Day Two, Antigua

Artisan's Market, Antigua Guatemala

Our host family has breakfast for us at 7am, lunch at 12:30, and dinner at 6:30 every Monday-Saturday, but on Sunday we have to provide breakfast, lunch and dinner for ourselves; so our first full day in Antigua we had to fend for ourselves. Gloria and I met with several of the other students at a Basketball court near our homes in the morning and we all headed out to exchange money and get some breakfast. 

I had exchanged money already in Boston, so I didn't need to get anymore that morning, but I tagged along to help locate the bank recommended to us. In Antigua, to get quetzales, Guatemalan currency, you can either take it directly from your checking account at an ATM or you can exchange dollars directly for quetzales. If you exchange dollars for quetzales you have to bring your passport with you to the bank to prove you are an international traveler whereas at an ATM you only need your debit card. Sunday morning the students who needed to exchange money forgot to bring with them their passports for the bank, so when we got there we couldn’t do anything. After we left the bank we decided to go back to the Casa and drop off some of our stuff into the locker they are providing. At 11am the Casa was providing coffee and snack for the host families we were all staying with so that they could meet the directors and get a tour of the school we were all attending. We all were able to grab some of the snacks and drinks they provided. For a little bit we all hung out at the Casa, talked, and got to know each other.

After a while several of the students wanted to go to the market to get some hangers. Since I had been here before I had suggested a clothing market we called the Pacca (?) while we were here back in March. After hanging out at the Casa several of us walked over to the market of Antigua and started looking around. Instead of going to the Pacca, everyone was interested in the artisan market so we made a detour from the vendors market into the building that houses the artisan market. For a while we all wandered around and looked at the wares. We ended up all getting lost at some point and we had to call each other to figure out where to go to meet up with the rest of the group. It also started to rain a little bit and we all got a sense of what the rain here was going to be like. After a while some of the group moved off into smaller groups and some people joined the main group.

After we left the artisan market we headed to the supermarket to look around for some things we needed for classes in a couple of days. We all managed to get lost and found again, but we all got a sense of what was offered at the supermarket. We then started talking about what we all wanted to do for dinner. I suggested a place that I had gone to with my group from March called Monoloco (crazy monkey). The owner is from the states and the restaurant incorporates some USA sports bar attributes. We met up with more students in the Central Plaza and everyone decided to let me take them to Monoloco. I wasn’t sure where the restaurant was, so we headed to the Casa to ask Milady for directions and also to see if any of the other students there wanted to join us for dinner. Several more students we at the Casa so we got directions, called the rest of the students, all met up at the Casa, then headed out to Monoloco for dinner.

We were a fairly large group at this point; we were missing only two students from the whole group, so we all sat at two different tables right next to each other. At one table everyone got their own meal and separate checks. At the other table they ordered large nachos for the entire table and split the bill at the end. Both methods worked just fine and everyone seemed to be happy with their dinner. One thing that was very obvious was that almost everyone felt that the place was too expensive. What they had trouble with was the exchange rate; everything was in quetzales which is a 7.7 to 1 exchange rate with the US dollar (one US dollar equals 7.7 quetzales). All of the dinners were Q55, or Q66, etc. which is actually less than ten dollars ($10=Q77). And on top of that the meals are really big, so you are getting a lot of food for every few dollars.

At dinner most of the students spoke to each other in Spanish to practice. As someone at the very beginning of learning Spanish, I mostly listened and tried to understand what they were saying using context clues. We also spoke in English and got to know each other even more. I spoke to one student, Nancy, about my reasoning for coming to the program and told her a little bit about what I know about the teachers and Antigua. We all got along really well and enjoyed getting to know each other better over a meal.

After we left Monoloco, we all walked to the Casa as a reference point for all of us to find our ways home. Gloria and I walked with two other students who live near us in the northern part of Antigua. When we got back to our home stay and I dumped out my bag I realized I had lost my phone. We were all provided with Guatemalan phones by the program and if we lost them we had to buy new ones so I was upset that I had already lost my phone in under a day. Gloria and I ended up walking all the way back to Monoloco and stopping at the Casa to see if I had simply left it somewhere. Unfortunately we didn’t find it, and so I went home empty handed.    

Day One, Antigua

Casa Herrera, Antigua. The inner courtyard.

