Hi, everyone!
You Survived!
You survived Week 1!
Hopefully our new tools, Slack & Medium are starting to make a bit of sense. And if this is your 1st online class, maybe you’re getting used to that too. Definitely shout if you have any questions about anything, or if you need any help, or if things are in any way confusing.
It was great meeting a few of you at the Seal Beach Pier, and also great learning about the many places a few of you are taking the class from.
As I said last week, our 12 Summer Art Activities can be put into 3 groups:
- Messy Hands Activities
- Design Thinking applied to your Life
- Etcetera
Vlogging
Last week’s Plaster Casting was, obviously, a “Messy Hands” activity. This week we launch into the 1st of our Design Thinking or Life Design Activities. The Messy Hands activities are designed to be fun (at least for many of you). The Design Thinking activities are designed to be useful. Hopefully, a few of you will actually find this week’s Vlogging activity “fun”, but I know it can be stressful for some of you. Not too stressful, I hope! And in our media age, I hope you’ll find it useful.
Full details are on the Activity page:
And here’s my vlog of the week, about… what else, vlogging!
Art Talk & Artist OTW
- The Mind in the Cave
- Ai Weiwei
Both up on Slack… now!
Plaster Casting
Nice work everyone!
Check out Julie’s awesome time-lapse video:
I made my own beach with a box and a bucket. I tried to imagine that I am at the beach with my friends, doing fun stuff, and forget about the fact that I’m just in my apartment. Once I started mixing the carton of plaster with the water, I felt smooth and sloppy paste which was an interesting feeling. Moreover, I really liked the result of my hand shape because mine shows my palm well, and strengths of each finger.
— Julie
Interestingly, this activity reminded a couple of you of that time when you were a kid and you made handprints in cement somewhere around the house. It’s amazing how those simple acts can become powerful time capsules as the years pass by.
Ana Teresa Fernández
I feel as though Fernández’s work hits home with Mexican culture. Growing up, I witnessed this through family members of my own. Mexican women are expected to cook and clean up after their husbands, brothers, and sons even though they may be abusive towards them. In this culture, it doesn’t matter because it all comes down to machismo. And in many abusive cases, what the man says is law. Fernández’s work is trying to bring these issues to light. I’m sure that this not only occurs in Mexican cultures but in other cultures as well. The messages she portrays in her art continue to break barriers and stigmas for women.
— Melissa
Growing up the daughter of Mexican immigrants, I know the power and load that the border brings upon individuals like my parents… The border was designed to keep each party separated from the other, and for many years it has done so. Although the border is depicted as this negative thing, Ana Teresa was able to bring some light to it. By painting it bright blue to match the skies, it took away the darkness and in a way gave hope to those affected by it. I have the privilege of being able to be on either side of the border, but many individuals are stuck on one side and wish to be on the other.
— Noemi
My grandmother was forced to wait on hand and foot for her father from the age of ten years old and was not allowed to go to school. She was taught that a woman’s duties lied within the domestic world, to serve the man and think nothing of it. Unfortunately for my grandmother, this horrific cycle carried on when she married an abusive man. It also did not stop at that generation. I have many female family members who are actively fighting this stigma of being reduced to nothing but a housewife. Fernández’ work resonates with all of those who are within the Mexican community. The hyperrealism of her paintings perfectly embody these themes to the point of them becoming tangible. For me, these works of art symbolize the real-life struggles that many face, not only within the Mexican community but for many women around the world.
— Zachary
Points Update
This summer we have 1,000 points possible. With 1 week down, that’s 83 points possible so far. Here’s how many points you should have to be on pace for each grade level, and how many peeps are currently at that level:
- 75 points = A – 10 peeps
- 66 points = B – 5 peeps
- 58 points = C – 0 peeps
- 50 points = D – 0 peeps
- 49 points = F – 9 peeps
Class GPA so far = 2.29
As you can see from the numbers, a bunch of you are already acing the class. And some are not. The low points aren’t really “bombing,” they mostly come from 2 things:
- Didn’t post one or both pieces on Medium (Plaster Casting Art Activity, and Ana Teresa Fernández Artist OTW)
- Only made 1 discussion comment (Art Talk, and Ana Teresa Fernández Artist OTW)
For the discussion, you should make at least 3 comments on Artist OTW, and 3 comments on Art Talk. Feel free to do more! 😀 Ideally, you might make an original comment at the beginning of the week, and then poke back in later and make a couple of reply comments to what others have said. While a mix of original & reply comments is ideal, I will give points for all original or all reply. So any mix you come up with will still give you full credit as long as the comments are thoughtful and substantive.
Nobody’s “in trouble” yet, but for those who got low points in Week 1, definitely sort that out before Week 2 is over. I’ll be sending each person a private IM on Slack with your points each Tuesday. LMK about any questions or problems you might have.
Leaderboard
With a whopping 83 points possible so far, here’s our 1st Top 5 leaderboard of the summer:
- Ablebe (Kewei), 87
- Matthew, 86
- Melissa, 86
- Thu, 86
- Morgan, 85
Keep up the good work, everyone! 😀
Have a Good Week 2!
Have a good week, everyone! Hopefully the Hello Classmates vlog will be fairly easy to do. It’s not a required element of your Hello vlog, but if you’re able to show us a few images of wherever you are this summer, that’d be awesome!
I know the Welcome to my Website video might take some thinking. Feel free to discuss your ideas, questions, confusion, and insights with the class in the #art_activity channel. If you have questions that you don’t want to be public, you can always private IM me on Slack. BTW, you can IM each other on Slack too, if you ever want to.
Have a good week!
— Glenn
