MAE Papers. This is where I usually ask everybody to read at least one, or more, of some previous MAE exhibition and project papers and MAE theses. For anyone in the MAE, this is the end product or capstone paper. Some of them are in various stages, but you will get the picture. I have sent an invitation to your TTU email account from Dropbox. Look through the MAE papers and at the titles and choose something that piques your interests. Choose one to read and comment on.
I hope everybody is grounded and fairly sane as the semester moves toward its ending.
As we end Live through This, I just wanted to note how differently some of the comments cut closer to the bone, in a way, in terms of "getting it" or actively posting empathetically. I too feel left out of conversations with colleagues who don't want to get it--whatever that may be or mean. The first time I read Live Through This, I knew I was privileged as I read through the varied yet connected realities witnessed by artists and writers. I loved how a series of portraits--was in essence--an essay. Thank you for all of your posts from last week. And thank you for sharing your lives and experiences--truly moving for me to read and witness.
ReplyDeleteI read the MAE paper from 2008 by Amanda R. Hancock titled “Woman and Vessel: Education, Christianity and the Quest for the Grail of Gracefulness among the Cup of Service”
I was surprised at how I happened upon it and many other coincidences that occurred to me when I was reading it. First of all she references older women and younger women and wisdom, and she talks about vessels being the symbol of womanhood. I found her article by starting at the end, quite by accident, I noticed that there was no information about each article that I could read first and I would have to go through each one, so I used my mom’s method of starting at the end. I used to watch my mom read her newspapers and start at the end, and I asked why, and she would say, if I find anything interesting, I will keep working to the front of the paper to read it. So, she would read the conclusions first, and go back and read only what she was interested in. Well, it worked for me.
Hancock makes reference to the woman’s uterus as a vessel as well as a sign of beauty and womanhood and all that she puts with it like the desire to nurture whether you are a mother or not. Upon this writing, Hancock is herself not a mother. I, however have had three children and am now facing a hysterectomy. I cannot say that I am sad to lose my uterus, but thoughts do come into your mind. I mean, I’m too old to have children any more, and throughout my years of overdoing it, and teaching aerobics and running, and lifting heavy weights as well as children, my uterus has prolapsed, and lost its strength and integrity, so it’s time to take it out. I also just found out that my sister who is 15 years older than me, and who just had a hysterectomy, had cancer of her fallopian tubes, which is really rare, so even though I do not know what has caused my uterus to fail and lose strength, I am a little freaked out about what my sister has just discovered. It is this tendency for women, who nurture and give of themselves until they give out that Hancock discusses in this piece. Ironically, I have an answer for her, as she describes being busy in volunteer work and teaching until she is exhausted and depleted. These words of wisdom actually come from my sister who just had surgery. She told me years ago when I was a new mother, and I was trying to teach catechism classes at my church for children while trying to wrangle my own children and a new baby to their various care facilities while I taught, that there is a time for everything in your life, and this was my time to be a mother. She said that I should feel as if I was contributing and doing a very important job just in the raising of my children. This notion is spoken about in Ecclesiastes in the bible and The Byrds made a song about it. “For everything, turn turn turn, there is a season, turn turn turn, and And a time to every purpose under heaven.” (The Byrds,1950’s )
And straight from Ecclesiastes 3,
“ To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”
I will post my artwork related to this theme in a separate post.
Here is a continuation of my post. This link takes you to my blog where I have posted the image of my artwork that continues the discussion of this paper.
Deletehttp://susyroberts.blogspot.com/2016/05/continuation-of-vessel-with-my-artwork.html
The article “Omnivory: A Digital Feast,” by John Worley is a personal exploration of popular visual culture. John describes how media diversity in the digital age, shapes his character, and how we can be fed by numerous resources. It is something that I usually think about it. As an Iranian I live in the US and study English resources, every day I read BBC news and Listen to Deutsche Welle. But, still I doubt that it is Omnivory because I never watch Fax News, I don’t read Washington Post, and even Iran State Media. Therefore, there should be some similarities between BBC News and Deutsche Welle as there is between Fax News and Washington Post. So, in this case, I am very selective about the images that I see, the text I read, and the movie I watch.
ReplyDeleteI read Capstone paper 2011 by Denise Mahoney...beautiful said. I couldn't believe it almost sounds like me except she is a french and we are both on different timeline. However, whatever she is going through, I'm going through...trying to find myself at the time I need to be, even I just turned 28 years old two months ago. She states about the Psychology of Creativity, Bruce Holly says "exposing oneself is a loaded act, loaded with emotion, meaning, and risk." That quote I remember when I walked away as a Graphic Designer to find a job that is settle and hoping to find a man to marry, but that is just a comfort shell I want because I fear of failing or falling apart. Anyway, I am on a stage of becoming more and more as an artist and crave for find a position for myself as an art teacher, but some reason or every qualification of the job position I find...I felt hopeless. I don't have everything I need to get, but I don't want to fall back into that stupid comfort shell. All I'm saying that I understand her story, even we are going through on different timeline, different death, the struggle, and finally bloom into an artist at the very end, which I felt that I will get there someday.
ReplyDeleteOmnivory in the digital age is inevitable. People are connected to each other through their smartphones and tablets. They quickly share their photos and videos in less than a minute, and it doesn’t matter where they live. It is not easy to deny omnivory. Also, it is evident that the things we see and hear influence the way we think and make a decision. But the question here is how can we defend ourselves from these universal attacks? Should we do that? Can we be selective about the digital resources?
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ReplyDeleteI also read the article, Woman and Vessel: Education, Christianity, and the Quest for the Grail of Gracefulness among the Cup of Service Amanda R. Hancock and found it to be very poignant and touching. The author writes of women as the gender who gives life, who births creative ideas and projects; I thought this was very true and a point often overlooked by the western art historic methodologies theoretical traditions. I have learned in many of my art history courses that women's art has traditionally been overlooked by historians and curators as merely crafts or decorative arts. Recently, feminine art historians and archaeologists are reasserting the contribution that women have made historically to the arts and in addition, there has been some recent publications which indicate that in prehistoric time, in the paleolithic age, it was women who were the first creators, the first three dimensional sculptors of forms and figurines. This makes sense to me, as women we give life to life forms, we are interested in shaping our lives and those of our children into something that is full and fruitful. I think Amanda Hancock offers a very insightful metaphor with her paper, women are the vessels of life, birth and creativity. We should be paying close attention to the accomplishments of women historically, especially in the arts, there might be more that we have not received credit for due to no fault of our own.
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