Reaching for the Stars

Sudden Ripples of a Female Voice

When women start playing with the big boys in a widely known male dominated area of something, it gets people's attention. Some examples from history include Joan of Arc, Cleopatra and good ol' Elizabeth the I. All of these brave and determined ladies made some groundbreaking ripples during their lifetimes that can still be felt today because they refused to back down in how they wanted to do something.

During the Post Modern time of the arts, women were becoming more active in anything to do with writing, painting, sculpting etc. They were coming out of the shell of being considered secondary to what was personal and important in a person's life. The West was still in a traditional state of expression where it was left to the man, period. They broke this mold by dipping their much needed creative toe in the pool of oppurtunity.

First up!
Cindy Sherman decided that taking pictures of herself to make a blunt point on the many faces of women that made many women relate to her pictures. Such as her Untititled Film Series that depitcts Sherman reenacting moments from typical B Movie films, she calls attention to the a stereotype for an actress during black and white films. Sherman found her canvas in a camera, and her perchant for costumes would sometimes mistake this for cosplay, except this is legit art. There is a meaningful message that Sherman is sending and I got it loud and clear. Since I am budding photographer, I hoped I got it...

"Look at what I am wearing. How does it make you feel?"

This is Untitled Film Still #21. Seems like a screencap straight out of Casablanca, doesn't it?

#35. When I first saw this still, I first thought it was Lucille Ball from "I Love Lucy".

#30 from Untitled Film Stills. She took a spot on look at women in horror films, I think.

Next up! Miss Judy Baca because as far as I know, she isn't married. She is an pioneerng activists in human equality and creative voice through teaching and guess what? Mural painting! This lady is a powerhouse of motivation when it comes to being creative and sharing it with others. But most of all she calls attention to topics not everyone wants to talk about, such as the poor, the corrupt, the censored lesbian community and just plain equality that we say we want, but don't act in attaining less than half the time. I have a feeling that if she ran for President, she would win because chances are her funding would go to meaningful sources such as the poor, homeless and activist groups for art classes for the less censored instead of million dollar campaigns.

The Wall. A half mile of California's history that covers all kinds of topics and moments that both shaped and defined the state. Her most recongnized and defining work of her ideals and creativity.

Tres Generaciones This really brings my theme home to the main point again. Women. Without use there would be no mankind, literally but we have come a long way from just being wives and keeping the house clean while the men are off fighting other men.This reminds us that behind every generation, there is a grandmother, a mother, a daughter and a future child.

Miss Baca reminds us that being creative isn't just boiled down to the rights of gender, or anything so plebian. It is the distint impulse to simply express yourself how you want, in a country where you are more than free to do so. Be yourself and express yourself in a way that us fun and is strictly you.

 

"The Influence of Feminism in Art." Art History Unstuffed. Web. 17 Apr. 2015. <http://www.arthistoryunstuffed.com/the-influence-of-feminism-in-art/>.

 

"Biography - Cindy Sherman - Photographer, Model, Director, Actor, Avant-Garde Images, Doll Parts and Prosthetics, Movies." Biography - Cindy Sherman - Photographer, Model, Director, Actor, Avant-Garde Images, Doll Parts and Prosthetics, Movies. Web. 17 Apr. 2015. <http://www.cindysherman.com/biography.shtml>.

 

 "Biography." Judy Baca Artist. Web. 17 Apr. 2015. <http://www.judybaca.com/artist/biography/>.

Depression to Expression

To Express Yourself

I honestly don't think the African Americans had an "influence" on Early Modern era, they had an impact. Their music, their art, their artistic and creative expressions were strong ripples from what was changing in the Early Modern arts.

Traditional art was being changed. The rules and requirements for expressing yourself in music was greatly influenced by the people wanting something different, something new. Jazz was the new thing for them. Not just because it was influenced by the music in africa or that African Americans were frequent in it, but that it was a strong influencial change.

This is why I admire Louis Armstrong so greatly. His story is almost like an 'rags to riches' cliche, but more of someone really just wanting to express himself in a way that he made work for him, and had fun to make the music style his!

I love old music that were made classics, such as Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World". It was recorded raw and beauitiful, way before the time of vocal auto tuning and all the other digital cheats of this current age. His voice is gravelly, his atittude when performing all his own which both become his signatures in what made him so popular. It wasn't what he brought to the stage, it was how he performed it that people loved.

The Harlem Renaissance, was like many revolutions before it, crying out for the world to notice the message it is trying to show. For Halem, it was equality and group expression in a way that shook the Great Depression.

This meant written works by African Americans hit the stands like wildfire from a wave of inspiration and a hunger to be read, to express their feelings of having to deal with the afteraffects of a war and the hard life of the Great Depression. Such is the reason why I think abstract was used best by Harlem artists. The picture above is only a refecence to many of the works that were made during this explosion of art, period. 

People weren't sad so much as trying to find a reason to be happy and stay happy. I think out of trying to be proven equal, they were looking for motivation to keep forward, their heads above the water. I admire and respect people in general who take what they have and make the best out of it. But to reach for more and be creative with it to make the world stop and look makes me want to applaude. It isn't just one race that has done this, humanity has done this over and over again in the form of "revolutions".

The word revolution should just be associated with war or violence, but a change in the social sctucure of society. A blossom of a new culture that will make or break the people involved. Some social revolutions are more noteworthy than others just because they were not associated with too much violence or loss of life.

I am content the African Americans were able to have a renaissance all their own because it isn't the only one they will get, not the last. This one was fun to read about and I finally get most of the references made in the Disney movie "The Princess and the Frog" besides just good ol' Louis. Ha ha!