Clarissa Holguin blog journal

[clarissaholguin]

When deciding on how to go about my creative manifesto I didn’t quite know what to do or how to best approach it. So I looked up examples online and found that it was basically your creative guidelines for you when you further your career. Even though I’m not going into an art specific career and its not the most creative career path I figured I can still make this manifesto apply to what I want to do. I want to be a therapist for kids who have experienced trauma or be a therapist within the SVU. So when looking at the guidelines I have set for myself this is what I came up with. I used one word for each unit because I feel like personally I need that boldness and that one word to remember why. 

Why: For the why portion I put the word HELP in front of bunch of cases about child abuse that went to court. I want to help others and help prevent people from feeling the way I did as a kid, powerless. Theres a stigma about people who become therapists, normally its people who are so broken themselves and feel they can’t be fixed, so they want to help fix other people. Answering the why made me realize why I want to be a therapist and the goals I want to set for myself.

Who: I put the word OTHERS, because growing up I always put others needs before my own. Though sometimes its not always the best thing to do I still did it and it helped show people that at least some people care. Also as a therapist you have no place to judge someone so allow them to feel heard. I want to help others and help them heal in the best way possible

How: I put the word DETERMINATION in a torn and crumbled piece of paper. I just wanted to show how I expect to fail multiple times and go through hardships. The journey to what I want to do is going to be difficult both mentally and physically. There will be days where I will mess up and second guess my choices, but no matter what I need to push through and never give up on what I want for my life.

What: On the last part I put the word GUIDANCE. I sat with this word and really asked myself what do I want to do? What’s the point? I want to provide people with the guidance to heal but also get guidance myself to heal the best possible way I can.

[clarissaholguin]

Discussion Reflection Post

This past week in class we discussed a lot of important topics. It was a really insightful conversation that provided me with new information to consider. I personally loved the second episode of Inside Pixar and I really enjoyed the class discussion around it. I enjoyed seeing her creative way of thinking and how she best operated within her environment. The input the class had was helpful and made me consider different possibilities I can do when I’m trying to solve a problem. One thing I really loved about the episode was when she talked about being “stuck” and not knowing what to do next with her work. So she walked around and put herself in a new environment and looked for/provided herself with new materials. With that she created something totally new and created something that she doesn’t normally do. It was super interesting to see her push herself to new limits. 

We also talked about the reading content we had and the video we watched this past week. Honestly the discussion we had about the video changed my perspective and made me think about what I wrote within my reading response. At first I mentioned how I could separate the art from the artist but after the discussion it really made me reconsider my choice. I feel like if it was a negative person then there might be some negative connotation within their work. This just really made me think and I’m thinking about this discussion. 

[clarissaholguin]

Question of the Week

Do you think the church respects art and artists? Why or why not?

Has an artwork ever deepened your understanding about something? Explain.

Honestly I think it depends on the church, because I have seen examples of the church respecting artists and their art. One of my old home churches and wanted to represent many different types of artists and gave them a platform to showcase their work.They wanted to show different types of art as well, but there was a major struggle with that. Sometime’s people didn’t see the correlation between the art that was being showcased and faith. For example my old church put on a show that was based off of the greatest showman and a lot of people that attended struggled to see how that related to God in any way. I’m not completely sure if an artwork has ever deepened my understanding of something, but it definitely has made me question more and want to learn more. 

[clarissaholguin]

The content over Thanksgiving break was really interesting and I really enjoyed reading through the PDF’s. Specifically I loved reading the article about our Professor and the art show that she was in. It really showed all the various ways that a Christian artist can integrate their faith into their work and how it doesn’t need to be so blatant. It was super interesting getting to learn more about professors art and the way she integrates sports into her work. The other document called Art as a Proper Job was really insightful because it made me consider things I never have considered before. I’ve brought up my boyfriend a lot within these posts because he’s as theater major at Jessup and he’s a really creative person. We are an interesting mix because I’m very analytical and he’s a lot more creative in his thinking. But I’m learning new things with him and from this class I’ve learned a bit more on his way of thinking and how to understand that. I really liked the PDF because it explained the struggles that artist experiences within working in the real world. It was interesting being able to read through the different sections and see how so far my boyfriend is dealing with it and being a creative within the field. The different sections the PDF has is be willing to compromise and listen to criticism, and those are just a few that are huge to remember. I feel like these could be for any beginning job as well because these are 2 things that a successful person needs in order to move up in life. It takes hard work and passion, but if you have those no matter what people will see that you love what you do. 

