Saturday, May 9, 2020
Letter to My Siblings
To Jordan, Jaden, and Anaiah
I hope this letter finds you all in good moods and good health. I am writing this letter in the year 2020, for you two open up either 20 years from now, or 20 minutes from now, either one works. I just want to tell you both a couple of things that you may or not be aware of yet.
The first thing I want you to do is to look around you. Right now. Look at your surroundings, then look beyond them, then keep going; everything in this life is attainable, even if the idea seems silly. If at some point you all decide that you want to abandon all of your worldly possessions and live in the mountains as monks for the rest of your life, then go for it! Go chase that spiritual and mental enlightenment! There really is no limit to what you can do in this life, so why not?
Actually, Mom might take up some issue with that, so it might be best to save that decision for when you’re eighteen. My point still stands, though.
The second thing I wish to tell you has to do with what you all want to be when you grow up. If becoming a monk is already set in stone, feel free to disregard this part.
If or when you decide to pursue a career, try not to let the desire for a high salary be the end-all be-all to choosing a profession. Someone once told me to try and combine what you’re good at with what you love.
I love music, and i’m pretty decent at writing, so bam! Music journalist.
Jaden, your drawings are honestly out of this world, and I hope that you continue to draw and sketch and doodle whenever you can. Maybe combine your interest in computers, drawing, and anime and turn the animation world on its head?
Jordan, considering the fact that you’re like 12 and can beat a bunch of twenty-somethings in Smash Bros is absolutely astounding. A career in professional gaming sounds cool!
Nai Nai, I could definitely see you as some sort of scientist, with how much you love making your own slime in your room!
These are just examples, of course, but my point is this: as long as you’re doing what you love, and you love what you do, you’ve made the right career choice, and no one can tell you otherwise.
My third point I cannot stress enough: before you go to college (should you choose to do so) or live on your own, LEARN TO COOK AND CLEAN. Please, for the love of everything decent! You’ll erase, like, sixty percent of the stress of being on your own if you know how to make your own food and do your own laundry. I’m not saying you have to be the next Ainsley Harriott, but at least learn the basics!
Pasta, water, boil, sauce, pan, simmer, done! Soap and warm water over the dishes, and boom! You’ve successfully cooked AND cleaned!
You think i’m being ridiculous until you’re away from home with an empty fridge and a sink full of dirty dishes. I’m speaking from experience. Trust me, you’re gonna need this.
My fourth point, and this may be one of my most important ones, is to try your best and be a good, genuine person. “Good” is a completely subjective term, but what I’m trying to say is basically what you both learned in school: treat others the way you wish to be treated. It honestly doesn’t get any more simple than that.
Just going through your life being an honest, genuine person will reward you handsomely in the long run. That means being considerate, empathetic, and kind to people, even when they may not do the same to you (but I’ll let you be the judge of whether those people deserve such luxuries or not).
My fifth and final point, and please take these last two to heart, is to feel free to take any of my pieces of advice with a grain of salt, if need be. Remember, I can’t force you to live your life the way I want you to, and neither can anyone else. If you decide you don’t want to go to college, that’s just as fine as deciding that you do! If you decide you don’t want to learn to cook and clean, that’s also perfectly fine!
A little gross, but still fine nonetheless!
If anything, I want you to know that life is one hundred percent what you choose to make of it. Do with that information what you will, just don’t kill anyone unless you reeeeeally have to.
Have fun!
With lots of love,
Nikasi Doorn
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Self Portrait
For my self-portrait I decided to use two pictures that really show who I am and what I want to pursue as a career. Growing up I found it very easy to play sports and up until high school I wanted to work in the field of sports management. To this I compare the readings from Judith Howard’s research where she talks about identities coming from our surroundings objects, and our interactions with people. Growing up in a Hispanic household you’re surrounded by family members who are very passionate about soccer and all the friends I had were soccer players, so if you had asked me back then what I wanted to do with my life I would’ve easily said something in the field of sports. I had the all the support from my parents but as soon as I got to college, I had many doubts as to what I wanted to do with my life. Like many other students I was trying to find myself and truly do something that I loved and not something that was expected from my family or peers. In todays society its very easy to just lose yourself and let the opinions of others influence your life.
