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Progress is when something happens to move something forward. This something could be an idea, or the creation of something, or a popular movement.

  I think that the Industrial Revolution was a time of progress in the economic and technological sense. We made great machines using steam and coal that improved and sped up almost every process of people’s lives. It was also a time of recession in the human rights sense, as people were seen as tools, and there were no longer “master craftsmen”, but simply laborers.

The overlapping gender roles in our cultures are few and far apart.  Nowadays, working moms and stay at home dads are common, and not looked down upon.  The only ways that Ibo gender roles have influenced ours is in small ways, like how the majority of police officers are men.

Progress is the process of something growing in a positive manner.  When a country has made progress, something has changed.  Maybe their scientists have made a huge breakthrough, or maybe they have gotten closer to solving the problems caused by poverty.  Whatever form it is in, progress is always a welcome aspect of life.

Write a letter to someone that is something you would never really send.

Dear Don Cherry,

First of all, you are amazing and have great taste in suits.  Having gotten that out of the way, I want you to know how much I appreciate your brutally honest analysis of hockey games.  I love when you talk about a fight, and give that insight into how the fighters are thinking.   How they are fighting because the fans love it and because how it is fun instead of some personal vendetta.  You truly understand the violent side of hockey.

Social change can be fast sometimes, like in the case of Egypt, Libya, and the rest of the Arab Spring; when they overthrew their dictators. This was fast because they know what they wanted to change into, because they could see examples of it outside their own country. They were also oppressed and unhappy, so they made the change, which was fast. Slow change of society, like the renaissance, was slow because there was nothing they could see that they saw was more advanced that they wanted to become. Because of this the change was not pushed in any direction in particular, it simply happened on its own, which is much slower.

• they are expressing themselves
• for freedom
• passing messages
• to remember events
• for deaths
• to honor people
• advertisement
• emotion
• to be known
• personal and world issue
• tell stories and teach
• to grow

History Journal 37 

Everything the main character is shown glorified no matter what, you usually see only that one perspective

History Journal 45

"The perfect state is reach only when mind and body and speech are in proper coordination"

I don't think there is a perfect state. I think that no human can be perfect. Each human has a flaw and if they try to fix that they will cause another flaw to reveal itself.

English Journal 26

Race is a social construction

Race has no genetic basis

Skin Color is only skin deep

April 9-13

Abstraction Emotion - any size (not smaller then 8-11”)

Choose an emotion and create a painting/drawing/collage/photograph

         Abstract emotion is when you are making an art piece out of colors that are reflected on your mood. In my painting I used a lot of darks, and some really bright colors. I chose to do it that way because I just felt that having it look all dark would make me feel a little down, so to make myself happy I added some bright colors.

         Throughout this project I did have some mishabs but I learned to teach myself how to reinvent, and make it into something more natural. So at first I was planning on doing all white and black and so I got a big brush, and I got some water, but as I dipped my brush in the water then into the paint then onto my paper the color appeared gray, and watery. At that point I told myself what I had planned wasn’t going to work. So instead I just continued to undercoat everything in a damp gray. Then I started taking my colors, and this time I didn’t use water I dried my brush and started dabbing, and I continued doing that with every color, so that everything will begin to clash together.

         Overall I did enjoy this project even though the process was a little hectic, but at the end I realized I honestly did really liked my painting.

April 16-20

Abstraction Motion - any size (not smaller then 8-11”)

Choose an motion and create a painting/drawing/collage/photograph

         Abstract motion is when one looks at a drawing, and by looking at it, it sort of looks like a movement, or it can look as if its actually moving. In this project I looked up on the internet and found an orange picture that looked as if it was moving because of the different shades of orange, and I took the photo and I attempted to do the same thing.

         I knew that this project was going to be different than the last because we were dealing with different types of shading, and different textures of lights and darks. When first beginning the project I had to think to myself if I should add water or not because I figured if I add water I didn’t want it to start dripping and such like it did last time, or I said to myself just paint the paper dry, but I figured if I did that it wouldn’t of had that motion effect. So I decided that I was going to paint it dry first with a whole bunch of shades of orange, and then on top of the painting I will coat it with water, so that it would smear and look sort of like a moving light.

         As a result I liked this project. It honestly wasn’t one of my favorites, but it was enjoyable. I personally thought I did ok on this project it didn’t necessarily look the way I wanted it to but I believe it was worth the challenge. 

 April 23-27

Abstract 

Your choice of medium and size

For my medium size Abstract I did a type of design resulting in circles, and spirals. The colors I used for this project were all shades of green. I chose green because I just thought it was a really nice color, that I wanted to experiment with.

         I decided to get green paint and on the side I had a little bit of white. I put a little bit of green on my brush because I didn’t want the green to be too dark, then I began making swirls with my brush. I eventually began using the white so that it would have a lighter tone. I then used a little blue and I embedded it inside the green swirls, so that it would kind of have a nice green and blue mix. I then added some white outlines, and added some blues.