Now regarding this week’s content there were a lot of things I enjoyed from the content. First off I actually binged the whole Inside Pixar series the other night because it was really interesting and episode 2 stuck out. She is an amazing artist and I really loved seeing her thought process and how she best tackled certain situations. She discussed how timelines can be very challenging but also push her to get it done. She had a very unique perspective and it was interesting to see how she pushed through struggles. The PDF Art as a 21st Century Calling was interesting as well, but this document definitely challenged me and my way of thinking. I don’t completely understand the art world so it was a bit difficult to understand some of the struggles within the environment and how to connect faith and art. That’s not something I consider so I struggle understanding how to integrate the two. But it made me think when the document said “And if there are no Christ-believing artistic ground-breakers, then as a Christian community we are not truly doing what God calls us to do.” This quote just made me think for a second and really challenged me to find some answer to it. Also I really enjoyed the video because I love asking people this question, can you separate the art from the artist? Each person has a different answer but I just like to hear them out and see how they bring morals into it. 

[clarissaholguin]

Question of the Week

Think of an example of an artwork you consider to be bad. What made it bad?

Has an artwork ever changed your mind about something? Explain.

I have never thought about a “bad” piece of artwork, and I’m not sure I have ever called a peice bad. When really thinking about a bad piece of work I feel like it really depends and is honestly subjective. It may be bad to one person and then perfect to another. So I don’t think I have ever came across a bad piece of work maybe a confusing peice that I didn’t quite understand, but I wouldn’t just call it bad. Especially if I knew there was hard work that went into that art and that there was a reason I didn’t understand it. I’m not sure if artwork has ever changed my mind about something but it has definitely showed me new perspectives. I love looking at art that I don’t understand because I then ask why? and do my best to figure it out. I love finding the meaning behind artwork and I always have believed there was a purpose to the work. 

[clarissaholguin]

Discussion Reflection Post

Again I was not able to attend the class discussion because due to covid I was sent home. But from what I gained from the reading content and the question of the week it seemed as if this week art and beauty were greatly discussed. I have always connected the two but it was really interesting to see how beauty can really be anything. Beauty can be whatever you say it is because your perspective may be different than another persons. Right now my nephew is really into drawing and creating comics, he works really hard on his art and you can tell it improves greatly with hard work. But if he comes up to me and shows me a drawing of a character I think there’s great beauty in that because of the dedication and love he put into his work. 

Also from the reading content there was an interview that talked about how to integrate faith and creative works. From the interview I gained that faith doesn’t need to be obvious in your work but it can be an inspiration that helps you create. Also I have said this multiple times in other post but it’s all about the intent behind it. For example, talking about my nephew again his dream is to be a pastor but he also found out he loves to draw and be creative. He creates comics that tell wonderful stories, but there is that pastor aspect in him as well. He’s 9 right now so it’s been really interesting watching him find that balance of faith and art and if that can be integrated.

[clarissaholguin]

This weeks content was about art and beauty and how beauty can be expressed through artwork. Though I found it really interesting how the video talked about beauty being subjective. Which I think I would say I agree with because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is anything we want it to be so I have always believed that its up to the person. I really liked how the video talked about different types of beauty because I never realized how many different types there were within modern art. I specifically liked the artwork in the video that was just a date. It really made think about the beauty behind it because there’s definitely a deeper meaning to the date. I really enjoyed looking at the pieces that were provided in the video and trying to see the beauty that was intended for it. 

I also enjoyed reading through the interview with the artist Lynn Aldrich, it provided a perspective I have never considered before. I liked seeing how she integrated her faith into her work and discussed the challenges that she had to endure. She talked about how she didn’t directly put Christian things in her work that made it obvious, but it was her intent behind it. She had a Christian worldview that she wanted to display through her work. 

[clarissaholguin]

Question of the Week

Does a work of art need to be beautiful? Why or why not?

Think of an example of an artwork you consider to be good. What made it good?

I don’t think a work of art needs to be considered beautiful because there’s many different meanings to “beautiful”. Societies beauty could be drastically different than an artists perspective of beauty. I think everyone has a different perspective of beauty and what beauty looks like. My friend may create a sculpture that consist of rubber bands and soda cans, I may not understand the beauty. But they see the beauty they created and if they say there’s beauty to it then I would believe that there is. Honestly I think I would consider any type of artwork good depending on the effort behind it. For example, if my nephew came up to me with a comic that he drew I would consider that to be good because I know he spent a lot of time on it and worked hard. Also I think of my boyfriend who was just recently in Bethlehem here at Jessup and he was the lead in the show. I would consider his artwork to be good as well because of the hours spent rehearsing and working hard to make it the best he could. What makes it so good is the dedication he had towards the show and the story he wanted to portray for the audience. 

