Protest Poster

Artist Statement

This winter was unforgettable. I have a good friend that is from Kodiak Alaska and for an entire week she compared the temperature in her home town to provo. She said that on most days, it was colder in Provo than it was in Alaska-IN JANUARY!  

There are several factors that influenced me to make this poster. 

I am from Mesa, Arizona and this is the first winter I have experienced in Utah. I feel that being from Arizona Influenced me to make this poster because the cold in Utah is more unbearable for me than it is for a native. Growing up the coldest it would get during the winter would be around 30 degrees. However, after going through this winter, Arizona weather seems like shorts and sandals weather compared to Utah.

The issue that I wanted to raise awareness was inspired from remembering a AM radio talk about the "air problem in Utah". The activists talking on the radio proposed that cleaner air in Utah would stop the inversion and make the climate a little warmer during the winter. Although I agreed about the cold weather being the problem, I did not agree with the solution because I felt it would not make a significant difference. 

Another factor that influenced me was remembering all the hype about global warming during the 90's and early 2000's. It seems that nobody is raising much awareness about this issue anymore. To add a twist to my poster, I decided to put words on the poster that proposed global warming as the solution to the "cold air problem" in Utah. 

To sum it up, I feel that comical art can influence the way people perceive certain issues. When I posted my poster on facebook yesterday, I got a few comments and several likes from people that thought it was funny.

Webspinna

http://vimeo.com/58912692

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN5X4kGhAtU

http://vimeo.com/43455552

http://grooveshark.com/s/House+By+The+Sea/1fhCx5?src=5

http://grooveshark.com/s/Asturias+Isaac+Alb+niz/2KnBC3?src=5

http://grooveshark.com/s/Somewhere+Over+The+Rainbow/1S3ElK?src=5

http://vimeo.com/1284717

Artist Statement

Usually when I set out in creating Art, I usually have a theme in mind that shapes my art; however with this assignment, I really didn't see the theme until after it was created.
For the past few weeks I have gone through some personal struggles and just over the last few days have regained the confidence and hope that I wanted. I conclude that each song and sound was a reflection a phase as I went through this experience.
The first sound i used as a foundational layer was static. The static represents imperfection. The audio piece made the overall piece sound as if the music was trying play over the static and compete for the audiences attention.

The piece starts out with some sounds that are abstract sounding. Whenever I hear unnatural sounds it always makes me think abstractly. The struggles I have experienced over the past few weeks have caused me to dig inward and to look at myself abstractly rather than dogmatically.
The second music piece is House by the Sea by Iron and Wine. His piece starts out with abstract sound but then turns into cohesive music. This could be a reflection of what happens when I dig deep and assess my inner character-- I discover what I am really feeling.
The third piece is a classical number by Asturias. For some reason listening to his piece makes me feel stressed and anxious which is what I realized I had been feeling over the past couple of weeks.
The last piece was Somewhere over the rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole. When I listen to this song, i feel peaceful and happy. This piece represents how as I kept searching deeper,  I eventually was able to push out the anxious feelings and replace then with the feelings of piece that I so desperately wanted.
To sum it up, I feel that this webspinna represented the theme that we will always have imperfections despite how we feel, hoever even though we cannot always control some of our imperfections, we can control how we feel.

Medium Specificity

A   Jonathan Lives a normal life. Nothing Exciting ever happend to him
      B   One day, an inciting incident happend in Jonathans life. An antagonist, force of nature,                              and character flaw caused a big conflict in Jonathans life.
          C   This incident started to escalate
               D The incident continued to escalate for quite some time
                    E  As the incident grew, so did Jonathans character. His flaws began to vanish
                        F However as he grew, the antagonist continued to oppress him.
                           G As the antagonist oppressed him, so did the forces of nature.
                               H Despite these hardships Jonathan worked hard to overcome them
                                  I One day as he was working hard against all these forces, a huge crisis emerged.
                                    J The antagonist pulled ahead of Jonathan in the race to be the victor of the story
                                        K As the antagonist did so, Jonathan notices his character flaws.
                                            L The forces of Nature work against him.
                                               M Jonathan has a huge test to prove himself worthy of the victors title
                                                    N Through the test, Jonathan triumphantly wins the victor.
                                                M' Jonathan again has another huge test to prove his worthiness
                                            L' Because he doesn't pass it, this leads to a crisis.
                                        K' The Antagonist once again exposes his character flaws
                                    J ' The Antagonist becomes the victor of the story
                                  I' This led to a huge crisis as Jonathan worked hard to overcome them
                               H' Jonathan worked hard to overcome the crisis, but in vain.
                           G' The forces of nature oppressed him just as much as the antagonist was.
                         F' As Jonathan continued to be oppressed, his character shrank.
                      E' Ultimately the incident at the beginning caused Jonathans flaws to resurface
                   D'  The incident descalated for quite some time.
               C'   The incident stopped growing.
             B'   The inciting incident vanished.
          A'   Jonathan is back to the same normal life he lived at the beginning of the story.

