Week 3

What I did:

This week was really about solidifying my ideas. Since I was home for the weekend, it was hard for me to get any real work done, however I did sit down with my mom for about an hour and a half and just talked to her about what I wanted to do. This really helped me make my ideas concrete and helped me to better articulate what it was I really wanted to do.

Sitting down to get my ideas together and organizing myself: 1.5 hours

Putting together a draft of an email to send out: .5 hours

Researching online and on google books: 2 hours

Researching in the school of social work library and the grad library: 3 hours

What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:

I am definitely feeling much better about this project now that I am focused on an area that I am really passionate about (focusing on adolescent females that have been psychologically bullied). Here are some of my notes from when I was trying to get organized and get my thoughts together:

-I want to generate art from girls who are victims of bullying, perhaps showing how they feel when they are bullied and use these pieces of art to show others the enormous prevalence of this issue and the effect it may have on these girls' psychological beings.

-Art was something that I began to taken on during this difficult time in my life, and it was a way for me to get out my aggression, enter into my own world, and express myself.

-should I ask an indirect question to provoke a response about bullying or directly ask them a question that implicitly talks about how they feel when they are bullied?

-I would perhaps like to talk to these girls and tell them my story and how I overcame this period.

-Perhaps ask: Have you ever felt badly about yourself? Felt alone? What brings about these feelings?

-the drawings will be completely anonymous

-Perhaps ask them to fill in the question and draw: When I am bullied I feel...

- I still want to create a book after I have collected several drawings.

After meeting with Stephanie on Tuesday, I went off into research mode to find more about art therapy and adolescents and its implications. I am also trying to lear more about what is really going on psychologically and culturally. Through this process I found very pertinent sources that I think will really help me as I delve into it more. Here are the books that I found:

The last book that I found: Creative Interventions with Traumatized Children seems to be so relevant and helpful. There is an entire chapter titled, "Creative Approaches to Minimize the Traumatic Impact of Bullying Behavior." This chapter goes into the various definitions of bullying, its psychological impacts, who tend to be the victims of bullying and the role of art therapy in minimizing the impacts of bullying. For example, the author states that art therapy offers victims of bullies an opportunity to express themselves in a safe way. It is a venue for nonverbal self-expression, which I find to be extremely important. "These students often are unable to verbally express their feelings of fear, worthlessness, confusion, and even rage. They often internalize these feelings as a way of coping with their daily trauma. For most students, repressed feelings emerge in his or her drawings allowing him or her an opportunity for self-actualization." This section also goes into several case studies. For example, one child named Mike found art therapy as a visible means with which to express his innermost feelings, those he could not or dared not verbalize. The structured drawing assignments allowed Mike to fully express his submerged feelings of rage. Mike was asked to "Draw how you feel about school," and he drew a hand grenade being tossed towards his school.

This is what I am trying to accomplish through this project. I want these girls to be able to express themselves through their art and be able to get down on paper something that is so hard to put into words and talk about.

While meeting with Erica today, we discussed a few very important details:

-I want to make sure the girl's interpretation of the drawings is their voice and not my interpretation of their voice. This may mean going over the drawings with social workers.

-how to make the book accessible enough so that the bullies are able to see the drawings, perhaps?

-Maybe sending the drawings or book to different schools or getting an exchange together between 3 or 4 schools?

I also found these websites:

http://www.kidscape.org.uk/gallery/postersdetail.asp?parOrganisation=Zap%20Participants

This website gives various posters that girls and boys made to work against preventing bullying in schools.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/11/19/youth-raise-awareness-bullying-through-art.html

This article talks about using art and the right brain to cope with being bullied.

On a different note: I wanted to include my essay that I used to apply to colleges that I dug up since it puts into words and gives an example of what I went through during this time of my life:

It was the first day of school, junior year, and like every other student,

I was overwhelmed. While sitting in math class, I noticed an unfamiliar

face sitting beside me. It was clear to me that this girl felt alone and

isolated, keeping to herself while all the other students were eagerly

talking about their summers. I knew the feeling of not fitting in is tough,

and it was sad for me to see someone look so uneasy. Impulsively, I tapped

her on the shoulder and introduced myself. I told her that this is a very

friendly school where everyone is warm and welcoming, and that she would

adjust in no time. In addition, I told her that if there was anything she

needed, or if she had any questions, I was here for her. I did what was

natural to me: I befriended her, and to my surprise the result was much

larger than I had ever anticipated.

I had once been in this young girl’s skin, and it is definitely not

easy-- it hurts. This period of my life, from the time I was eleven to

fourteen, I refer to as “the dark period.” During this time, I

experienced being emotionally bullied by my so-called “friends.” I was

rejected, psychologically battered, and somewhat scarred, which affected my

extremely sensitive self. I was ostracized and taken advantage of: I was

the girl who had no one to sit with in the cafeteria, and the one who lent

people money and was never reimbursed. Never did a day go by without my

standing in the small, dark, decrepit phone booth, crying my heart out to

my mother. It was the only place to hide during the dreadful lunch period.