[clarissaholguin]

Discussion Reflection Post

Since I was unable to be in class for the discussion because of my current COVID situation, I decided to go off of the reading content from this week and the insight about the class discussion from my classmates. So far I have really enjoyed reading through the book Emerge and I love how much perspective it brings. Theres so many important lessons within that book and they can relate to anything whether that be artistic skill or any other type of skill. After I read through the assigned content from Emerge I went on the walk and really tried to focus on what I just read. The walk was very beneficial for multiple reasons, I’m dealing with very stressful situations right now so it helped calm me down and I was able to reflect on the things I just read. 

Since I missed the class discussion I asked around for further insight on the class discussion and what was discussed. One of the main points that I heard was discussed was the topic of skill and what it takes to master a specific skill set. Nothing comes easy, so there will always be hard work involved. Which this is a trait I try to greatly live my life by because if I never work hard how can I expect any success to come. There is so much practice that goes into developing and mastering a certain skill. For example, I have been playing soccer since I was 4 years old. Now I play college soccer, but I don’t have the same skill set I had when I was 4. It took years and years of hard work and dedication. Sure there were days I wanted to quit and give up, but I pushed through because I had an end goal in mind; to play college soccer. It was never easy because of all the trials I had to deal with and overcome but I’m grateful for every moment, because I believed I developed a lot of character from those moments. 

[clarissaholguin]

Question of the Week

How can art be made “to the glory of God”? What does that look like? What doesn’t it look like?

Art can be made to the glory of God, when there is intent behind it that exemplifies a purpose to the Lord. I think that when it’s been specifically noted or stated then that’s when art can be made to the glory of God. I don’t think it happens with every art peice someone makes because as I stated before it’s all about the intention behind it. The art doesn’t even have to be displaying God clearly it could be abstract and could still be made to the glory of God. If the artist want’s that statement made I think it would be clear. 

[clarissaholguin]

Discussion Reflection Post

This past week I really thought our class discussion was insightful and helpful. As always I learned a lot from the discussion and I really love these talks because of the new ways of thinking it provides for me. I love discussing with my group because they always encourage me to think a lot more creatively and really push me outside of my comfort zone. We discussed the questions of the week and art’s place within the church. I enjoyed answering this question because it’s interesting to think about how art and the church can connect. I mentioned to my group that one of my old churches did a really good job at connecting the two. Around Easter time my church would do an Easter art show that would explain the process of Jesus dying on the cross for us and then raising from the dead. Any artist could participate in the event and not all of the art was the same. There were paintings, sculptures, pictures, and interactive components that all told His story. It was really impactful and really showed me personally how art and church can be connected in a good way. 

In the class discussion we also discussed the reading content and how working hard for what you want affects everything. Nothing will be handed to you that’s why dedication is so important. We also went over the Immaculate Heart College Art Department Rules and talked about our favorite ones and which ones stuck out to us the most. I really liked the list of rules because they are a good set of rules to have when going through life and trying to pursue a dream. 

[clarissaholguin]

This week’s content was really interesting and I found myself agreeing with a majority of it. When reading through it I felt like the main premise of it was getting the point across that your work ethic will dictate your success. Which nowadays I feel like this isn’t said enough. Our generation is extremely lazy and they expect things to be handed to them and don’t want to work for their own success. Which is why I loved reading these sections of Emerge and watching the Art + Life video. The video really displayed a hard working women who worked for what she wanted in life. I really admired her in the video and you could clearly tell that she was very passionate about her art and spreading her talent with the world. I liked how the video talked about multiple places she went for her inspiration and all of the dedication it took. I also really liked reading through all of the 10 rules and seeing how they can all be applicable to daily life. My favorite rule though is probably rule #6, “Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail. There’s only make.” This is such an interesting and important perspective that I have never considered before. But this is also a rule that I want to integrate within my life because I think it could be very beneficial when I’m feeling down or hopeless. Especially when I feel like I failed, I can’t look at it has failure, I have to work with it and do better. I also enjoyed reading through the assigned sections in Emerge, it hit on a lot of important aspects to make you successful. Not only your work ethic and always working hard, but the importance of the village behind you. If you have a good supporting solid group of people behind you, you are a lot more likely to succeed. So it was interesting to see how everything works together and can all play a role in one’s success. 

[clarissaholguin]

Question of the Week

How should art be used in the church? What should that look like? What shouldn’t that look like?

In what ways does God “renew” our minds?

I think art should be heavily used within the church, there are so many forms of art that can be very useful in a church setting. I feel like its very common to see Jesus art and paintings of scenes from the Bible, which theres nothing wrong with that. But I feel like either some people or churches may be afraid to make it modern and not as simple. But personally I think it would be super interesting if I was in church and I saw a piece that made me question and wonder why, why is it here? Is there a significance behind the light shining on it the way it is? I think it would be very helpful in connecting the art world and the church world.

