VA final

Joy Prior
Final Questions Issues in Contemporary Art and Art Criticism
As I read the final questions for my Contemporary Art and Art Criticism class I pulled my hoodie over my ponytail, pushed my statistic notes across the living room floor, and imagined a critique. A tall man sitting erect on the edge of a leather coach and his combed hair bouncing when he moves his hands. His pastel colored shirt is tucked into a pair of pressed khaki pants. I look at my own appearance: I studied too late last night; I am wearing the same stuff I wore yesterday because everything else is packed in moving boxes; and my nose is running from allergies. No one would take me serious if I was a critique. I read the question again. My professor was not asking if I thought that I was a critique, but to explain the nature and purpose of Criticism as a discipline. I reflected not simply on how I view art differently after my class, but how I view myself. In the best way that I can articulate I feel that the purpose of criticism is to overcome the fear of stating something you believe in that you are brave enough to change when you understand more.
The reason for studying a discipline is not to obtain a title, but to explore. I take mathematics not because I am mathematician but to learn mathematics. I am in biology not because I am a biologist but to learn biology. I am taking art criticism not because I am a critic but to learn criticism. The nature of criticism, just like other disciplines, should be driven by a desire to expand ones knowledge and not in the vain pursuit of a title.
I believe that criticism is a discipline that benefits the individual more than the observer. I thought about what a critique is. He does not only look like a critique, but he has educated himself, learned to articulate his responses, and above all remains confident in himself even when he loses confidence in his response. This semester I have come to the conclusion that learning to critique an art work is more than simply taking the fragments of knowledge I know and pasting them together for publication. As I take art criticism I have learned to reform my opinion when I question my understanding and perspective but I no longer feel that I have to question my self value to reform an onion. I have benefited the most from learning about art criticism.
I no longer approach the connection between the culture of Zion and postmodernism as if I were in a balancing act. Imagine a balance: a feather on one side of the balance and boulder on the other side. The balancing point has to shift between the two items until it finds balance. This image helped me to see that before I can balance two items, such as a feather and a boulder, I have to full understand the two individual objects and their relationship before I can put them in balance. My attempts to balance religious and artistic beliefs were fruitless not because of my lack in effort but because I do not fully understand the two items I was trying to balance. As I have taken more time to discover what postmodernism and the culture of Zion are I am making progress into knowing how I can have both of them in a balanced life. I now approach the connection between the culture of Zion and postmodernism as a discover; two subjects that I image could take more than a life time to explore.
I never imagined that a Visual Arts minor would complement an Early Childhood Education major so well. When I picked Visual Arts as my minor I chose it because I wanted to do something I found relaxing, and something that I know would not require me to cram in useless information the night before an examine. It was when I started helping in a Kindergarten classroom that I began to value the simple things I learned in art, such as there are more mediums than crayons that I can have in my classroom, to more valuable concepts such as how to discuses and recognize visual stereo types in a reading books, or streaming in from the media. The connection between my personal aspirations as an artist and an educator seems to enhance each other. As I study theories on how to engage children in education my own curiosity takes control. Within the safe elements of art I can be daring enough to explore the world and myself. As I see how art has helped me to discover more I put forth extra effort to provide the same opportunities for my students.
Before I began to write out a few important ideas, experiences, insights that I gained while studying contemporary art and artists I looked through my thought journal.
The black silhouette of Kara Walker made me to explore the important idea of imagination and fear. While I looked at Kara Walker I realized that no one else saw the same image that I saw in her work. I took my own experiences and images and put them into the blank silhouettes, filling the scenes with life and color. Her images seem so familuar and entirely unkown. I made this image as a parallel to how I handle the fear of the unknown. When I am afraid of the future it is because I have filled what I can not see with fears that I am familiar with.
One experience that helped me to grow the most in the class was my presentation of my artist. I felt unbelievably self-conscious of presenting my artwork in front of the class. Even during the last week I do not think I would even dare to sketch a house on the white board in front of all the students. Although I still feel pressure that my art work will never be presentable the experience of showing a simple chalk in front of the class helped me to take baby steps of actually sharing my artwork.
An insight that I learned in class that I reread in my thought journal was “the arts encounter the other and challenge the ego of what we know.” I liked this thought for multiple reasons. One reason I liked the thought so much is because it brought up the idea that I develop my the ego is from facts that I think I know, my experiences, and what I am comfortable with. The other thought that I liked was that the arts challenge my ego. That means that art makes me question facts that I think I know, my experiences, and what I am comfortable with. I like the idea of questioning what I know to discover and continue to discover the world and truth around me.

Return my book: I returned you book
I finished Assignment 45: Reread your favorite book from the 5th grade.
I remember my 5th grade teacher read A Year Down Yonder to my class, and I loved it so much that I read the series later that year. After I finished finals on Monday I did one of my favorite things. I went to the gym sat on one of the stationary bikes and reread the book A Year Down Yonder from cover to cover. It seemed a lot shorter than I remembered it in 5th grade, but I had forgotten most of the stories. I can not believe that I forgot about the naked women running out of the house with a snake wrapped around her! How unforgettable is that?

After considering my work, attendance, participation, writing, reading I would give myself an A in this class. I worked at my personal project, and thought about what I wanted to do until my head almost hurt. Not only did I try things this semester that I never thought I would be brave enough to do but I thought about concepts and ideas that I had never dared to think. I finished the reading, and tried to keep up with all of the writings. I can not remember missing class. I really tried hard to not only participate in the group discussions. Most of all I know that I learned and worked in the class because I found what I was learning in Art creeping into my other subjects, Sunday school lessons, and the very way that I think and perceive the world. I enjoyed the class immensely and would honestly say I feel that I deserve an A.