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Art 2, the second class of art offered at Science Leadership Academy is all about the deeper exploration of the different types of visual arts. This quarter, we started off the by getting an overview of all the pieces we were doing and all the options we had for each piece. For each piece there were three options for the workload that you wanted. They were Passive, for the student who was in the class just because, Middle for students who are interested in art but not sure if they want to pursue futures in art, and the Future Art Student which is pretty self explanatory.

Our first assignment of quarter was another Art History assignment. We were to research art from any country that we wanted on the list of the website we were assigned to. I chose France and a dress by Yves Saint Laurent. The dress is his timeless Mondrian dress.

The second assignment is the one I am most proud of this quarter. It is an artistic collage inspired by Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam”, as you can see the resemblance from the hands reaching out towards the diamond ring. I gave it a modern twist by adding the diamond and model cutouts form a Cosmopolitan issue. Dubbed “Girls love diamonds.” this piece is definitely the work that cherish most out of my compilation this quarter.

The third was a challenging one. Our job was to draw fabric. I chose to do something differently and draw draped robes on a made-up/fantasy character I created myself as well. I thought this was challenging because of the fact that I had to pay close attention to where the fabric was hanging and going on the model. Although it was difficult, I was still able to create good looking fabric and do it in a more creative way than just drawing the fabric alone.

The next assignment took us away from the pencil and paper and made us go digital. We were tasked with shooting a photo and professionally editing it. I did this plenty of times before and still do it even now so this was right up my alley. I shot a symmetrical photo of a mailbox which was shot using the rule of thirds. The mailbox was centered with beautiful flowers behind it which gave it the bright colors. While editing, I made sure to boost the vibrancy of the colors in order to make them pop.

The last assignment was an illustration of a children’s book, poem, novel. Being the person that I am, I chose to do an illustration of lyrics from rap songs. The songs were by Travis Scott and Kanye West, which explain my drawings which show Travis Scott and Kanye West performing actions that they speak about in their songs.

The taste of sulfur still lingering in the air, the man coughed. Felt the debris cut pieces from his throat and coughed up more blood onto the frozen ground. He looked up into the gray and the dark of the sky and shouted to god;

Have you no mercy!?... Have you no shame!?

His breath riding on the wind, the cold air making silhouettes of the shadows of what full trees once looked like. It reminded him of how hope took false forms, how it was a bargaining chip from god to the damned, and all he could do was sit. Trying to extract the pieces of the mirage from his mind.

What do you want from me!? What do you want from us!? Why am I still here!!!

The ringing silence that bounced off the wind taunted him, the apples fallen and rotting at his feet.

He thought of the rain, he thought of the simmering ground how it was always cold and thawing but never completely unfrozen. What an irony in a world of fire, He thought of floods, and noah, and world's end, he thought of water, and the life that is given with a boat. How long would it sit frozen? The rust eating away at the pipes. You cannot clean the world of soot, or ash, or singed leaves that have long fallen and been dead. Hell was right here.

Isn’t it?

In the rotting of dead men, with teeth like splinters, everything, burned.

The reason I chose this section on page 119 right before the man goes into the house and chews the hay seeds, is because I honestly felt as though something was missing. That we missed something between those two moments That break in a paragraph has the ability to further create a dialog of what it means to be forsaken. Especially in a world like this. It raises the question of; Can truly even be a good guy? Apples are always a significant tool used in literature. Authors make choices when they write, and McCarthy being the poetic writer that he is I believe chose apples rotten apples and a burned apple orchard or I interpreted it at least, as addressing the idea of the world's end and being forsaken, because prior to this scene in the apple orchard we hear talk of serpents and other biblical references. Therefore I tied back that piece of genesis with Adam and Eve to the end of the world, how she had forsaken mankind and now the time has now ended completely. That hell is the very world you live in. I chose this theme in particular because the Man’s conversations with god many times turn to arguments, vast exchanges of silence and anger and shouting between the man and the sky, and then there is this other piece of god that the man has which is through the boy, and what it means to have faith. It is as if the boy is his god, because the boy is what he believes in. The boy in many ways which are more innocent is this all knowing being, who often times brings the hope back to the man, and keeps the man going. The boy is the man’s god because the man has unwavering faith in the boy, as one does in god, the boy has to live, the boy has to keep moving, the boy drives the man’s will to live, the mans faith in his entirety. The only way the man still feels anguish in a world this doused in pain is because of his love and obligation to protect the boy whom he has deemed sacrosanct.

This quarter I explored different types of art and I learned more about myself as an artist. The work this quarter was challenging but also a lot of fun to do. I enjoyed learning more about photography and photo editing and I also really enjoyed making a collage for the first time in many years.

For my collage I wanted to convey a sense of calmness and serenity so I chose to do a collage of the sun setting over the ocean. When flipping through magazines to cut out some useful pieces for my collage I saw a picture of a sunset and it inspired me to do a collage of a sunset. My collage reminds me of all the times I’ve stayed at my grandmother’s house at the beach and seen the sun setting over the ocean. I really enjoyed creating the collage and it was my favorite assignment of the quarter.

The fabric drawing was very difficult for me because I’d never drawn fabric before. It was hard to capture all the wrinkles and folds in the fabric accurately and even harder to draw the shadows and lights. The fabric I was drawing wasn’t very visually appealing so it was hard to feel inspired.

