Feb 20-26

This week I went to the Modern Greek Studies Lecture that Harrison posted.  I was intrigued, like he was, when seeing the event.  I do not know much at all about the 18th and 19th century in Greece pertaining to the Jewish community.  I thought I might actually learn something from this lecture, and while I think I did, I was more so confused than learning anything.  If I had done some research before hand I think I could have followed the history being talked about, or maybe if I find some time this week I'll do some googling and try to figure out what was being talked about to better understand.  I'm not even sure what I can say about the lecture other than what was provided in the description Harrison left on the main blog.  I don't think all of that was talked about, or maybe I zoned out during some parts.... actually I did zone out. But for the most part I did try to pay attention, to be respectful... especially since I was sitting in the second row. Although, maybe the most interesting thing I found during the lecture was seeing someone talk about a subject they are truly interested in and are so interested in it that they want to share their knowledge with other people. That's kind of cool. At the end, people were able to ask questions, I guess this was beneficial to listen to even though I didn't really know what the questions were pertaining to, it was nice to listen to how other people formulate questions. This is important to me as an artist because we are constantly critiquing work and need to know how to form and understand questions.

Anyway, I think I'm just rambling here and not saying anything of substance. SO! Next time I go to an event or lecture I know nothing about I'll remember to do some research before I attend so I can get more out of the event.

Feb 13-19

This week I went to the Poetry out loud event Wes posted.

I didn't realize it was a state wide competition, I thought it was just going to be a bunch of high school kids reading poems as apart of a class. But it was enjoyable to see kids wanting to partake in the competition on their own, and be passionate about the arts.

I'll be honest though, I didn't really pay much attention to what all the poems meant. But I did pay attention to how the students interacted with each other. Almost always after someone performed, another student in the audience would smile in approval, give a thumbs up or a high five. I thought this was interesting. I can remember when I was in high school that everything was a competition and you'd get jealous or angry if someone did better than you. But these kids were genuinely happy for each other, and showed great support. That was really refreshing to see. Once I noticed this I began to think about my relationships with fellow art students and teachers. I feel that we all show respect and support for one another because we are all in the same position, taking a risk and showing the world who we are through our art. Sometimes it's scary and nerve racking going into a critique, but knowing someone has your back to give you a constructive critique means a lot. So I think it's great these kids are already forming these types of relationships with students in high school.

I didn't mind this event, it was a tad boring since they were reciting someone else's poems. And I was disappointed no one recited a Shel Silverstein poem (just kidding). It would have been great to see them perform a poem they wrote themselves, but I can still appreciate their courage and passion to get up on that stage.

Feb 6-12

The event I attended was at the woman's resource center, and the topic was race, gender and body image in media.

I thought it was bullshit.

I don't want to discredit or undermine anyone's personal experiences with these issues, because I've faced them too. But I do not think this discussion event was conducted in a professional manner.

It seemed to me that the four facilitators had their minds already made up and wanted to push their ideas of these issues onto us.

They also never really talked about healthy ways to deal with these issues. I can personally connect with the body image issue and as of current am trying to live a healthier lifestyle. I am not doing this because of the media, I'm doing it for me. And I think it would have been beneficial if these facilitators had a more positive outlook on these issues and helped us discuss ways we can overcome it rather than judge people - which they seemed to do, all while telling us we shouldn't judge people.

I guess I could have spoken up during the discussion to get my point across, but I found them to be intimidating and was afraid they would push my thoughts to the side because they were not theirs.

That's all I really want to say, because I didn't take a whole lot from the event.. Other than them saying (without realizing it I think) that you should surround yourself with positive people and people you enjoy being with.


Edit- Also, who gives a shit if someone wants to get plastic surgery, color their hair, wear makeup, change their gender, what have you. That's their decision and those decisions aren't always made because of the media. This seemed to be something these ladies were judgmental on. Maybe if people worried about themselves and not others so much, some of these issues wouldn't be such a big deal.

Side note, this ^^^ relates very much to the Boykin lecture I attended last week.... One oppressed group isn't any more oppressed than the next. We are all in the same boat, to an extent. So why not help each other rather than "one-up" our problems...



Picture of some of the miners in attendance -

Jan 30 - Feb 5

"An Evening With Keith Boykin: A Celebration of Black LGBT History Month"

I attended the event Harrison posted where Kevin Boykin talked about his life journey and his new book. At first I wasn't that excited about going to it because I wasn't sure how I'd be able to personally relate to his lecture, but I found it very relatable to my educational journey. He talked a lot about how (no matter what oppressed group you belong to) you should do your own thing, and don't let people discourage you from the path you want to take or the person you want to become. This wasn't solely directed to the LGBT community, which I liked, because I was then able to find a connection for myself.

