Books I plan on reading

Books I would like to read:

·      -An Intimate Distance: Women, artists, and the body by Rosemary Betterton

·      -Blue Collar White Collar by Sterling Hundley

·      -7 days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton

·      -Art Worlds by Becker

·      -The Problem of Space –Einstein’s Essay

·      -Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord

·      -Works of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, an Essay by Walter Benjamin

·      -1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

·      -All Creatures Great and Small by Kiki Smith

·      -The Cosmic Serpent by Jeremy Narby

·      -The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman

·      -The Art of Not Making by Michael Petry

·      -Carrie by Stephen King

News and Media

These days it's hard to separate news from media in the sense that people look at certain sites that agree with their opinions, and they don't consider anything else. I also feel that the news has become very much like social media, such as Facebook, where people blindly scroll through the information and don't actually soak anything in. I have one friend in particular that will be scrolling through Facebook on her phone, but if you ask her what she's looking at she doesn't know and she doesn't even realize she's mindlessly scrolling through. I think the news is a lot like that because people will go right past a lot of important information and latch on to only one quote or photo- usually something negative.

Trump

I don't normally like doing this- finding memes of people (most of which are rude)- even if I don't like them, but I chose this photo because I found it more humorous than other memes I found. I find it strange that our culture during Presidential, or even smaller elections doesn't focus on making themselves look good by making decisions that are good for our country, but they spend a majority of their time trying to make the opponent look so bad. 

Robert Altman Films

I watched movies by the director Robert Altman. I watched MASH, The Player, and Gosford Park. Growing up I watched the movie and show, MASH, frequently with my dad, so even though I didn’t know who the director was at the time, he has had such a big impact on my life.  Because I have always loved MASH I decided to watch more of Altman’s films.

It was interesting seeing the differences and similarities between the films. For instance, MASH is full of heavy situations, because the setting is a medical camp during the war. But in spite of all the dramatic situations and people dying, all the characters are super outgoing and just down right hilarious. I love the movie more than anything, but I am also very pleased with the television show. I think the television show really shows who the characters are in more depth, which makes for even better connections with the audience.

The difference between MASH and Altman’s other films is kind of funny because MASH is very lighthearted in a crazy sad situation, and his other films, like The Player, are more dark. He takes a weird or sad situation and makes it very dramatic. The films sometimes deal with the same level of dramatic situations, but the tone of each are quite different.

My Voice

My voice as an artist has not yet matured completely. I am still exploring different mediums and ideas, and it changes almost every day. In the past I made a lot of work dealing with and questioning elegance, purity, and influence. I think I’d like to pursue some of that in more depth in the future, but as of right now in my career I don’t want to. It’s difficult to describe to you what my voice is, because I don’t yet know. I think in order for me to talk about it I need to have a greater understanding of what I want to pursue. Also, I feel that sometimes my work evokes a certain feeling or causes people to question things that I didn’t necessarily think about while making it. One time Willem De Kooning was listening to someone talk about and ask about his work, and he responded with a great quote that states, “Thank you, now I know what my work is about”. I think sometimes an artist doesn’t fully know what their voice is until they hear the responses from the viewers.

Response to "Professor Incognito Apologizes: An Itemized List"

1.    Are there any prominent symbols in the story? If so, what are they and how are they used?

I don’t see much symbolism. The only thing I can think of is maybe threat, love, and evil. When reading his apologies I kept thinking that you never know if someone you know, or the person next to you, is inherently “evil”. The fact that he is keeping secrets and is “evil” may just be a metaphor about keeping secrets and how it will only hurt the people who are close to you.

1.    What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the work with which you were able to connect.

In this story I liked the fact that it was easy to read, and it was as if the guy was really talking to the audience. Although this is a made up story with made up events, he makes it seem real by the way he talks and describes the events and his feelings, or lack there of. Also, I like the fact that the character was sort of confessing to his girlfriend about what happened and what went wrong. It gives him a sort of human aspect. Like, he is evil and does thing that we can’t connect to, but the fact that he has a girlfriend and is talking about their relationship, it is easier to connect with the characters.

3.    What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?

While I was reading this story I kept picturing almost like a live-action version of the Incredibles, because of the evil person confessing like the evil kid does, mixed with Star Wars, because of the hologram. If I were to recreate this story in to another medium I think it would be film. I don’t see another way of showing all that needs to be shown. The entire story is of the guy as a hologram, flashing back and confessing to his girlfriend. I can see this as a film that is essentially made up of a lot of flashbacks that are patched together.

Graphic Novels

Throughout my life I didn’t read many graphic novels. I have always read some of the “funny section” in the newspaper, and I read a few Archie comics, but nothing like these graphic novels from class. I must say that I was not a huge fan of the experience of reading graphic novels, other than the ones I read as a kid. I discussed this feeling with a couple classmates, and we came to the conclusion that we don’t really like that a graphic novel gives you all the information. The great thing about books is that you can use your imagination and think about what the story and characters look like. We felt that the graphic novels kind of took away that experience.

I read a handful of graphic novels, including Optic Nerve, Hate, Bone, Acme, and Wimbledon Green. There were a couple that had similar tones and voices. I would like to talk about Optic Nerve and Acme specifically, though. In these two stories the tone is not necessarily angry, but it is most definitely not happy. There doesn’t seem to be any chance of happiness in them. I really think the author’s voice comes out through the characters. Normally authors try to stay out of the characters a little bit so they are not all the same, but in this case I think there are so many similarities between the character’s attitude that I think it is the author’s voice more than anything.

The characters in Optic Nerve and Acme are very unsettling. They do not seem to care about anything but their selves, and they almost seem to be searching for happiness, but they won’t find it. In Optic Nerve one of the characters is depressed and thinks that finding a woman will make him happier, but he just stays depressed because he can’t stop comparing himself to a self-centered man who just uses women. In Acme the main character is this child who talks like an adult. He does not want to listen to anyone and he just tries to control people. All of these characters are very much in to themselves and the way all of them talk is very similar. Since the way they all talk is very similar in a lot of ways, I think they are the author’s voice. All of these stories are very interesting because they are all so unhappy and just strange.