Overcoming The Wave

In unit 2 of If These Could Talk we looked at murals from 1910-until the present. We focused the Mexican Mural Movement and how art was used a weapon. We also looked at graffiti and how it became popular, and the importance of art being illegal, especially when it is meant to start a revolution. We went to Pilsen, a neighborhood in Chicago, on a FE, and how each mural has a message. For the action project we got in groups of 5 people and we took the images we created for the first Action Project to create a sketch that incorporates each of our ideas. I enjoyed experimenting with different types of paints and seeing which would work best in conveying the message of the group sketch. It was challenging having to make change our original design to make it even more simple, but carry the same message. Please enjoy LL, BKJ, AG, MF’s and my artwork!

                                                                                                                          

NVA, AG, MF, BKJ, LL
Overcoming the Wave
December, 2015
11” x 4” and 11” x 4.5”
Acrylic Painting/ Spray Paint

NVA, BKJ, AG, LL, MF "Overcoming the wave sketch" (2015) GCE Lab School 

The sketch that we created shows a wave coming up and a boat caught in the middle of the wave. The wave is symbolizing the traditional school system and its approach at education, and how they are all the same with using standardized testing and the way they break down learning. The boat that is going toward the wave symbolizes our school and how we are changing what is seen as the “norm” for our educational system. This concept of our sketch is considered revolt art. Our school is really trying to break the norm of our system that we have created. This is also a tribute mural to our school, because we create this mural to recognize the changes we are trying to make. This sketch was inspired from murals we looked at in unit 1 and 2, from the concept of using our peers different styles and mixing them. Also we looked at acrylic murals in unit 2 a lot and wanted to use that in our own piece. This is much different than our last sketch, we changed it because our teacher wanted us to have the same message but have less in it, to make it more simplistic.

NVA "Acrylic Paint Swatches" (2015) GCE Lab School 

In our group, we divided the sketch into five sections and each person chose two sections to use in creating a material swatch. I chose acrylic paint, because my group wanted to use many different acrylic mediums, and wanted to see how it would look without external mediums changing the style. I chose to use the paint as is, skipping the addition of acrylic media to show my group what the paint would look like on its own. I like the challenge of turning little into more and greater. It was also very simple to use,because I had nothing to add to the paint, making it very easy to handle and manipulate. I thought the resulting image was cool, because it has this simple and old artistic style to it. I think the way I used the colors and moved them up and around, made the wave look very powerful, and in a very simple way. When talking about colors, my group looked at many different wave painting and in one we saw that they stuck to using different shades of blue to keep that ocean feel, and that is what we wanted to do. I used the white when the wave is building and then building again, because water when moving and splashing within itself, it makes a white-ish blue color. We do plan to use this in final painting. my group liked the blue sky, and its color, because we didn’t want the sky to stand out, but more settle in, so it won’t look bad.

The resulting image of my swatches came out very detailed, colorful, and really how I wanted them to come out. Also the depth of it was very nice, because it had this feel to it, of the wave really coming up and showing it is going to be real and powerful. This was something I really wanted to see, while painting. I thought the medium was very easy to work with, it was very easy to control. All I had to do was work with my color choices which was fun, and it was cool to see how nice they came out. Also how really simple of a process it took to get such a nice and clean looking image; that still has depth to it, being able to use the colors to create depth is very thing to learn.

In the end, we will use acrylic paint (without additional medium) to create the sky, and the coarse pumice gel to create the foam at the top of the wave. Then the water and inside of the wave we use soft gel, which is something that creates a glossy look for water to pop out. For the boat and people we used spray paint, because we wanted a really clean and crisp look to that part so it can stand out very nicely.

