OBJECTIVES:
Identify a piece of art and reflect upon it before research.
Research the piece and the artist and see if my reflections were accurate.
REFLECTION
I stumbled upon this lovely picture while I was studying in Starbucks. It hung on the wall next to the table I was at. Originally, I thought that the artist, Jay Adlers, had depicted himself playing the guitar. I also thought that the colorful wind-like structure in the background resembled the tunes or notes that the guitarist was was playing. Then, there was a windy road also in the back, which I though represented the long journey to being successful in music or how the road represented how music opened up many doors or roads to the artist’s future. As I mentioned in Artifact 4, passion is one of the many great qualities of an artist. The guitarist in the painting is facing his guitar with his eyes closed. To me, that represented his immense passion for the artistry of making music. After reading about Jay Adlers and his painting, I came to discover that the painting was actually done as an album cover for his friend Quincy. However, Quincy didn’t really like the painting, so Adlers decided to make it into a piece of his own. Originally, he wanted the arm to represent a snowboarder or a surfer, but then he didn’t like the way it looked. The purple, blue and green wind-like structure in the background is meant to symbolize his love-hate relationship with weather since he is from New Jersey. The road, however, was never really mentioned. I think, though, that it represents passion, inspiration, motivation, creativity and interpretation.
The course objective that this artifact helped me to achieve was from Week Ten: Explore the relationship of cultural values to free speech and tolerance. To me, this piece shows Jay Adler’s form of free speech. This whole course, as a matter of fact, has taught me that art is one of the most apparent and important forms of free speech. It has taught me that no matter what, it is important to be tolerant of art and of other forms of speech because those rights are protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. In the reading from Week Ten, it talks about how there was art that portrayed homosexuality, condoms, witchery and many others. The government censored these paintings, but I don’t think that that is fair in any way. If you are offended by it, then move on or don’t even look at it. After all, it could be the only way for someone to express the way they are feeling about hard times.