ART JOURNAL - 1

Theresa O’Neill-Rush, Dawn M. Dean, Cyndi Smith, Jennifer Carrero-Ibarra
Team Project – Art Journal
Week Three Journal

We decided that our team project should be the Art Journal. The Art Journal will be about the art we see day in and day out. It was decided that Jennifer would take care of any art she sees in her neighborhood. Dawn would take care of the children’s art work she sees. Cyndi will take care of the art work she sees on the way to work. Theresa will take care of any art she sees at the lake. The following entries are from each of the group members. Here are their thoughts of what they have seen so far.
Theresa has chosen to take photographs of the lake where she lives as her part of the Team Project. There are many interesting aspects of the lake that she felt would provide a good representation of nature and art. What Theresa did not anticipate was that she is not very computer literate, when it comes to taking pictures and getting them uploaded into the computer. Yes, she does work in IT and has for several years, but it is a very different IT than PC land. She is not an IT technician, but a software developer, which is totally different! So, with that being said, she will somehow figure this out and achieve the goal she has set out to do.
Dawn has prepared for our group project by choosing to do children’s art. Since her son is in preschool she has been bringing home some real prizes. Dawn also teaches Sunday school that takes a portion of their sessions to focus on projects. Here she has the opportunity of seeing some really beautiful thoughts poured out onto paper. She also has a daughter that loves to draw pictures to express her thoughts. She knows that this is going to be fulfilling for her, as children are so innocent and their perception is so much more different that that of an adult. Her intention is to get one piece of work form her son, who is four; one from her daughter, who is ten; and one from her niece, who is fourteen. She is interested in seeing the rest of her teammates’ findings and looks forward to sharing her findings with us.
Cyndi’s part for the team project is looking for everyday art on her drive to and from work. At first she was a little nervous about what she would see and if that would be considered art. Cyndi was surprised at what she found when she started to leave for work a little earlier. This way she could take her time and really look at her surroundings. The first item she came across was in her own neighborhood, a hand painted mailbox. She could not tell you how many times a day she passed that mail box and never noticed it. That made her wonder how many other pieces of art she was missing because she was always in a hurry and did not pay attention. Some of the others items she found were stained glass windows, neon signs, a sculpture made at an iron welding shop, a few other sculptures and monuments. She photographed the items and will be picking two of them for our final project.
Jennifer has chosen to do the art she sees in her neighborhood. Not far from where she lives a Children’s Art Museum. A few years ago a painter began a mural on the outside of the museum. He started with a sketching out what he envisioned. Time passed by and certain areas of the mural started to take shape. Jennifer noticed that it wasn’t your typical mural. It portrayed people but not with great detail, almost abstract. She was always intrigued by the design and wondered if it was an inspired style or an original style. She is doing further research to find out more information on the mural’s painter.
Overall, our team sees to be going in the right direction with the project. As we get further into it, we will supply photos and more detailed information of our findings. So far it has been a great experience to actually take some time out to see things we would not normally think of as art.