Since 1999 I have been investigating the making of art as a high school art teacher. Several years ago I met a student who challenged me to make art with his Advanced Placement class. His thrown gauntlet came at an opportune time because I was working on a master's degree in Intercultural Studies from Union University with emphasis in art at Memphis College of Art. The classes I was taking set me up to paint, print, write, and travel to Israel with two friends. Samira actually grew up in the Palestine city of Ramallah. For our capstone we traveled to the city to perform an ethnography on the community center, The Sareyyet.
During this trip I was impressed by so much art. The art of William Kentridge was showing in Jerusalem at the Israel Museum. The dance grow[ of the Sareyyet and the international dance groups combined with the visual art or graffiti on the 40 concrete wall was all inspiring. But, the everyday scene of the clothes hanging on the lines to dry combined with the food fixed by my friend's mom brought memories of my family from when I was very young. Ghosts of feeling that were revived moved me to create the first pieces of art for my master's presentation.
Being a work inspired by street art, I did not pursue Union University's permission to put the art up.
During this trip I was impressed by so much art. The art of William Kentridge was showing in Jerusalem at the Israel Museum. The dance grow[ of the Sareyyet and the international dance groups combined with the visual art or graffiti on the 40 concrete wall was all inspiring. But, the everyday scene of the clothes hanging on the lines to dry combined with the food fixed by my friend's mom brought memories of my family from when I was very young. Ghosts of feeling that were revived moved me to create the first pieces of art for my master's presentation.
Being a work inspired by street art, I did not pursue Union University's permission to put the art up.
Consequently, my professor received a phone call from someone, no doubt, very important. I had no idea where she was going in the middle of my presentation. She just got up and walked out and ripped the line down the poles up out of the ground. That was my first experience with street art. I made a C on the presentation. The grade was difficult to recover from, but it moved me forward to put several other works up around town (as seen below).
|
|
|
