Out With The Old, In With The New.

The second course of my senior STEAM class is called Systems and Models. This class teaches us how to study ourselves, as well as other people and groups.The first unit of this class is called Individual. This unit focused on studying ourselves through psychology. To do this, we looked at a lot of different personality tests, which I talk about a lot in my project. For the action project, we were assigned to take all the information we learned about ourselves, and present it in a artistic way. The art could be whatever we consider art to be. I liked that a lot because many people have different views on what could be considered art, and it's good to have an open mind and see the differences. I enjoyed learning a lot about myself through these different tests, and it was fun to make that into art. I hope you enjoy reading below!

During this class, we were assigned to take a few personality tests to see if they would help us identify ourselves, as well as to see how we handle certain situations. The one that I think best connected with me was the Myers Briggs test. The point of this test was to figure out how I perceive the world and how I make decisions. At the end, my results were INFP. Those letters stand for introversion, intuition, feeling, and perception. Introversion means that I am energized by having some time to myself. Intuition means that I can recognize patterns and possibilities. Feeling means that I take other people’s feelings seriously. Perceiving means that I enjoy freedom and flexibility. All this can also be described as the “mediator”. This made sense to me because people describe me as being reserved, gentle, and understanding. Once I knew all this information, I thought my result for the TKI test, which describes how we handle a conflict, was pretty accurate. The number one word I got was avoider. This means that I shy away from a conflict or that I’d rather not face it at all.

Out with the old, in with the new. (RD). 2017.

The name of my art piece is called "Out with the old, in with the new". I traced out both of my hands with pencil and marker and added details into them with colored pencils and markers. All this was done on regular printer paper. The size is 8.5x11in. The little details included aren’t actually little in my life, but since there’s a lot going on, they had to be a certain size. One hand represents all the things in life that I want and want to pull in. On the other is stuff that I avoid or push away, and don’t want to include in my life. The hand that wants to push things away is colored in darker, while the hand that wants to bring in things is lighter. The things I want to bring in includes peace, kindness, friendships, and adventure. I represented that through hearts, flowers, peace signs, and a lot of green to represent adventure and nature. I also drew tiny stars to represent the very dreamy personality that I have. When it comes to things that I want to push away I include stress, conflict, criticism ,and decisions. I represented that with a lot of question marks because all those things leave me feeling very unsure. I also drew clouds and a thunderstorm that represent all the stress that clumps together and eventually destroys all my inspiration.

Apart from the 2 tests that I talked about earlier, I also took the Enneagram personality test. The result I got for this one was type 4. This is also known as the "Individualist". Some of the words that are used to describe this type include, expressive, dramatic, self-absorbed, and temperamental. It's also known as the sensitive, introspective type. Most of this is pretty accurate. I've always been quiet, and I find myself sometimes stuck in my own head, and constantly daydreaming. Although this happens, I still like to branch out and connect with others. I represented that in my drawing by the leaves that are outside of the fingers. With this result in mind, I also thought that the result that I got from the DISC personality test was accurate. I got C for compliance. Again, this describes people who are a bit more reserved, people who would rather stay behind the scenes of anything, and those who hate pressure. I think it's cool how I can see a connection with all these different tests.

Throughout this class, we watched a few videos that studied certain behaviors. I thought the "Slap her" experiment was super interesting. The young boys knew it was wrong to slap a girl, so they didn't do it. I also really loved it because I also take other people's feelings seriously, and I could never imagine myself hurting someone else.

In order to fully understand the whole process of creating an artist statement, I talked to Hiu, who is an art teacher. I was curious about which elements she considered as the most important. I liked when she talked about how important it is to explain the story behind the art piece. “I also really love when an artist statement gives instructions on how the audience should interact with or view the piece of artwork. This really gives the artist the chance to immerse the audience into their work and not only view the piece, but also to experience it”. That’s what I hope for when people view my artwork.


Work cited:

"Type Four." The Enneagram Institute. The Enneagram Institute., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2017

"C for Compliance." Discus Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.

"Free Personality Test." 16Personalities. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.

"The Use and Misuse of an Avoiding Style in Conflict Management." Mediate.com - Find Mediators - World's Leading Mediation Information Site. Mediate.com, Sept. 2006. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.

To, Hiu. Email interview. 18. Jan. 2017

I'm watching you.

For this Elective term, I’ve decided to take a class called If These Walls Could Talk. This course lets us explore the history of art, more specifically murals, and we even get the opportunity to create our own artwork. For the first unit of this course we looked at the murals from different time periods including Prehistory, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greek and the Renaissance. For the first Action Project, we were assigned to sketch a mural idea that addresses the needs of a neighborhood. I chose to learn more about Pilsen.There are already so many magical murals in Pilsen and I wanted to create a mural to be a part of the magic. My mural focuses on the need of safety in the Pilsen community. I had a hard time coming up with a drawing that was going to reflect my ideas, so it took me awhile to just sketch everything out. Even though it took me awhile, I’m still proud at how it came out. Thanks to this project and unit, I now have a better understanding as to why murals are made. I hope you enjoy my sketch and artist statement below!

RD

11/15

I'm watching you "11x14"

Pencil on paper

Pilsen is a very artsy community with a predominantly Latino population. It is considered an up- and-coming neighborhood in Chicago, which can disguise the fact that the neighborhood is still considered dangerous. During the 1980s, Pilsen was considered one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the United States, and although that is no longer the case, crime still lingers around. For that reason, I believe that Pilsen must focus on the safety of their residents, especially because for the many families that call the neighborhood their home.

RD, I'm watching you. 2016

To represent the need for safety in my image, I drew a pair of eyes that belong to a police officer to watch over the neighborhood. In the police officer’s eyes, the viewer can see what the eyes are watching over. I used the fisheye perspective to show the viewer what the officer is looking at when watching over the community. Perspective was used a lot by Italian painters during the Renaissance to give a more realistic view on their artwork. In the left eye there is a gangbanger destroying the Welcome to Pilsen sign. He’s scratching out the word, Pilsen, and writing Chiraq over it, a term used to describe the war zone that’s going on in Chicago. In the right eye there’s something very different going on. I drew a young child with his or her family and they are thanking the the officer for protecting them. I drew small, basic figures for this one, and I overlapped them to show some sort of movement, just like they did in the pre-historic cave paintings.

I used bright colors in the right eye to show the happiness that many families have in Pilsen, and I used darker colors in the left eye to show off the darker incidents that are going on. As a way to bring tribute to the country and to the large Mexican population, the background has the colors of the Mexican flag. My wish is that my mural be placed on a tall building where everyone can see it. I want my mural to open the eyes of the citizens of Chicago. I want them to see what is actually going on in our city. A beautiful neighborhood should not have to deal with ugly behavior. My hope would also be for the people committing these crimes to look at my mural and think about the young, innocent lives that they may affect if they continue to carry out these on doing their senseless acts. I want the residents of Pilsen to feel secure, because that one pair of eyes represents the many other police officers that are doing their job well, and the ones making sure that they are all safe.