         I really enjoyed this project because I felt as though I was free to do whatever I want, and I thought I did fairly well on this project. At the end I was very happy with what I accomplished.  

April/May 30-4

Observation Drawing - Close up drawing

            I started my project with the mother because I figured if I get the posistion and just of the big figure it would be easier to put together the whole picture with all the little details. I first sketched the drawing as good as I can, and then I outlined it with a sarker shade. Once I did the mother I began to do the ears. For some reason the ears were the most difficult part. I think it was because in the picture it was so complex with the design I just gave up on perfection and made it look as good as I can. I then worked on the eye. I made sure it had the perfect distance between the head and the eye. I then began to work on bambi. The only hardship I had with drawing bambi was when I had to make him look like as if he was laying down. I believe making his body positioned on the ground as if he was sort laying against his mother was difficult.

            Overall I was very happy with my work. I thought I did as best as I could, and I think my hard work paid off, and I was very happy how my picture turned out.  

 Observation  drawing: Landscape

For my landscape drawing I decided to draw a park that I found off the internet. In this project, I only used pencil. I used pencil because I thought it would seem more natural if it came from an actual sketch, and then proceed with shading.

            I started with the bottom half of the picture because I figured if I get the shape of the pathway and the bushes it would create the general shape for the whole picture. So then I positioned the pathway as if it were going into a city type thing, as you can see in the picture I made everything narrow so it looks like an actual parkway, because if you were to look at a parkway it would start of big and then everything would sort of cave in. After I finished the bottom half of my paper I began adding things such as bushes and trees and city buildings.

             As a result I’m not necessarily proud of how it turned out but I think it’s a pretty ok picture. I thought this project was more difficult their others because drawing a landscape requires a lot of analyzing, and figuring out when and where to shade. Overall I’m content with the outcome of my project.   

Abstract

I began by writing one story about Cherokee myths involving the sun and moon. My main character had to deal with living those myths and being affected by the moon. I began to write, but an obstacle I encountered was that I didn’t connect with my characters at all. I did too much research on the story and the plot, before getting to know the characters. The lack of passion I felt for the characters affected me severely. Eventually, I had to change the story to something else. It was changed to another idea that I was much more comfortable with. I learned how to make a story more independent. Because I had chosen a story that was originally a sequel, I feared that I’d have trouble writing it on its own. But I learned that just with a few minor tweaks, a story’s plot could be changed considerably. After deleting references from the past story that I loved, I realized that it helped build the story and give me more advantage in the plot. I also learned my strengths and weaknesses as a writer. I now know that I should not push my creativity too far within deadlines because it might kill the joy of writing. But I also can’t take two years to write something. So I need to find the middle line between giving myself deadlines, and writing freely.

Dear Irene, 

Ok, so um, you need to get yourself together. You need to stop getting yourself between problems that have nothing to do with you and you need to get away from Clare! You’re doing nothing but putting oil to the fire.

To begin, I know that you and Clare are like best friends, die hard, positive and negative energy bonded magnets. But I am going to be completely honest with you, and give you reasons why you need to separate from her. I need you to listen clearly, it’s almost like I am reading your life, almost like a book!

First, you and I both know, Clare is passing. This is something that you cannot play around with, and this is something you need to avoid. She is acting like someone she isn’t and if people know that you knew that she is African American, there can be very bad consequences.  It’s almost like you have an ultimatum. It’s either you tell the community about Clare’s TRUE identity, or you leave it a secret, and hope for the best. But heed that there are consequences involved. 

Sincerely,

Life is made in many different forms,

These different forms come from different makers.

You eat the food from the ground,

You drink the water from the seas,

You smell the scent of the flowers,

And you breathe the air of the earth.

The Presidents made the constitution,

The gods made the earth,

The chicken laid the egg,

And seed made the tree.

Everything has a source.

It’s the heart of the body,

Without it we would be dead

It’s the Sun of the Universe,

Without it we would be dead.

It’s the racism of our society,

Without it we would be alive.

It has brought nothing

Except hatred and war,

It is something undesirable,

Nothing we adore.

The main source of it,

Died many years ago,

Not possible to fix,

This situation left us in woe.

We can always attempt to make a change,

Getting a lot of people to agree, is very hard to arrange.

Most likely it is impossible to complete this task,

Everyone is two afraid to help, they will wear the fearful mask.

-Daniel Varnis

• What did you find most challenging about this project?
  The most challenging thing was finding resources for what I was trying to show with my images. i knew what I took the images for but had difficulty presenting it. 
• How did you go about collecting the images or selecting the images?
  I looked for images that told a story. I didn't just want images of convenience stores owned by foreigners. I wanted images that showed lifestyles of Americans with other cultures. I also wanted images that showed things that wouldn't be found in America without influence from other parts of the world. 
• Which image is your favorite? Why? Elaborate.
  I think the picture of the volkswagon is my favorite because it shows globalization in another time period as well as presently. The van is so old.