Life/Art

In an attempt to turn my life into art I spend most of late Sunday afternoon simply wandering around and enjoying being outside. This is something that I do in everyday life as much as possible. I choose to have a partner come along on my excursion. From about 4-7pm on Sunday my friend Aubrey and I walked around downtown, wandered onto campus, then went back downtown and back to campus. We would take breaks, lay in the grass, sit on benches and just observe what was going on around us or take in the beauty of spring. I think you can definitely consider you life art, especially performance art. My performance is art because it could easily be a scene from a film. During our wandering on campus my friend broke her flip flop and almost wiped out while walking. Many funny things happened during the few hours and we ended up calling it our afternoon adventure. In the one article we had to read it stated characteristics of performing art including: Performance Art is live. Performance Art has no rules or guidelines. It is art because the artist says it is art. It is experimental. Performance Art is not for sale. I agree that my life is all of these things so it can be considered art. There is no difference between art and life unless you as the artist want there to be a difference. I think art reflects the images and emotions of everyday life.

Film Stills Self Portrait

For this project I didn't really have a specific film that I starred in. I chose to pick everyday things that a women would be shown doing in any film. The first is a picture of me helping a friend decide what to wear for a show we are going to see. The second is a picture of me curling my hair before going out to dinner with friends. The third is me simply cooking dinner. The fourth is me sitting out front of my house laughing at the boys playing catch across the street. The last film still is of me reading/relaxing on my couch. I wanted this series of film to be about simple everyday things that you do that you wouldn't really think about capturing on film, but are always included in a movie.

Public Service Announcement

For some reason I was stuck on the idea that I wanted my public service announcement to be a billboard. I know when I am driving along on a highway, I am always entertained by the billboards I pass, and like to make jokes about the ones that have women on them just to get your attention even though the women don't actually have anything to do with what is being advertised! I searched for examples of billboards online and then changed them around to create an ad about gender. The first one originally had the reflection of a Volvo in the glasses, but I changed it (with my awesome picture layering skills haha) to make it the reflection of a man staring at women tanning. The second one is the make the point that many billboards have pictures of women just to catch your attention, even though they don't really have much to do with the product being advertised. I always find it funny when company's use women to advertise for beer products, its not like it tastes any different if a man is drinking it!

Magic Realism Collage - Slow Life

For my magic realism collage I decided I wanted to be a turtle. The reason for this is because I need to slow down my life and not be so vulnerable to the crazy world we live in today. Turtles are not in a hurry, but they have a hard shell to protect themselves from their slow pace. Everyone is always going, going, going, and they don’t take anytime for themselves and for personal reflection. People are afraid if they slow down their lifestyles to enjoy the simple things in life they will fall behind or something bad will happen. I picked my environment to be a nature scene because it is so relaxing and it goes along with my theme of slowing down and enjoying simple things in life. I spent a good chunk of last Saturday afternoon at a park with my best friend from home swinging and playing with her nephew and it was one the best and most relaxing days I have had in a long time. I think slowing down your life is something a lot of people need to do. If you don’t spend any time for self reflection you will never be able to find your own identity or the person you really want to be.

Modernist Text Experiment

This project was very frustrating at first because I really don't like writing poetry. Steins poetry was extremely hard to understand so I had no idea what or how I should write a poem about an object, food and a room. I decided to make my poems somewhat humorous because if I took this too seriously I would end up with a blank mind and no poem. I think my poems are successful, they aren't to be taken to seriously, just quick and random descriptions of an object, food, and a room. I used short and to the point sentences about what I was describing.

Impressionist Portrait - Self portrait 3

For this project I decided not to use any computer programs to manipulate my portrait but wanted to focus on colors, textures, and themes like impressionists did. I printed out this picture of me in black and white and used crayons to create the image. Impressionists painted everyday scenes from the world they knew instead of painting historical or mythological subjects. I chose to use vibrant colors with strong contrast in my portrait. Because impressionist artists used quick spontaneous brush strikes and were not worried about a perfect finish, I wanted to make my portrait look rough, like it has some texture. This is actually a picture of me on a ferry ride to an island on Lake Erie. It was a beautiful August day and the wind was whipping through my hair. There were sail boats everywhere and you could see the coastline full of amazing waterfront properties. I love to be outside, so this picture represents my love for nature and beautiful landscapes, something impressionists thought to be important too.