NVA, BKJ, AG, LL, MF "Overcomign the wave( swatches put together)" (2015) GCE Lab School 

Spelling: Machine vs. Man

In unit 1 of my new class, Rapid Prototyping, we learned about vertices, traversable objects, shapes, and shapes’ interior angles. We also looked at different cutting machines and how they work, such as laser cutters, water cutters and blade cutters. Leading me to the action project, we received two different letters, either lower or upper case, and we had to cut those out from any material we chose, by hand and then with a blade cutter. The purpose of doing it both by hand and with a machine is to show the pluses and deltas in using a machine cutter. The letters I have are an uppercase “H” and a lowercase “v”. The purpose of doing it is that we are moving to a new location as a school, and everyone making these letters will help with signs that we might want to create for the new location. What I like about doing this is that we get to make the letters however we like, in whatever format, so people could have done them in cursive or even another language. 

          

Calling Lincoln Park

In unit 1 of If These Walls Could Talk, we looked at the history or murals, from Prehistory up until the Renaissance. We also looked at the visual styles of different murals, and how to classify murals based on its purpose. For the Action Project, we had picked a neighborhood in Chicago, and created a sketch for a mural that addresses a problem that neighborhood. To explain the image, we wrote an artist statement that clearly explains how the image addresses the problem we identified. The neighborhood I chose was Lincoln Park, and I believe that there is a lack of community in that neighborhood. The purpose of this was to learn about how murals are used and what they can do. Also since we are moving to a new space as a school, this is to help get an idea of how to make a mural for a new location. Please enjoy my art piece and artist statement!


NVA
“Calling Lincoln Park”
11-15-15
11’’ x 14’

Drawing

During the 1850s, Lincoln Park was home to many German truck farmers, helping Lincoln Park to earn the name “Cabbage Patch”. It was also home to many industrial workers, who worked in the neighborhood. The Germans started creating the community, but after the Great Chicago Fire, many Germans left and other ethnic groups began to move into the neighborhood, Italians, Hungarians, Romanians, Slovaks, Puerto Ricans, and African Americans; moved into Lincoln Park for the cheap housing built after the fire. But how did a lack of community become a problem if the neighborhood was called home by so many different cultures? Well, the Great Depression the people of Old Town (Southeastern part of Lincoln Park) were worried it was becoming a slum. From housing stock deteriorating as the owners subsided and neglected their properties. So they formed The Old Town Triangle Association in 1948, which inspired the north side of Lincoln Park to form the Lincoln Park Conservation Association in 1954. Then in 1956, the neighborhood was designated as a conservation area. Then, because of the General Renewal Plan that was enforced in Lincoln Park, groups of people, like the Puerto Rican and African - Americans were bought out and forced to move. Then the property value increased drastically, forcing out the poor to make room for the wealthy. Making it, by the early 2000s, one of the neighborhoods with the highest status. 

Today, after a long history of culture and economic changes, Lincoln Park has lost its sense of community despite efforts to help its residents connect with each other. I would say it it isn’t working just because of technology as well, because it adds to the disconnection people build by themselves. I hope to draw attention to this problem through the mural I am proposing. 

In the sketch I drew a-over-the-shoulder view of a man looking at his phone, and on the screen it says, “Take off the headphones”. The headphones symbolize the reason there is a lack of community.Spending time in Lincoln Park and observing the people in the neighborhood, I saw many people with their headphones on and no one looked nor talked to each other. I was inspired by the use of realism, developed during the Renaissance. I chose to use realism as a visual technique because the scene I created is a real one; people in real life are always on their phones. I used a muted and dull color palette to show how boring the community has gotten because of the lack of community. I’ve created this image as a revolt to address the need to put your headphones in and ignore everything around you. 

This is a mural that I’d want to be put in the park or by the lake, these areas are where the most people hang out, and where the most wealthiest people live. From my mural, I want it to wake people up and have them take out their headphones and try to talk to other people around them. From that a community will be born, and there will be no need for one, because it will already be there.

References:

"Lincoln Park." Lincoln Park. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.

Keeping an Eye on People

In unit 3 of Rhetoric, my class looked at the start of colonies in the new world called America. We looked at the conflicts that started from, the French and British and the conflicts made from the Sons of Liberty and what they stood for. For the action project, we had to find a social issue, and create an artwork that would be a great way to represent it using any kind of medium. The purpose was to inspire people from all over the world to unite (like some of the early American colonists). I chose to make an artistic statement about the issue of domestic violence because I wanted to learn more about the topic. The art medium I chose was a drawing with just a pencil and a piece of paper for the reason that drawing is so simple, but also can be complex in the way you make it. Please enjoy the drawing and what it holds.

