Art History/Reflections/Sona and Anna

Anna October 20 Wow! It feels like forever since I last posted a reflection! We started our research on Thursday...our only class of the week :(...and I am kind of getting really scared about the project. Sona and I decided to switch topics to Race, Class, and Gender, yet as I have started to do research, I have a feeling that this is going to be much harder than I expected. I spent the entire class on Thurday looking for images, and I did not find a single one. I think it is going to be really hard to use Art Store on this particular topic without doing prior research. That kind of stinks, becuase before I was just able to type in a topic and images fitting my topic would come up. So now, I am not sure where to start. I guess during class on Monday, I am going to go research different cultures and the roles of race, class, and gender in those cultures. Hopefully, that will get me somewhere, so I can find some images!

Anna October 22 After class today, I feel a lot better. I think that a lot of people were feeling sort of the same way I was (a little frightened/frazzled) at the beginning of class today, but I know I think I have started to get a handle on everything. I went back on Art Store and did really generic searches and started to read the descriptions to see if they had anything to do with my topic. Right now, I am just trying to find images. Once a get a bunch more, I will go back and do further research on each of the pieces I have gotten. Probably half of them will have nothing to do with my theme, but I think it is much better to have way too many images than way too little. I am really looking forward to uncovering really cool tidbits of info about my pieces and assembling my museum. Right now, we are just doing the tedious prep work that has to be done.

Anna October 25 Today, Mrs. Rich did her presentation. I found it to be really interesting, especially since I did not know at all what a fiber artist was before today. It blew my mind how people would have the patience and the drive to do what some of those people do. I am still a little nervous about our project, especially with connecting it to a theme. Our topic is so broad that I am not sure if we will be able to a pull a theme together for the whole exhibit. I am also really scared that it is going to be really challenging to come up with a theme that can tie in all of our peices, especially since we have to have works from different types of art.

Anna October 27 I am really frustrated at right now, because I feel like I am getting nowhere during class and that I have so much work to do. I am just not sure where to start or how to go about finding images, especially since race is such a broad topic.

Anna October 31 After class today, I feel a lot better about the project. I got a lot more images today, and with both Sona's and my images, we have around 50. I have a few pieces that I LOVE and that I cannot wait to research more and to definitely put in my museum. I am definitely getting much more excited at the thought of our museum!

Anna November 1 Ok, I am so excited! Class today was EXTREMELY productive! Mrs. Rich helped us SO MUCH! I feel for the first time completely on top of this project. I think we have a great selection of images, and we have found our five to put in the powerpoint tomorrow. I am really excited to present these images to the class. It feels like we have a great theme to connect all of our images. YEAH!!!

Sona Novermber 5

On Thursday Ms. Rich assisted me and Anna in selecting appropriate images from various books that she had on hand....We gleaned excellent works and found more diversity (in media) within our topic. Now, I believe we have enough variety with our images to begin the narrowing process..I feel somewhat confident about our powerpoint as we will presenting six different images from four different cultures and time periods (Chinese, ancient Egyptian, modern, and European..). The only difficulty we encounter is obtaining a manner in which the images relate, besides the generic relation of the topic..Although, we believe that demonstrating the progression (or resemblance?) of racial, class, and gender discrimination over time might present an intriguing underlying theme.

Anna November 12 Well, I was really nervous as to how in the world we are going to finish in the next two weeks. Yesterday, in class, Sona and I put together our "final" pieces that are definitely going to be in the museum, and we had a lot more than we thought. however, I am kind of worried that we are supposed to be going a lot more in depth and putting a lot more thought into what we are choosing. i hope we can get it done in time!

Anna November 15 Ok, I feel sooo much better, because we are ALMOST DONE!!!! -- well, finding images, at least. we have right now a total of 18 final images, and we think we are going to shoot for 20 in our museum. we have some really great stuff, and i am really excited to get to the fun part and put together our book. i think it is going to turn out to be really good!

Anna November 22 I just spent a few hours researching some of the images I did not have a lot of information about. I am getting really interested in some of these peices! One of my works, 104 Races of Mankind, is the subject of a documentary that I want to rent. I have gotten a lot of really good information. On Monday, I think the first thing Sona and I need to do is to write our thesis. Then, I think it will be a lot easier for both of us to connect the information about the image to our theme.

Anna November 27 2007 AAHH!! Ok, I am REALLY stressed out, because I don't know if I can get thsi done by Friday! I have done most of the historical context, but I am struggling on how to do the connections to our topic. Sona and I started to write our introduction to our book yesterday, but we did not get as much as we wanted done. Hopefully, we will be able to finsih that tomorrow!

Anna November 28 After class today I felt really good about our project...we completed our rough draft of our thisis intro. today, and i think it is really good. However, when I got home and started to work on it, I got enormously stressed out again. I would be fine if I just had to do the project, but I also have to do a ton of other work, like study for Chem, and this weekend is CRAZY for me! I am almost done with my descriptions, but I am worried about writing enough, because there is not enough information on some of my images. AAHH!! I can't wait until Monday! Then, we get to Japanese bind these books...I am sooo excited about that!

Anna November 29 WE ARE ALMOST DONE!!!! All I have to do now, is cite some of my sources and just edit my contextual paragraphs. Then, Sona and I have to go over the thesis paper...but we are SOOO close! It feels soo good to be this close to being done! I am really hoping that I can finish by the end of tomorrow!

Sona December 2 The project shall be completed by the end of today, as I rewrite our thesis paper and ensure that it applies to all of my contextual paragraphs...Our thesis worries me...We began by merely stating that artists reflect the curiosity, affinity, and conflicts for race, class, and gender within the work, yet this to lack substance...I feel as if we wrote an English paper, instead of a thought-provoking introduction into a museum. Consequently, I shall attempt to write about the domnant race, class, and gender's recurring opression and dominance while the downtrodden constantly struggle to rise (as Anna wishes to call it "the search for identity"). I hope I can develop a provocative thesis and support it with good articulation...

Anna December 11 WE ARE SOOOOOOOOOOO DONE!!!!! i am SO EXCITED b/c we FINALLY, after 3 months!, finished the book! It is absolutely AMAZING! Our work has definitely payed off! All we have to do now is do a few more podcasts and finish binding the book...I cannot wait to see the finished product! This has turned into a really AMAZING experience...the books are GORGEOUS and FABULOUS!!! I can't wait for class today!

Anna December 17 Today was our last day of class!!! I am REALLY sad! This has turned out to be my favorite class this semester. I will have to admit that I was kind of hesitant at first, considering history and art together are not my favorite subjects. However, this course has been absolutely incredible. For one, I have so much more of an appreciation for art and for all different types of art like Richard Serra's works. I had such a fun time interviewing William Anderson--it was amazing to see an actual artist's point of view. It was also neat to have Mrs. Rich come for a few days. She was very helpful and her presentation was very interesting. My favorite, by far, however, was the final project. I had so much fun putting together our museum. I loved being able to use images that I had learned about in history last year. It was amazing to be able to connect all of our images to one theme, and to be able to state that theme in our thesis. The book binding was so incredible, and I am still speechless at the final product. Even though it was hard work and stressful at some times, it was completely worth it. Thank you so much for a great semester! It was a BLAST!!!