Author: Araseli Mendez

The Arrival comments on a very well debated theme today, immigration. A common reason people migrate from one country to another is to seek refuge or a better life. I know my parents did a similar thing. They have told how out of place and uncomfortable they felt when they first arrived. I like author’s portrayal of the characters uneasiness when trying to figure out how to get somewhere. I do have a question though. I noticed that each foreign person had one of this white creatures with them. Each were different for each person. Is there a reason why the man has a dog-like creature while the lady, who helped him with his ticket, had a cat-like creature. If a creature was given to each new family that arrived, then how many unknown things are there.

I think that the creatures are there to help the new people adjust to the place. Even though they my comforting to the immigrants, one has to think how they affect the natives. Could the author be commenting on the new things that come with immigration. I honestly do not know. What do you think these creature represent? I think that represent the unknown.

Asterios Polyp explores the concept of duality. How once becomes who they are. This can be seen throughout the comic. The sections within the book display sevens from Asterios Polyp’s life. The book seems to tell a narrative about how this Professor came to be what he is now. Through out the book we constantly see how Polyp interacts with other of the opposite personality. A good example is his wife, the artist. While it was sort of explained how their relationship worked, one could easy expect conflict. This is likely why when we find out he is divorced it is not much of a surprise. We as readers see the many flaws the character has and how he came to develop them. Was he always this way or did his environment, while growing up, affect him?

The idea of nature vs nurture has been a well known debate. I like to think that both have an equal power in development. In Polpy’s case, I think it the same. What do you think?

This week we were given the opportunity to work with a medium that most. Of us had little experience with. While I did enjoy the collage workshop, I felt that my piece was disorganized and no where near what I usually produce. One can blame it on having just barely woken up but I feel the collage will not be the way to go for me.

The same could be said for the digital art workshop. While I did enjoy learning a new way to create art work, I felt going the media route was way beyond my co fort zone. While I do plan to include some sort of media to my final piece, I do not think it will consist of a lot of it. What were your thoughts on the workshops? Do you think you might incorporate some of the new things we learned this week?

While going over Edward Gorey’s stories on Wednesday,” The Gashlycrumb Tinies” really stood out to me. I even found myself chuckling at some parts of the rhyme. The story resembled a nursery rhyme but I can not seem to place which one. If any of you remember or find out which make sure to comment down below. It was kind of surprising since I do not like any sort of violence towards young children. According to Professor Serrano, Gorey does not directly say murder, instead he uses euphemisms to imply murder. This is shown throughout most of his stories except for Kate in ” The Gashlycrumb Tinies.” Everyone else is in the process of dying or implied dead.

Another thing I found interesting was that the story made me remember Harry Potter. I will blame the association between these two pieces on Gorey. He used a few children’s names that can associated with Harry Potter. These names inlcude: Neville, George, James, Susan, and Victor. It may be just me looking more into it but I cant help but point out the names. Maybe these names were just common during the time? The name really stood out to me. What do think?

Surrealism was an art movement in the 20th century that explored the creativity of the unconscious mind. The concept of the unconscious was first developed by Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Frued is very well known psychologist for the creation of psychoanalysis. Although  I may not believe that sex is the bases of all psychological problems,like Frued, I find his concept of the ego interesting. Frued brings about the topic of the superego, ego, and the Id.

Eventhough many may find psychoanalysis as the potential cause of surrealism because of the idea of the unconscious, I believe surrealism matches better with Analyctic Psychology. Created by one of Frued’s pupils, I think this concept better fits surrealism. It still deals with the unconscious but has a broader perspective on it which includes the spiritual. Analytic psychology’s creator, Carl Jung, mentions the idea of archetypes. Archetype are images/symbols that move from the collective unconscious to the personal unconscious. According to Jung the collective unconscious is repressed information the whole population shares as a collective group groups. one example of an archetype can be the serpent. It has appreared in various cultures around the world with holding different meaning. A well known image is the ouroboros. While psychoanalysis may be base of the idea of the unconscious, I feel like Analyctic psychology gives artist a broader idea of choices when it comes to surrealism. What do you think?

