those who are not in the field of education, often overlook.

This article makes me wonder if photography is a medium that surpasses obstacles teenagers face with expression in other mediums and let these teenagers express themselves with a camera the way a six year-old would with painting. I love the freedom that little kids have when they paint. Six year olds enjoy paint with little inhibitions. As children get older, if they do not have consecutive arts education, they usually do not continue to develop their skills and become self-conscious and inhibited. However, the images and the expression of these teenagers feel freely expressed. It would be interesting to learn more about the education program at the Studio Museum in Harlem to see what type of instruction and direction these girls received and in what social context.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/arts/artsspecial/18STUDIO.html

HIGH SCHOOL HANG OUT - TEENAGE OBSERVATION**

2010-03-19T08:40:00.000-07:00

Today, there were some high school students hanging outside the school for a little while. This is unusual because, as I posted earlier, they are usually chased away by the police officer(s) who works at the school. Today I as able to observe about 7 male students relaxing in the gorgeous spring weather. They were all black or hispanic. One boy came later, who could pass for white, and was teased with the name "gringo" before he chased one of the boys away from the group.

They talked quietly among themselves about someone named Pedro and other things going on in their life. One sat on a parked car and a few leaned on a parked car and a few were standing. They also had a few basketballs so they were bouncing them and started bouncing them together a little bit before they were told to leave. Two police officer/security guard soon came and told them that they had to leave. One said that he was waiting for his mother, but his comment was ignored as if it wasn't true. She repeated, "You can't stay over here." The police officers stayed after the boys left told others to keep walking. I soon heard the male police officer yell again, "You have to get out of here." The female officer said, "Common' let's go" after another minute or two passed.

Observing those boys made me think of what it was like to be in high school when we were able to sit outside with a large group of people the same age and just talk. I did that so much when I was their age that, as an adult, I often wish I was doing something more productive. Looking at them today made me appreciate that experience and think about how rare it is that we do that as adults. I guess we may plan to meet a group at the park or barbeque in summertime, or inside in a nightclub, but it's planned. It's never spontaneous like that because we don't have the time. When we do have the time our friends may not.

I wonder if adults working with kids often come across as not understanding the value of such interactions because us adults have an agenda and are getting paid to educate, not to foster hanging out, or chillin'. I guess as a teacher, you try to incorporate this bonding experience in various ways, such as school trips and group work. Research says that the arts also support positive socialization and I think art class is often an outlet for students to continue creating the bonds having positive social experiences.

RENAISSANCE CHARTER SCHOOL - CHILDREN OBSERVATION**

2010-03-13T06:06:00.001-08:00

My observations with DreamYard, an arts organization that is a client at work, include the Bronx Arts Learning Community (BALC) Festivals. These are works that are exhibited by teaching artists, art teachers and their students. The art, whether it be visual arts, music, dance or theater, is at a level where you can notice the work behind the final product. There may be a choreographed African dance performance where a narrator explains the origins of the dance or maybe a chorus mimicking Broadway hits in a way that is very impressive.

Last year I also observed school-based arts programs throughout the city for the NYC DOE in an investigation to gain more clarity on their annual arts survey. There was one junior high school in particular that was just mind blowing. Their arts instruction enabled students to get an early preparation for a professional life in the arts if they choose. I remember sitting for a practice dance performance that felt professional. Many of the children were only getting instruction from school, but it felt like they were all dancing it since they were toddlers.

Last night I went to see The Renaissance Charter School's (TRCS)talent show. The Renaissance Charter school has a very good reputation, but not because of it's arts programming. I'm not sure about the music program, but the visual arts program consists of one art teacher for 12 grades. Although I remind myself that I went to see a talent show that was put on by the social worker in which the students created the show, it was interesting to see the difference between this show and the shows that I have seen as a result of arts education.

TRCS is located in Jackson Heights, Queens, and the student population reflects the diversity of the borough. There is a criticism of charter schools in which they say that public schools show a decrease in motivated students because charter schools attract the most motivated students. I think this must be true for TRCS. There was an aura of motivation the auditorium. There was a great turnout with support in the form of audience engagement, cameras and video cameras. Performers were confident and praised by adults when they got off the stage. All members of the audience showed respect and all students in the room seemed well taken care of.

The students the performed at TRCS really did exhibit great talent, however, the production was lacking. Except for the two dance performances, there was almost no attention to the visual aspect of the performances. Most children who performed sang, two played the piano, there were also two dance performances. There was no theater or visual arts work. The music was almost all pop music. One piano player played classical and one dance performance was to dancehall reggae, but the rest included pop music such as current top 40 hits, Michael Jackson's Billy Jean and Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly. Overall, the talent show was a great success for those who put it together and the audience who went to see their loved ones perform.

Kongo to Congo - Reading Reflection

2010-03-09T02:20:00.000-08:00

The article Imperial Transcultures: From Kongo to Congo stuck out in my mind after reading it. I knew that issues in Africa were linked to colonization, but this article makes it clearer. It discusses the beginning of colonization in Africa, how Europeans divided the established kingdom in the Kongo to tribes, the role photography played in manipulating people's perceptions of Africa and the creation of African art at that time.

I thought of what it must have been like to have been African when the colonists arrived. I think it must have been terrifying to have the colonists come into your home. I tried to think of what it must have been like to be a European at that time. I think that they must have been ignorant, gullible and unaware. The Europeans in power at that time must have been heartless. I thought about how African art at the time expressed some of this oppression. I was surprised to learn that at least some of the African art I'm accustomed to seeing in museums were expressions of colonial powers infiltrating Africa. Even today, most of us do not know about the intentions of those who created the art. Even museum descriptions do not reveal this point of view - http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/2957/Power_Figure_(Nkisi_Nkondi). I tried to imagine being a tourist in Africa, traveling to the depths of rural areas to find the most "authentic" view of "inferior" people. I tried to imagine myself amongst maps and photography manipulating ideas of what reality could be.

Sometimes history doesn't change much, or at least not enough. Currently the Congo is in distress and I would not be surprised to find out that it can be traced back to the beginning of Portuguese "infiltration" in 1483, when the Congo was ruled by King Nzinga. Last year I sponsored a woman through Women for Women International - http://www.womenforwomen.org/index.php after I found out about female war victims in the Congo. Throughout the world, too many people of African decent face some degree of distress and oppression. It could easily be said that racial discrimination is the perpetuation of skewed colonial perceptions.