When we arrived in Antigua each of us was dropped off at our home stays. I was the last of the three of us to be dropped off but all of us were nervous. My host family lives on a lovely residential road in northern Antigua. When the driver rang the doorbell an older gentleman opened the door and helped carry in my luggage. His name is Cesar and his wife is Rosa. Both were very nice and Cesar even helped me by carrying my suitcase up the stone steps to the second floor, where my room is. The house is lovely; you walk into an open air courtyard where the couple has potted plants and their two cars. On the left side is a covered hallway with doors to individual rooms. They have a library/office, their bedroom, a guest room, and the dining room on the left of the hallway, and a bathroom and the kitchen on the right side past the courtyard. On the right side of the courtyard is a stone staircase leading to the upstairs where there are two bedrooms, one full bathroom, and a lovely deck area with a table and chairs. When I arrived at the house Cesar had me in one of the two bedrooms upstairs with a twin bed, dresser, and desk. Gloria was downstairs in a larger room with a full size bed, dresser, side table, and desk. Cesar offered us a second choice as well; the second bedroom on the second floor was the largest of the three rooms and had two beds and two dressers for two people to share. Gloria and I decided to take the double and share a room for our stay, that way we were more like roommates and we would share a bathroom so that Gloria wasn’t sharing the downstairs bathroom with the host couple. We moved in fairly quickly. I took the twin bed and a really cool dresser which is fake grand piano lifted up on the wall. Gloria took the full size and the standing dresser which is closer to the door to the room. We only have one desk so we are going to switch off or one of us will use the desk in the smaller room upstairs. We also used the smaller room to store our suitcases, but we will be able to move them back into our room if the family ends up hosting some other tourists during our stay.

After we got settled in our room the driver came to pick us up for our tour of the Casa and dinner. After we picked up everyone we met Milady at the Casa along with Prof. David Stuart and his son. The first thing we did was get a tour of the Casa and an explanation of who we are going to use the rooms. One of the rooms is a conference room, another is a classroom, and we have our own lounge. Another room is fairly empty but has copies of the San Bartolo murals on the walls. There is another room that we are going to be able to use as a studio space to continue our practice during this semester. There is a kitchen, an outer garden, and a lovely roof deck with a view of Antigua. After our tour we got a packet from Milady with a magazine about Antigua, two maps, and the syllabi for the first two classes of the semester.  

We left the Casa and went to dinner at a beautiful restaurant called “Angie, Angie.” We had ordered our dinners on Friday to make sure that the restaurant would be able to handle our large group. We all sat around a large table and chatted while we were given drinks, appetizers, and then our dinners and desserts. I got the chicken dinner and the strawberries for dessert. Being able to talk to the other students was really helpful to get to know them and get a feel for the dynamics of the group. Dinner took a very long time. In Guatemala time is much slower; meals come in an hour or more, meals last longer, people aren’t regularly on time, etc. Our meals took quite a long time to get to us. Some of the students seemed uncomfortable and some seemed a little upset. I have been here before so I was expecting for meals to take a long time, but for the first dinner I was still rather taken aback about how long it took for the food to show. The appetizers were helpful to tide us over at least.

After dinner we all got rides back to our home stays and Gloria and I were dropped off first. We went up to our room and started discussing shower time and sleeping habits. We both are quite comfortable sharing a room and our shower schedules are perfect; Gloria showers at night and I shower in the morning.

The first night was a little rough on me; it took me a long time to fall asleep and I woke up a lot during the night. Every time I woke up I had to shift around on the bed. At one point I was too hot and threw the covers off and at another I was too cold and pulled them back up on the bed. I also woke up really early in the morning, 6am, and I wasn’t really sure what to do with myself. I tried to go back to sleep and did get up at 9am and took a shower before Gloria got up. Gloria says she slept perfectly fine, so I think I am just too use to sleeping in a busy part of Boston where it is really loud all through the night. Here is very quiet and very dark all through the night. I hope to get use to it soon.  