Artist Statement

For my medium specificity I chose to explore a chiasm narrative. These narratives are found in ancient hebrew texts. My piece above puts traditional story telling elements into the format of a chiasm.  

In "Show and tell" the author tells the history of the gulf between pictures and words and how over time the gap vanished. Just like people in the past perceived the role of pictures and words differently, so did they with narratives. A chaism is a great example of this. In ancient hebrew texts chaisms have a unique way of telling a theme. 

The narrative of Jonah is a great example of a chaism narrative. Jonah starts out not wanting to obey Gods command to preach to the people of Nineveh. After running from God on the seas, he is swallowed by a whale. While he is in the whale, he is humbled and decides to do what God commanded him to do. After he preaches to the people of Nineveh and they repent, Jonah becomes angry because he is envious of the Lords mercy on the people. He leaves the city and decides to die in the desert just outside the city. God plants a tree by Jonah to shade him. The next day, God destroys the tree with worms. Jonah becomes more angry and wants to die. The narrative ends with God trying to teach Jonah. In this narrative Jonah struggles until he is humbled to the point where he aligns his will with Gods when he is in the whale. However when the chaism reaches its peak when the people of Nineveh repent, Jonah becomes envious, and becomes prideful. The narrative finishes with him having nothing and being prideful, similar to the state he is in at the beginning of the narrative.

I feel that a chaism narrative is a unique way in which to tell a story because most modern narratives show the progression of man where chaisms show the progression and digression of man. It combines comedy and tragedy into one story. I feel that an audience can learn valuable lessons from seeing one character progress and the digress back to their original state. The chiasmus narrative can also be inverted, having the character start out good and happy, digress to a low point in the story and then, be restored to the same happy norm at the beginning of the story(The story of Job is a great example of this).  

To sum it up, chaisms are one of the many forgotten ways of communicating a theme to an audience.

 

Textual Poaching

Creative Statement

This is famous photo taken during the great depression(minus my poaching). The photographer could not hace captured reality of this scene any better in this photo(see Seeing And Writing, John Long p. 684) I inserted myself into the back seat of the car. This pictures has meaning on a broad level and personal level.
Due to the recession our country is in right now the number of people living in poverty has soared. The Middle class is dwindling in America. In some ways we are experiencing some of the same things people did during the great depression. Although there are no soup lines anymore, there are millions of Americans on food stamps. The mis represented billboard reminds me of media today that misrepresents the lifestyle of most Americans. In most commercials today families live in perfect homes with white picketed fences. For example, the church used to air commercials where families looked extremely cliche' and did not reflect what society really was. 

My reasoning behind putting myself in this photo is on a more personal level.

Before my mission, especially during my childhood, I would often complain to my dad that we were poor and he needed to earn more money so we could travel more. In elementary and middle school, I has friends whos families were traveling to place like Hawaii or the Caribbean for vacation while we would just go to my Grandpa Bobs house. That was my thought process until I went on my mission. I went to Kentucky which is the second poorest state in the country. In one of my areas there were tons of poor African Americans that lived in small run down apartments and had lots of children living in them. These children seemed to be more happy then I was growing up and I had so much more then them. When I got home, all the things I took for granted in the past were now significant in my life. My Dad had a Job, we had two cars, we lived in a house - things that families in my mission didn't have at all.