A Missing Object

An object that I use extensively every day is my cell phone. I am constantly checking my phone for texts or missed calls, it is my main means of communication and I almost always have it on me. The first time I got a cell phone was in fourth grade, which now reflecting on it seems extremely early. Since I always had a ton of after school activities my mom bought me a phone so I would always be able to contact her. So since I was about 9 years old I have been able to call anyone in my phone and text at the speed of light. A cell phone has enabled me to always stay connected with the people who are important to me in my life as well as be bothered by all the responsibilities that come with being so easily accessible to anyone. I could be anywhere, doing anything and need to respond to my mother's pestering text messages or else I will get in trouble. Since I have a phone and everyone has my number, it is suddenly rude not to answer someone or call them back. If I did not have a phone, it would be much harder to contact  people but I would also have more time to myself to do what I wanted. I wouldn't be able to dwell on past conversations like I currently can by looking at text message log, or constantly wonder how long it will take for someone to call me back.

Free For All

This is a free journal entry so here is a poem I wrote:

go on girl

make up your mind

i say to myself as i walk alongside 

 the red grey and black rigid flats of his soul

of his nikes

he thinks just like me

using eye contact

as an invitation and

a weapon in the same

sort of, tact

not a scare tactic but

the one that you use

to fuse two

minds into one

he tells me he loves--

but not what he wants from me

silly little mind trippin

dickin a-round

so I’m losing that safe, trusted feeling i found

until he reaches for me

catches me when i slip

and almost eat shit

on the ground

and just like he caught me

i’m caught

in this mixed bag

this miss til you hit

quick time emotional fix

trick of the brave 

lag

lagging in truth, in remembrance

lacking faith in the other person

and all this

because in drunks we trust?

blocking thine eyes

from peering into my own self-conscious

in order to stare deep into his 

is like the ultimate 

test of mental endurance.

he stood hard thick and tall

as a looming brick wall

but giving as a pile of sand

while my mouth ran after my words

that escaped without me noticing

beating his self worth into oblivion

until rising from the ashes

he gracefully saves his dignity

from the bottle it drowned in and tells me

that next time will be different

because I deserve everything

a sober moment

a kiss that will be 

the beginning of the end to justify all means

so i’ll go on

try to make up my mind

as our friendship walks

and our romance follows

one Nike, two Nike

3 steps behind

The Future of Art & Life

I'm going to start by saying that I am extremely excited for this class. Kip has a really strong personality which is a great quality to have in a teacher, especially an art teacher. I have been missing quality art classes since I took them in high school and now that I am officially into the major I can finally start to take classes that interest me. The first lecture really had me thinking about our nation's history with icons and graphics, which is what I want to learn about to work in advertising/marketing. 

My main concern for this class is that I will never think my ideas are clever enough. I walked out of lecture yesterday thinking about what pun I should use for the first project, and I was literally thinking about it until the early hours of the morning. Every two part word I was trying to make into a project in my head. I think that this class along with my other classes will provide me with more new concepts to think about than I can run through my head in one day. I feel like my day dreaming which normally is spent on T-shirt designs and useless information like boys and partying will be spent on the concepts and projects in this class. I am afraid of my upcoming thought commitment to this class but also excited that I will have creative direction instead of making artistic problems for myself that need solving. 

First Lecture

I walked into Art 7A not knowing what to expect. A two hour lecture has the potential to be mind numbing and full of useless information, but I left the arts building inspired. The first topic that really caught my attention was the flashing of hundreds of iconic images on the screen, many of which I had seen for my whole life and never thought to understand the origin of.  

This image for example, I knew was from the Vietnam war and what the event was, but I did not realize what Napalm did to the skin. It now makes sense that the girl was running naked in fear of her life. I also did not realize that she survived and became an anti-war activist which is quite an amazing story. 

The talk about iconic images and the lack of a symbol for 9/11 really spoke to me as well. Just as Kip said, I remember the exact moment when I found out what had happened to the twin towers. Before that moment, I had no idea that the towers, or any of our problems with the middle east even existed. When I think of 9/11 all I can picture is Bush, soldiers, and burning buildings. No icon was chosen or shown by the media in a consistent way, just like no one understood the true reason for our war with Iraq or the search for weapons of mass destruction. It seems that  this time of war has been extremely unclear and lacks in reason/theme. My uncle who protested the Vietnam war expressed to me his disappointment in my generation for not voicing our opinions about the war in Iraq. The sad truth is that in the US we don't really have a connection to the current war because we don't understand it, have no idea how it started, and are not told truthful information about it on a regular basis. Our ignorance is made possible by the media withholding certain information like the coffins which were not supposed to be seen by anyone.