I've arrived in Guatemala

Yesterday at 1:18pm I landed in Guatemala City, Guatemala. My day had been rather long, I had gotten up at 3am to grab an early flight to Houston from Boston at 5:15am. My original flight was at 7:30, but I was concerned about hurricane Irene delaying my flight and my layover in Houston was only an hour. I changed to the earlier flight out and got to the airport at 3:45am. The line to check bags was very long, but I printed my ticket from the kiosk and was able to go straight to the front to check my bags. I checked two bags, which cost money for the second, and because my suitcase was over 50lbs (it was 62lbs) I was going to be charged $230. I was able to move some of my stuff from my suitcase to my second bag, and ended up only paying the $30 for the second bag.
By the time I got to security it was 4:40am, and I was a little panicky. For the future: I suggest that eTickets be printed at home rather than the airport so that waiting in line becomes less of a problem.
Security wasn't too bad. The line was not too long and when I got up to the machines I was able to just go right through. My gate was right next to security too, so though I got through security later than I wanted to, I got to my gate a minute later at 4:50am.
However, my flight got delayed. Not because of weather, but because the computer systems went on the fritz. Everything that the pilots had to do had to be done manually. In the end we took off at 7:30am, the same time I would have left anyways.
I landed in Houston at 10:20 and I had to rush to my gate which was about 20mins from the gate I landed at. My flight to Guatemala City took off at 11:35 so I had to really book it to be able to get to the gate in time to get a snack as well (on the first flight I slept through snacks and drinks).
Two of the other students from the program were also on my plane and because of our coordination in t-shirts (they wore UT Austin shirts and I wore a MassArt shirt) we were able to meet up before we boarded the plane. We chatted a bit and talked about our morning flights. When we boarded we got on together, and got to our seats. There were not that many people on the flight, and at first I though about moving so we could all sit together and talk on the way there. I decided not to because we all had window seats and one of the best parts of flying into Guatemala is looking out the window as you land.
At 1:18 we landed in Guatemala City and taxied to the terminal. The flight was wonderful and calm. We filled out our paperwork for getting into the country and for our baggage and together the three of us went through the process of getting through customs. I had done it before in Guatemala City so I had an idea f what was going to happen and also where we needed to go.
None of us had any trouble getting through customs and we walked out of the airport together. Milady was waiting for us to the left of the exit and as the last group to arrive we got into a bus with Milady to head back to Antigua!

Waiting

I am at the airport, at my terminal, waiting to board the first stretch of my days journey. My flight has been slightly delayed; somethings are just not predictable.

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Project Casa Herrera: Stage Two

The whole time while I was contacting MassArt about helping me apply to the Casa Herrera program I was also in contact with the directors of the program itself. Because I had met Milady while in Guatemala, I was able to send her an e-mail and ask her who I would need to contact to discuss applying for the program. She introduced me to Laurie Young. I contacted Laurie via e-mail on the 16th of March and was given all the information I needed as a non-UT student about the program.
On the 23rd of March I got the application for the program from Laurie and I started working on getting the application done as quickly and thoroughly as I could because the due date for the application was on the 1st of April.

By March 25th I started contacting Jean Wallace, the Assistant Director of Academic Advising at MassArt. I was getting anxious about whether or not I would be able to take part in the Casa Herrera program with MassArt's support. Prof. Turner was extremely wonderful about supporting my decision to try to apply to the program and she contacted Jean on my behalf stressing the uniqueness of the program and its legitimacy. When I heard back from Jean there were several questions about why the program needed to happen in the Fall so I explained my situation with classes and my degrees.
Both Meghan and Jean suggested that I try taking a leave of absence from MassArt for the semester and take part in the program on my own. Though I think that this is a very reasonable course of action, as a full double major and a fifth year undergrad, it was essential for myself and my parents, who assist in paying for my college tuition and fees, that the classes I take in Guatemala would be accepted credits toward my MassArt degrees. By taking a leave of absence I would have to convince the school upon my return to allow the credits from the program go toward my degrees and I couldn't afford for the school to not accept them.
I stressed that I would like to meet with Jean and Meghan in person so that I could explain why I was being so persistent and express to them my earnest, a difficult feat in text. Jean was wonderful and, even though I had missed every single deadline for MassArt, she was willing to meet with me on the 30th of March.
Our meeting went really well, and I was able to explain my reasoning better while we were in person. I had also brought in as much information about the program as I had available. I was also able to introduce myself and express in person my excitement about this program and what it had to offer.

During our meeting, Jean and Meghan told me that they were willing to examine the program and take the steps to try and help me not only apply for the program but have MassArt's support as well. I was extremely excited that I was being given such a chance. This was not a guarantee that MassArt would approve of the program, but it was a start! To help with the process I did part of the research for Jean and Meghan.
As we started the process of approving the program Meghan contacted Laurie and asked them to extend the deadline again so that I could still try to get into the program.

