Protest Poster

Artist Statement: Many Americans have a skewed view of the government’s role in the economy.  The only two people who commented on my poster were my roommate and brother, and they both agreed with me.  Here are my views.

I took a course on the culture and history of Spanish America.  It was fascinating to me to learn about a number of different countries that all seemed to cycle through the same history.  Almost every country has implemented either in the past or at the present time, socialistic or communistic policies in government and finances.  Those policies have failed time and time again.  Even in Cuba during the dictatorship of Fidel Castro, who was very particular in remaining a Marxist, was reduced to bringing capitalism back in for short periods of time to bring money back into their economy.  In spite of this clear pattern, we are heading down the path to repeat history yet again.

Evita Perón was born into a lower class and rose to an upper class though her marriage to socialist Juan Perón, who became the president of Argentina.  Evita did many good and great things for the lower class and women’s suffrage, and some of those actions have had lasting effects.  Many of the free things she gave to the lower class and institutions she started failed because they were taking money from the upper class to fund them and, contrary to common belief, the upper class does not have an unlimited supply of funds. 

In a youtube video, Lies, Propagand and the Election of 2012 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lzol3Vx2Io), the narrator makes a valid point:  Since when is it the government’s job to provide jobs?

In Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, he refers to “the invisible hand”, that is the relationship between consumer and producer, that would for the most part ensure that the economy is stable.  He did mention that there would be times for the government to step in and protect against unfair business dealings, but those government actions were supposed to be the exception, not the norm.

Our current president has promised to provide many things, essentially “free”.  In the president’s very own American Jobs Act, it states:

5. FULLY PAID FOR AS PART OF THE PRESIDENT’S LONG-TERM DEFICIT REDUCTION PLAN.

To ensure that the American Jobs Act is fully paid for, the President will call on the Joint Committee to come up with additional deficit reduction necessary to pay for the Act and still meet its deficit target. The President will, in the coming days, release a detailed plan that will show how we can do that while achieving the additional deficit reduction necessary to meet the President’s broader goal of stabilizing our debt as a share of the economy.”

          (http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/jobs_act.pdf)

When have I heard that story before?   People don’t like losing funding, yet the money needs to come from somewhere.  Do I smell a fire burning though America’s wallet?

Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad made an important observation.  The public school system does a good job of creating good employees.  It does not do a good job of creating good bosses or teaching how to create wealth and creating profitable circumstances instead of being dependent to the financial environment.  If the government does have a responsibility in the workforce, it is teaching us how to become financially indipendant.

I am surprised when I talk to people about wanting to obtain sources of residual or passive income and I get asked, “What is that?”  We have some work to do.

In the TED talk that we viewed, Chimamanda Adichie said, “The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, they are incomplete.  A single story creates stereotypes.”  I am sharing a single story.  Maybe if I were impoverished I would be telling the evils of capitalism.

Is capitalism a perfect system?  Of course not.  It is the system that promotes the most individual growth, freedom of choice and possibility to those who are willing and able to learn the system we live in.

Gone Missing

In many ways, Gone Missing was a live/multimedia version of the Tiny Stories assignment.  Essentially, the only thing that kept continuity within the several different parts of the performance was the overarching theme.  Granted, some stories were longer than others, and I don't believe any of them were 30 words or less like the tiny stories assignment, but none of them were long enough to be considered a play in and of themself.  They communicated a message, often with an unspoken, inferred backstory which must have existed because all the dialogue was taken from actual interviews being re-portrayed by the actors.  I think that is a good reminder for future scripts that I will write – I need to have a back story I can allude to, but it will appear more lifelike if I don’t tell it explicitly unless I have to.

The way the stories were arranged was almost in a collage or montage format.  One story would start and take a pause while the other stories took their turns, then the first one would continue again where it left off.  Some of the musical numbers, in particular the one with the dancer who lost her cell phone, it was similar to the music mosaic assignment – telling some type of story or communicating an idea or emotion via images.  The way the constructed the tweets told the importance of the phone.

I am so grateful to TMA 102 which taught me about un-linear narratives.  There have been several films that I have come to think are beautiful that I would have slighted had I not understood their methodology for telling the story.  I feel similarly with this theatrical performance.  My Dad liked it, but said it was interesting.  “I just went to see a play with no plot” he said, and really, he’s right.  Plot wasn’t part of the story structure.  Theme was.

Web Spinna

Artist statement: I took a trip to my childhood memories through sounds and songs.  I decided to use a talk from Gordon B. Hinkley because he is the prophet from my youth that I remember best.  I do have one faint memory of Howard W. Hunter, technically he is the earliest prophet I remember, but I had President Hinkley as my prophet for most of my life.

The Simpson’s soundboard is a sight on memory lane for two reasons.  I do remember that there was a day that my brothers and I found a similar soundboard and had fun for a little longer than what it was probably intended for.  Actually, it was because I had found it before that I purposefully sought it out again.  The other long lasting memory was how on our old computer, we listened to much of the audio tracks on a computer called winamp which wasn’t very good, but got the job done.  Available to our access was a large list of “sounds”, as the folder was titled.  In it were contained several different audio clips from many different sources – Looney Toons, Dr. Dimento, Jim Carey, etc… and The Simpsons.  On occasion, particularly when we were cleaning or otherwise bored on long, hot summer days we would select the “Play All” option and let the audio run.  Having parts from the Simpsons heard only and not seen brings me back to those old memories.

The final major element that I included in the Web Spinna was a piece by Yngwie J. Malmsteen and from one of my favorite CD’s of all time: Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in E Flat Minor Op.1.  Basically, like the title suggests, he wrote an orchestral piece with electric guitar as the main instrument, and the first three songs in particular are amazing.  Again, that was a piece of music we would often choose to listen to while doing household chores or yard work.  Actually, as a youth, I listened to music most often while being productive around the house, working alongside my brothers and parents.

