In preparation for the final, I sent in my centerpiece print to the MCAP and finally had my frame arrive a week before the defense. I was really glad that not only everything was done on time, but I was also able to learn how to assemble a frame for the first time! The night before the defense, I found myself alone in 1104 around 6 pm. I took that time to listen to some music while I pieced together my non-framed images and set up my display. Once it was finally on the wall, I had to stand back and admire it. After 15 weeks of stressing out and nearly melting my eyes by staring at my computer screen, my works were finally presentation ready and they looked pretty good! I think i’ll be able to carry that accomplishment with me for a while.

I almost forgot to mention that I was also able to take the time to revise my artist statement :

“This group of works explore mental health in black communities and how they are impacted through the facets of religion, the current political atmosphere, and through intergenerational trauma. As someone who struggles with mental health issues, these works are not only a means to bring awareness but also as a way to cope with the issues around and within me.

With each image, I represent the adult, the child and the elder. The adult represents the use of the church as a means of healing – as opposed to seeking professional help with mental illnesses. The child is made up of the triggers of living in a world charged with open racial tension in conjunction with coping with their mental illness. The elder is layered on the repetition of history and holds the weight of having to carry those issues within her identity as if it’s ingrained within her DNA. With these pieces, I hope to illustrate a very vocal letter of social and mental health awareness.”

The changes are pretty slight, but I preferred the wording and flow of this one compared to the last one.

On the day of the defense, I arrived pretty early, so I had the chance to look over my statement and otherwise prepare myself. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a delay so my nervousness increased slightly with every passing minute past my assigned time. When I finally did get to present, I felt as though things went fairly well. If I was able to get through the midterm defense, and three other presentations, I knew I could do this one too. As far as critiques went, I received some that I had been thinking about myself. These were finding a better resolution for the stained glass image behind the preacher in his piece and aging up the character in the DNA image further. Of course I was told to go bigger in the frame and print, but between this class, professional practices, digital imaging and film photography,  was out $500 and the 14 x 17 was all I could afford. If i get in to the BFA show I will definitely have to beg around for frame and print money. All in all  the suggestions were super helpful and I’m hoping I’ll be able to attempt to implement a change or two before the final on Tuesday.

Another class, another critique! I had been working diligently on touching up some minor details for my works, but I felt like suggestions from my classmates and my instructors would do some good for improving the quality of my work. While I showed my work to the class and read my artist statement, I was actually impressed with the overall quality of the work. I could honestly say that it was among the highest quality work I had been able to achieve since I’ve been in school.

Some of the most useful critiques I had received were a few color adjustments, the prospects of making some the images move though imposing video footage in place of photographs and adding more images to my third piece with the woman surrounded my DNA stands. While I would have enjoyed the prospect of making my piece a little more vivid with video footage, I didn’t feel that I had the time nor the skill necessary to pull a feat like that off with the time that I had left. Despite that, I hope that i’ll have the opportunity to attempt something like that someday. All in all the critique went well, but I still had my work cut out for me. All that’s left now is to charge towards getting ready for the final defense.

This class meeting was a bit of a tough one. We were beginning to draft the artist statements to go along with our works, but none of us seemed to get it from the packet we were given. I never really assigned meaning to my works, so this was especially difficult for me. For someone who created to create, I couldn’t even begin to make something that was profound enough to qualify as an artist statement. through a lot of trial and error and discussion with my classmates to get things reviewed, i had come up with the following for my initial artist statement:

“These works explore mental health in black communities and how they are impacted through the facets of religion, the current political atmosphere, and through intergenerational trauma. As someone who struggles with mental health issues, these works are not only a means to bring awareness but also as a way to cope with the issues around and within me.

With each image, I represent the adult , the child and the elder. The adult represents the use of the church as a means of healing – as opposed to seeking professional help with mental illnesses. The child is made up of the triggers of living in a world charged with open racial tension in conjunction with mental illness. The elder is layered on the repetition of history and holds the weight of having to carry those issues within her identity as if it’s ingrained within her DNA. These works are a very vocal letter of awareness.”

Of course I’ll have to sleep on it and it will be subject to change, but for what it’s worth, I believe it is an okay starting point.