So, like I said, I was able to connect his lecture to the journey I've taken through eduction. Ever since I was in the third grade I knew I wanted to be an artist. And I never had the full support from certain people in my life I would have liked. Which was often times discouraging, even at such a young age when it's drilled in your head that "you can be whatever you want to be." Once I got to high school I still found myself wanting to study art, and more specifically at the U of I. My high school guidance counselor use to tell me I wouldn't make it into U of I, that it wasn't right for me, and being an artist wouldn't get me anywhere in life. Again, very discouraging. My parents were also concerned, mainly about my future income because, like most parents, they want the best for their child.. So at this time they weren't 100% on board. I end up applying to U of I anyway, get accepted, but attend the Division of General Studies for my first year and explore other options besides art. At the end of the year I decided to apply to the School of Art and Design and was accepted. I don't think I ever felt so happy up until then. I knew art was for me and I was going through with it no matter how many people told me I couldn't or shouldn't. It's now my Senior year and I'm still just as, if not more happy with my decision. I think by taking a risk and doing what I wanted to do, not knowing what my future would hold (and still don't), I've learned a lot about myself and have found out I have the power to make my own decisions and don't have to listen to anyone else if I don't want to.

I think Keith's lecture really made me realize that I've taken the less traveled path (well less traveled from people I grew up with), and by doing so I've made more personal growth and experiences that I probably wouldn't have if I went down a different path I wasn't passionate about. This was a big thing I took away from his lecture, because he really advocated being "you" and creating your own path. Also, knowing the way I connected with his words, even though it didn't directly relate to the event's topic, shows how powerful he was as a speaker and how understanding he is of every group of people in this world. If anyone has a chance to hear him speak again, I recommend it. You'll never know what your take away message will be.

Oh, and I just remembered, towards the end of his lecture he mentioned something that if you're doing something because you believe it's right, and a morally correct thing to do, it will make you feel good no matter what, and even if you're afraid that doesn't matter because the outcome will outweigh your fears. I found that to be pretty inspiring.


Here's a picture from the event, a large portion of the people in attendance were from this class which was pretty cool.

Jan 23-29

Eurochannel Short Films Tour: Laugh in Europe

Jan 24, 2013
6:00pm
Foreign Language Building

http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/596?eventId=26484374&calMin=201301&cal=20130114&skinId=1

This week I went to the Foreign Language Building to watch six short films provided by Eurochannel.  Each film was specific to a certain area of Europe and each told their own story. These films were:

Bye Bye Now - Ireland, 2009
The Shoemaker - Greece, 2011
Stolen Rhythm - Hungary, 2008
The Slovenia Way - Slovenia, 2011
20 Years Old - Albania, 2011
Do You Really Love Me - France/United Kingdom, 2010

In "Bye Bye Now," the subject was the creation and destruction of the telephone booth.  The people interviewed each had stories and personal connections to the telephone booths. One in particular was pretty humorous to listen to because the guy was talking about how heavier set people would go into the booth to participate in sexual activities and then would end up getting stuck inside because the door opened inward and they were too big to get around it.  Another story was a bit more serious though, and the person talked about how him and a friend stayed inside a telephone booth in protest of it being torn down.  He was talking about how it was a historic piece of Ireland and it showed unique architecture. That kind of shed some light in my mind, because I've never really thought of telephone booths as architecture or art.

In "The Shoemaker," a shoemaker told his story of making shoes.  It was kind of hard to understand everything he was saying, because the subtitles didn't translate very well.  But from what I understood, he was talking about how he makes shoes for people to help them tell their own stories. Everywhere a person walks adds to his life story and having a well-made boot aids in furthering their story.  I found myself thinking of every day products, like shoes, in a different way.  Everything a person owns tells their story and the wear and tear on certain items can tell an even better story. 

In "Stolen Rhythm," the origin of hip hop music and dance was explored.  This film was probably one of the funnier films, especially because they were talking about something directly related to music in the United States.  The guy that was narrating this film interviewed Methodman and was asking him if he knew the origin of hip hop, but Methodman didn't understand his accent and answered something along the lines of "hell yeah I'd like to add some Hungarian beats in my music" (or something like that... probably way more explicit... plus he's kind of hard to understand too because he mumbles). I thought this was funny though because Methodman didn't even know the origin of hip hop dance or music, and that's the type of music he makes. After that, the film went on to let us know the beginning of hip hop.  It was actually started in Hungary, and the dance "hipi hopi" was a forbidden dance but there is footage of people performing the dance after they worked in the hemp fields harvesting, and were... well... they were high while doing this dance. Which also added an element of humor.  The makers of this film compared the dance moves of the hipi hopi to hip hop dance moves that are currently being done, and they were basically identical.  They also presented the popular song by Sugar Hill Gang "Rapper's Delight" as the first hip hop song for the US. 

