I am almost sad to say that I have never watched The Simpsons, but havn't failed to notice that Homer is constantly being disctracted by life happenings around him. Even while he is seemingly on task at the Springsonian in search for inspiration he finds himself more distracted by the subjects of the paintings being food than inspired.  Making fun of ourselves is also a common pass time of this comic The Simpsons. Matt Groening's constantly makes fun of himself and cartooning by making fun of his cartoons being in the museums. Calling the work he does not art and quoting others by staging props such as giant erasers that reference the hand and himself behind the cartoon. 

Our reliance on technology is a constant reminder of how our culture is making fun of its self as a supposedly in dependent nation, but dependent on technology as a form of artificial life support. We are constantly making fun of ourselves and are distracted by our obsession with texting. 

The Hand of Death

This image created by John Heartfield reminds me not only of the obvious, the wars that affect us, especially the Iraqi War that has been so recent, but also extending the issue of "wrath" into the behavior of humans in everyday circumstances. Wrath is defined as; "an inappropriate (unrighteous) feelings of hatred and anger. Denial of the truth to others or self. Impatience or revenge outside of justice. Wishing to do evil or harm to others. Self-righteousness." This definition and this image make me thing about war, but also about the disregard some people have for others. This goes back to my last post about the seven deadly sins and just elaborates on the dysfunction of our culture and of humanity itself, but for this, I would like to focus on the Land of the Free.

I am going to reiterate what I started off talking about last time, and that is the threats stemming from the vote on the health care bill. There are tons of death threats to President Obama on Twitter not to mention the bricks being thrown through congressional office windows aimed at the democrats, the severed gas lines and the heartless comments such as "I hope you bleed... get cancer and die". These statements illustrate the part of wrath; wishing to do evil or harm to others and the impatience or revenge outside of justice. It is amazing to see how narrow minded humans can be. Especially when faced with something that didn’t go their way. The health care bill was created to give all Americans and equal opportunity at a decent well being. It was made to care for the elderly and the young and everywhere in between that needs help, and it has been greeted with hostility. The republicans claim that the democrats that voted for the bill are "baby killers", because the bill does not protect and unborn child, but gives the woman the right to choose. What is so hypocritical about this is that they don't seem to give a shit about the living. Not the people that would be protected by this bill, nor the people that they are so flippantly threatening and physically trying to harm. Isn't there any sanity in this world left? It's not just the health care bill obviously. It's the bigotry and the warring. The religions that hate people for having different beliefs than their own. It's the rich for loathing the poor for maybe having a shot at an equal chance. I could say that the poor sometimes equally hate the rich for having so much and giving so little (not to say that their aren't some very generous wealthy people), but the reason I can not bring myself to say that that is part of the problem is because there is only 1% of the population holding 99% of the wealth in America, and hardly any of them are willing to share, so any animosity that is directed towards the upper class is well deserved. I know I am generalizing in many ways, but it's just to show the whole, not the parts.
The majority of the wrath is caused by the people that are blind to the truth and don't want a compromise, don't want equality or commonality. They are self-righteous. The see themselves and no one else. They are selfish. This includes cold blooded murderers too. But aren't the people that deny what's right just because they believe that they deserve what they have just as bad? There are people starving and dieing and living in slums in complete filth and they are in need and there is not enough resources to help them because there is 1% of the population sitting on all of the wealth, watching as the world crumbles around them and they don't give a shit as long as they have what they want. That is what I call a murder and one of the most despicable forms of gluttony, pride, greed and most definitely wrath.

I know someone already posted this image...but...David Clowes is an impact. My comic book on attitudes and conception of art shares some ground with Clowes's Art School Confidential. Mostly the ambiguity of conceptual art and the people who make it. My comic features a painter who deficates on to a canvas...Clowes has students use ready mades for project requirements.

I can't say personally how I should feel about this subject because I do enjoy readymade sculptures. Clowes if course has a negative stance on it as a cop out style. My comic is more in my eyes neutral. It is open ended as to what the painter is doing is correct or absurd. It's similar to Clowes in that it is not a respected medium. Not respected by Art school narrator or the visitors to an exhibition.

Yet the artists are obsessed with their products and uphold their value. Clowes whole work however is just cynical and I see mine as an outsider poking fun at. It's about mythos and the unexplained workings of creation. While in Art school confidential it is ridicule bad art. I think they do compliment each other well though and I think connections would be made from readers.

Identity

In researching Kara Walker's art work, I came upon the aspect of the way caricature and art contribute to the creation of identity. Many readings and caricatures we have studied throughout this course have evolved around the idea of creating identity, whether it be a 'new' distorted identity, through stereotypical caricaturisation of ones physiognomy and anatomy, such as Richard Nixon's nose; or creating the identity of a race, gender, and or class, such as the Fashion Plates I posted last week, and even the creation of the Yellow Kid comic. All these caricatures made use of stereotypes, in order to identify a certain person or group of people; as a result, these newly formed characters became the way in which the people they emulated were identified.

