cat125journal

Gabriela Medina

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“I am my own muse, I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better.” -Frida Kahlo 

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Frida Kahlo has been my inspiration throughout this entire course. She has captured my attention since the day I learned about her in my high school art class. She was a woman with fears, aches, pains, suffering, and sadness yet, she was also a woman with passion, love, happiness, and strength. Although she suffered greatly during her lifetime both emotionally as well as physically, she still managed to paint her story through honest self portraits.

I consider myself an art student even if I’m not a visual arts major because I love to paint and express my anxieties and emotions through my pieces as Frida once did. I am a Mexican American woman with a rich history just like Frida and I am trying to infuse my heritage into my artwork like she did. She is my inspiration, I want to express myself in a way that shocks people and makes people uncomfortable because the raw emotion is too glaring to look at.

In these pictures Frida shows her true self to the camera, which has been a topic during this course many times. The camera is simply a medium that captures images as they are presented, yet due to its multitude of perspectives, can also add another dimension of meaning to the person taking the picture and to the audience who views it. Frida is captured in a moment of time that she will never exactly be in again. These pictures are reflections of Frida’s personality. They capture not only her physical appearance but her essence.  

Frida Kahlo will always be an inspiration to me, her vivacity has sparked a flame. I can learn to grow closer to my roots and learn to portray myself to people in ways that I have never done before. I will continue to study Frida and ways of seeing the world through different perspectives even if the course has ended because its important to understand how one is seen through the eyes of another in order to understand one’s self. One must explore their own past in order to move on to one’s future and grow from it. My future is bright with opportunities.

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The Medium is the Massage 

McLuhan, a media analyst with a million perspectives into how humans perceive their surroundings. Although his concepts might be hard to grasp, his main argument is clear: the meaning of a message changes with the type of medium its portrayed in. His book The Medium is the Massage  analyzes media by providing different examples and texts exploring how people’s visual perceptions. 

The song Pumped up Kicks by the band Foster the People reminded me how important the medium a message is portrayed in can be. The song sounds delightfully cheery and colorful, a chill vibe emanates from the speakers as the lead singer sings into his microphone soulfully. Yet, after a second close listen, one can notice how dark the lyrics really are. The song is from the perspective of a damaged and isolated teen talking about his revenge on the people who have rejected him. The main chorus repeats the same lyric over and over, “all the other kids with the pumped up kicks...better run faster than my bullet”. This haunting lyric is over looked simply because of the alternative pop-y sound the song has. The audience is dancing to a song about a boy in the middle of a mental break down. The Medium is the Massage talks about how the medium adds or changes meaning to the message being told and in this song, the message of the broken down youth in today’s time is transformed through a happy sounding song and adds another layer of meaning. Just like people ignore today’s youth because they believe they are oversensitive and emotional, the audience ignores the dire message within the medium. On the surface everything can seem normal, a kid can be in school learning like any other, but inside at a deeper layer, that same kid could be suffering a mental illness that could cost lives. This message is important but the medium adds that extra layer of satire to really bring the message home. 

People will most likely look up the lyrics to the song once they hear it and like it, they’ll be curious to hear what the song means and be struck with the true meaning of the lyrics. These people will become aware of the problems facing America’s youth from a single song. The medium is indeed a powerful projector of the message. 

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FRIDA KAHLO 

Frida is known for her amazing self portraits and paintings depicting her life. She was not afraid to display the full excruciating pain she was in both physically and emotionally. Her portraits depicted suffering but that suffering made her into who she was, she was forged from pain which crippled her for most of her life. 

She knew who she was as a person and confidently painted herself as a woman of power, sensuality, vulnerability, and strength. Her Mexican heritage is a strong theme through out her portraits, she was a proud Mexican woman who wasn’t afraid of what was said of her. 

Above, I have a painting and a hand drawing I made a couple years ago. I dug them up to see how I was progressing with my drawing skills, and thats when I realized that both of these were self portraits of myself. Its like a snapshot of the person I was in that year, even in the instant I drew/painted them. Both are extremely different but they were both made within the same year and it struck me how much I’ve changed and how much I’m changing now. These two portraits are me on paper...yet they aren’t. 

Frida Kahlo had many paintings that immortalized her journey through life; all of her struggles and joyful moments displayed for the world to see. She was also changing within those paintings. Each one depicts an important moment in her life or a certain way she looked in that moment. I think its fascinating to look back at old paintings and learning from them in order to learn more about one’s self and the future. Its important to understand one’s past in order to move on to the future. Frida painted to understand her situation and to process her emotions and she learned a lot about herself and the people around her. I can only hope to learn about myself from my own paintings as time ticks by. 