Another aspect of this article that seemed similar to contemporary times is the manipulation of visual images. I think that today there is much more awareness regarding visual media in certain aspects of our society. There are advertisements and films that aim to reveal social issues that need to be addressed and visual media is often used to educate. However, there is still a large portion of visual media that aims to create an image, while overshadowing certain unpleasant realities. The advertising of big business is often loaded with imagery that entices viewers to buy products without a clear picture of what they are. Coca-Cola is just a drink to most people. Most people do not think about it's original selling point, cocaine. Today, Coca-Cola uses ingredients that are tested on animals, but is able to say that they do not test on animals because a different company does the testing. Most people don't think about the sugar content either. Instead, Coca-Cola is innocently a drink for happy people, according to the visual media that Coca-Cola produces. Another example of visual culture that has been affected by visual manipulation is journalism. When I traveled to Israel, I learned about how photographers stage scenes and crop photos to manipulate perceptions of war experiences. There are even websites dedicated to "photoshop disasters" - http://designcrave.com/2009-09-22/photoshop-tricks-10-historic-political-photoshop-disasters/

National Geographic now shows the perspective of exoticism for all places around the globe. Tourism is a thriving industry and people enjoy visiting all different types of places. This includes traveling to remote areas to view exotic people and cultures as in early colonial times described in the article. Tourism can cause distress to a location in many ways. In the Caribbean and in Hawaii, tourism often exacerbates racial/ethnic tension by segregating the tourists from the locals; where the tourists are offered more luxury. There is also eco-friendly tourism, such as the locally run tours through the Amazon rainforest. I think there are a lot of people who travel today to try and amend atrocities that have occurred due to Western powers. When I traveled to Cambodia, there were many American NGO's helping to rebuild the country from the aftermath the Khmer Rouge. Although the Khmer Rouge was a form of civil genocide, the occurrences can be linked back to the threat of communism that sparked the Vietnam War and the tension that arose from US/Russia conflict. This episode of Globe Trekker goes into the depths of the rural areas of Cambodia - http://www.pilotguides.com/tv_shows/globe_trekker/shows/asia/cambodia.php.

We can only imagine what the world would have been like without European colonization. Some people say that another part of the world may have taken over. Other people say that we would be much more peaceful. Many people don't think about it.

SHADOWED DREAMER - PERFORMANCE OBSERVATION*

2010-03-08T06:54:00.000-08:00

Stephen Hart is an actor from the UK who is currently performing a monologue illustrating his childhood. Unfortunately, the show is about child abuse. His mother gave him up for adoption as an infant and spent the first 15 years of his life as the child of a schizophrenic mother, a physically abusive step-mother and a neglectful father. Life on his own was also difficult as he moved from the streets, to a group home, and finally to his own place. As he began to get his life together he was raped and is now infected with HIV. Through all of this is was theater that seemed to keep him going and even landed a part in a production by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Today, he is performing a minimal theater piece called Shadowed Dreamer, an autobiography, at Brooklyn College and in NYC public schools.

I was surprised that this was categorized as a LGTB production because the story focused on abuse and his heartache, more than his experiences with other men. The performance was more like storytelling. There was almost no visual component. He came in as though he was anyone walking down the streets of a big city; big sunglasses, shaved head, leather jacket, jeans, backpack... and after he took off his glasses and backpack he began to tell his story.

Shadowed Dreamer reminds me of a theater piece in the Public Theater in the East Village called "County of Kings" (http://theater.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/theater/reviews/13county.html) which also the autobiographical story of an adult's difficult childhood, but instead of highlighting abuse, it highlights the influence of hip hop. The County of Kings was also had minimal visuals, although, it was in a more professional theater with better sound. I also wonder about funding. Would Shadowed Dreamer be funded as a full production? Would people want to go see this in the theater? Also, I'm sure if funding for a more elaborate production was offered, he'd take it, but it doesn't seem like it's his goal.

Theater goers are looking for an escape from the mundane. One could say that Hart's monologue takes you from the mundane, helping you to appreciate what you have. If you have had similar experiences, it may help you to realize that you are not alone. At times his storytelling was captivating and at other times it felt like a list of troubled times he has been through. I found a video on you tube in which he described the performance as "opening the floodgates" and seems to emphasize the Q and A after the performance. He highlights his experiences of breaking through to people who have had similar experiences.

Although the performance was minimal, it wasn't minimal that would probably not be categorized as experimental theater. Classmates have criticized the lack of elaboration as though something is missing and questioned it's validity as art and as theater. Should it have been more visual? Should there have been more actors? Should the monologue have been written in a different way? Maybe it could be classified as a type of theater that is not purely theater. Could it be something other than Theater for Theater's sake? As we continue to ask in the visual arts, we can also ask of theater and every art form; "What is Art?"... or "What is not art?"

SLASH: PAPER UNDER THE KNIFE - MUSEUM OBSERVATION*

2010-03-08T05:35:00.000-08:00

The elevator doors opened to the fifth floor of the museum and the wall directly in front of me caught my eye. The clean, minimalistic paper design covered the wall in almost paint-splattered shapes. The crisp edges and hard, although flexible, characteristic of the smooth, thick paper complimented the artist’s choice of using only black. I looked closer and the way the paper was cut, all curvy edges, gave an organic feel and sometimes repeated curved patterns clustered together, reminded me of bird feathers. Crows came to mind, giving me somewhat of a gothic, cool feeling. I started to wonder if the artist was representing death in a minimalistic, contemporary design. I couldn’t help but see the design representing a cluster of splattered crows. If this was done in a different material the repeated curved edges may not have reminded me of feathers and the crispness of the paper might not have seemed so cold. I may not have seen it the same way.

Slash: Paper Under the Knife is a show of works done in paper and is being exhibited at the Museum of Arts and Design. I enjoyed most of the work displayed there in awe. Most of it was just really beautiful and/or interesting. It was inspirational as I wondered what I could do with paper and informally brainstormed ways to adapt what I saw into lesson plans for children. I thought about how the artists made each piece and how some of them must have used drawing and cutting with an X-acto knife, such as a ceiling to floor piece of black paper which seemed to have been drawn on and then cut out to form silhouettes of the details of a working city, including people, trees, etc. Some of the work seemed much more complicated to recreate, such as the piece by Olafur Eliasson, in which he used a laser to cut pages of a book to resemble the outline of a house.

Overall, I think that the show pushes the boundaries of the never ending question of "what is art", but at the same time, it holds onto traditional ideas of expression and beauty.

SUPERCONSCIOUS FUTUREITUAL - GALLERY OBSERVATION*

2010-03-08T05:02:00.000-08:00

I guess Keith Haring was one of, or thee, first to create graffiti in a style other than traditional tags. Now, it seems commonplace and much of the alternative graffiti feels like illustrative painting. I was first introduced to Nicolas Kuszyk, in 2008, through his mural on Metropolitan Avenue, on the side of a bagel shop. His mural brightened up the street.

Living in the neighborhood, I later noticed his work was later in a local gallery and currently his work is showing in Cinders Gallery in a show titled, "Superconscious Futureitual". The illustrative quality of his work speaks for itself. He illustrates a world of robots in which the robots are metaphors for people.

When I looked more into who this artist is, I found that he is from Virginia. In one interview he said that industry talk is boring, alluding to the idea that maybe he does not like to discuss his work formally, as art is usually discussed in the art world. He also thinks that insurance companies and banks, and the people who run them, are stupid. He seems like a typical guy who likes to draw/paint a lot, comes to NYC because there's more action than from where he's from, settles in Williamsburg because it's "artsy", makes connections with the people around (such as the publishing connection that helped him to get his book published), and continues life.

http://www.rrobots.com

ONE ART INTEGRATION PROGRAM- CHILD OBSERVATION**

2010-03-04T18:49:00.000-08:00

Working in evaluation, observing children in art class is part of my job. This week I observed children who were receiving an art lesson from a teaching-artist that represents Studio in a School, NYC's leading visual arts education organization. Due to federal grant requirements and directions in education reform, they are currently piloting a program that will result in the creation of curriculum units with embedded assessments that integrate visual arts with literacy and math. We are evaluating the program and investigating whether the arts help to increase academic achievement, ensuring that the program is research based. The lesson I observed taught the kids to make fraction quilts.

