Homework # 3 The Optimist.

3. HW:

 Think about skills that you know, that are important to your family, your traditions, or that you pride yourself in knowing.

Describe in a paragraph-long blog post how you would adapt one of those skills to make an artwork that communicates something important about you, your family, your culture, or some important knowledge about yourself. Think about what materials you would use, the location where you would display the artwork, the group of people you would ask to help in the process, if any. Let yourself think about this problem throughout the week. When your write,be detailed about the how you learned the skill, why it's meaningful to you, the steps in the process, and how you would incorporate other meaning into this process, and what it ultimately is produced as a result of this process.


              One skill I am extremely proud of having is optimism. You might not think optimism is a skill but to me it is, especially since it is so hard to come by these days. People mistake optimism with ignorance. Its hard to understand because I do understand that bad things really do happen I guess I am just one of those people who still don't, I guess, accept it fully, at least I don't want to. I am not ignorant which is why I have pride in my optimism I have always seen the cup as half full, never half empty so I don't know exactly when or how I came to be this way. In fact every thing I grew up with would point to me being a pessimist. The fact that even as a child I didn't let bad things like thieves, drugs, alcohol, the constant "no" betrayal etc. , affect me makes this really important to me. If I had to portray this skill through art my piece would have a girl or boy in a "bad" place. The bad place would be a gloomy gray place with thunderclouds and lightening in the back round but surrounding the child would be things I've gone through and had to push past. Like a scenario of a thief, someone similar looking so it'll appear as if its a sibling, neglectful parents, the parents can be saying horrible things to the child, and someone doing drugs. All of this will be really close to the little boy or girl as if the events are beating down on them. In the piece you would also get to see into the head of the child, their in a happy place, no thunder clouds, no gloom, nothing illegal and  good parents. Oh and the only place I would ever put my work of art would be somewhere all of this occurs too frequently for it to still be going on.

1. How do Mutu's Human/insect/machine-like distortions of the body relate to conventional notions of female beauty?

              I think how Mutu portrays female beauty is very... different but also unique. Mutu transforms the female body and makes it strong in a way. In one of her works she has a woman with high heel shoes with the heel on a snake, except it isn't a regular heel, its a knife. Mutu also tries to keep the female body beautiful in a lot of her works and you might not notice it at first, but the shape of the body, no matter how distorted, still happens to stay beautiful as well as the face of the women in her works.


 2. Describe how one of her works functions formally. How is the work beautiful and how is it ugly?

             "The End of Eating Everything" This is an animation that shows a woman, planet figure that basically consumes things with no disregard. I believe this is beautiful because of the message honestly, Mutu explains that eventually at the rate we're going, consuming everything without thinking far into the future about what we'll eat then. I think its beautiful because it is completely true especially how she portrays it. I also think it is ugly for this reason. Not exactly ugly but more despicable. The humans/woman planet is kind of selfish in the time of now, not caring for others in the future or the resources that we are quickly burning up.

 Cringe-Factor 

a.Find an image of yourself several years ago, or,even better, a drawing or painting or artwork that you made a few years ago and are embarassed by:

 b. Post it on your blog. 1. Write a paragraph detailing everything that embarrasses you about the image, about the out-of-step fashion, haircut, attitude, drawing style, everything that your eye goes to and makes you want to cringe. Give yourself some time to think about it and write at least a few sentences.

 

               I remember this clearly.Even though my face isn't so clear.Honestly I was going to skimp on this project and put a not so bad picture, I didn't want to send something so bad out into the world. I didn't because that would defeat the entire purpose. I am the third one from the left. First and also the worst, lets talk about my hair, I wanted the hair cut at the time, bangs and short hair, as you can see similar to what my older sister has. (second one from the left) Now I absolutely regret doing my hair this way. My attitude in this picture looks closed off as well as open. My hair covers my face in what you would think would be me hiding, which I sort of was because I didn't amount to my idol. Still young in this picture Savannah (my sister) was my idol and I wanted everything she had and wanted to do everything she did. I still idolize her but a little less. Now I can tell the difference between the things I actually want because I want and the things I want because she wants.

 2. What about you, or culture at large, has changed since you made this/this was how you presented yourself to the world?

               
               Honestly I've recently come out of this phase, because I've gotten the bangs so many times. I tend to forget how much I hated them right after they grew back and basically learned my lesson over a very long period of time. I think I changed during my relationship. I aspired to be like Savannah because everyone liked her. I got comfortable with my boyfriend Michael and started changing for the better. I began to not care as much how many people liked or didn't like me. I began to be me. The person that doesn't really need opinions from others and dresses how she wants, a strong woman that doesn't follow societies idea of pretty. I barely ever match and I really don't have a style. I wear what I like which could be a old fashion dress, sweats, jeans, leggings, skirts, crop tops, baggy shirts. The point I'm trying to make is that I changed when i realized I didn't care for society or appearances. 

1. What do I want people to know about me; what makes me interesting? 

2. If there was one thing I would want to "bear witness" to, that would be remembered, whether it be something about myself, something about my family or culture, or a problem with the world that needs to be fixed, what would that be? 

        I would love for people to know about my passion, although sometimes I may seem shy it does not affect my drive in any way. Passion, to me is more than willing to do what I want or need to the best of my ability especially with great excitement. I think that makes me interesting because most people associate passion with the ability to be loud and boisterous all the time, which I can be the second I get comfortable enough. My passion is what makes me care about the little things. Little things that make a difference though, not little things that don't get affected by society. I guess I have a problem with everyday life, how money affects everything, unfortunately even your thoughts.
       If I could put on display, force people to remember something, bear witness an event it'd be the Great Depression. I choose this because it was a moment when Americas economy didn't look so good, not that it does now, but the difference, I would say was dramatic. A lot of what people cared about then and now is the same, surviving. You might think being alive isn't costly because well, why should you have to pay just to be alive? Add in all the factors, the necessities; food, water, shelter. Each on it's own is considered expensive due to the wages of average citizens, Put them together though and you barely have anything left over for the less necessary necessities, like heat, clothing, shoes, transportation, electricity, home phone etc. Or how about the things you have no choice but to pay for such as protecting your health and other things that you may need for work, a disability, children school fees and other fees that could arise. The point I'm trying to make is look at how we live now, paying for everything except the air you breathe, try to imagine the struggles of the people that had to suffer through the Great Depression.