Project Casa Herrera: Stage One

I feel that now with all the "How it Started"'s I am caught up enough to start writing about the actual process of getting involved in a study abroad program in Guatemala.
As I mentioned in the last "How it Started" post, while I was in Guatemala in March 2011 I got a tour of a building called Casa Herrera. During the tour my travel group was told about a brand new program University of Texas at Austin, the college Casa Herrera branches from, was planning to run in the Fall of 2011. The program offers four classes at the Casa Herrera building with faculty from UT Austin and tutoring in both Spanish and Mayan at a local language school called Proyecto Linguistico Francisco Marroquin (PLFM) based in Antigua. The part of the program that really intrigued me was that Prof. David Stuart, one of the top Mayanists in the world, would be teaching two of the classes.
While I was in Guatemala I spoke to Prof. Turner about what she thought of the program and the opportunity it offers for undergrads. She was also very excited about the program and she encouraged me to apply for the Fall.
We returned from Guatemala on the 14th of March, and by the 17th I started talking to my school, MassArt, about the process of applying to the Casa Herrera Program. The original deadline for UT Austin was March 1st, but they had extended the deadline til April 1st so I needed to get my application together as quickly as I could. When I did the travel course through MassArt I worked with Lisa Armstrong who works on all the travel courses. I went to Lisa to ask about a study abroad, but she didn't handle semesters abroad, so she sent me to Meghan Houghton, who was standing in for MassArt's Study Abroad Director Amy Holland for the Spring semester. I sent Meghan an e-mail asking to meet with her to talk about preparing me for the study abroad in the Fall.
I was distraught when I got a prompt reply letting me know that the process of applying for a study abroad was much more complicated than I originally thought. MassArt has a deadline for students applying for study abroad's in the Fall; all paperwork needs to be turned in by March 15th and Casa Herrera was not a program that was approved by MassArt. Since I had come back from Guatemala on the 14th, and I hadn't even known about the program until I was in Guatemala, I persisted with asking to meet with Meghan so I could convince her to help me get into the program with MassArt's support. Meghan was extremely nice in all of our e-mailing back and forth, and she really tried to convince me to try for a study abroad in the Spring of 2012, that way we could take the time to go through all the important paperwork and really figure out what I would like to get out of a semester abroad.
I, however, had my heart set on going to Casa Herrera and that program is not being offered in the Spring. I am also finishing my undergrad in the 2011/2012 school year and it is necessary for Art Education majors to do their student teaching in their final semester, so the Fall is really the only available time for me to go on a study abroad.
I will continue with this in Project Casa Herrera: Stage Two.

How it started: Part Eight

During the evening after our second day working on the mural at Santiago Zamora our group went to a building called Casa Herrera in Antigua. The building is the Guatemala branch of University of Texas at Austin. The building is used by students and faculty studying Mesoamerica as a home base while working in Guatemala. We got a tour of the facility from the director Milady, who also told us about their first undergrad program they were preparing for for the fall. She mentioned that UT at Austin had extended its deadline to apply to the program until April 1st. That evening I talked to Prof. Turner about whether or not I should try applying to the program. The more we talked about it the more interested in the program I became.

The next evening we met a different group from Antigua. We met two amazing young women from Antigua who have started a program called Ninos Artistas. the program brings contemporary artists together with young art students in Antigua to go projects and learn more about art.

Both Milady and the two woman from Ninos Artistas came to Santiago Zamora after we met them to help us paint the mural, so we got a lot of time to get to know each other.

After we completed the mural in Santiago Zamora our group spent two days around Lake Atitlan.

Lake Atitlan is a beautiful volcanic lake surrounded by three volcanoes. Our first night at the lake we did a home stay with native families. I roomed with one of my classmates, Erica. We stayed with a large family in a cute little place that had a beautiful view of the lake.

The home stay was a wonderful experience, as I mentioned in the earlier home stay post. Neither Erica nor I spoke Spanish, but we made do communicating mostly with our hands. The night we had dinner and tried on traditional clothing and in the morning we had a wonderful breakfast and took a lot of pictures with the family.

After the class met up the second day at Lake Atitlan, we got into the back of some pickup trucks and rode standing up along the winding roads leading around the lake to Panajachel, one of the main tourist cities around the lake. The truck ride was extremely exciting and everyone enjoyed it.

At Panajachel we dropped off our luggage at our hotel then we went on a boat ride on the lake. we went around to several of the small towns around the lake and had lunch at a hotel with a view. We also stopped at another woman's weaving cooperative and they showed us how they dye their threads. The lake was beautiful and we all took pictures during the trip. When we got back to Panajachel we all went shopping then that evening we had our final dinner in Guatemala. We stayed in our hotel that final night and go up really early the next morning to to drive to Guatemala City for our flight. At the airport we said goodbye to our fantastic tour guide and got on our flight home.