When the teaching-artist walked into the room, the students were seated quietly, ready for their guest. They all seemed engaged by focusing their eyes on her. She gathered them around a table and all continued to pay attention except one boy who read on the floor to the side. When she told them that they would be making a board game one girl said, "Oooh!" She told them that one box of tissue paper squares was filled with hot colors and the other one was filled with cold colors. The students did not ask what that means. She modeled for them how to cut the squares into halves, quarters, eighths, or sixteenths. Again, the students do not question why and just continue to watch, waiting for it to be their turn.

As the students worked, they didn't question what they were doing. That is the teachers job. They enjoyed the opportunity to use a paintbrush to glue down their squares. It must have been a nice break from their other work. At times I heard comments that aligned with what we learned in our master's degree program; comments that alluded to aspects of children's' imagination and curiosity being expressed.

While the teaching artist showed her self-made visual to illustrate the fractions of a rectangle. There were papers side by side, matted on black construction paper, and each paper was white with a fraction of it colored red; each fraction getting smaller and smaller. One student said, "You should call that the invisible square!" When she explains that the glue is actually a varnish, another student asks, "Can you use it for paper mache?" While she's in the middle of gluing her squares, a pattern starts to appear and another student says, "It looks like checkers," who received an answer from the group, "Checkers are only two colors." Students continued to inquire about the materials, but they were not given the opportunity to explore them. "What makes it shiny?" "Where does white go?" (referring to hot and cold colors)

They worked quietly and contently. The only sad or disappointed face I saw was that of a boy who received rusted scissors. He wanted to exchange them for new ones, but was not allowed. As the students glued their squares, they talked amongst themselves. The classroom teacher was there to make sure the kids stayed in order, as that is not the job of the teaching-artist. "It looks like clear nail polish when you put it on your nails!"

The entire class, the classroom teacher and the school-based literacy teacher were all had an ethnicity/race other than white or Asian. One girl was Hindi and had homemade mini-pastries that her mother made for the Hindu New Year. The classroom teacher instructed her to offer me one. She came over to me and offered me one of each, making sure I was not allergic to bananas or cherries.

Soon the lesson was over.

It's not my job to include my opinion in this part of the evaluation. I'm also not the lead researcher, which means I do not have much say, and possibly not enough insight, in the overall project. However, when I watched this it made me question why a teaching artist is needed to do this. I questioned Studio in a School's marketing tactics and the survival of art education. Studio in a School does some really great work, but they really do market "artists" in a way that validates the lack of trained art teachers in schools. Studio in a School is cheaper than an art teacher and has the students create work that looks great.

I'm not sure about how the residencies work, which is the bulk of their contracts, but I do have insight into this program. The units were developed last year, with teaching-artists, classroom teacher, art teachers and literacy/math coaches from schools that they normally work in; schools that are not Title 1 or Corrective Action. I kept imagining what it would be like if school-based art teachers were given a considerable amount of paid prep-time to create a unit with the support of the others. I'm sure it would be great. Yet, this year, it's the teaching artists that go into the schools, training the classroom teachers and the art teachers, as though they have much more to offer. Under these conditions, how could they not walk into the school and give an impressive presentation?

This particular lesson felt like a regular classroom exercise, but without the instruction of a trained teacher. The students did not know they were doing math and did not know why they were playing a game. Maybe the unit has been more thought out, but I was not informed. In fact, I was informed that they needed to modify the unit that was planned last year and it's still a work in progress. They are not used to working in these conditions, with such "low-performing" students. I'm thinking that as the pilot program develops it will make more sense, however, after realizing that Obama is basically continuing where Bush left off in terms of education, I will not be to surprised if it doesn't.

Australian Beauty

2010-03-04T15:06:00.000-08:00

In 2006 my husband and I visited Australia. I was surprised how much it reminded me of America. I guess it's because we didn't go deep into the center of the continent, where the gorgeous nature exists. We stayed in the cities that have come from British colonies and ventured slightly into the nature through day trips from the cities.

We started our trip in Cairns, in the north. I was surprised how much it looked like it could have been a city in America. Most people were white, the architecture was similar, the streets were large, the buildings were not high. Once we left the city we were able to go to the Daintree Rainforest and into the ocean to see the Great Barrier Reef, which were more interesting. On our way to the rainforest there was a cultural center educating the public on the Aboriginal experience. There was a film showing the history of the brutality of colonization in Australia, which was not long ago; during the 1900's. They explained their ways of life were intertwined with the land and the land was taken from them during the brutal murders that took place. It reminded me of the history of Native Americans; the story of a beautiful culture destroyed by colonization. I just thought how crazy it is that European colonization has affected almost every inch of this world. Once we got back to Cairns it felt so strange to see almost no Aboriginal people in the streets. I remember seeing one assimilated family that stood out as we walked along the boardwalk.

The second city we went to was Melbourne. Melbourne felt a lot like New York, but smaller. It was more city-like, there were yellow cabs and tall buildings. It was also more diverse. We stayed in an area just out of the center, which felt like it could have been a part of Brooklyn. They even had their own version of Coney Island, called Luna Park, which was built by the same people the built the original Coney Island. However, still, there was almost no sign of Aboriginal culture until we took a day trip out of the city. We took a bus down the Great Ocean Road where we were able to see a rest stop painted in the style of Aboriginal art.

Finally, the last stop on our trip was Sydney. We looked for more Aboriginal experiences, but it was winter and the outdoor happenings were closed. Sydney also felt like some type of Euro-American city, without anything special that stood out except the touristy Opera House. I found some galleries that had Aboriginal art, but not all of it was made from Aboriginal people. Then, walking along the water, we saw street performers; two aboriginal men and one white man. They were playing the didgeridoo to techno music.

On this trip I learned what happened to the Aboriginal people and saw the lack of their visual presence. I heard that some Aboriginal people live in the center of Australia, far away from all that the Europeans built up, trying to live their lives as they were, in peace. Other Aboriginal people struggle through the cultural differences that have been imposed upon them, while many white people cannot understand their lack of assimilation. Unfortunately, a huge amount of Aboriginal people were killed and simply do not exist anymore.

Due to the history of this land, the ice dance performed by Russian people during the 2010 Olympics hit a sensitive topic. They inappropriately dressed up as Aboriginals and it was the media acknowledged. There was no tribute to the culture and they did not form a relationship with the Aboriginal people allowing them to have the knowledge of how to portray the culture properly, if it were to even be approved by the Aboriginal people.

There is nothing that can compensate for all of the people and cultures around the world that have been forced into some form of colonization and/or genocide due to European expansion. As the time goes by, the generations that come after those who have already done what is now history inherit the repercussions. We need to be sensitive to the history that we have inherited in order to work towards making amends in any ways that are possible. If it is possible, we must also understand that it takes time. Hopefully this dance has raised awareness for some people that the world has not healed yet and/or raised awareness about ways that history affects the present day.

