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!!
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