How it started: Part Seven

In part six I skipped over the evening after our first day at Santiago Zamora. That evening was the night of the fund raiser for Antigua's NGOs. That evening was a turning point not just for the group as a whole, but also for myself on a professional level; what I would get involved with in the future.
The party was a costume masquerade, and Prof. Turners daughter amazingly was able to pull a few strings and get our entire group into the event. Since I can not speak Spanish and I was going to be painting with a young native girl who didn't speak English, one of my classmates was asked to join our group as well, as a translator.
The evening was not my favorite of the trip. The situation was very stressful and frustrating not only for myself, but for the young girl I was working with. Communication was extremely difficult and it was compounded as the evening drew on. I was also very uncomfortable with the situation as a student of art education. The four children chosen to take part in the evening were being asked quite a lot; they had to work with an artist they had only met that evening to create an art piece in under 90mins, and that piece would then be auctioned off in a competition situation between the four groups. I, personally, would not participate in a similar event in the future.
At the end of the evening our painting did sell for the second highest bid, which was very exciting for our group who did the painting and for the class as a whole. Unfortunately more issues arose after the auction, and our group had to leave early to return to our hotel.
The entire evening was a learning experience. I learned about my limits as an art educator and what I would get involved with, and I learned about the limits of those around me and how to handle certain situations with groups and individuals who make minor and serious mistakes.

How it started: Part Six

After our group in Guatemala got back to Antigua from our stint to the Peten, we started the mural project in Santiago Zamora!

We had four days to paint two walls; one 30ft and one 50ft!
We worked with the town's artist Edgar Chipix; a fantastic artist who was a bit of an outcast from the town for wanting to be an artist rather than a farmer.
The 50ft wall was based off of my sketches for an overall design and showcased like a story line from a Maya codex. The right side of the wall depicts the ancient Maya with the temple in its glory and the Maya figures (designed in the style Edgar had developed in his artwork) are ancient royals and ball players. Behind the figures the sun is setting behind two of the volcanoes surrounding the bowl of Antigua. In the center of the mural grows a Ceiba tree from the earth band symbol and the cycles of the moon rest under the sky band symbol at the top of the branches. The nine roots of the tree represent the nine levels of the underworld and the thirteen branches represent the thirteen levels of the heavens. The Ceiba tree is sectioned up as a Maize plant, a Cacao plant, and a bean plant representing all the agriculture of the ancient Maya people. At the Ceiba's base grows coffee plants, representing the new agriculture of the Maya people. On the left side of the mural the children of the town play games, practice singing and the harp, and do all the activities offered at El Plan Infinito. The sun rises from behind the third volcano representing the new beginning for these modern Maya children.
On the 30ft wall, my classmate Chris designed a more graffiti style mural which incorporates a stylized Maya profile in gold spray paint, the traditional Huipil design, the pattern of the cobble stones throughout the town, and a graffiti stylization of the towns name. The two mural connect through the Huipil of a woman on the 50ft side who represents the Woman's Weaving Cooperative of Santiago Zamora, a group of weavers who raise money to educate the children of the town and to get medical care for all the people of the town. For the four days we spent in the town the women made us lunch and sold us some of their wares.
As our finishing touch to the mural all of the children, the women from the weaving cooperative, and all of us from MassArt put our hand prints under the name of the building.

How it started: Part Five

On March 3rd, 2011, 11 MassArt students, two faculty members and myself all boarded a plane and headed to Antigua, Guatemala!

We took one plane to Houston, TX, then transferred to a plane to Guatemala City. Our day was long and we were mostly sitting the whole time, so by the time we got to Guatemala City and got into our bus, everyone was exhausted; except me. I was so excited to be in Guatemala that I had my window open and was practically falling out of it while we were driving from Guatemala City to Antigua. At one turn I really did start to tumble out the window, but luckily I made it to Antigua in one piece.

Our main base was in Antigua at an absolutely lovely hotel called Casa en Familia. I roomed with a fellow art ed major and friend, Elissa. Our first full day in Antigua was spent at a coffee farm in a small town outside of Antigua. The farm land was built up on the side of one of the three volcanoes surrounding the bowl Antigua is in. The farmers in that area work with a group called As Green As It Gets, which helps farmers learn every stage of coffee farming and selling.