Brooklyn Nightlife

2010-02-27T08:54:00.000-08:00

When I was in my teens I got introduced to NYC nightlife. When I was about 14, there was a club for underage kids in Staten Island that would play freestyle and hip-hop and have live performances. I meet my friends there every weekend for at least six months. A few years later my friends and I started to go to clubs in Manhattan, but less often. We would mostly go to Limelight and Palladium, but I also remember going to a few other places such as Club USA and Sound Factory. The primary visuals were through different lighting techniques. I remember that the Palladium had a pool full of balls and Club USA had a slide going from the first floor to the second floor. The fact that the Limelight was an old church also added the visuals inside. At this time it was popular for girls to dance in cages on pedestals. At this time in my life going out was more about being with friends and about the music. I liked going to Tuesday Goth night at the Limelight, but I only got to go a few times because my friends weren't really into that. I went to see live concerts as well, but the visuals were provided by the performers and varied accordingly.

After college I got interested in going out at night again and started to go out every weekend. My friends and I went out mostly to small bars that had dance space. We became regulars at two bars in the lower east side, Ludlow Bar and Plant Bar. There were not too many visual aspects and we were going out for the music and the people. Ludlow bar played mostly old hip-hip hop and dancehall reggae. The crowd was racially diverse and down to earth. Plant Bar played more electronic and house music with a little hip-hop and 80's mixed in. This place had more of a white crowd and it was also down to earth. We would also go to bigger clubs, other parties or live venues depending on the DJ.

During these times, my friends and I had plans to see DJ Shadow one night. He was supposed to be playing somewhere in Dumbo, but when we got there a sign said that the show was cancelled. The sign on the door that said if you wanted to go to a party you could go to an apartment around the corner. We figured, "why not?" and ended up spending the night with some artists in their loft space. It was completely gorgeous with various lighting and structures built. They told us that they were throwing a party at the Lunatarium in the near future and we decided to go. It became another spot, but it was more expensive and the crowd was not as friendly. The big draw to these parties was the visuals. The music was good, but did not compare to the visual attraction. There would be tents set up with lights, various life size sculptural art, video art projected, large hammocks hanging from the ceiling to swing on, etc. and it was in a warehouse building in Dumbo that had a few of the bridge and the skyline.

I ended up moving to Japan, but my friend who was always with me during these times continued going out every weekend. She found out about warehouse parties in Bushwick that were called "Danger" parties. When I got back, I went out sometimes and enjoyed these Danger parties. We also recognized one of the guys from Lunatarium and found out about their parties (Winkel and Baltick). The last time I went to a Danger party they had a party on a boat in Bushwick with a 1930's theme. A band in costume playing 1920's music greeted you when you arrived on the boat which had a DJ and video art inside, an old time band up top, a tarot card reader, two people bbquing and party goers of whom a few were dressed up as though it was the 30's. In order to get to this boat you had to go to the address sent via email which was a warehouse in Bushwick that had a woman hanging from the ceiling performing in costume and a man playing an old wooden piano. That's where you pay the 20 dollars to get your ticket to get on the bus that brought you to the boat.

It seems as though these warehouse parties are growing. I now also get emails from a group of at least two women who also throw very visual parties and are a part of an organization that actually gives classes and offers opportunities to get involved. In fact, the New York Times recently published an article on these parties - http://nyti.ms/cbsq2D

The following are some pictures taken on New Year's Eve 2008 at a Winkel and Baltick party.

If I was to analyze the visual aspect of these parties and relate it to social justice/awareness/issues, the first thing I would say is that it does not draw a diverse crowd. A friend of mine who is African-American does not want to go to these parties anymore for this reason. The crowd is predominantly white. It feels like the parties are put on by and for people who move to New York City in hopes to be involved in something artistic and creative. I would also guess that the people involved have had opportunities for high levels of education, but this is hard to see just by looking. I do not think it's a conscious decision to create a somewhat homogenous event.

Graffiti - The Bronx vs. Williamsburg

2010-02-26T21:05:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I take train through the South Bronx when I do fieldwork with my job, evaluating arts education programs. As I look outside the subway I notice the graffiti. It adds colors to the neutral landscape of concrete, brick and metal fire escapes. I started documenting some of the graffiti I see, but not only because I like the way it looks. It's also because of the stark contrast between the graffiti in the Bronx and the graffiti in my neighborhood, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

There are some similarities. Both areas do have murals on the walls. However, the murals in the bronx are usually for a specific institution such as a school (below, left) or store. I found one piece done for a store in Williamsburg as well (below, right).

The walls in the Bronx are mostly filled with tags. Some are are easy to read and others take more effort. Some tags are just writing and some are colored for more emphasis. I noticed that the tags I saw along the 4 train line were interesting to read. As in the photo below, they said things like, "Mute" or "Sad". Other photos I took also included tags such as "Melo", "Piff", "Easy." The words reflect the culture in the South Bronx. Meanwhile, the graffiti in Williamsburg was much more illustrative. There are characters and images that look like more traditional paintings. The graffiti in Williamsburg represents the culture of the neighborhood as well.

When I compare the graffiti, it both seems to be generated from a mutual interest of self-expression. For me, I think both are attractive to look at, but I can also see that the graffiti in Williamsburg as something that would be more respected by society due to the style. I think about how hip-hop was born in the Bronx, but then the graffiti in Williamsburg feels more sophisticated in relation to societal norms of viewing art. When I see the contrast I think of the contrast in class and education between the two neighborhoods and how it's reflected in the graffiti. The graffiti artists in Williamsburg may have innate illustrative talent, but I also wonder whether they are more likely to have an education background that included a higher level of visual art instruction. We all know that the education of children in the South Bronx, in and out of school, does not compare to the level of education among the residents of gentrified Williamsburg. I think this would be a great photo study to explore because of these reasons.

Visual Images from the Food Industry

2010-02-26T20:34:00.000-08:00

When I was 15, my friends (especially the guys) were interested in watching documentaries called "Faces of Death", which documented brutal and/or unusual deaths of humans and animals. When I watched it there was a clip from a slaughterhouse. It was my first visual exposure to how cows are killed for food and it changed my life. I did not eat meat of cows, lamb, pigs or any other animals again until last year, after temporarily listening to an acupuncturist who incorrectly told me it would help a health problem I have. I am now back to avoiding meat.

Current issues in the food industry have brought awareness to genetically modifying animals so that they are many times the weight they would be naturally. Food turkeys are albino. Factory farms have grown into unsanitary conditions, in addition to being places of utter torture. Nutrition and other health concerns have finally grabbed the attention of the masses.

My knowledge of animal rights was updated last summer when I visited an animal sanctuary. I was not expecting the intense stores that I heard from the people who run the place. I heard stories of abuse of factory farm animals, as well as the results of racing horses. There were other random stories as well. In addition to listening to all of this I also saw the results. There was a gigantic pig, a chicken that could not stand due to its massive of body weight, a horse without eyes, a chicken with the bones of its wings exposed, and strange looking albino turkeys. I would like to document the images I've seen. As a start, I recently I briefly volunteered at an animal sanctuary in Woodstock, NY (existence was primarily focused on rescuing factory farm animals) in exchange for a few photos (see below).