I took a photo of one of the horses on the seesaw at the playground close to SLA. As a child I went to Greene Towne school, the preschool across the street from SLA, so I used to play in that playground a lot and I remember that the horses were my favorite part of the playground. I chose to use a filter that distorted the image to symbolize how childhood memories are often lost and become hazy.

The illustration was my second favorite project. I chose to illustrate “Stopping Through Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. I chose to illustrate that poem because I knew that there was going to be a blizzard the weekend after the illustration was due and I wanted to draw something snowy and wintry. I enjoyed drawing everything, especially the trees and the horse. I wanted my illustration to convey the beauty of nature and also convey a sense of wonder.

I use to drink those all the time when I was your age.

How long ago was that?

I don't remember.

The man and the boy look around to see if there was anything else that was useful that could be added to their cart. The man curiously walked near a flight of stairs that seemed to start near the entrance.

What is it?

Wait here.

Let me go with you, I’m scared.

No, I’ll be back. I’ll let you know if I find anything.

But Papa.

Don’t follow me.

The man slowly approached the staircase, he tip toed up the stairs keeping a tight grip on his gun. Before he reached the top of the stairs he looked to see if there was anyone in the room. Once he reached the top of the stairs he was overwhelmed to see what his eyes had not seen in years.

Get up here, I have something to show you.

What is it?

Come up and I’ll show you.

I don’t know, is it safe?

Just come up here, you’ll like it I promise.

The boy took a large amount of time to get up the stairs, the man didn’t mind as he was mesmerized by what he had seen.

What is it?

It’s a radio.

What’s a radio?

It’s like a box that plays any kind of music you put into it.

Does it work?

I don’t know, I’ll try to turn it on.

The man picked up the radio and observed it for a couple of minutes, he tested all of the buttons and was finally able to turn it on.

I don’t hear anything.

You have to put in the CD so it can play.

Where can we find one?

Help me look around, there should be some around.

The man opened the cabinet below from where the radio was, he grabbed the first one he saw and handed it to the boy.

Is this it?

Yes.

What does it say?

Greatest Hits of The Century. Put it in, and press the button that says play.

It took a couple of seconds for the first track on the CD to play. The first song was by Dion, The Twist. The moment the song began the man moved his hips and feet and sang the words of the song as loud as he could. The boy did not understand what he was doing and seemed to be bewildered as he stared at him.

Papa, what are you doing?

Dancing, come on it’s easy.

I don’t know, you’re acting really strange.

It’s not strange, just try it.

But I don’t know how.

Just do the twist.

I don’t even know what that means.

It means stop being scared and dance.

After three songs had passed the boy smiled and joined the man in the middle of the floor. The boy didn’t know any of the songs so he sang whatever seemed right. The man looked down at the boy and began to laugh. Once the last track ended they grabbed all their stuff and set out back onto the road, for the rest of the journey the man and the boy hummed each song they had danced to and disappeared into the cold dark night.

Rationale of The Creative Scene

I chose to write the creative scene after the man and the boy were in the supermarket and the man wanted him to try the coca cola because I wanted to add more nostalgic elements to the story. The scene where the man gives the boy the coca cola gives the reader a taste of what was a custom of the world before the events that have left it in the way it is now. Creating the scene where the man finds the radio and identifies what is playing and as well as his actions gives the reader more background information about the man and what the boy is familiar with pertaining to what he knows about the world the man grew up in, which would be the motif of my creative scene. I also wanted to introduced a different side of the man, a side to which even the boy wasn’t familiar with. It shows how much humanity the man still has inside of him, and how little the boy has experienced throughout his time in the world they know now to be a wasteland. The theme of my creative scene is similar to the scene where the man gives the boy the coca-cola, except it is more nostalgic and playful. When I wrote the scene I included how the man wanted the boy to join him, I made it clear that the opportunity for the boy to actually be a kid and experience something that the man had once experienced himself was probably the only one he would get. 

My essential question was “What is the relationship between the man and the boy? Throughout the novel we are given examples to when the man shows how he protects the boy, but we also see how the boy controls him and his level of authority. I wanted my creative scene to show a playful father and son bonding moment, something that the reader rarely sees in the novel. My creative scene shows a reflection of an important moment that had just passed, that important moment would be when the man tells the boy to taste the coca-cola. Suggesting that the boy should join the man when he was dancing and singing shows the same elements. For my vocabulary word I chose the twist to describe what the man was doing and what the man was singing. The Twist was a popular song and dance in the 1960's by Dion.

During my writing process I explored the idea of belonging. After watching several  videos and reading excerpts that described how we find our identity. It helped me to examine bigger ideas such as the process of building our identity and how many factors go into the destruction of our identity. But I’ve came to the conclusion that our identity can’t be destructed unless we allow it to be. Our identity can be reconstructed, because throughout life we will have different encounters that help us shape and form our identity. Another idea that stuck out to me during my research was that we do form our identity based off of others people projections,because when we come into this world we are told things and we base our own projections on their own.

I’m very happy with the outcome of my essay and podcast. I was able to interview my family members and understand their perspective on belonging and forming our identity. In the future I want to be comfortable with educating people about identity and I also want to stay comfortable in my own skin and not rely on the presence of others.