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Young Valiant (CAT 125) Journal Entry

2pac’s song explores his childhood for the moments when he felt appreciation and love for his mother. I wonder if this song has mother-son love roots like Freud tried to explain through his idea of the Oedipus complex. It sounds like a song of innocent love but I’m curious now that i’ve gone through Freud for Beginners and Young Valiant. 

I don’t necessarily believe in the Oedipus complex but this song just had me thinking about both Freud and The Hurt Business and how both books explore similar themes. 

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FROM ONE SECOND TO THE NEXT 

There has been countless ad against texting and driving. They flash by on the screen blaring their message loud and clear to its audience, its unavoidable. Yet, people still text and drive. Even after seeing the image of a car wreck or seeing a news article about a tragic death caused by a texting driver. Why is that? Why can’t people learn, even with such a grave consequences?

I’m sure people have their specific reasons, but I think its arguable to say that humans are narcissistic creatures purely focused on our own lives rather than that of a stranger. We consider our social life the center of our universe and God forbid we are disconnected from it for just a couple minutes. 

In those few seconds where people decide that a human life is less valuable than a “wyd” text, they make the biggest mistake of their lives. And yet, this message has been communicated tirelessly throughout the years. Humans are just too self centered, too selfish, too inconsiderate. Everyone lives in a world where nothing happens to them, but to someone else. They think “oh that can’t happen to me, what are the chances”, which conditions them to believe nothing wrong will ever happen, yolo ammiright? 

But one their car smashes into an innocent bystander, life takes a quick sickening turn for the worst. And could this have been prevented? Of course. isn’t it always? There lies the true tragedy. 

Will people ever learn? Probably not. If they can disconnect themselves from their own ego and selfish thoughts they might. It all depends on that initial glance from the street to the passenger seat where shiny social life lies incased in a small rectangle ready to ruin and take lives at a press of a button.

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Man Ray, Diane Arbus, & Photography

Photography is a tricky medium to use when creating artwork. Not many people understand it. I personally don’t understand it actually, but I can appreciate its artistic value. 

This week the photographs explored belonged to Man Ray and Diane Arbus, amongst others, but they specifically caught my eye. Man Ray has a spectacular ability to capture provocative black and white moments depicting surreal compositions. Diane Arbus, meanwhile, worked to capture the “freaks” of the world filling her portfolio with odd and unique personalities. 

Photography has never interested me before, but these two artists have the shared ability to use black and white photographs to translate a mood to their viewers that I have not felt before with other photographs. They used this technology to give different perspectives on what it means to be seen as human, to be human, to witness someone’s essence through a camera lens. 

I tried my hand at a black and white composition with this “self- portrait” so to speak. I was going for more of a feeling than a composition or story. 

No matter how much it confuses me, photography will always be a curious media to explore once in a while. To capture someone’s existence in one moment in time to then be preserved for decades, will always fascinate me.

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Man Ray, Still life composition for “Minotaure,” 1933. 

Three-color carbon transfer print.

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Ghost World

November 6 2016 - Gabriela Medina 

Ghost World, the epitome of the teenage angst and uncertainty! Enid and Rebecca have recently graduated from high school and their lives are about to begin, how exciting! Nope. Its actually pretty fucking scary. 

Graduation is supposed to be the day you finally become an adult, a responsible individual with your life figured out. You’re supposed to be embarking on a life changing road trip to a university across the country. You’re supposed to be enjoying your last summer with your close friends. Well, that’s also bullshit. 

Friendships decay over the 2 month period before college. It becomes almost like a contest it seems: who got into the best college, who’s going to be more successful, who’s the smartest? Resentment grows as the days pass and you begin to realize that some friendships only stayed alive because you saw each other for 7 hours each day. 

Friends Enid and Rebecca are in a limbo: in between the end of their teenage years and the beginning of their adult years. They walk around like critics in an art gallery cynically observing their town with analytical eyes. The late 90′s grunge vibe only adds to the teenage angst rolling off of the two as they try to find their path in life. 

Its almost predictable how the comic ends on a somber note. The girls drift apart over the course of one summer as a result of building tensions and life just moves on. Its not a “fun” summer for most teenagers, its a sad reminder that relationships evolve as they mature. People are going to drift apart, friends are going to leave, and you are going to change. Its a part of being an adult. 

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CAT 125 Nericcio 

Gabriela Medina 

section @ 9 am 

Miss Lonelyhearts has a lot of the same themes/concepts as The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, and The Stranger by Albert Camus. They all deal with the idea of humanity and its deterioration. Miss Lonelyhearts has a dark metaphorical tone that resonates with these other three novels that I’ve read. There are dark, cynical, troubling themes threaded within Miss Lonelyhearts that reminded me of these other three. 

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CAT 125 Nericcio 

Gabriela Medina 

Section A01 @ 9 am Katherine