However, the problem with animal abuse is not only within the food industry. All chemicals are tested on animals, from shampoo to Coca-Cola. The images I've seen have gone beyond food and into other aspects of life such as Elephant training for tourism in Thailand, animal testing for cosmetics, cock fights, bull fights, horses that are raced until they are crippled, and visiting animal sanctuaries in Upstate New York. It's traumatizing to see and hear about these things, but not as traumatizing as the truth behind the imagery.

TEENS ON SUBWAY OBSERVATION**

2010-02-15T17:57:00.000-08:00

On my way home from dinner tonight, about 8 teenage boys got on the L train at Union Square going into Brooklyn. They were of different heights and probably early high school, possibly middle school age. They all wore jeans and either sneakers or Timberland-type boots. Some of them had jeans that were hanging below the waistline and some had baseball hats on; fashion was linked to hip-hop culture. They wore mostly neutral colors and their skin colors varied from white to dark. They were particularly easy to observe because they were so loud; playfully loud. They were repeatedly saying, "Ohhhh"... gradually increasing in volume.

As our train left the station they were yelling about a girl who had no shirt on, as if she was on the platform in Union Square. After that I could not understand what they were talking about even when I tried. A few of them hung on the bars and slightly swung from the bars. If their volume started to decrease some of them would start yelling again. Most of the other people on the train ignored them and some looked their way out of curiosity.

When I observe NYC teenagers on the subway or around my apartment, they often speak loudly. I try and listen, but I often cannot fully understand what they are saying. They may say words to describe what is happening in the moment, or possibly talking about their friends, but not much more. When I saw these boys on the train, I couldn't understand what they were talking about at all. I wondered if they had an inside joke that they were talking about, like many teenagers may, but I could not tell. There is something in that sub-culture that I am not completely literate to.

Interior Design

2010-02-14T19:10:00.000-08:00

When I go out to eat at a restaurant, I love when it's nicely designed. The food is most important, but I find that they go together. I wonder if the design of the restaurant can make the food taste better? Interior design is an important marketing strategy for most businesses. For example, red and yellow stand out the most and, combined with florescent lights, don't make people want to relax and stay a while. This is perfect for McDonald's fast food; a logo that stands out in a crowd and a restaurant that makes people want to leave quickly.

For homes, popular colors are often pastel colors to accent the room. I have lived with white walls for most of the past 15 years. I am not a homeowner, so I often think that I will be moving in a short amount of time and never invest in painting the walls. However, after so long of being tired of white walls, I've decided to do something about it and decided to do something dramatic. I painted the wall that starts in my living room and goes through the hall to the bedroom dark red. It's amazing how a color can influence it's surroundings. I'm starting to wonder if I should have chosen a calming color and somehow made it work. Maybe I just need to get used to it?

Office Space

2010-02-13T19:26:00.000-08:00

If there were not so many social issues to attend to in the world, wouldn't cubicles be illegal? If you put a child facing the wall in public school you can get into a lot of trouble. They say that this is corporal punishment. Yet, so many adults sit like that 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, for years and years. I do not understand how some people view this as healthy and normal.

I am currently employed in my first office job that has cubicles. I evaluate arts education programs and I cherish the days I'm able to do fieldwork. The whole office is grey and the wall are about 5 feet high. I now work there part time. Working there full time was visually disturbing for me. Although some people who work there do not think much of the visual environment, it negatively impacted my mood and my job as a whole. I will never again work in an atmosphere so visually confining. It is true that the computer opens up the visual space and acts as an outlet to the outside. For me, it's not enough.

If cubicles were to be considered a necessity, I would think that people would protest so that their cubicles are a somewhat decent color to look at, instead of drab neutrals. Most people would not paint their house a drab neutral without accenting the room with something to offset it. Yet, the visual culture of offices continues to perpetuate the experience of forcing people to endure such sights.

FACEBOOK - TEEN OBSERVATION**

2010-02-13T18:20:00.000-08:00

My little sister Christina, who is 16, has an ipod, a laptop, can't remember life without cell phones and is an avid Facebook user. She has 453 Facebook friends, most of whom indicate that they are in her high school network. Since I am her Facebook friend I can view a certain aspect of her life whenever I want. Facebook allows me to see what her life is like outside of the family. I can tell who her closest friends are by seeing them repeatedly in photographs. She has 162 photos that she did not post herself and about 170 that she posted. I really have access to a small clip of a documentary of her life with her friends.

The photos include typical teen photos friends, always smiling and looking like they're having a good time. There are also other photos of the girls making sexy poses, such as at the mall with mannequins or at the beach in bikinis. When I was her age, we didn't pose in bikini's together. I'm not sure if it's the result of mass media or if it's just that we are different. She lives in New Jersey and she goes to a high school with a good reputation. She has had photography classes and you can see some of the photos get more experimental through the point of view or composition.

When I look at her wall or view the photo comments I can see bits and pieces of conversations she has with her friends. I know that her and her girl friends tell each other some form of "I love you" on a regular basis and they tell each other that they are pretty. They sometimes post little web cam videos that are about 30-60 seconds long saying nothing much besides "hello" and possibly "I love you".

I can tell that most of her friends are white, but there are some other nationalities/ethnicities mixed in, some of which are not easy to tell just by a photograph. Two of the boys that seem to be a part of her group of friends are black, but their ethnicity is hard to tell. One time at the dinner table at my father's house (she's my father's daughter) she agreed with me that something he said sounded racist. It made me think of a photo on her Facebook page lounging next to a black boy at a friend's house.

Without Facebook I would not know these things about Christina. Some of her other Facebook friends her own age must have the same experience if they choose to click around her Facebook pages. I wonder if it brings her and her friends together, if it adds space or if it adds a superficial dimension to their relationships. I think of high school as a time of being self-conscious. If this is true for most teenagers, how does Facebook play into that? One fact that cannot be argued is that growing up with Facebook as a part of your life is different than when it was not an option. What does it mean for those who do not have access to Facebook in today's society, like many kids growing up in low-income households? It is adding to the cultural capital that helps more affluent children to succeed as adults? These are questions I can ask, but I at this point I do not have the answers.

The Beauty of Documentaries

2010-02-11T02:39:00.001-08:00

There seems to be a recent trend towards documentary film and using film as a tool for education. Some of these films are more beautiful than others. I enjoyed Super Size Me, but beautiful is not a word I would use to describe it. Recently, I watched two very beautiful documentaries; The Botany of Desire and March of the Penguins.

The Botany of Desire explained the benefits of biodiversity through four short story documentaries about the history of apples, tulips, marijuana and potatoes. The movie was informative and the photography offered the viewer an aesthetic experience. It speaks to people who do not normally critique the production of agriculture, as well as people who are knowledgeable about the subject. In today's society, learning about where our food comes from and what we eat is become more and more of interest to people.

