Rile e'm up
In class we completed the project, Rile E'm Up. For this project we studied different political issues and formed opinions then created street art about it. The main question we were exploring was what politicizes people and what politicizes us. We started this project by reading the book, In the Time of the Butterflies. This book was about the four Mirabel sisters who stood up to the dictator of the Dominican Republic, Trujillo. The topic I chose to study was disabled veterans. I chose this topic because my grandfather is a disabled veteran and I felt personally connected to it. For my street art I made the background an American flag and the stencil was an older man saluting and the words under him say, "I helped my country, why won't my country help me." It represents how citizens and service men and women are called on or required to help their country but when they return the government does not help them; the relationship should work both ways. This is what my final art piece looked like.
There were many steps and revisions before we reached the final art piece. We were assigned into critique groups to help give feedback and help each other improve. Josh, Alejandra, Ricky, and I were in a group together. I think our group worked pretty well together. We gave each other helpful feedback however at times during the formal critique it was kind of slow and nobody really wanted to talk. It was good though because we helped one another reform and think more about our plans and execution of the art pieces. Along with learning about disabled veterans, I learned how to prioritize. Since we had a lot of assignments and things we needed to complete, an essential skill was being able to prioritize and manage time well. I struggled with it in the beginning but I realized how important it was and focused on it. It helped me to make a checklist of all the assignments I still needed to complete and crossed them off as I did them. It helped me remember everything I needed to do but I also felt very rewarded when I finally crossed one off. One thing that went well, was towards the end, all my pieces came together well. Before they were all individual works of art but they came together as a collection and looked esthetically pleasing and cohesive. If I could change this project I would probable condense the time we spent doing general research about all the topics. It was definitely beneficial to know about topics before we made our decision. However, it felt like we spent a lot of time of it and it could've been condensed into only a few days rather than 2-3 weeks. Other than that, I really liked this project and I feel I grew a lot as an artist and a student.