God renews our minds in various ways, I think I would relate this to repentance and forgiveness. The Lord gives us so much grace and we are loved greatly by Him. So we are given multiple chances, even though we may screw up all of them God will still love us. So with God renewing our minds I think would say that we are given a new found clarity when He is present in our lives and we devote our life to Him. It’s like a cleanse from our old self and we are seeing the world in a new light.  

[clarissaholguin]

Discussion Reflection Post

I’ve really loved being in this class for the past few months because of how much I have learned so far and how it’s really been able to help me see things from a new perspective. Since I’m such an analytical thinker I’ve really enjoyed learning from this class how to think creatively. Our table group discussed the questions of the week and I really enjoyed hearing everyones perspective. I personally really struggled with the question “How is the art you make different than the art you like to look at or engage with as a viewer?” Simply because I didn’t see myself as someone who made art, so I had a difficult time trying to answer that. I explained to my group that I like any art and if it catches my eye I’ll give it attention. But really thinking about it after class I think I would say that the art I like to look at or engage with is probably more historical pieces. I love history and that’s always something I’ve been interested in so I really enjoy looking at that type of art. 

Our group also talked about the reading content for the past week and I mentioned how I really enjoyed it. This was probably my favorite week of content. Within the video and chapters we read I found a lot of applicable tools that could be very useful within my every day life. We went over the habits of an artist and why work ethic is so important. If you really want to succeed at something and thrive in what you’re doing, you need to work for it. Success isn’t just going to be handed to you. 

[clarissaholguin]

I really enjoyed the reading and video this week, it was probably one of my favorite content weeks. I definitely feel like I gained not only educational knowledge but practical knowledge as well. In fact I used one of the techniques that was mentioned in both the Ideas reading and The Habits of Effective Artists video when writing this response. After reading through the content and watching the video my brain felt drained from all the content I had just taken in, but yet I tried to immediately start writing the response and was struggling. I couldn’t find a picture that depicted everything that we had just learned and my brain felt scrambled, so I used a technique I just learned and got up and walked away and took a shower. When I came back I had all the ideas I wanted and was able to start writing because I had figured out where I wanted to go with this post.

I learned a lot of new techniques I can now use in my everyday life from the Ideas chapter. Also it really opened my eyes to creativity, and me personally being aware of saying “I’m not creative”, because in some way I am. But because of this chapter I have no ways to come up with ideas now even when I’m at a “writers block” or don’t think I’m capable. I also really enjoyed the Master chapter because of all the truth within it. It’s not the fact that practice will make perfect, and the video even hit on this subject. If you practice the right techniques and skills and take the time to realize what you’re doing right or wrong you’re on the path to success. You want to hear criticism and take it to heart to fix whats going wrong. So I loved how both the video and the Master chapter hit on this. Overall I loved the content this week and definitely learned some new important life skills.  

[clarissaholguin]

Question of the Week

How is the art you make different than the art you like to look at or engage with as a viewer?

Has reading the Bible ever provided you guidance about looking at, thinking about or making art?

When talking about art in this question I think of a very open ended definition and think of art in many different forms. The art that I create is videos and another form of art I guess that requires skill is soccer and the skills that I use on the ball. Personally I look at any art that intrigues me, I’m not picky and if there is a certain piece that catches my eye I will give it my attention and learn more about it. Honestly I’m not sure if the Bible has ever provided me with guidance about looking at the art. Maybe if anything it’s showed me that art can take many forms and God’s beauty is within all of them. There were many different displays of art within the Bible and each had a very important specific meaning. 

[clarissaholguin]

Discussion Reflection Post

In class this past week we discussed a number of important topics. But starting off our table group discussed the question of the week and all of our answers. I wasn’t totally confident in my answer this week so it was good to hear perspectives that either agreed with my struggle or had no issue figuring out an answer. Within our group we also discussed which question we thought was the easier one to answer and we all agreed on the first one. We talked about what the art world would consist of and who would be involved within it. Our general answer was anyone who professionally creates art and sells their work is involved within the art world. But then when this topic was discussed with the whole class it was interesting to hear everyone’s answers and how they differed. Some people believed that there was an open ended answer to this question and anyone could be a part of the world. But it made me wonder if just “anyone” can be a part of the art world, how does that make some of the legitimate artists involved feel? 

Then later we looked and discussed some pictures of art on the class blog. I enjoyed looking through those and integrating them within class. Since I’m not heavily involved with the art world I didn’t know a majority of the artist but I really enjoyed going through a few pieces of their work. I like to wonder and know “why” so it was really cool being able to discuss their work with the class. We also talked about a few of the artists history and whether or not they were Christian. Then how them being Christian impacted their work and if it had any effect. But we talked about how they were professionals that were just amazing at what they did, so they weren’t shunned from the art community for being Christians.