On the second day, we all got on to another plane and flew to Flores in the Peten. We went for a tour of Flores and then drove to Tikal.

At Tikal we went to several of the temples, including Temple 4, the tallest of the temples in Tikal. Everyone also got to see me at my worst; I am very afraid of heights, but I still climbed all of the temples and spent time on the tops of all of them. I also went to the Tikal museum with Prof. Turner. That was an absolute treat for me, because I was finally able to see, in person, several of the pieces I had studied.

Tikal was wonderful, though Yaxha, the next point on our trip, was even better. We drove to Yaxha from Tikal, and it was on that drive that I realized what it was about Guatemala that really called to me; I felt like I was home. I was leaning out the window of the bus again, looking at the scenery in the country side, smelling the air, and watching the houses go by, I felt a comfort I had only ever felt at my Grandparents farm. I remember I turned to Prof. Turner and said that I couldn't believe it, but I felt like I would turn the corner and be at my Grandmas house. The sensation was incredible.

When we got to Yaxha, everyone felt comfortable. The hotel was built by the producers of Survivor; they had used Yaxha for Survivor: Guatemala. It was a beautiful series of bungalows right on the bank of the lake. We spent the night talking about working on the mural in Santiago Zamora. Prof. Turner's daughter talked about the students we would be working with and explained to us some about the man behind El Plan Infinito, the school on the side of which we would be painting the mural. We also all went over the design ideas I had sketched out for the mural. Several of us got very involved figuring out what symbols and designs we wanted to present to the director and to the towns artist Edgar, who we worked with throughout painting the mural.

The next morning we all got up very early and went to the park in the mists of dawn. We were practically alone in the park, since it is not as famous as Tikal. A lot of the temples have not been excavated so the whole park is an eerie jungle filled with mounds that were once temples and buildings. we spent the morning wondering through the park then drove back to Flores to grab a plane back to Antigua.

Stay tuned for part six!

How it started: Part Four

Part Four: we start at the beginning of Spring semester 2011.

The travel course to Guatemala started meeting in a classroom setting like a normal class in the Spring of 2011. We were scheduled to leave for Guatemala in March and we were going to be there for 12 days, so we had two months to prepare for the trip and get to know each other.

Our first few classes focused on looking at the history of the native Maya people and their culture, significant parts of which still exist today. We also got to know each other during this time and made choices about who would room with whom, and what we wanted to do as a group while we were in Guatemala. I took on a TA role for the class, since I had taken the Maya courses with Prof. Turner in the past and I knew how to do the clerical work.

I was also extremely honored when Prof. Turner, whose daughter was working in Antigua at the time, asked me about taking part as a practicing artist in a fund raiser for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) in Antigua, including the one her daughter worked for, CasaSito Association. the fund raiser would pair up practicing artists with middle school aged young artists from Antigua and both would create a painting in 90 minutes which would be auctioned off at the end of the 90 mins to the highest bidder, the proceeds going to the NGO's. We were already going to be working with CasaSito on the mural in Santiago Zamora, and our whole group was excited to be asked to participate in the fund raiser.

At the same time that I was preparing to go to Guatemala, I was continuing to work on my Maya portfolio in my new portfolio class. I also started this blog, so all my earlier posts are from this point on. In my portfolio course I wanted to continue to work on expanding my media choices and the large scale portraits I had started the semester before.

In February 2011 my godson Jonathan was born and the angle of my portfolio took shape. I created his portrait and started working with a wide range of colors, something I had been extremely hesitant to do by that time.

Other than Jonathan's piece, and the continued growth of The Boston Codex, I waited to start a new project until after I had gone to Guatemala in March. I had gotten some very good critiques after the fall semester about my Maya Portfolio and there was a question that I couldn't answer; am I respecting the Maya culture through my art, or am I just stealing pieces of it?

One of my Professors had been uncomfortable with my work because he questioned whether or not I had the right to use the imagery and culture the way I was, and his questions really challenged me to look at my work and question what I was doing. I wanted to use the trip to Guatemala to try to find an answer to this dilemma; I felt that I was respecting the culture, but would the Maya people feel the same way? Did I have the right to do what I was doing?

This trip was exactly what I needed for where I had found myself; I was at a point in my art historical studies where I was anxious to look at the art and archaeology in person, I needed to meet the Maya people as an artist who uses their imagery and symbolism as the foundation of my art practice, and I wanted to stretch the limits of my education practice by working with art students from a completely different culture.