NVA "Keeping an Eye on People" (2015) GCE Labs School

What is domestic violence? It is when the person you trust most starts abusing you or a loved one, in the place where you should feel most safe. This issue is very well known to many people, but also not as well known as it should be. What I mean by that is, people know about it - either they have experienced it or they have heard about it. So why is it that so many people aren’t doing something about it? And, why have we actually gotten used to the fact that it happens? Most of the time, people don’t want to interfere because they think it’s none of their business, but should we actually let this happen? I say no - just because it might not be our business, I don’t think that we should continue to stand by and let this keep happening.

In 2 out of 3 female homicide cases, the woman was killed as a result of domestic violence (Safe Horizon: General facts). The only way this can stop growing is when we decide to act on the inside of what is actually happening. But domestic violence isn’t only bad to the person being hit; children who witness these events happening are also changed in some way mentally, and may be victims of abuse as well. Maybe they are experiencing domestic violence first hand, and they repeat the cycle with other people when they grow up. These young victims are seeing bullying happening first hand and they don’t know what they should do, 3 million children see domestic violence every year in their homes (Safe Horizon: Effects on Children). We shouldn’t let that happen at all. But why? Why care? Say you saw someone getting hit on the street by someone, would you help or walk away? Or say you saw your child getting bullied, would you do something?

I think of domestic violence as bullying and it makes it just so much worse when it is coming from someone you love. 1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. I am saying for that to stop now and make that number 0 in 4 women, or even men, who do actually get the other side of the bullying (Safe Horizon: Occurrence of Violence).

The reason I chose to sound off on the topic of domestic violence isn’t because I have experienced it or because I needed to talk about something I have experienced. I felt like it was very important to me to pick an issues that I don’t experience with, just so I have more knowledge on it, and have a larger standpoint on the subject. I also feel like then I might have the power to help people or just teach people about domestic violence, as I am doing with my art. I just feel it is important to learn about more issues that don’t fully apply to you, so you can have an understanding and connect more to these issues.

The medium I chose was a drawing because of saying, “A picture carries a thousand words.” , Well I believe a drawing carries a million words because the more emotion a drawing can have more an emotional impact. I also chose to draw, just for the fact that it is the easiest art form for me and i feel that I can clearly get my ideas across in this artistic form.

I drew person’s eye up close because eyes are the window to the soul and domestic violence victims are not only physically hurt, but also spiritually. I drew a tear to show the sadness that is carried when this violence is happening to them. In the eye, you see a reflection of a fist facing towards the victim. To show the realness of how it is for people that experience the abuse they get. Next, on the fist of the person you see the word saying “STOP”because I want this abuse to stop and so does everyone who gets physically and spiritually abused by a loved one. Lastly, I didn’t add any color to my drawing just because I feel like the colors would actually take away from the emotions that I want to represent, such as truth and sadness. I like that this amazing drawing with so much emotion and truth, can really just be made with a pencil and some strong feeling to get a message across.

I would want my artwork to be displayed everywhere - mainly on the internet so it can travel faster, but anywhere where it could make a difference would be great.

References:

"Domestic Violence: Statistics & Facts." Safe Horizon. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.

Under My Wing!

For unit 2 of Design and Engineering, we learned about Newton’s First Law of Motion, Inertia, looked at more Trigonometry and did Calculus. For the action project we, with a partner, received a persona and what they needed out of a bike. We then had to create an actual 3D model of a bike that would fit what they needed for their biking experience. I had a person named Andres and because of the problems his grandmother wanted him to avoid, my partner and I made a bike below that fits his needs. What I liked about this project was making the bike and getting to know how far I could go with making it. What I didn’t like was that there were times when my partner and I didn’t see eye to eye, but we were able to overcome those problems. Please enjoy our design.