For me, switching schools became the end to this era. From one school to

another, the spirit at Edgemont was so welcoming, my classmates and

teachers were so amiable, and I had transformed into a new student.

In the end, from my horrible middle school years, I have learned to never

make anyone feel uncomfortable in any situation. I wanted to give this new

student a warm feeling, one that I had not received during that time of my

life. In return, the girl gave me her gratitude. Towards the end of our

junior year she approached me and said, “Carly, I just wanted to let you

know that what you said to me the first day of school meant so much to me.

As awkward and uncomfortable that day should have been for me, I remember

it as being welcomed and made comfortable by a girl named Carly.” With

some tears, I thanked her for thanking me.

A simple kindness can make a world of difference. Not only was her life

greatly influenced by a simple gesture, but mine was impacted as well. For

me to know that I have made a slight difference in the life of an

individual is all I can ever ask for and all I can ever want.

What I think I should do next:

-I believe I really need to start having conversations with people who are educated on this issue, and who I could share my ideas with. I also want to get involved with the group, Strong Moms, Strong Girls. I think that starting at a place that is devoted to working with girls with these issues will be good rather than going into school districts right away.

-I contacted Hannah's friend, Dr. Orli Avi-Yonah, and am waiting for her to return my call.

- This week I am also going to contact others who are involved with the Strong Moms Strong Girls Program. I have drafted an email to contact these people.

-I want to also continue with my research and continue to become more educated on this issue. I want to actually get through the books that I took out rather than having them sit on my desk and skimming over them at times.

-Lastly, I really want to get the question that I am going to ask these girls solidified. At the same time, I am going to think about how to make these drawings accessible so that they show people just how much of a problem bullying really is.

That's all for now, sorry this is so long!!

forgot to post what my complete studio looks like!

Week 2

What I did:

This week was definitely very helpful in helping me focus and narrow in on my ideas for my project. I spent about 3 hours creating the postcard mock-ups that I had made to help myself and others get an idea of exactly what it was I was thinking of.

I spent some time taking pictures of graffiti found on desks and in bathroom stalls and created a postcard with that idea, and then created another postcard with the idea of a collaborative art project. With this, one person would draw something, send it back to me and then I would scan it into the computer and give it to another person to add to it.

I also spent about 3 hours researching in the A&A library as well as the Grad library. This process definitely helped me, which I will explain in the next section.

I would also say I spent about an hour just sitting down and trying to go through my ideas and take notes on what I was thinking (brain dumping).

What I accomplished/ discovered/ encountered:

Creating the postcards definitely helped me focus in on this idea, and allowed others to quickly understand what it was I was thinking. It was also rather helpful meeting with half the class and sharing our projects. This is the feedback that I had gotten:

-perhaps creating an incentive for the collaborative art project ($ prize)

-create a website that contains all the postcards that I receive so that people can track their postcards and see how they have changed (I like the idea of creating a website or blog regardless of the direction I choose to go with this)

-I should take an angle or choose an area of focus

Books that I took out from the Library:

-If I had the Chance...Artwork from the Streets of Asia and the Pacific: This book is a collaboration of artwork produced by children living on the streets of the capital cities of developing countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia and Indonesia. The children had to answer the question- If I had the chance draw pictures to go along with it. This book got me really interested in the drawings of children as they tend to see the world very differently than adults. I feel like you can get so much deeper into a child's mind form their drawings rather than an adult who might be more reluctant to express how their truly feel. I also really like how this book was created and how they grouped the drawings together based on different categories. This also got me thinking about my passion for helping people and for children.

-Networking Currents (Chuck Welch): This book goes into the different aspects of mail art and the problems that one can encounter with it. It also got me thinking about Futurist, Fluxist, and Surrealist influences. For example- the Surrealist practice of the Exquisite Corpse- produces something that the individual mind would not have been able to come up with. This also frees the mind and brings about unconscious desires.

-Networking: Art by Post and Fax

-Correspondence Art (Michael Crane and Mary Stofflet Editors)

I also found these 2 websites on mail art:

http://www.mail-art.de/

http://www.dmoz.org/Arts/Visual_Arts/Mail_Art_and_Artistamps/

This almost turns me off to the original idea I had of the collaborative project since it seems to have been done several times before.

A new idea that I got just last night was focusing on and targeting 5th-7th grade girls, since this is a very difficult time in their lives. I was specifically affected by bulling at this time in my life, and I think it would be interesting to learn something about this demographic through the art that they produce. I am interested in using art to discover a group of people.