Kara Walker concentrated mostly on social, political and historical means of racial profiling. Kara Walker's "Narratives of a Negress" discusses the ways she used many historical figures and narratives in order to "confront contemporary perceptions"(111). She confronts societies "social construction of race," and the various ways we identify race through stereotypes. These two details of her work, created through cut paper and adhesive on a wall, were meant to distort the viewers perception of race, and identity. Although the figures are all black in appearance, she uses the stylization of dress and hair to imply visual cues to which race/gender each figure represented. She also uses stereotypical physiognomy of the face and body stature, in order to identify each character.

It is interesting to see the ways in which many caricature artists use common stereotypes in order to visually identify the characters in their work. "Narratives of a Negress" discusses how "the compulsive repetition of stereotypes can tell us as much about a dominant groups anxieties and instabilities as about its power to control the social world" (120). Stereotyping is not believed to be a good thing, and yet it is used so frequently throughout history, the media and art, that it has become essential to our understanding and comprehension of certain things. Most of us fall, in some way or another into some form of a stereotype. The visiting artist discussed how it is easier to caricature someone you don't know; is this because we can categorize them into a stereotype/category based on visual appearance? It is interesting to think of the ways in which we are identified visually, vs our actual personal value as an identity. Since all caricature is based on this visual identification, does all caricature use, in some way, a form of stereotyping in order to create the various identities of its characters? Is this what makes it so easy to create these new, fictitious identities of people we are able to visually identify, such as presidents, adding on a whole new personality to their appearance?

no agreements = no progression

Another issue i am interested in doing for my final project is a politically based cartoon. My main thoughts and ideas lead me to the health care reform and all the drama that is surrounding it.

This cartoon depicts the republican and the democratic party's view on the war in Iraq pre 2009 election. Their views are completely opposite. Obama wants peace in Iraq and to move troops in to Afganistan (where some would say troops are "needed") while Mccain would like more troops in Iraq, which is silly because everyone knows that Iraq had nothing to do with the September 11th attacks. There will never be an agreement of what is best to do because the veiws of the G.O.P. and the democrats are polar opposites. I believe that this is the reason Obama isnt doing as well as we thought he would because of the republicans in congress that will not agree with one thing Obama tries to do. A good example of this is the health care reform.

In this cartoon, Obama is performing surgery on a patient, the health care reform. He asks for a scalpel. Little does he know that the insurance companies, the G.O.P., the American Medical Association and the drug companies are trying to murder him while he is not paying attention. This is because the insurance and drug companies, as well as the A.M.A. will not make as much money once the health care bill passes; they are greedy and want to keep their excessive amount of money. The G.O.P. will also loose money because taxes will be raised, and they as well as the medical companies do not want to lose their corpulant amount of money to help those who are in need. I think this cartoon is very interesting because after the health care reform finally passed many members of congress who voted for it are now recieving death threats. Well known republicans such as Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck are not helping the situation because they are brainwashing their veiwers to believe the healthcare reform is a horrible thing. The truth is they just dont want to lose their money.
It is hard to get anything accomplished in this country when people are too greedy to help others. It is sad.

Murals and their palces

Since Luz and I are currently in the process of painting a mural for our final project the problem of space has come up. We were going to paint it on the graffiti wall, however that fell through; now we are trying to find another location. We spent Wednesday afternoon looking at other locations and may even choose to alter the shape and look of the original sketch. This has led us to look at other muralists work. For me in particular I was drawn to Orozco's Frescoes in the National Preparatory School Mexico City. The images used have purpose in where they are placed and fit into the odd shaped surfaces that are provided. In some ways I see this mural that Luz and I are painting presenting some of the same challenges that Orozco faced.

The image above is not Orozco's fresco from the school but his mural of An Education at Dartmouth. This had to do more with the social importance of space vs the physical space.

OROZCO

Still in a mural mind-set, Rachel and I researched Orozco, as Ezra had suggested. His murals seem to mull over political, educational and social problems, and seem to also be strongly represented as that. His perspective on certain issues is what made his love of the mural so profound. Flipping through books, I saw how he utilized space. How the figures and illustrations work within the confines of its location. Giving me an idea of how to go about this final of our.

Truthful misrepresentation of myself, and this American ideal/dream- through a mural seems like a challenge, and is a little nerve wrecking. How can I make a statement or convey my personal opinion on a matter that is so heavily based on my culture and appearance?

"the highest, the most logical, the purest and strongest form of painting is the mural... the most disinterested form, for it cannot be made a matter of private gain; cannot be hidden away for the benefit of a certain privileged few. It is for the people. It is for all." - Orozco