Week 2

What I did:

This week I drew 5 self portraits, about 4 hours in total. I read an article on hysteria in the 18^th and 19^th century and created a collection of interesting thought from my reading, 1 hour. I read about the history of vibrators, 1 hour. I went to the library and checked out 8 books. Some of the books are about artist, drawing technique, graphic design, drawing the anatomy, and others are about medical illustrations in medieval time, poetry on anxiety, and the physiology of hypochondria, totaling my research at 6 hours. I met with Brad Smith and talked with him for a while, 45 minutes, about my interest in going to the cadaver lab. He made me think about a lot of things that I had not thought about. I gessoed 5 panels so I can start painting, 2 hours. I started a journal and have been writing down dreams and memories I had as a child which may become content for my project.

What I accomplished/ discovered/ encountered:

This week was full of worry and discovery. I can feel myself becoming closer and closer to the thing that makes me tick. I have realized that although I know what interests me, I need to start creating a vocabulary for myself in order to communicated what I truly want. Doing research, reading and writing has started an internal dialog for myself, and making connections are the next step that will make my work more profound. I also discovered that I have to start jumping into making. I have been very excited to learn so many new things that the making part has slowed down. The only way I am going to get good at anything is to keep doing it. After talking with Brad Smith, I had a chance to communicated my direction and interests to him and how it is related to the body. I realized that maybe cadavers are not the right direction because they have little resemblance to a live or fresh body, and that my true interest lie in our relationship with our bodies on a physiological and social stand point. This helped put me into the direction of where my research should continue.

What I should do next:

Next, I am going to start painting, collecting more of my thoughts, meet with my sociology professor, and continue reading the books I got from the library.