The other elements I chose as web spinna links were things to help make transitions.

The live performance created an interesting element to the experience.  Some people had interesting, well constructed compositions.  With other people’s work, I was a bit less appreciative, particularly having the speakers so loud.  I’m rather careful with my eyesight and ears – both of which function better than your average Jo.  It was good to meet with classmates in a not classroom setting and not have to stress about getting a film project done.  It did seem a bit long, but overall I did enjoy it.

http://www.freesound.org/people/stoltingmediagroup/sounds/158866/

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2001/10/living-in-the-fulness-of-times?lang=eng

http://www.freesound.org/people/cognito%20perceptu/sounds/33685/

http://www.simpsonssoundboards.com/pages/singing_with_homer.htm

http://www.buttonbeats.com/beatbutton.html

http://grooveshark.com/#!/search?q=yngwie+J.+Malmsteen's+fugue

http://www.freesound.org/people/mansardian/sounds/61321/

Medium Specificity - MONOPARABLIC AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Mother

Father

Brother

Military

Stationed

Germany

Pregnancy

Contraction

Aunt

Water

Blood

Bathroom

Birth

Baby

Name

Brother

Flight

America

California

Grandparents

Departure

Arrival

Utah

Home

Growth
Brothers
Family

Art

Preschool

Elementary

Junior

High

School

Writing

Work

Dating

Girls

Crushes

Crushed

Missionary

Vancouver

Canada

Spanish

English

Multicultural

Return

Factory

University

Cubicle

Art

Film

Apartment

Dating

Breaking

Sleepless

Blessed

Learning

Grateful

Prayerful

Here

Now.

Artist Statement: The word Monoprablic is, admittedly, a made up word.  I speak Spanish, which is a Latin-based language, and in Spanish the word for word is palabra.  I did some searching and found out that the Latin root was parabola, and in English, the word that best resembles this Latin parent is the word parable.  So, I thought, if monosyllabic means "consisting one syllable", then monoprablic should mean "to consist of a single word."

The medium I decided to investigate was literature.  My love of art, specifically drawing, drew me to literature as I desired to have stories told of the new worlds my pencil's led formed.  My brother influenced me in that way because he would often make up stories himself based on my artwork.  I even wrote the first draft to a novel and have written roughly 175 pages to another novel in the saga.  My love of writing eventually brought me to film, which I realized recently is a combination of visual art and literature.  Writing, I'm certain, will forever be a major part of my life.

As was mentioned in the reading, Show and Tell, words have an insuperable connection to imagery.  We often try to separate the two, but the truth of the matter is that they have the same root, and as I mentioned above, one often leads to another.  Just as a masterpiece painting is made up a several, probably thousands of different brushstrokes, so is literature made up of words.  A word by itself is often disreguarded, or it may seem out of place because it lacks context.  What I've done here is break down my life into a constant stream of single words that have minimal context but still come across in a cohesive and coherent manner.

Another source that looks at words and their importance and power on individual level is episode 2 of the youtube video miniseries Hope Is Emo.  She focuses on both the written word and the spoken word.  To me, there can come a great distinction between how a word is interpreted, whether it is read or heard.

There really is no equivalent substitute to the imagery, impressions and emotions expressed and experienced when written.

Textual Poaching

As was apparent by my first post by this same title, I initially didn't understand the assignment.  Actually, I didn't have a real clear idea of what aspect of my life I was going to focus on.  I thought on fudging and still being able to piggyback on the genius of Queen and other bands worthy of my praise by focusing on the fact that I am a multifaceted individual, but that would be really focusing on many aspects instead of a single aspect.  I didn't get a clear sense of what to represent until Sunday night when I was at my parent's house.
I always eat with my parents and any extended family and friends that decide to join us after church on Sundays.  This time, I was sitting in the kitchen with my dad and talking about the different food I could have potentially brought to help out with the meal.  My cooking is a kind of joke in my family because I often just throw things together, usually using leftovers and other things that need to be eaten.  It usually turns out well, but my family always expects it to be spicy and have the apparent influence of Latin America.  The food I was suggesting was consistent with this typecast.
My father made a very interesting statement.  He told me, "You have become partly Latino.  It has become part of who you are."
There is a lot of truth in that acknowledgement.  I have used Spanish in both of my jobs I've had since the mission and have been teaching Spanish in the MTC for over a year now.  I often speak in Spanish to my best friend and parents, about half of my prayers I still say in Spanish, and I still have different views of life that I picked up while interacting with the Spanish American immigrants in British Columbia.
I know and recognize that facebook.com isn't older than I am, but I believe it fit better than any of the other Spanish media that was conceived before my birth.  I have taken two Spanish literature class, and a Spanish history class and so am well aware of many artistic works from before my time and have even cited the works of Gabriel García Marquez in a previous artist statement and mentioned the Mexican muralist movement - spearheaded by artist such as Rivera, Siqueros and Orozco, but those older sources have only added to the preexisting foundation.  It's really the interpersonal relationships with the people on my mission that have woven their food, language and culture into by being.  The best way I have to show who I've become through them is to show their publications that have come to me.
In a way, this art piece is similar to that of Marcel Duchamp and his creative work L.H.O.O.Q. in that the piece he borrowed from is on the public domain.  There are no copyright laws against altering the Mona Lisa.  Essentially, items on the public domain accomplish what Girl Talk wants - things made public being open to the public for use.  I'm not certain about any copyright laws for things posted on facebook, but near as I can tell the posts are made public to all with facebook accounts and unless they come from a business, I see nothing wrong with using them how I want, as long as it maintains the integrity of those I borrow from.