What I think I should do next:

I think that I need to go with this focus and work with it for the next few weeks. It is too hard for me to be all over the place, and I think I need to just work with this and if it doesn't seem to work out, so be it.

Therefore, I need to figure out what kind of question I would ask to provoke the most from these girls about bullying. Perhaps I should ask people my age and women in general a bunch of different questions and see which are the most provocative. Bullying is something that affects far more people than many think, and is quite psychologically scarring. I know this from a first hand account.

I also need to research and get in touch with different groups in ann arbor. Hannah has told me about groups such as "Strong Moms, Strong Girls" at the CCH at the U of M, as well as a place called the neutral zone which is an after-school program.

Perhaps I should have women my age and older reflect and draw what this period was like for them. It could be interesting to see the drawings of girls who are going through it, as well as people who have gone through it at some point in their lives.

This is what I will be focusing on during the next week.

To conclude, I want to create something that shows people just how prevalent and psychologically scarring bullying is amongst elementary through middle schools girls, and in effect have the girls feel more at ease and release some of their emotional struggling through visually expressing themselves.

And so IP begins...

What I did:I think I spent as much time this week being overwhelmed as I spent being productive. Even though I know I have quite an exciting journey ahead of me, it is still very daunting.

I spent the majority of the week buying things for my studio and bringing things back and forth. I just want it to be set up already! I still have to paint it and decorate it, but for the most part I have most of the furniture in it. I have probably spent a total of 3 hours so far buying things for my studio and bringing things into it. Here it is so far:

This week I also spent some more time researching different artists that work with found objects and art that is mailed such as Davy Rothbart who founded Found Magazine in addition to Darren Di Lieto who founded a project called Mail Me Art. I probably spent about 45 minutes doing this, however I spent a good 5 or 6 hours doing research this summer.

I also spent a lot of time this week just thinking and contemplating my project. Meeting and being interviewed by one of my peers was so helpful and really allowed me to sort out my ideas. It is so helpful to try to articulate what I am thinking since it all has pretty jumbled up in my head.

So, this week was pretty much a week of getting back into the swing of things, trying to get my studio set up, calming myself down and sorting things out.

What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:

Here are a few images that have gotten me thinking lately and that have been inspiring me.

These images are all from Frank Warren's project, Post Secret. Warren gives postcards to random people and asks them to share their secrets. The reactions that he gets are so intriguing. It is this notion of receiving something intimate from a complete stranger that I find so interesting. Each postcard becomes its own work of art. I think it is so fascinating to see how each person writes their secrets and depicts them.

These 2 photos are photos that I had taken for a project for my advanced studio Sophomore year, Marking Memory. Writing that is often found on desks and in bathroom stalls can be fascinating, however it often goes unnoticed. I am interested in how strangers here are having a conversation with each other, and how people keep adding to the conversation. This has been inspiring me to create a project with a similar idea in mind of strangers having conversations with one another. I also love to look at the different ways people write what they are trying to say.

As stated above, I found this artist, Darren Di Lieto who basically collected both professional artists works as well as amateurs all around the world. People sent in things from postcards to pieces of wood. Di Lieto then compiled all of the art in the form of a book. With this work, I am interested in the aspect of receiving things from strangers, as well as how Di Lieto produced a book with his findings.

On a completely different note, in August's "Print" magazine, I found an article about a group of Carnegie Mellon professor and her design students as well as 5th graders from Pittsburgh public schools teaming up with local doctors and the community to create a new model for healthy eating education. I have a strong interest in graphic design, and know that I want to incorporate it in my project somehow (through creating a book I believe), but I really like this idea of working within the community to create a change through Graphic Design. I also love working with children.

What I think I should do next:

When talking with Chelsea, we came up with the idea of combining my ideas of vandalism graffiti (?) with collecting things from strangers and finding things. I just really interesting in interacting and having conversations with people through visual expression. What I would do would be something along the lines of creating postcards from things that I find, both notes etc... as well as scanned photos of writings I find in bathroom stalls and desks etc... I would mail these postcards to many many people and ask them to do something really simple such as just "react." I could then send the response that I get to another person and have them react to that and a conversation could form.

I know this is all over the place, but since I am also very interested in typography and how different typefaces read, perhaps I could do something similar to this idea except with using typography. Maybe I can do different experiments with different typefaces and send them out on postcards for people to react to.

Anyways, I think what I should do next is focus on these found items and graffiti and start collecting. This means collecting things that I find in the street as well as photographing things written in different places. I also want to create a sample postcard for myself to get an idea of what it might look like, and how it might work. In addition to this, I want to be completely moved into my studio by mid next week, latest. Lastly, I am going to keep researching artists and projects throughout the week to gain more inspiration.