Cartoon Quilt

My great, great, great grandfather, Herman Dickerman Sr., came to America in the 1870's. He settled in Williamsport, PA, where he had my great, great grandfather Herman Dickerman Jr. Herman Jr became a very talented wood worker, he built furniture but specialized in detailed moldings. He was offered good money for his work in Lancaster, PA, which was a pretty rich area at this time. He moved to Lancaster and bought a house on 1st Street in downtown Lancaster. There he raised my great grandfather Ernest Dickerman, who married my great grandmother Goldie. They stayed in the same house and raised my grandfather Jerry and his sister Shirley. Jerry married my grandmother Margret they moved to a house right outside of town and had my father and his siblings. My father, Stephen, is also a woodworker like my great, great grandfather Herman Jr.


I found it very difficult to tell the story of my family history in only 6 boxes of a comic strip. There is so much to say but to actually draw pictures to tell the story was very hard because there are so many details to discuss. I was hesitant about this project because I am not talented when it comes to drawing things by hand. If I was better at drawing I would have been able to show more detail or I might have picked one event to draw instead of an overview of my family history and how the Dickermans got to America.

Women's World

If buildings were designed to accommodate a women's every need, I believe every building would be different, because every women is different. The perfect building for me, would not be the perfect building for another woman. Although most needs and desires are the same for all women, there are many different ones also. I don't think it really matters what material possessions you have, or how big your house is. The people that dwell in the building with you are what really matter.
The function I designed my house around, was that I planned to have friends and family over very frequently to entertain them and spend time together. The first floor is designed to comfortably accommodate many people. There is a huge lounge and living area, along with a huge front porch, because I love being outside as much as possible. The second floor is designed for the woman to have her alone or personal time. There is a lounge connected to the 2nd floor porch where women can spend time doing anything they want, it is large enough for almost any indoor hobby. The third floor would be for servants and maids if you chose to have them, or for your children if they lived at home still. My house would have many windows and face south, because I love the sun shining in. My site would have large amount of land. There would be a garden and stables with a variety of animals.
The strengths of my site would be that it would provide almost everything you need without having to leave the property for much, we would be self sufficient knowing we don't need to rely on anyone else and we could enjoy the fruits of our own labor. I guess a weakness would be that I was not very creative and it is a house much like the ones we have today. I find nothing wrong with how our houses are designed, the problem is that we need to slow our lives down. People need to enjoy the simple things and now always be in a hurry.

Self Portrait - Back of Head

I have learned a lot by completing this project. Photographs can demonstrate many things about gender. Jeanna Dunning and Lorna Simpson's pieces give much insight into gender and the body. Dunning uses the human body to create color photographs that question issues of identity, sexuality, and the interior and exterior self. Simpson uses text to challenge the meaning of the visuals of the body and her photographs of black women challenge racial and gender stereotypes that still exist in America. Her black and white 15 Mouths is my favorite piece. These two women do an excellent job emphasizing how stereotyping (mostly in regards to women and the human body) is still a problem in todays society.

Sappho Translation

When I first read that we had to create our own translation of Sappho's jealously poem I was frustrated. I have never considered writing poetry as a talent of mine. I spent a lot of time staring at the 28 translations hoping for some inspiration. After reading some of my fellow classmates translations I felt a little more comfortable with the idea of creating my own version. I realized I was thinking about it too much. I just picked out a few examples from the 28 given that were similar and rewrote and reorganized them to my own liking. This lesson taught me that everyone will translate poetry in their own way. Depending on your own circumstances and beliefs words can have a different meaning for everyone.