Part Five will start with leaving for Guatemala March 2011!

How it started: Part Three

The third part starts in the fall of 2010.

After taking two classes with Professor Turner studying Mesoamerica, I wanted to continue my studies with her in the fall. I also really wanted to work on my thesis for her spring class because the concepts I was working with were absolutely fascinating to me and combined all my areas of study. So I took a directed study with Prof. Turner to work on my thesis and I also worked as an assistant for her doing clerical work.

When Prof. Turner and I met at the beginning of the semester to talk about the directed study and the position as an assistant she told me about a study abroad class she was putting together for the spring. The class would be going to Antigua, Guatemala, and would be working with a small school in Santiago Zamora to paint a mural on the side of their new school. The group would also be visiting the archaeological sites of Tikal and Yaxha in the Peten, and would spend two days at Lake Atitlan, including a home stay with a native family.

As Prof. Turner continued to describe the trip, I was nearly in tears I was so excited. I told her I wanted to go, sign me up, I'll do whatever it takes.

During the fall semester I worked on my Maya portfolio in my portfolio class, building on the Boston Codex and tentatively starting to explore new media. I also worked on my thesis, changing its structure and making it more cohesive and scholarly. The most important thing I did that semester was applying to and preparing for the course to Guatemala in the spring.

I remember the night I found out I got a position in the class; I started jumping up and down in my studio at the school and promptly started running around telling everyone I met that I was going to Guatemala!

I had also gotten one of the five available scholarships for the trip, so on top of being accepted to the trip, I could actually afford to go as well, as price was an issue that had come up throughout the semester. It seemed that all my puzzle pieces were coming together perfectly!

Part four is coming up next!

Host Family

Today we learned who our host families are going to be!

I will be rooming with another girl from the program named Gloria, and we will be living with a retired couple, named Cesar and Rosa, near Casa Herrera in Antigua. The e-mail says they are very nice and patient and love to talk and share with students.

I have done two home stays in the past; one in Paris my Junior year of High School, and for one night in Guatemala when I went earlier this year. So far I have not had any issues with home stays and I have found them very enjoyable, though both my previous experiences have been vastly different and for a much shorter period of time. In Paris, my best friend and I stayed with a single older woman who had half of her apartment blocked off from us so that we could only go to the bedroom she had set up for us (which was very nice), a bathroom, and the kitchen. We were fine with the setup particularly because we were not there very much and even when we were the host herself wasn't there. We only ended up having two dinners with her the whole trip and they were quite a lot of fun. Our hostess would have a fresh breakfast and a note every morning for us, and she loved to talk to us to practice her English.

When I stayed with a host family in Guatemala it was for only one night and I was there with my classmate Erica. We had a wonderful experience with this large host family; an older couple, their two older daughters and their husbands, their two younger children, girl and boy, and their two grandchildren. We had dinner together and tried communicating in Spanish, English, and Mayan. We looked at photos of previous guests, helped cook and clean, and we took a lot of pictures of the family and ourselves in tradition Maya dress. The family also had a book in which they had all their guests write a note to them to go back to and read. Though we stayed for only one night, we felt like part of the family.

The two experiences are very different and both very wonderful in their own ways. I am excited to have a new experience with a long term home stay, that maybe takes the best parts of my two previous experiences and builds on it.

How it started: Part Two

It is time to start Part Two!

Over the winter break 2009-2010 I continued to play around with the concepts and images I had discovered while working on the self-portrait for my third portfolio during the fall. I really liked the look and functionality of Maya codices, particularly because I love to work with books, both making them and altering them. I also liked the idea of playing with my self-portrait. A lot of the Maya art we had looked at during my fall class was portraits of people turned in that very distinctive Maya profile. I took both ideas and created my self portrait as a cover page for a full codex.

After this first drawing I started to do portraits for my roommates. The codex is designed to be a screen fold book (as Maya codices are) and each page is about 9ins high and 4ins wide. I chose colors that are important to Maya culture, and all of the hieroglyphs are real glyphs deciphered by scholars.

This project, this codex, became my obsession over the winter break and then into the spring. During the spring semester, 2010, I did not take a portfolio class, but continued my studies of into ancient Mesoamerica by taking a 400-level (or major course) called "When Worlds Collide" also taught by Professor Turner. The class looked at the cultures of Mesoamerica before, during, and after the Spanish Conquest. This course brought the ancient Mesoamerican world into a modern context for me, and solidified my interests in these cultures as an art historian and also, surprisingly, as an art educator. My final thesis paper for the class (which is still being worked on and perfected) is a synopsis of Mexica education through the lens of modern pedagogy.

