Tha...thaa...that's all folks!

So here's the wrap up...

What?-
In the beginning of the class I was assigned to working with DMC Children's Hospital. I was so excited to start working that I started to jot down little ideas about the treatment rooms everywhere I went. Every treatment room had its own theme. 

So What?-
Well  after submitting my proposal for each treatment room I waited a while to see what the design team thought. Grace Serra, Art Advisor at Children's, contacted me later and told me the design team didn't like my ideas. Time was running out, I couldn't start over with the proposals. I ended up helping one of my classmates with her project, creating art for the children's PANDA ambulance. That was a long and arduous journey! But I don't regret it one bit. I'm extremely thankful to have been give this opportunity to make a difference.

What's next?-
For my proposal, I suggested to remodel the ER waiting area and adjoining hallways at DMC Children's Hospital. If my project is chosen by Community Engagement at Wayne State, I will like to be its supervisor and see to the completion of it. However, in the near future I plan to help Grace with an event (April 27?). Grace and I, along with a few other people, will be helping an African artist with his workshop at the hospital for young children with HIV.

I am truly grateful to have taken this course. My classmates are amazing creative people with wonderful personalities. The community partners are such joyful people and extremely dedicated! Last but not least...my professor, well she is just splendid. A kinder heart you would never meet. Her love for art is truly mind boggling.

This class was no doubt the best I have ever had in my three years at WSU.

THANK YOU ALL.

Proposal

I turned in my proposal last night, FINALLY! It took such a long time but I think I finally got it to how I want it. I wish everyone good luck on their projects. I wonder when we will find out who won? So exciting! It's gonna be a close call since there are so many wonderful proposals.

Final Presentation

Eeeeekkkk! My presentation is this week! I'm actually excited and nervous at the same time. At one end, I can't wait to present what I have and get feedback from the rest of the class about my ideas... yet on the other hand, I don't have the PowerPoint presentation complete yet. My ideas are all in my head at this point but I need to put them down on paper. I have all day today and tomorrow to finish it.


I hope it goes well!

PANDA ART-Ambulatory Services

Here is a few images of what I've been working on so far for the PANDA art at Children's Hospital. I still have a ton of things left to do since I only have a few art pieces done with, but this is what I have so far. I had my sister take these pictures while I was working on the art, for documentation.

Treatment Room Proposal

This is the proposal pictures for the treatment room I told you about- the one that the design team declined. I just wanted to show it to you guys before dumping the files. I hope you guys like it.

I don't really know how to post up a powerpoint presentation on this site so I will have to just put up the pictures of the drape scene and the border for the room. 

The theme for this room is GARDEN.

Class Text #2

The above photo shows the cover of the second book our class was assigned to read this semester. As you can see the title is "The Gift" written by Lewis Hyde. I will just write a few sentences about my opinions on this book. Mame, our class professor, split the class into groups and each group was assigned to read a few chapters. The next class session we had, the groups met together and discussed what they thought of the chapters. Mame than called upon each group to present their opinions to the class regarding their assigned chapters. Our group was assigned to read chps 1-3. These first chapters, obviously, introduced Hyde's idea of the Gift. Hyde's Gift is not an object but more like a verb. The actual ACT of giving represents the Gift itself. Hyde goes on to explain that once a person receives a gift he/she is obligated by the gift giver's honor to return the favor and give a gift to another person. This chain of events is to be carried forth on and on till it returns back to person one. Hyde provides many examples where third-world nations practice this gift giving cycle. He states that these people are brought together and are much well off than we believe them to be. Hyde goes on to state that our society's morals are on a downfall since the wealthy think of only getting wealthier and the poor look upon the rich with hopeful dreams. Hyde states that such a society will fall into ruin sooner or later, while those 'third-world' society's will last longer due to their stronger bonds with one another. All due to the Gift.


My favorite parts in the book are when Hyde supports his ideas with tales of people from all around the world and how they interact with each other. For example, he mentions the Native Americans and how the Great Chief would present his pipe to an honored visitor as a gift and custom would have it that the receiver would than go back to his village and present that pipe to his honored visitor, so on and so forth. However, when the white man came to the Americas and received such a pipe he was ecstatic and took the pipe with him home to show his people what the barbarians gave him. Later on he had the pipe put on display at a national museum. Hyde explains how western society's idea of keeping themselves surrounded by riches and purchasing items for the sole reason to display them, is a callous way to live. I would have to completely agree with Hyde, my religion also does since it preaches to its followers to purchase only what's needed and the rest should be given to charity. We just don't need all the crap we surround ourselves with these days. Ten pairs of shoes is just ridiculous!

Project Update

Remember how my first blogs talked about me working with Grace Serra at Children's Hospital redesigning three of the treatment rooms? Well I was asked to make proposals for the rooms highlighting my ideas for the project. Unfortunately I was told that the Design Team did not think that my work was professional enough for the size of such a project. UPSET would be an understatement to just how I felt. I worked hard on that proposal and felt that it was perfect. It took a while for me to get back on my feet and email Grace to see what else I could do. She was really nice about the whole thing and suggested that I help Tiffany with her PANDA project. This project basically deals with designing the hospital's ambulance which they termed PANDA (an abbreviation for some long name). Since the ambulance is a scary place, the idea was to add pandas, flowers, butterflies, etc. to the interior so that it would be less daunting. However, I really did not want to impede on her project, but there was nothing else for me to do with the semester coming to an end. After all was said and done Grace gave me the appropriate materials and I started working on the new project.  

I'm Back!

I know, I know!!!!! I have not been able to come online and work on my blog in so long, I feel terrible about it. However, I will catch up in the next few days. PROMISE!

