As eager as I was for some more in class work time, we had to go through a dry run of our presentations for our upcoming defense on the 12th. From the last critique, my only real progress was nailing down a sketch for my third piece. I wanted it to focus on the internal strife that bearing not only my skin color but  also the history that comes with it makes me feel and how it has come to shape not only my sense of identity, but also my state of mental well-being. I wanted to display this  with two intersecting strands of DNA, one for being African American and one for the traumas associated with that identity. Its something that I’ll have to carry with me for the rest of my life, so I would like to portray it as such.

As for the critique, I went through a simple PowerPoint explaining  my motivation/inspirations, my plan for the images and the displays, and I went through the 2 images with completed line art and the third image as an in progress sketch. I was met with some useful feedback, though it was (somehow) difficult for some members of the audience to understand the point and the style I decided to go for. Hopefully with more time to put into the work, It will start to become more cohesive.  I felt that the most constructive piece of advice came from Dylan, who suggested tying my triptych together with a common type of imagery. He suggested using a combination of photo editing with my digital works to impose real life imagery such as tweets from Donald Trump within my first piece, a variety of medication within the second and I was thinking of imposing a Pan-African flag or a black lives matter logo within the third piece. I’ll be sure to work hard in getting these ideas off the ground so I can create the pieces that I wanted to create.

During this class sessions we began to explore our options in regards to the equipment needed for our gallery works. To be honest, I felt as though I would not need any of the items we discussed that day. I designed mine to be so low-tech that the only materials I would need outside of my tablet for drawing would possibly be framing material. Despite that, It was pretty intriguing to be able to see all of the options we had available to us. I can’t wait to see the works of my friends that will be utilizing the digital equipment and how they choose to display their work with it. I think the one thing that interested me the most was being able to see a 3D printer in person. The possibilities are endless for what a student could  do with that sort of technology. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any practical uses for the printer in regards to my project. In the meantime, I will continue constructing my third image.