Jenna Deutch
Arts Scholar
Semester 3
My experience this semester has helped me interpret how art can reshape an understanding of our learned history, biases, and beliefs by realizing that there are multiple ways to look at every situation. Many things I am taught have been one-sided and I have not chosen to look past that one side, but through this semester, I have realized that if I do that, I am not giving everything a fair chance. For example, during our social activism talk, I learned that collective and public mourning is something that is necessary and can be shown through art (like the “Black Lives Matter” plaza). I never really thought of this as collective mourning, in a way, but this talk made me think about how art serves as an endless platform to change history. My experience this semester helped me address practical strategies for initiating the creative process by realizing that there are many paths to creativity. While this sounds like a juvenile statement, I have learned through our guest speakers, for example, that art can come from anywhere and any physical or mental place and it can lead you to places you did not imagine. My experience this semester helped me to understand that we can effectively incorporate feedback to revise and refine ideas with greater depth and clarity through all of the feedback workshops. We spent a good amount of time asking for more of ourselves and our peers to dig deeper. We were encouraged to ask questions and the person on the receiving end took everything to heart and refined as needed.
The most prominent example of a news-related item I encountered outside of colloquium dealing with art as a mechanism for expressing one’s values, beliefs, and lived experiences is with the murals painted to commemorate loved and lost ones. There was an enormous amount of social injustice happening throughout quarantine and many people chose to express their sorrow by painting a mural dedicated to George Floyd and others like him who were unjustly taken from us. From my time in Arts, I was given an appreciation of how especially visual arts are utilized to capture moments that can be hard to express fully.
The most interesting, surprising, and revealing intellectual connection to what I have experienced as an Arts Scholar is my PSYC354 class (Multicultural Psychology in the US). This class is a timely class that speaks on racism, sexism, LGBTQ+, communication, expression, and more. As an Arts Scholar, I learn about differences within communities because we are so accepting of everyone and in PSYC354, we learn about the backlash different communities face because of their genetic and noninheritable makeup. People in the Arts community love people for who they are, no questions asked and it is heartbreaking to learn the true realities that people face when they are not supported and accepted in this manner.
It is a bit more difficult virtually, of course, by my learning was definitely improved by interacting with my fellow Arts Scholars. When I got to live with all of my peers from this program, they filled in gaps for me and I filled in gaps for them with knowledge and skill because we all came from different walks of life. In class, I got to hear perspectives on topics I had never thought of and I also got to see and hear different art forms that were entirely new to me. Through class, I gained an appreciation for the unknown. Virtually, however, it became hard to learn in the same ways I was before because there is only so much we can absorb from behind a screen. It becomes easier to zone out and lose focus and no one wants that to happen, but it does.
This semester, I have directly contributed to the Arts conversations and discussions. It has been a little bit more difficult to contribute virtually, but I was doing what I could. For the Scholars community as a whole, I am a part of a Scholars based tutoring program called “Lakeland STARs,” and this semester was my first time stepping up and being a full-time coordinator. This took a lot of work to get up and running, but the tutors were so happy to be back and we really wanted to give the sophomores the opportunity to use the program as their capstone project. I wish I could have been able to participate in more Arts held events, but with the workload given this semester, I was not able to as much as I wanted.
Being in Scholars has definitely brought me into contact with people that challenged my previous beliefs. As I have already mentioned, people in the Scholars programs come from all different walks of life, so not all of us will have the same thoughts on everything. I believe it is very important to look at as many perspectives as possible before making a conclusion because it is very close minded if those other possibilities are not given a chance. Through many political conversations with people all along the political spectrum, I have taken into consideration many thoughts on abortion, gender, gun rights, and more and through discussion, the conversation always ended at an understanding of where the other person was coming from and more respect for the other side.
Semester 4
My capstone project demonstrates my growth in presenting my ideas through written and artistic forms of communication. This is because everything shown on my capstone website is a very thorough compilation of my creative process and final product. For example, the “creative process page” that Jackie and I created, there are separated sections outlining different aspects of our process, such as inspiration, professional communication, and the techniques that we used to create our project. On another page, my artist’s statement is separated, giving an in depth explanation of why Jackie and I chose to create this mobile mural and our sources in doing so. Finally, there is a gallery page showing our final products. This demonstrates my growth in presenting ideas because it is very neat and put together in a user-friendly manner that shows how much thought Jackie and I put into our project. Our website clearly demonstrates our evidence, interviews, and techniques and how they helped our final product in the end.
My perception of art has been redefined as a result of my program experiences because I now have a better understanding of art as a whole. Although to the naked eye, art may look perfected, it actually is not on many levels. For example, I never thought about how many processes must be taken while creating art to “kill your darlings” or change your initial idea in order to get to a final product and even though the artist might see mistakes, the viewer is not looking for them because they are taking the art at face value. Additionally, through “The Illusionist” field trip, my perception of art has changed because of how we choose to perceive ourselves and art. For some reason, we choose to perceive art as subjective, but we choose to perceive ourselves as objective and needing to fit a standard. Both of these have helped me to become more forgiving while viewing art because it easy to forget that nothing is perfect.
My capstone project has drawn upon what I have learned throughout my two years in the program by using my surroundings to make a representation of the community. Scholars is all about community, which is why Jackie and I decided to base our capstone project around it. We used techniques from our CPSA250 class, such as “killing your darlings” and also some of our supporting courses, such as WMST250 and ENGL273, to incorporate expression. The main concepts that we learned was that it is okay to get rid of some ideas, refining your ideas online takes time and consideration, and expression in all forms are valued. These translated to our project development by helping us take a step back to evaluate the steps we had already taken, focus on how to present them well, and make sure that the symbols we used were representative of Scholars.
I have deepened my existing artistic talents and interests through participation in Arts Scholars by learning about more kinds of art, as well as gaining more knowledge about artistic techniques I thought I already knew about. I was able to take the time to focus on the art that I love and slowly but surely gain skills that I had lost by stopping to partake in art at home. It helped remind me that I do not have to be perfect to let my talents shine. I expanded my creative abilities and interests by learning about techniques I was never exposed to through the friends that I have made. Since I have never taken an art class, I did not know certain techniques that I could use while making art. I got to work with chalk pastels, charcoal, and portrait drawing.
I have learned to respect all forms of art because you never know what can come from them. I got to see my peers work with clay, Irish dance, perform a musical instrument, and so much more. For example, while working with Jackie on our capstone project, we collaborated very effectively even though we had very differing perspectives and abilities. This was able to happen because we were able to communicate our thoughts about the mission we were trying to achieve together and how to use our talents advantageously.
I think my Scholars experience might inform my future by helping me remember to continue with art and it will also carry over through my professional communication skills that I have learned. I expect to draw on the “killing your darlings” lesson very often in my academic and professional life. This is because I have always had a difficult time letting anything go, even when it is to my detriment, so in the future, I will remember how helpful it is to let go when need be.