My 2nd year of college I found my self taking an intro to
video production class, only expecting to watch movies in class and maybe
create two or three projects. I ended up falling for the art of cinematography
and the creative process of editing. My parents however weren’t so happy when I
told them that I wanted to pursue a career in this field. They would question
how I much I would be making? They would recommend completely dropping out from
college and maybe go to trade school. All the friends they seemed to had that
went to trade school were making a lot more “money” than someone who majored in
video production. In “Feminist
Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions” I found that although it was about challenging
gender roles and teaching self-reliance it also helps demonstrate how supportive
parents should be of their kid no matter who they become.
As I progressed through semester without the support from my parents, I found
that my close friends were really the only ones I could count on. We would meet
up and film whatever we wanted. From “Private Lives, Public Spaces” exhibit
I found that the home videos depicted all private lives and captured intimate
moments of people’s lives and that’s something I hope to achieve and hopefully
one day I can impress my parents with a film that will leave them speechless.
"The Last Straw"
For my self portrait, I have decided to use acrylic paint on a canvas to capture my bottled up feelings during this pandemic. This painting is titled “The Last Straw”. I chose this title, because it shows what happens when you get overwhelmed in your thoughts. A woman was breathing fire onto Earth. I painted this in a state of anxiety and distraught. When I first showed this portrait to my best friend through Facetime, she asked me “Is that mother nature?” Personally I like my art to speak for itself so I like to get feedback and see what others get out of my work.. However, my portrait was really meant to symbolize my current mood at the time I was painting it. I felt hopeless. Being that none of us have seen such a virus affect our country in this way, most of us do not know the right precautions to maintain a good mental health. I had no idea how to properly cope with the fact that I had to live in a bubble without any means of knowing the end date of this chaos. In 2017, I started painting as a way to express myself. Later it became a healthy coping mechanism for me.
In beginning my process to create “The Last Straw”, I painted the entire canvas black and added white dots to imitate the Solar System. Before going any further, I had no idea what I wanted to paint, so I just painted what I felt. Once I let the background dry, I began to paint to the profile of a woman with a small fro. That woman is me. I painted her blue to embody sadness and added blood red tears to show pain. One of my biggest influences in Modern Art is Frida Kahlo, because she has inspired me to express myself through my creativity.
I created this portrait mainly to release my anxiety regarding the pandemic. After I finished, I could my current feelings looking back at me in picture form. I rarely use actual skin tones when painting people, because I like their emotions to show through the color I choose to paint them.
artist statment
Artist Statement
For my Self Portrait, I’ve decided to
record a video as my assignment. I just recently received an Adult electric
scooter for my birthday and have been using it to get out of the house and to
self-reflect during this pandemic. I would like you to think of it as if you
went for a run and or bike ride, and or just need a moment to enjoy nature and
life. During this terrible pandemic, society has completely shut down and for the
last month, everything has been on halt. The scooter is something I’ve wanted
for a while now and when I received it from my wonderful girlfriend, which so
happened to be at the beginning of the quarantined (perfect timing) it
immediately gave me an instant new hobby. Even though it sucks not being able
to see my friends or family, this new scooter was a new shining light, a new
reason to get outside. I’ve finally got to take it out and drive it around, and
from that first kick push to start the engine I glided down the street in pure
enjoyment. I was immediately obsessed; I rode it for 3 hours straight (until it
died). I told everyone I knew they needed to get one, and some did and were all
hoping to ride together after this pandemic, but until then it’s just myself,
my scooter, and my face mask, until better times of course. Also, I know that
may sound sad, but this is an uplifting video, this is a video I hope inspires
anyone to get out and make the best of a crappy situation. In all, I want to
show how I am having some fun getting out but practicing self-distancing and
respecting people’s space. I hope my steps can inspire you to find a new hobby
and or even purchase a scooter lol, but either way please find some
self-happiness during this dark time.