During this time I continued to work on my Maya codex , which got the name "The Boston Codex" as a commentary on the naming process used by historians for ancient Maya Codices.

Because I did not have a "portfolio" class, I was really able to figure out on my own what I wanted the Boston Codex to be, and how I wanted it to grow. Once I had a plan, and really knew what I wanted the codex to become I was taking a summer portfolio class through MassArt and my whole Maya Portfolio blossomed. With the help and support of my summer classmates and my teacher my codex expanded, and the ideas and content started branching into pieces and even new media.

My Maya Portfolio has grown into 10 individual pieces, three large family portraits, four self-portraits (two of which are carved in wood), and three books including The Boston Codex, which is currently made up of 40 individual portraits.

The next turning point for this rambling story happened after the summer semester 2010, when we all came back to school and I got some very exciting news.

I'll get Part Three done as quickly as possible! XD

New Camera!

I got a new camera yesterday in preparation for my trip! It is a really nice digital and I have been having a blast taking silly pictures of myself testing it out!
I will upload the best ones to the blog soon! Promise! :)

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How it started: Part One

I would like to start this travel blog with the beginning of the long process I have been going through to get this trip to happen, so please pardon this long-winded explanation! (it will probably be several entries too... sorry!)

It is hard to pick a specific time in my life that led to this amazing culmination of occurrences which has me in a "right time, right place" situation; it could be at my birth, at the time we moved to Massachusetts, the time I spent in a Charter Middle School, the art teacher I had in High School, etc. I feel that the absolute perfection of my finding this program at this time in my life and with the goals and ambitions I have, it could very well have started at any of these key points in my life. A huge, life setup and preparation for this time, place, and attitude that couldn't have happened without any of these turning points (particularly the birth thing, that one is pretty key).

At this point I am going to jump to a time much closer to this point in time. I will start with September 2009, my first semester Junior year at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

That semester I took a class called "Maya Art and Archaeology" with Professor Turner in the Art History department. I was (and am) an Art History and Art Education Major (full double) and the class was fulfilling a requirement for my program.

This class introduced me (and the class) to the culture, art, and language of the ancient Maya people. The rich culture of the Maya captivated me from the start, and though I didn't know it at the time, it was going to become my obsession.

At the same time that I was taking this class I was taking a Portfolio class for my Art Ed program. The portfolio class was designed to focus the students on their individual art practice and creating a cohesive portfolio. In this class I was working on two separate portfolios; one speaking out against domestic violence through performance and the creation of a website, the other is a series in which I sewed into window screens with purple thread. One series was to explore concept, content, and a new media in which to work; the other was to explore craft, repetition, and task orientation.

The problem (which has turned into something wonderful) occurred when my portfolio teacher told me that I was failing his class because I didn't have enough work. Suffice to say, I panicked. In a last minute ditch to pull up my grade, I completed one more window screen than I had planned and did a whole new third series.

The third series was literally the first thing I could think of: I did three small pieces based off of my liberal arts courses from that semester. The first two pieces were based off of my final paper for Literary Traditions. I wrote a paper comparing and contrasting the versions of Hell in the book "Dante's Inferno" and the movie "What Dreams May Come." The two pieces I created for Portfolio where my visual interpretations of the movie and book versions of the Suicide section of Hell.

The third piece in the series is a written self-portrait created utilizing actual Mayan hieroglyphics and images from certain Maya codices. These three pieces along with the other two portfolios I managed to get a B+ in the class.

At the same time I was writing a paper for the Maya class on a particular Maya art piece in which I was analyzing symbols and what that analysis could inference. I had a blast doing the research and building a passion for the topic and where the analysis was leading.

This is where I was opened up not only to looking at the ancient Maya through the lens of Art Historical study, but also through my visual art.

Just wait! Part two is coming soon!!

Official Travel Blog

Okeedokee!!!

So I will be using this blog from this point on to not only record my thoughts and whatever I find interesting at the time, But I will also be using it as a travel journal about my study abroad in Guatemala this Fall!!

I will be traveling to Guatemala on August 27th, 2011, and will be coming back to the Boston area on December 3rd. during the time I am there I need to record what the experience is like and what I feel, see, think, etc.

I will be adding pictures to the blog as I go as well!

So be prepared my non-existent followers! Here comes the Study Abroad Experience!!!!