The March of the Penguins began and the logo for National Geographic came on the screen. (It was written and directed by Luc Jacquet and co-produced by Bonne Pioche and the National Geographic Society.) It made me think of what life would be like without National Geographic. National Geographic brings us some of the world's best photography and have been putting people in awe for generations. The beauty of nature and world cultures is rarely communicated so beautifully as in the photography associated with National Geographic. Aside from the skill level of the photographers, there is also the subject matter they capture. Most people will never get to see aspects of nature that are brought to us by National Geographic. It allows us to see the most obscure creatures in existence and travel to the most remote places on earth., both with an aesthetic experience.

The film captures the whole 9 months of the emperor penguin breeding ritual and present it as a full length documentary film. With the narration, the penguins feel as though they are animated. They are monogamous during these 9 months and exhibit family like behaviors that humans are familiar with. They do everything they can to protect their child from the harsh winter and show signs of feeling bad when the baby doesn't survive. They also show signs of affection among their mate and child during this time. According to Wikipedia, there was even some controversy about the messages of family values that the film communicates, but the director confirmed, "... they are just birds."

CHILDREN ON SUBWAY OBSERVATION**

2010-02-11T02:27:00.000-08:00

The subway is a place for people of all shapes, sizes and colors, as I mentioned in a previous post. This includes children and teenagers as well. Teenagers can often be found alone on the subway, camouflaged with the adults. When they are in groups, they may talk quietly together, again camouflaged into the environment, or they may become much louder. When groups of teenagers on the subway are loud, they are more easily visible.

Small children are often on the subway with their parents. Some small children like to sit backwards and look outside the window of the train. I saw this on my way home today and it reminded me of the small children on the trains when I lived in Tokyo who also enjoy looking outside the window of the train while sitting backwards on their knees.

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS OBSERVATION**

2010-02-11T01:53:00.000-08:00

Outside the window in my living room is a high school. I have observed the students of this school for hours and hours, but often broken up into small chunks of time. When I go to work, I see them in the morning walking quietly down the street alone. When I'm home, I see them in the afternoon walking down the street, usually in pairs or in small groups. The main thing that catches my eye is the context of the situation. Many of these students do not live in my neighborhood and it's visually apparent.

I live in the North Side of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which is right next to the water facing Manhattan. It's a predominantly White, gentrified neighborhood where most of people who reside here are not originally from New York City. If I walk to the South Side of Williamsburg, it's predominantly Hispanic or Hasidic. If I walk the opposite direction, I end up in Greenpoint, a predominantly Polish neighborhood. If I go further into Brooklyn, the neighborhoods are still predominantly White for a few more subway stops. Almost all of the students in the high school across the street are Black and Hispanic. Although they usually speak with an American accent, I cannot tell what their cultural ethnicity is just by looking at them. They can be African-American, Latino(a)-American, from the Caribbean, from Africa, or they may even have a mix of cultural ethnicity. Similarly, if they see me, they probably cannot see my cultural ethnicity either.

I see the students come from the L train in the morning, most often from the train that is heading in the direction of Manhattan, indicating that they could be from Bushwick or Canarsie. I see them going back to the train in the afternoon. They may stop at the deli on the corner outside the train station, especially for breakfast, but that's it. They go from the train to the school and back on the train. The security guard/police officer stands outside when they are dismissed to make sure they do not stay in front of the school for long. They are told to leave immediately.

So, there are Black/Hispanic teenagers going to school in a White neighborhood and are told by the police that patrol their school that they must not stay around the school. They do not seem unwelcome here, but there is a discomfort has bothered me about this for some time. There are many students who go to schools in neighborhoods other than their own throughout the city. But, for me, when I see this, I think of the segregation that exists in this city and would like to welcome them to stay in the neighborhood for a while.

Memories of Race - Reflection on Reading

2010-02-09T13:00:00.000-08:00

For this journal entry I will answer the questions posed in an article included in assigned reading, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Ingredients for Critical Teacher Reflection

How frequently and what types of interactions did I have with individuals from racial backgrounds different from my own growing up?

Interactions with people from other racial backgrounds became more and more frequent as I got older. I lived with my father in Staten Island while I was growing up, where the majority of people were Italian-American. I was surrounded by a vast majority of white (primarily Italian-American and Jewish-American) people. On the weekends I stayed with my mother in a diverse neighborhood in Kensington, Brooklyn where people were of different races. I remember wondering if it would feel different if I touched the hand of the black policeman in the store. I remember another incident when I was very young. We were in Macy’s and I asked my mother, “If some black people are called niggas, what’s the word for white people?” I remember her getting so embarrassed and saying, “Don’t say that in public!” My mother also brought me to work, where African-American women were the majority.

Although my parents never spoke of race, the other children who lived on my block in Staten Island often did. They would mostly say derogatory things about black people and occasionally say things about Hispanic people or even Jewish people. Being the only Jewish person on my block, they would turn to me and say, “No offense” when speaking negatively about Jewish people. They would mostly talk about how cheap Jewish people are and how they were happy they were that the two other Jewish families were moving away. It wasn't as bad as the way they viewed black people, who, to them, seemed to be full of only negative traits. This type of pre-judgment confused me and I didn’t like it, but I didn’t think much of it. I only remember one time when I challenged my friend asking her how she knew what black people were like if she didn't know any.

In middle school, the student body started to include more black and Hispanic students. In 7th grade, I made my first African-American friend (Marquis) and Puerto Rican friend (Diana). Diana stopped hanging out with me and became friendlier with the black and hispanic kids. I didn’t know what was going on at the time and I don’t know how I may have appeared in regards to race relations. I had mostly white friends and a few acquaintances who were either hispanic or black, like this one black girl who would pass notes between me and another friend, but they stayed acquaintances at the most; no close friends like Diana.

By the time I got to high school, my school was even more diverse. I think it was about 50-60% white and 40-50% non-white. As I started to notice boys even more than before. There was one black boy, Junior, who really liked me, but black or white, I wasn’t into him. The boys I liked were always my friends, who were mostly white. One time another black boy asked if I had a date for the Valentine’s Day dance. He was so cute. I would have freaked out if he was white or black, but since he was black, I freaked out more. He didn’t push it. I remember being so happy thinking that someone so cute seemed interested in me and left it at that.

I had a high school friend who was Irish-American and dated a black guy. She wasn’t a very close friend and I actually never met him, but she often talked about how it was an issue and how her white guy friends gave her such a hard time. Later on, I one of my best high school friends, who was half Italian-American and half Puerto Rican, got a black boyfriend. He was a skateboarder, father was a doctor, and was a nice guy... seemed like a guy a parent would approve of. However, her father gave her such a hard time that he made jokes regularly and sent her to stay with a relative in Cape Cod for the summer so that she would stay away from him. I drove him up to see her. The separation didn’t make much sense to me. I just though her father was a little nuts, for this and for other things.

In high school my closest friends were mostly Italian and Jewish. I didn't really pay much attention to the diversity around me. One of my closest friends was Philipino and I didn't even think about the fact that he was eating very different food for dinner and didn't think much of his mother's Spanish-sounding accent. Looking back, I can see that my school was pretty segregated. I had black acquaintances, but no black friends. Some of the other white kids had black friends, but not many. When the Rodney King incidents happened, fights broke out regularly and one girl got her hair lit on fire in the lunchroom. On a positive note, I thought that the step club was really cool and wanted to join, but I didn’t have the guts to try. I wasn’t consciously aware of the severity of race issues. I just let it be. Nobody ever talked to me about it and I kept my thoughts on other things.