Friday, April 24, 2020
Final Project : My Self Portrait
Eric Morales
CLQM Art Cult & Med
Professor Cacoilo
24 April 2020
My Self Portrait
My self portrait represents the characteristics of hard work and determination. This can link with other key characteristics such as perseverance, compassion, and self motivation. For me, I’ve always been a hard worker from the start. Being an only child my parents taught me discipline and what the real world was like at a young age. In order to get the things that I wanted, I would have to show my parents good grades because they were really strict with it. It has made me the man I am today and I will be forever grateful. As of now my main focus and goal for this year is to provide for my family and to improve on myself. During this quarantine I am helping my parents around the house and just relaxing with one another. My main passion is bodybuilding and improving on my body everyday. Unfortunately during this pandemic the gym is closed and I do not have weights to work with so that resulted in me turning my usual workouts into home workouts. It’s a struggle from going to the gym everyday to staying home indefinitely. Most people would stop working out during this time but I wanted to keep improving and took it upon myself to do so. The benefit to this quarantine is that I can’t eat any more cheat meals for my diet more than I usually do. I know I’m not the only one dealing with hardships during the pandemic; however, I want people to never lose hope and to stay driven everyday to complete any task they have put in front of them. Ta-Neshisi Coates’ struggles and adversities living in the United States as a African American creates a connection with me because of the hardships and struggles that my family and I are dealing with during this pandemic. I made this connection even though I am not African American because of the struggles that I am dealing with now during the pandemic occurring. I had lost my grandma last month in the hospital in Portugal and my family and I couldn’t travel over there because of the virus. So it brought me down and I was torn up from it that I couldn’t be there; however, I know that my grandma would want me to be strong and to keep pushing to be better no matter what. The beginning of this year has been the most challenging year of my life; however, I'm focusing on ending the year strong. I just want everyone to know that this year will get better and to stay strong during these times.
A self-portrait
My version of "right to protest" by Joelius Dubois and "A Cathartic Release" by Ladon Alex
In such a difficult time in our history, it is easy for us to lose our way. Mother Nature is undergoing a hard reset, and all of her children have been brought along for the wild ride. The key, I’ve heard, is to remain strongly rooted in your identity and your footing in the world. SZA’s mother also taught me that embracing the unknown can offer a sense of comfort.
With my self-portrait, I chose to stray away from the traditional and superficial concept of the
“self-portrait” and provide a more in-depth portrait of who I am as a person.
My version of "We Kick Racists in the Mouth" by Ladon Alex and "tears for negroes" by Joelius Dubois
To begin, I have a growing interest in art, especially younger, more unknown artists. Two of my favorite artists right now happen to be Joelius Dubois, a 19 year-old digital artist from Columbus, Ohio, and Ladon Alex, a 21 year-old digital artist from Arkansas. Both Dubois and Alex’s art effectively capture the raw spirit of a black youth refusing to stay silent in a rich, white man’s world.
One of Dubois’s pieces, “right to complain”, depicts a black youth using his trumpet to tell the world what he truly thinks of it. The music-lover in me instantly fell in love with the idea and decided to make this project a little self-serving. For one part of my project, I combined the image with a piece of Ladon Alex’s, called “A Cathartic Release”, which shows a being sporting a large hole in its back, as if a new being has emerged from the discarded skin like a butterfly leaving a cocoon. My version of these two images has the "spirit" of the trumpet player emerging from the back of the husk, my representation of black youth’s voices refusing to be ignored. A quote from Jill Tarter's interview with Krista Tippett sums up the rebellious nature of the rebellious energy of the painting in six words: “You never have to grow up.”
"A Cathartic Release" by Ladon Alex
Another piece of Dubois’s, “tears for negroes”, shows a black woman in her Sunday best, shedding tears, a sight all-too powerful in our country’s history. I took that image and combined it with a piece by Ladon Alex that has a much different energy than Dubois’s. Alex’s “We Kick Racists in the Mouth” is a piece whose message is abundantly clear, and I felt a connection between the two pieces. In my second installment, I had these two polarizing raw, black female energies next to each other, with the violent, justice-hungry black girl acting as more of an idea in the head of the black woman crying in the real world. I did this to represent the concept of black women being forced to keep their emotions in check in society, in fear of being labeled. I also selfishly interpreted this image as an overall rejection of gender norms and accompanied the image with a quote by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie that explores this idea of censorship.
"We Kick Racists in the Mouth" by Ladon Alex
A little fun fact about me, I fully believe that we, ‘we’ being everyone on the planet, have the potential to make this world a paradise if we all treated each other with genuine love, empathy, and respect (at the very least). I also like to listen to music from time to time. That being said, I believe that showing empathy in a time where we all need to stand together as a family is definitely a step in the right direction towards healing the wound on our planet.
"right to protest" by Joelius Dubois
Growing up in a society where racism is alive, but still low-key enough that major action has not taken place, I am genuinely concerned for our planet’s future and how certain groups of people have been treated since this pandemic started. This project was admittedly a long shot, as I have no prior experience in creating digital art, but I had intended to use two pieces of art completely independent of each other, and form them into certain ideas that I took away from this class.
"tears for negroes" by Joelius Dubois
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