Artist Statement

My part of the group was to take the pictures form the interview and post them onto the site. The photos I took I just tried to capture the experience and take pictures of things that haven't been shown in the photo essays or take pictures of places that I've never seen before. Previously to this whole experience I never had entered the neighborhood. Until I meet with Tony and he drove us around. I saw such beautiful houses and a changed and growing community. I had a stigma about the community, I thought that it was still how it was eight years ago. However the trip there changed my mindset about Johnson Park area . I saw the changes and by hearing the stories that Tony was telling us about the neighbors and how there untied and how many people in the community truly wants to better the community. With my camera, I took pictures of my experience, and I was looking at the neighborhood thru new eyes thru my camera lens.
On the way to our interviews I was just kept taking pictures without looking so that I could document the trip there .Also, I edited the assitant chief harpole interview, it was so long he gave such extensive answers. It was so hard to edit it down to eight mintues. Also it was hard to make the transitions good and trying to choose what was more import ant and what didnt really go with the topic of the group project. The day off our interview with Chief Harpole and Officer Torres. Most of the pictures are pictures of the exterior of the building .I just tired to capture our walk outside of the building because I didn't think that I could take pictures inside. I did seek and few in though. After the interviews I went onto Johnson's park Area's web site and looked at what they posted in regards to block watch. I found it very interesting and it was a review of what Officer Torres, Assistant Chief Harpole , and Bentley Turner has said. I really love to see and learn about how organized there block watch is . My neighborhood had one I don't know what happened. I think that Johnson's Park is a model for any neighborhood trying to establish a block watch . From this I decided for my individual project to be about the relationship between the Milwaukee police department and Johnson park area. I think that there relationship is very unique and its amazing how well it worked as is working. Especially since people tend to be hesitant to work with the police. Originally I had Rob asking the questions and then showed the response. I supposed I was going for a Barbara Walters type of interview style. I decided to rework that because I thought that with text it made for better transitions and it put more of a spotlight on the responses to the questions.

My Project

Kehinde Wiley

I found out about I found out about Kehinde Wiley form a video a couple of months ago and thought wow this is pure genius. I'm so proud of my generation, I would of never thought that I'd see paintings like his but I'm glad to see that in my lifetime there's an artist like him. What I love most about his work is that the paintings that he draws from were people that back them they identified with and the paintings that he has created and paintings that people can recognize and I hope that this will inspire and create more greatness for the generations to come.

In his work he brings light to the negative sterotypes of black men , there viewed as villans and not as heroes. Mostly those viewed as heroes are white males. His paintings are based on well-known images of powerful figures drawn from seventeenth- through nineteenth-century Western art.

He replaces the white males with models that he searches for nation wide and poses them them to resemble compostions of famous paintings.

From:http://http//www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/recognize/paintings.html

"Kehinde Wiley’s portraits of African American men collate modern culture with the influence of Old Masters. Incorporating a range of vernaculars culled from art historical references, Wiley’s work melds a fluid concept of modern culture, ranging from French Rococo to today’s urban landscape. By collapsing history and style into a unique contemporary vision, Wiley interrogates the notion of master painter, “making it at once critical and complicit.” Vividly colorful and often adorned with ornate gilded frames, Wiley’s large-scale figurative paintings, which are illuminated with a barrage of baroque or rococo decorative patterns, posit young black men, fashioned in urban attire, within the field of power reminiscent of Renaissance artists such as Tiepolo and Titian. "

Here's the link to the video:http://current.com/items/7....6335342/kehinde_wiley.htm

Current tendencies ten artists from Wisconsin exhibit at Marquette University

New Chinese Zodiac. The pieces follow the character traditions of the Chinese Zodiac, the Monkey, Snake, and such. However Xiahong Zhang created original characters made out of paper with Disney characters like the Disney Princesses, Tinkerbell, printed onto the paper. I think that Xiahong Zhang is commenting on the Americanization of her culture and how America has caught on to the Zodiac and how the Chinese Zodiac is now a place mat on your table at a Chinese restaurant. I think that perhaps the Disney images were used because nothing is more of a commercial success than the Disney Empire.