  

 

In "The Slovenian Way" the way of life of Slovenians was presented.  I actually found it to be very similar to that of the American culture.  They would get up early, go to church, start school at 8am, go on coffee dates, have salad with dinner, and they're still obsessed with 80s pop music. :O  There's not much else to say about this one, but throughout the film people from other countries would say something they practiced in their culture and compared it to the Slovenian culture.  It was kind of cool to see that not everyone is so different from the United States, we're actually mostly the same as other countries.

In "20 Years Old" we learned about the city Korca.  Korca is trying to be more touristy but the natives don't like it, and in this process a lot of their architecture is becoming diminished.  Architecture isn't the only thing being diminished though, because in their culture they are holding back the talent of painters.  Typically, painters only paint landscapes and buyers and viewers only want landscapes.  This is very unfortunate for the other painters who want to be more modern and contemporary in their styles.  A lot of the film talked about this issue, and how the art scene is very narrow, and the society doesn't help the issue.  The writers of the film made their own stencil to spray paint around the town, to try and get their message across.  That being that "the world is fine, the people are fucked."  Their tag got me thinking about the United States, and also just issues that go on in the rest of the world.  And I think their message is pretty accurate... our world wouldn't seem so messed up if the people in it weren't messed up. I'm currently taking another course that focuses on being environmentally friendly, and I could really relate "the world is fine, the people are fucked" to environmental issues as well.

In "Do You Really Love Me" several couples recited excerpts from a poem, and that lead to their own dialogue. Most of the couples were interracial, one or two were gay, some married, some with kids.  It was intriguing to see how these couples made their relationship work, and even though it was probably hard for them to tell their families, or had to overcome other issues (like one couple, the husband was in prison for sometime), you could really tell they did love each other and wanted to do whatever they could to live a happy life together. It was also cool to see how couples from another country interacted together.  One couple didn't ever use the phrase "I love you", but they would do other things to let each other know they loved one another.  That was kind of odd at first, because I feel like a lot of Americans are too concerned about whether or not their partner is going to say "I love you."

All in all, I'm glad I went to this event because I learned quite a bit actually, even if I didn't type it all out here, and I feel like the films helped me to open my eyes more and see things from new perspectives.


Here are some pictures from the event.


"live art, love life" while waiting for the room to be unlocked...

while waiting for the room to be unlocked...

met some new friends in the hallway...

purple and orange elevator doors... why isn't the art building elevator painted??

ugly face time...

films are about to start...

lights vs eyes...

bri and i had just got done laughing until we cried... but what's new...

my skin is basically a zone 10...

HERE WE GO!

Jan 16-22

The event I attended this week was Middle East Story Time on January 19.  Angela Williams presented a book (The Illustrator's Notebook by Egyptian author Mohieddin Ellabbad) that described the life of an illustrator to a group of young children, their guardians and a few of us "miners."  While this story time event was geared more towards engaging children in learning about the middle east, I still found it beneficial for myself.  I was able to observe someone teaching a class, and watch how Angela interacted with the children.  Although I am not studying art education, I feel it's still good to know how to engage learners and how to teach them something specific.  My sister always wants me to teach her how to effectively use her dslr and I found that myself, along with Angela both break down our teaching methods to be specific for a certain audience.  Something else I took away from this event was that not every language is read from left to right and the formation of letters and words are not always the same method the English language uses.  The Arabic way of making/writing letters looks more artistic, beautiful and organic than the letters of the English language that are more block like.  And specifically, some of their designs are formed by drawing random letters - like the dress Angela had on (I forget the proper name of the dress), there were very intricate designs on the fabric that she mentioned were simply just letters (that didn't actually mean anything, their only purpose was to form a design).  I thought that was very interesting, and relatable to myself as an artist and designer.  It reminded me of typography designs where people use letters and words to form an image.  So in that sense, people all over the world use similar methods in making design, even though their languages and cultures might be completely different.  I wouldn't mind attending more of these events to learn more about other areas of the world that I don't typically learn about as an art student.   

Here are some pictures from the event, that was held at the Urbana Free Library.  

These first two are of a sculpture outside the library.

          

 This photo is from inside the library, right before you entered the area this event was held.  The walls leading to the Children's department were covered in a mural. 

A picture of me inside Megan's Reading room... "Reading is a Picnic" 

And finally, a picture Brianne took of Anne and I inside Megan's Reading room... obviously I'm a little more excited about it than she is :)