Kara Walker

Ask yourself how does she use storytelling with her cut-outs and the idea of the cyclorama?  

She puts the cut-outs, in a sequence and then she put other images on it, to demonstrate the sentiments. This makes us felling the emotions of this particular event. She creates illusions in her painting and cut-outs, so then we could see the past and the present in the same image. We should be able to see the death in her cyclorama, but it’s bringing us to put our self at that time and live the emotions and the feeling of these events.

Our identity is constantly at work, on the move, and it is not static.  Kara Walker identifies herself to certain stories.  Does she change them, and if so, why?  

Yes, she changes the certain stories, but not at all. She try to change it to make an illusions in this epic moment, or to put some images to demonstrate another part of this event, like the political problems, just to put a correlation between the story and the world event. She identifies herself in certain stories, because she put herself in the context and in the felling of the story.

Now, for your journal, tell the reader how Kara Walker brings together storytelling and her sense of identity.

She takes a story, but not only the facts, but the sense of the identity too.  In fact, she put some details to express the sentiment of the people of the story. It is important to understand this step to see the real event on her art, so all part of it is a part of the identity of the storytelling. She tries to figure out the identity of what she makes to make it unique and special for the viewer.  So briefly she put her sense of identity in her art, so it creates a storytelling more influent.

Then, tell the reader how storytelling is part of your identity.  We all have stories that have been told to us, by family, by friends, and we learn from these stories, we were changed by these stories.  Select one and relate how it is part of your identity.

Two years ago, I had an accident and I broke my neck. Since this time, I can’t do any sport, and I was really sportive. I was very depressive to have this handicap for the rest of my life. A friend told me a story about a person who have the same type of accident, and that today he is able to do many physical (not hard) thing. In this story the person use a lot of determination and perseverance. So this person inspired myself, and helped me to pass over this event. For sure today, I can’t do many physical thing, but I’m in life…

Reflection on the importance of the arts for your own personal development

For me, the arts are very important to create an opinion. If we take a painting, and the only thing we see it was the portrait, we are wrong. But, if we analyse and said there are these colors because of this significance and this object is there to tell us another thing, now we really use our creativity and logic of mind.

“Learning about the arts contributes to personal growth and development by stimulating our senses and sensibilities and by awakening the creative and expressive aspects of our being.”[1]

“Art, along with music is a universal language. Through the ages, transcending time and space, artists have told us their stories and conveyed their emotions through drawings, paintings, architecture and sculptures. We have observed their joy, sorrow, peace and frustration expressed in their work.
Likewise, art allows us to express ourselves.
"Through that expression, we communicate. When we enjoy and look at someone else's art, we see the world through their eyes. When we create our own art, we allow others to see it through ours. Whether you create your own art, or appreciate the beauty and genius of the great masters, it lifts and inspires you beyond your everyday consciousness. Enjoying art is relaxing, therapeutic and rejuvenating.”[2]

So, the arts are a part very important for the development of our individual thinking of the life and of some subject we need to deal with.  As these citations said, the emotions are express in our thinking, our understanding, our interpretation and our mentality. The more I use creativity, the more I will be able to see the event, the arts, the judgement, the argument with another vision.

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[1] http://www.essentiallifeskills.net/thearts.html

[2] http://www.essentiallifeskills.net/thearts.html

Reflection on the importance of the discipline of art history to a liberal arts education.

First, it helps to see over the first impression. The critical thinking is a big part of the liberal arts education. This development of meaning can lead individuals to become conscientious about social responsibilities to extract the full range of potential for creative thinking. The art history serves to search over the basic information we seen. For example, the study of the iconography could help us to determine the importance of each part of a piece of art.

Second, it helps in the development of the abilities to adapt to changing circumstances. The creativity starts with the understanding of the history of arts. Novel perspectives can help to learn abstract thinking. The prodigious power of creativity is another paramount reason to appreciate a liberal arts education.

Third, it develops the judgement, but to have a good judgement, we need to be able to thing independently. The art history development this side of thinking, the side we need to have to see the difference between our opinion and the one of another person. We all are different, so in this discipline we all seen the arts and the subjects differently from the other.

“Knowledge of many subject areas provides a cross fertilization of ideas, a fullness of mind that produces new ideas and better understanding. Those sudden realizations, those strokes of genius, those solutions seemingly out of nowhere, are really almost always the product of the mind working unconsciously on a problem and using materials stored up through long study and conscious thought. The greater the storehouse of your knowledge, and the wider its range, the more creative you will be. The interactions of diversified knowledge are so subtle and so sophisticated that their results cannot be predicted. When Benjamin Franklin flew a kite into a storm to investigate the properties of electricity, he did not foresee the wonderful inventions that future students of his discoveries would produce--the washing machines, microwave ovens, computers, radar installations, electric blankets, or television sets. Nor did many of the inventors of these devices foresee them while they studied Franklin's work.”[1]

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[1] http://www.virtualsalt.com/libarted.htm