During Yun Fei Jin’s, I was interested on the type of medium he chose to work with. I believe working with ink is one of the most difficult things to do. Not only this but he also includes calligraphy into his works. He  admitted that learning calligraphy was a difficult process to learn. I believe his brush strokes had to be precise in order to get the impact he wanted. Unlike oil paints, where can paint over it if we make a mistake, with ink it is really difficult to hide mistakes. I have tried working with ink and it was one of the most difficult mediums to work with. I can tell that Yun Fei Jin has mastered this medium. I was somewhat suprised that he had a bit sculpture.

Aside from the artist visit, this week our illuminated pages were due. My partner and I decided to work with various mediums through out our piece. Our main mediums were ink and water colors. The Nike was specifically used to write our illuminated letter and text. Once again, I felt that writing the text one of the most challenging things about the assignment. We used our print we got at the print workshop so we tried to keep the text consistent thought the work. I think writing the text was the most time consuming part of the assignment. What was the most time consuming part of the assignment for you guys?

 

When I thought the about the printing press, I always thought it was an invention that got a lot done in little time. That may still be case for mass production. Durning the workshop on Wednesday, I noticed the time it takes to print a sentence. I began to question how long it took people to complete a whole page of written text. It took a bit of time to create a sentence. My partner and I had to look for each letter and properly place it in order to print right. I found the process tedious and shudder to think how long it took to piece a book together.

I find the change from written calligraphy to print sad. While it may have made the task of producing books faster it did reduce the amount of illuminators. Not only were they now putting emphasis on the text but illuminations were now being left behind.

 

Wednesday during class, a fellow class,ate criticized Blake’s illustrations. I partially agree.Even though Blake’s illustrations can not be considered the epitome of artwork, one has to also take knot account that he was mainly known for his poems. Someone referred to his illustrations as doodles and yet I feel that Blake’s illustrations were mostly a result of experimenting.

In class we analyzed William Blake’s “The Sick Rose.” It was not difficult too analyze the verses of the poem yet we did have a bit of trouble interpreting the illustration. While many may criticize his illustrations, I find his illustrations fascinating. In my opinion, I believe that William Blake was effectively able to translate the meaning of the poem into illustrations. Although the illustrations may not seem the best, I believe it contains some aesthetics that are pleasing to the me. What do you think?

The visit to the library to see the special collections was fun. I had previously visited the museum to look at Ezra Pound’s collection. I do not remember if we were able to touch his letters or not but we did get copies of his letter. Anyway, the illuminated manuscripts were gorgeious. I find it outstanding that the library has such a collection of books and that they let us touch them. I doubt any other library would let us do that. Not only did I like the illuminated manuscripts but also the printed books that showed a variety of apocalypstic pictures.

The printed books reminds me of Goya’s series “Los Caprichos.” I find Goya’s work to be entertaining. While his work needs descriptions to be able to understand its meaning, I find it entertaining to try and decifer what he is trying to say.

 

This past Wednesday workshop was fun. It was the first time since elementary school that I worked with watercolors. Although I was excited about working with a new medium, I spent too much time focused on the aesthetics of my letter. Unfortunately I was unable to even get started on my watercoloring.

I decided to do the letter F. I took a different approach and instead of making my letter rigid with straight lines, I made everything cursive. This change in style was mostly likely what caused the most time consumption during the scriptorium. I spent too much time making sure certain areas of my drawings did not look awkward. Another dilemma that I seemed to have was deciding the size of my illuminated letter. The size might have also contributed to the time spent drawing. Although many might disagree, I believe that the scriptorium workshop enabled us to notice the amount of time it takes to illuminate anything. While it might look simple, it really isn’t. Many decisions need to be made before creating and illuminating a letter. I believe I may disregarded some decisions that may have prevented me from finishing my illuminated letter. What do you think? Was there anything you could have done better before creating your letter?