Before making these bikes, we did some research on bikes and how they worked. One thing I learned was that gears are actually more important than a lot of people may think. They actually really help the bike do certain tasks. Something else I learned was that different materials for the frame can change how the bike will perform. A lot of road bikes have a carbon fiber frame, and hybrid/ mountain bikes will have a stainless steel frame. The carbon fiber is very light, making it easier for the rider on a street to go fast, whereas a hybrid/mountain bike rider will need the steel frame for a more durable ride. For an interview I completed, a biker said, “I would actually like my frame, because it fits my riding, where I will be all over the place.”

The person I have, as I said before, is Andres. His grandmother wants to get him a bike that will be safe and comfortable for him to ride, and it also has to be good against harsh weather. His route includes having to go through the park and cutting into alleys and rocky roads to get to school and back. The normal part of the bike is that it is a mountain bike, with wheels made for all grounds and stainless steel to protect from rust. But what makes it different from other bikes? It’s very different from many other bikes, because it has gloves that make it easier to grip the bars. It has an umbrella that you can take on and off when it’s raining or snowing. It has a molded seat to fit your body comfortably. The gloves and seat make it more comfortable for the user, mainly so the body isn’t so stressed. The umbrella is for the harsh weather to come, and the wheels are thick to make riding on all grounds easier; it also has shock absorbers like a mountain bike, for Chicago potholes. The we decided it will be called The Wing, because it is like the expression, “you are under my wing.” because for the fact that every parents want to take care of their kid, so you now have a bike that does the same.

NVA. "Wing Sketch/" (2015). GCE Labs School

Now to talk about the bike mathematically, we have a wheel that is theoretically 28 inches tall to get over land easier, making the circumference about 88 inches. His commute takes him 26 min, when riding about 7 mph or 3.13 meters per second, because the route that Andres takes is 3.2 miles, using Lincoln Park, and alleys. On that journey his wheels rotate about 2304 times. Now the wheel used in the model is 1 inches compared to the theoretically 28 inches. Now to make it a faster ride my partner and I chose to have the biggest cog in front and the smallest in back to have Andres go faster. The bike will have multiple gears, but we'll range the gear ratio, since the biggest front gear has 53 teeth and the smallest back gear has 13 teeth which makes it a 1:4 gear ratio. Then the smallest front gear is 35 teeth, and the largest back one has 26, which gives you a 26:35 ratio.

Now when talking about bikes, physics play a huge role such as energy and the different types, like Potential and Kinetic. For this bike and the rider, potential energy will be shown when Andres is on top a small hill because there is more gravity pulling down. He will have the most kinetic when riding in the alleys, because he is going straight and releasing his energy.

We did have to think of certain things though, like how the umbrella would be aerodynamic and how it could fit the rider. We just made it more pointy at the front, so the wind goes over it instead of through. Another concern was how the gloves would work, and we thought of making them more like mittens so people could have more hand space and warmth. We also wanted to make it where Andres could ride without them, and he could just hold onto the mittens for a comfortable grip when riding.

NVA. "Wing 3D Without person." (2015) GCE Labs school

NVA. "Wing with 3D With Peron." (2015) GCE Labs School

Genova Here We Come (Part 2)!

For Italian, I had to make another project on Genova with the same info, but the difference is you can here me speak about myself in Italian. I also take about Genova in Italian, even though it's the same info from my last post about Genova. I really liked this because it tested my skills on speaking Italian, even when some words are just hard to pronounce, also for me learning a new language is very hard. I do see the importance in learning a new language though, so taking Italian was very fun to do.
           

Jamming to Importance!

In unit 2 of my Rhetoric, we learned about new rhetorical devices, such as hypophora and meiosis. We also looked at the The discovery of America, Christopher Columbus, and the Doctrine of Discovery. Also we looked at the voices that weren't shown a lot during that time, mainly the Natives Americans and what new people took from them. For the action project we had to create a Prezi, where we would take a speech or song that someone made and annotate it and talk about the appeals involved in and the devices in the text. I chose Holiday by Green Day, the song, and I liked it because a song from them is going to be heard by a lot of people, and I like that they made it about such an important topic. Please enjoy!