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For this week’s Art Assignment, I followed the instructions of “Become Someone Else.” The basis of this activity was to take a selfie of yourself in a natural state, then to change one thing about you, go out into the world, and take a selfie and share your experience. 

When watching the video for this assignment I immediately thought about my long, black, frizzy hair that I usually wear in a bun, on the top of my head and Rod Stewart singing “blondes have more fun,” and so this assignment gave me an opportunity to test the lyrics of the song. Purchasing a platinum wig, the closest color I could find to blonde I set out on my journey of discovery. 

As I walked to my friend’s apartment, I saw a sorority sister who I greeted. She gave me a confused look, but did not return my “hello” and went back to her phone conversation. Walking into the apartment of my two friends, one looked at me stunned, her jaw definitely dropped, while the other shrugged her shoulders and went back to her computer. We spoke for about an hour and during this time they never mentioned my hair, hair color or asked what I had done and I did not volunteer why the new look. Guess I discovered blondes have as much fun as those girls with long, black, frizzy hair. 

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For this week’s Art Assignment, I followed the instructions of “Making a Thing.” The premise of this activity is to take something from the virtual world and make it physical. Not being very technologically savvy, I used the snapchat filters to “Make a Thing,” and placed a number of emoji’s onto a picture of a couple. I wanted to play on the song “Love is in the Air,” and have a viewer think about how relationships are easily fabricated in the virtual worlds of Facebook, Instagram, and snapchat, but may not be true portrayals of reality. 

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For this week’s Art Assignment, I followed the instruction of “Embarrassing Object.” The premise of this activity is to create something “that makes you feel comfortable.” What I have chosen to depict is not a tangible object, but the wave of embarrassment that overcomes me any time I am called to read aloud. Reading out aloud has always embarrassed me. I never would raise my hand and when I was called on my heart would race and my face would grow more and more red. I am not illiterate, I am not stupid -- my piece will tell it all -- I can... 

There might be a certain irony that the books stacked behind my statement are about reading intervention, but each one has helped me understand that DYSLEXIA is nothing to be embarrassed about. I am in fine company - a quick internet search will tell you WHO. 

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For this week’s Art Assignment, I followed the instruction of the “Fake Flyer.” The aim of the assignment was to make a flyer that gives advice, shares something about one’s life, or promotes an imaginary event and then to place this flyer somewhere in the world. 

When watching the video from this Art Assignment, I found the tongue in cheek flyers and art work by Nathaniel Russell humorous. Immediately the phrase “[t]hings have a way of always working out” came to mind. It is one idiom that annoys me because people say it to simply say something. In my attempt to be cynical and elicit a response to how this message makes me feel, I changed the word “always” to “never,” emphasizing a contrary message. Around this reverse phrase I made a poster that scoffs at flippant advice while promoting an outlandish event- pyschobabbling with strangers for hours. 

I stuck my flyer on top of and in the middle of the other flyers to make sure that it was front and center. In this way all eyes would focus on it and its facetious message that I feel is relevant in the world in which we live. Psychobabble is my metaphor for the phrase “[t]hings have a way of always working out.” This phrase has a lot of hot air and masks the reality that while everyone expects things to always work out, we need to make time in our lives for when things do not work out the way we want. Hopefully this flyer will bring a smile to someone, the same way Russell’s flyers did for me. 

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For this week’s Art Assignment, I followed the instruction of the “Constructed Landscape.” The basis for this activity is to explore the boundaries between the natural and unnatural and use these elements to construct an image of the natural world. 

When I think of my most memorable experiences in the natural world, I think of the three different occasions I have experienced glaciers - in Alaska, Argentina, and Norway. In Alaska we flew over the glacier area in a helicopter and then went dog sledding on the glacier; in Argentina we wore crampons and hiked on a glacier in sleeting, freezing rain and in Norway we caught a boat across a glacier lake and then hiked the glacier using crampons and ice picks. These three experiences are all truly memorable. 

I constructed by natural world using a number of natural and unnatural elements. Using a table as my base support, I created a blue sky background using two chairs that were titled so their cushions rested on the table perpendicularly and then I draped a blue towel over the chair backs, which were now parallel to the table. To create the glacier, I created an ice block by freezing pieces of ice in a rectangular Tupperware overnight. I unmolded my ice block and then used some blue food coloring on the front of the ice block to represent the beautiful blue color found in glaciers. I rested the ice block on the mirror, which helped reflect both the “sky” and glacier. I placed ice cubes on the mirror to represent the calving of the glacier. At the rear of the glacier I placed three rocks to represent a mountain and sprinkled these rocks with flour to symbolize snowcapped peaks. 

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For this week’s Art Assignment, I followed the instructions of “Body in Place.” The basis of this activity was to choose a location that is visible to me but not visible to most others and think about what this location represents to me. Once I had identified this area I had to use my body to tell a story. 

Thinking about this assignment, I immediately thought about a sculpture I had started noticing near the intersection of Blakemore Ave and 21st street in Nashville Tennessee, in the spring of my sophomore year. Like many college students I was caught up in the angst of grades and the hustle and bustle of school that I failed to notice my surroundings. And so I have only recently made it a priority to undertake a personal evolution and spend time on myself, focusing not only internally but externally taking in my surroundings and enjoying its perfections and imperfections. 

The location I chose for this assignment represents my new focus on life. I sat in the center of the sculpture so that it created the illusion of a halo representing the inner peace and tranquility I am trying to bring into my life. Each time I walk or drive by this sculpture, it is not just an invisible piece of art near a street corner, but a reminder of my personal evolution and the power I have to find peace within myself and find inspiration both from within and on the outside in nature’s beauty and man’s creativity. 

- Michelle S

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For this week’s Art Assignment I followed the instructions of “Measuring Histories.” The basis of this activity was to think about an aspect of my personal or cultural history that is hard to imagine and use a material to quantify and measure the immeasurable. As I thought about this assignment, religion is an area where both my personal and cultural history intersect. Although I do not view myself as religious, the traditions of my religion are an innate part of my makeup and the commandments that I as a Jew are required to observe are an integral part of my being. Some Jews consider a Pomegranate a symbol of righteousness, its seeds equating to the commandments of how I should live my life to make myself and the world a better place. In looking to quantify my being I carry these 270 seeds in my heart. 

- Michelle S. 

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For this week’s Art Assignment I followed the instructions of “What’s Your Problem?” The basis of this activity was to find someone who could not understand my perspective, ask for help with a problem, do what they said and document the experience. As I think about going into the classroom to do my practicum, I struggle with whether I can be myself and go with my face “au-natural,” the way I like to be or whether I need a way to project a more mature image. I turned to a fellow student who once criticized me for not waring makeup for her input. The project is a way to contrast her thoughts with my own beliefs and to capture her reasoning as to why I should wear make-up.

- Michelle S.