Class Presentations- 02/23/2011

Last week's class presentations were centered on the topic of Art and Healing, what it is and its history. Our speaker Holly Feen and Grace Serra both presented their own presentations based on their own specialties. Holly Feen is a licensed Art Therapist and she conveyed to us what the job duties and what she experienced on the field. An Art Therapist (as the name implies) is a person who uses the Arts (whatever form it may be-dance, photography, sketches, painting, etc.) to help a troubled person take the first steps to emotional recovery. Feen described the job as extremely rewarding as well as demanding, one must try to get the patient to push all matters aside and focus on the movements of one’s fingers as he/she creates art.

Grace Serra's presentation revolved around the same topic as Feen's but she gave us first hand examples of how Art has positively affected the patients in hospitals worldwide. Grace Serra has worked at Children's Hospital since the beginning of its art program (she helped set up the Art department there a few years ago) and she saw how the white and polished milky colored corridors only increased patient's agitation about their impending visits to the hospital. Since then, with her help, the hospital has completely changed for the better. I have been down there numerous times and can tell that it doesn't even feel like a hospital (until you see the doctors, of course) the atmosphere is lively and the vivid colors on the walls makes you feel like you are walking around an enormous playpen with children roaming around guided by chaperones. It is just wonderful!

Now I know that Art and Healing is a must when it comes to proper recuperation, and I'm a biology student!

Class Activity- 02/16/2011

This week's class activity was hosted by Carol Cook Reid who is the creator of Pathway Patterns, an activity that aims to bring people together using art mediums. Pathway Patterns is composed of hundreds-thousands of 4"x4" hand painted wooden squares that have specific shapes, the aim is to combine these squares in a way to continue a path to the next square. Each student worked on his/her own colored squares at first and then had to branch his/her work to the person sitting next to them. Through this activity each person had to converse with his/her neighbor so that they can make the pathways work properly. At first everyone was quiet working on his/her own work and then later on the class was in an uproar with amiable conversation. What an ice-breaker! I can tell the class had so much fun. Here is a few pictures I snapped on my phone of our combined artworks:


The patterns in red and turquoise are mine and the colored patterns blending in to the red are my neighbor's:

Children's Hospital Project

My meeting with Grace Serra-Art Advisor at DMC Children's Hospital went great! She explained to me what my project will consist of and gave me much to think upon. My job will be to create artworks for the fourth floor treatment room under the theme 'Gardens', the fifth floor treatment room under the theme 'Sky' and also to add several touch-ups to the sixth floor treatment room under the theme 'Celestial'. 


In the coming week my job will be to create a few sketches for these rooms and submit them in for evaluation at the hospital. I will acquire the help of my sister whose art capabilities exceed mine, she has even agreed to make time to help me out for the duration of this project. 


If our work is accepted by the committee, my next step will be to visit Utrecht and develop a budget for all my art supply needs; paints, brushes, sponges, etc.. 


Once my sketches are ready for submission I will post them along with my budget plan.


Sorry for the bad quality photos, but you get the idea. These rooms need some serious work!
-Click on the image to zoom in-

Class Lecture 02-09-2011

This post is coming a bit late; but better late than never.

In this week's lecture Mame introduced us to some social artists and their accompanying work. She showed us a picture of a man dressed up in a Superman costume on a cart rolling around a busy metropolis street claiming his actions as art  and a woman named Mierle Laderman Ukeles who created "The Social Mirror" which was basically a dump truck encased in mirror sheets and her idea was that when this dump truck passes you by, you would see yourself reflected off the dump truck (interpret this as you see fit, lol...).

The debate for this lecture was what we thought about these artists, if we even thought them to be artists. Personally I'm not sure if I would call the man on the cart an artist but Ukeles is not only an artist in my eyes but a one -n-a-million! What makes her so special? Ukeles makes art that involves the day to day people no one takes a second glance at, for example a waste management worker or a janitor. She make it one of her artworks to go around the city and shake hands with all the waste management staff. She also spent time scrubbing the ground outside an art gallery as another one of her works. Her art is not the physical sort but the emotional kind that stays in one's mind.  

I have not heard of an artist like her before. She does not only create art but she makes herself the art piece! That's amazing.

Polka Dots Vs Under the Sea?

Here is a couple of ideas I've been having for possible treatment room themes.


-Polka Dot Room- an array of these off-beat colorful dots will spruce up any room :)

-Under the Sea- Who doesn't enjoy the sea and all its mysterious creatures?

Getting Started!

Today is my first meeting with Grace Serra, Children's Hospital Art Advisor. I'm so excited to finally get started. Since the first day we went to visit the hospital and Grace, I have been sketching and developing ideas that might be used for the dreaded treatment rooms. I will soon be posting some pics of what I've done so far on looseleaf paper ....please dont laugh at my horrible drawing skills :)

Class Text #1

This is the name of the text we are assigned to read in our class. The text is written by Suzi Gablik in the mid-eighties so her opinions are based during that time. It's helpful to keep that information in mind while reading about what she has to say. Two weeks ago our class started to read this text and we had a brief discussion about what Gablik's introduction stated. We had some arguments as to what Gablik meant when she stated whether artists in modern times made Art for Art's sake or for capitalistic reasons. Some of my classmates believed artists chose more to make art for their commissioners or to get paid, while other classmates believed that artists still made art that spoke to them and not what they were expected to make to satisfy others' tastes. I unfortunately believe that artists would love to make art for its sake but life gets in the way; everyone needs to make a living and in order for an artist to make a proper living he/she needs to make art that will get them paid.