My first year of college was upstate at a predominantly white school. I remember feeling the absence of hip-hop which added to my unhappiness there. I remember realizing that even though I was into alternative music at the time, the presence of hip-hop was a big part of my life and my upbringing. Without hip-hop and with only a small group of black kids that stayed away from the others much more than in high school, something didn’t feel right. I told my friends back home, but that’s as far as it went.

I transferred colleges after the first year and went to Hunter College where I took a course called Multicultural Women’s Writing and fell in love with belle hooks. Belle hooks, along with Toni Morrison, Amy Tan, and Alice Walker, opened up my eyes to so much of what was going on around me. I couldn’t stop reading. I even remember sitting with a girl in another class who I knew from my high school and she was telling me how segregated our high school was and how the students were tracked based on race. I didn’t even really think about it until she said something, but it seemed true. There were mostly white kids in my honors classes.

I transferred to art school (SVA), but I spent a lot of time in Barnes and Noble reading about gender, race and class issues. While I was in SVA, I started to date much more. I also started dating guys of different races, ethnicities and classes. I dated a Japanese guy, a Puerto Rican guy, an African American guy… and then there was the guy from Barbados… he became my first love. I learned a lot from that relationship and the other guys I dated. For now, I leave it at that, but the story goes on.

Who were the primary persons that helped to shape my perspectives of individuals from different racial groups? How were their opinions formed?

The hatred and comments of people around me while I growing up made me question the ridiculousness of why you would hate a whole group of people without knowing them. I can only assume that their opinions were formed out of ignorance and inheritance.

My relationship with Kelvin (the guy from Barbados) shaped my perspective of race a lot. Dating him also made me see how racist the people around me could be. My father didn’t acknowledge our relationship and seemed racist. It was suppressed and repressed for many years, but now I know for sure that his views are mixed up. My mother is not necessarily against interracial dating, but is against interracial marriage. She was fine with him being my boyfriend until we started to get serious. Even saw one of my friends would make prejudged comments about Kelvin as if he was a stereotypical black guy from the ghetto that just stepped out of mass media. Meanwhile, her boyfriend sold cocaine and beat her up once. Things even came up for both, Kelvin and I.

Also, one of my best friends of 10 years is African-American (mixed with Irish and Native American, but primarily of African decent) and our many conversations about race have influenced me.

Other people who were, or are, not as close to me in my personal life have also shaped my perspective. When I worked as a waitress in an Italian restaurant on Staten Island I hung out with the Mexican guys in the kitchen and the Mexican bus boy. I saw how difficult it was to learn English from and ESL book and was amazed when the cook told me he was a direct decedent of the Aztecs. Teaching in NYC public schools also gave me insight into black and Hispanic cultures around me.

Have I ever harbored prejudiced thoughts towards people from different racial backgrounds?

It wasn't until almost my mid-twenties did I start to think more about Asian culture. In my early twenties I had a two Asian girl friends who were close to me and told me about the stereotypes they faced. They told me that men thought they would be submissive because they were Asian. I didn't really like the fact that it existed, but I didn't really understand it. After moving to Japan and living there as a teacher, my perspective on Asian society, and therefore Asian people, changed. I can tell about the many great experiences I've had because there are many.

Living in Japan gave me the experience of living as an immigrant, as someone who is illiterate and someone who is a racial and ethnic minority. All of this forced me to learn about myself in new ways. There were many good things about this, but there were also aspects of the culture I didn't like. I think this is natural, but I must have been hit with some culture shock because my sensitivity to gender issues was very high. We all have many roles in society and while I was living in Japan, my role as a woman, and the role of women around me, was different than I had anticipated. Regardless, I didn't expect gender issues to affect me since I knew I'd be a foreigner, but I was wrong.

I had been interested in gender issues before my move to Japan. After a few months in Japan I began to notice the discrepancy in gender relations and it really bothered me. There was a student at the company I worked for that was recently married. She had to give up her job as a pharmaceutical rep to become a housewife. She was bored, so she studied English. She was unhappy she had to move from Tokyo to Osaka because she was now married and that's the plan her husband was leading. She wanted to visit Canada to study English, but he didn't give her permission right away. Since she was close to my age I invited her out one night with my friends and, to my surprise, she ended up making out with some guy she met. We never talked about it. I had another student who told me how jobs became scarce for women as they got older because they were expected to quit their careers and get married. One of my managers confirmed this. I was also told that Japanese men were very sexist by Japanese women and told that Japanese men regularly cheat on their wives by foreigners. I then had a middle aged male student who was married with a family tell me he loved me and wanted to date me. Such gender issues even surfaced in my friendships with Japanese women. One of the woman I still talk to spent 5 years in a relationship with a man and she knew he was cheating. Every time she spoke to me about it I told her to leave. She hasn't mentioned him to me in the past few contacts we've had.

However, some of the most disturbing part of my insight into gender issues in Japan were through male English teachers. I noticed on a few different occasions that they were treated a little different by men and women. I also began to notice that men who visited Japan stayed longer than the women and more foreign men remain permanent citizens than foreign women. There were also the way that Japanese women were around these foreign men. What seemed to me to be a regular guy was really something special to these women. Foreign guys were almost always able to find Japanese girls with ease. Then the stories came... there was the American photographer who left his ex-wife waiting for 5 hours to get a good shot and didn't think much of it. His new wife served us when we went to his apartment to learn about photography. There was a Canadian guy who studied the occult and was particularly unattractive, but had a girlfriend who was gorgeous and it completely fed his ego. He thought foreign girls were jealous of Japanese girls, a common idea that was bounced around. Meanwhile, his girlfriend was in a marriage that was not filled with love and he thought it was great because she was given money by her husband. The worst, I think, was the English teacher from Maryland who enjoyed hanging around junior high school girls at the schools he worked in. There was an incident that happened before I got hired at that job that questioned the level of sexual relations he had with these girls, but he somehow got through it and remained employed.

The stories could go on. All of this made me a little crazy. One day, when I was commuting to work, I walked over to a man who must have been about 50 years old. He was staring at a girl who must have been in junior high school and staring at her short skirt in a way that made me uncomfortable. I asked him if he liked "it" and nodded at her short skirt. He smiled and said yes enthusiastically. I must have caught him off guard. My response was, "It's your little sister." My Japanese wasn't good enough to articulate anything better and he was just a guy on the train.

I began to understand the stereotypes my American friends told me about before moving to Japan was a thought. I began to feel I understood why Asian women were looked upon as submissive. I did not see any signs of women's rights as we know in America and only an acceptance of women in an inferior role. It took a long time to get over these views and I’m not sure if it’s just suppressed or if I have really worked through it. I can say that I have learned a lot through hindsight and that when I focus, I feel compassionate rather than uncomfortable dislike for the women who go through this. I needed to remind myself that I entered Japan from the vantage point of an English teacher and that I did not get a holistic view. I also reminded myself that I did enjoy my time with a few Japanese women friends. It's unfortunate that social pressures in Japan, and Asia as a whole, are so strong that when women are in a bad situation, they feel that is the only way. I think one way that Japanese women combat this is by not getting married. Marriage is on the decline in Japan. I also think that they view gender relations and sex differently than we do, in a way I don't fully understand.

