 |
| WIP: Another Guest Art Journal Entry Inspired by George Orwell's '1984'.... |
Day 9 of the '29 Faces' May Challenge. 20 more Faces to go....
Yep, you guessed it. Another student art journal entry. As of tonight, I have by now begun entries in exactly half of my students' journals. However, I still have 5 more to go to even start something in -- and in fact NONE of them can be declared officially finished yet at this point, being as that they are ALL still Works in Progress. But, I'm getting there....!
Selecting from my literature class book list to use as inspiration for this journal wasn't the easiest -- because this is actually the last student for whom the list applies (all the remaining art journals are from a different class of younger students who did not read the same books). But finally I'd narrowed it down to three titles: George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" (I could just imagine Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins), Steinbecks' "Of Mice and Men", and "1984". I did recall that this student seemed in particular to enjoy the book, '1984', and our discussions of it -- and so it won out. As such, we have here as my Day 9 Face a quickie start on a portrait of the story's protagonist, the much depressed and desperate Winston Smith. Winston's existence is not an easy one, living (if it can be called that) as he does in some utterly grim dystopian future state, under an entirely soul-crushing totalitarian rule. And yet at its heart is a love story.....
While I can't say I'm entirely satisfied with this fast, preliminary portrait of Winston here, I'm reminding myself it's still only a WIP -- and besides, it'll do for now in order to at least get this entry posted so I can call it a day. But when I get back to working on it in soon however, I'm thinking I will need to make 'my' Winston look considerably older, and a whole lot less attractive.....
4 comments:
I love his hair the most...and I had forgotten all about the book 1984. I really need to start reading again. All I do is paint and internet.
^Thanks Lisa! And I know exactly what you mean -- while I used to be a voracious reader, family life and activities really put the kabosh on that for a long time. Now that my kiddos are older though, I'm starting to get back into it again. Plus the teaching of this literature class forced me to revisit these old classics, which was really a lot of fun! Right now I'm reading a book I just checked out from the library called "Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity", a nonfiction book about the challenges of living in a teeming Indian slum. Pretty fascinating stuff.....
I swoon at the idea of art and literature going hand in hand. Why is it that art is integrated into everything when students are in elementary school, and then it is slowly revoked when they reach high school and college? I think it's in keeping with the idea of technology and fast pace and teaching to tests. As a college-level English teacher, I mourn it.
Thank you, Wendy, and indeed, the two, art and literature, DO go hand in hand -- that is, in my book at least, heh! For me I always have such strong images in my head when it comes to characters and scenes from novels (so much so that movies can be quite disappointing at times when the visuals don't quite match up to what I've conjured up in my own mind! ;-)). As for Art's slow and sad relegation in school as children advance in grades -- yes, isn't that a shame...!? Not to mention that I think even for elementary school the Arts are taking a big hit these days due to decreases in grants and funding, etc etc -- I know an awful lot of unemployed art teachers out there, having seen lay-offs thanks to our shaky economy. What really gets me though, are the middle school and older kids that often claim to me that he or she 'can't draw', or 'cant do art'. I don't buy that for a minute -- but somewhere along the line they've received that message and internalised it, when it's simply not true! Too sad! In any case, thanks so much for the comment, Wendy -- a college-level English teacher I know must be a big job and responsibility! Always my favourite subject in school and I have fond memories of all my English teachers over the years......! :-)
Post a Comment