A friend of mine always reminded me how gender issues in Japan are not much compared to the rest of the world. I agreed, but the gender issues in Japan were in my face and in my life. As I said before, I think it was a bit of culture shock and lack of understanding in cultural difference.

Aside from my experiences in Asia, there are times when I do not feel confident about the way I am perceived by low-income minority culture. I sometimes feel self-conscious that I am judged as priveledged, ignorant, and/or racist because of the color of my skin. Also, I think that the history of the Christian religion has been corrupt due to committed genocides and I don’t understand why people would continue to follow it. However, my 2 best friends are protestant and my husband is catholic.

If I do harbor prejudiced thoughts, what effects do such thoughts have on students who come from those backgrounds?

If you have students who come from a background in which you harbor prejudiced thoughts, you can easily act in subtle ways that are negative and harmful. In my experience, students can sense these things and are very aware. I once had two students from Mexico who had a teacher that did not like Mexicans. It was something that they could not get over and brought their experience into my classroom a year later. We had to have a few discussions in which I tried to separate their view of me from their experience with her and reassure them that I did not have those views.

I hope I can effectively communicate to my students that I am open to who they are and that I hope they can be open to who I am. I will do my best to provide a curriculum that celebrates any differences and similarities that exist.

Do I create negative profiles of individuals who come from different racial backgrounds?

At this point in my life, I am embarrassed to say, I need to be careful with the way I see Asian women from Asia. I realize that people are not stereotypes, but when people seem to portray negative characteristics that represent their negative stereotype, people of any race/culture, I sometimes feel discomfort.

Art to Shock - Orlan

2010-02-07T18:35:00.001-08:00

Following leaders like Duchamp and Warhol, artists have been pushing the boundaries of what can be considered art for many years. One French woman, Orlan, has taken this to an extreme. Her body is her art, like many others, but the art is the transformation of her body in the most literal sense. Based on famous paintings of women, she alters her own face to match characteristics of the women in the paintings. She puts her ideas together as though her body is a living puzzle piece altered by plastic surgeons.

She calls herself a feminist. The manipulation of her body to look like women who have been deemed as beautiful represents the reality of what some women may be wishing for. Numerous women look at other women in mass media, wishing that they could change at least one of their features. Orlan actually does it. She has gone through at least 9 surgeries and currently represents one side of what happens when you decide to alter the way you look. The results do not reflect the glamorous results of celebrity experiences of plastic surgery. Celebrities have 'top' make-up artists, 'top' designers, 'top' cinematographers, 'top' photographers, 'top' editors, etc... to make them look better. Plastic surgery is one factor out of many.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4816435/

RAMP IT UP - MUSUEM OBSERVATION*

2010-02-05T20:13:00.001-08:00

The National Museum of the American Indian sheds light on the origin of skateboarding and contemporary skateboarding culture among Native Americans in the show Ramp It Up. Most people can probably guess that skateboarding is related to surfing, but how many of us actually realize that it has evolved from surfing, which is a native Hawaiian sport and, therefore, a Native American sport. The show gave a snapshot of the popularity of the sport among Native American teenagers and exhibited skateboard art done by Native Americans. These boards often educate the viewer about aspects of Native American History. My favorite was the the skateboard that showed a graphic depiction of the U.S., repeated four times. Each map represents a different period in a timeline starting in the 1800's and going up to 1990. All four of them were in black and white, starting as mostly black in the 1800's and gradually becoming more white through 1990, when most of the map is white. The color represents the increase in land that has been taken over by "Americans". I was surprised to see the timeline go all the way through 1990.

NYC Subway Beauty

2010-02-05T06:33:00.000-08:00

In the NYC subway I find comfort in looking at all the different shapes, sizes and colors of the people, knowing that each of them must have someone in their life who finds them beautiful. If you look closely enough, you can see their beauty too. I like to think that beauty comes in all shapes, sizes and colors. People take the visual aspect of the NYC subway for granted. Where else in the world can you relax and observe people with such diverse features? If it was a symbol for global human interaction, we might actually reach world peace.

Evolution of a Model

2010-02-05T06:29:00.000-08:00

My last post reminded me of another video I saw a few years ago (below). With all of the special effects out there, people portrayed in mass media do not look real anymore. This is true of Lady Gaga, who seems like she would be an average looking girl from NYC when she's not on camera, as well as models.

Watching this video brings back memories of when I was 19 and my boyfriend at the time, who was a photo retoucher, was assigned to work on Cindy Crawford's face. I wasn't too shocked at that time; it was already commonplace. A friend of mine from college worked for a porn magazine when he graduated SVA. He also used photoshop, but it was often used to make sure the surgery scars on their breasts were not visible. Today, these alterations are often done for film/video/tv, as well as with print, as in Lady Gaga's video.

All of these alterations have had an effect on society. Many girls are self-conscious about the way they look because of all of the images that are imposed on us regularly and, more recently, men are also affected. The video below shows the process behind creating contemporary images of beauty and is sponsored by Dove, a company that would know about this type of thing. The video confirms that the images of beauty that many people aspire to replicate are not real.

Lady Gaga

2010-02-05T05:56:00.000-08:00

I’ve been invaded. I live without cable and have, for the most part, avoided pop culture for years. As soon as I realized what culture could be like outside the American mainstream multi-billion dollar corporate industry, I was hooked. However, recently something has been seeping through the cracks of the wall I’ve put up.

The color's radiating through her fashion are exciting. Her clothes are like art; she's a performance artist. She has a beautiful voice, but it's the visuals that make her stand out for me. She follows the recipe for pop culture; catchy dance beats and sexual images. She's got a music background outside of pop corporate culture and uses it to win over the world through mass media. Whoever is working with her to get this done is doing a great job. I think one of the names that I read of was RedOne, a famous pop producer of many other musicians. Lady Gaga unlike many other pop artists, is really instrumental in writing her songs, creating her fashion and performance art. She feels like a contemporary Madonna.

Last year, I heard the name Lady Gaga and googled her name to find out she’s one of the latest pop stars and didn't look much further. I forgot about it for a while and then a close friend asked if my self-made 2009 holiday card (a photo of a display window of a clothing store in Williamsburg, BK during the holiday season) was a photo of Lady Gaga. I couldn’t imagine why she would say that and I noticed that my husband downloaded the song Pokerface. I few weeks later I decided to google her again and I found the video for Bad Romance, my introduction to Lady Gaga.

I was shocked. I wanted to watch it again and again. Maybe I don't watch enough tv. The theatrical composition, the costume/fashion, her body... I figured I must like it and watched it again. I thought, “Lucky her; what a recipe for success.” I googled again, found that she’s actually 5’1” (which is my height) and thought, “Of course she wears shoes that give her more than a few inches!” They probably altered the whole video with After Effects or something. I guess music videos are altered all of the time, but I'm not used to watching them and I'm just really into her fashion. I watched it again staring at the fashion, analyzing the special effects, and thinking about how sexual she has to look to be successful.