Reflection,


For me Personally this semester went by pretty fast. I'd find myself completing weeks without even realizing the amount of work I was doing. I believe for my first my semester at Cal this class helped me transition into a new setting. What I loved most about the class is how diverse we were. I loved how our cultural backgrounds could be incorporated into many of the things we learned in this class. I wish I played guitar at least once. I'm learning how play but I feel that whats amazing about american folk music, blues music, and Appalachian music is that they can be easy play. I wish for one night I wasn't to shy to bring in my guitar. I enjoyed everyone's pieces. It's been a very eventful year me. Seeing everyone step up to the plate and produce artwork was very inspiring. It takes a lot of courage to display the things you make and even more courage to talk about those creations. I'm gonna miss closing my eyes and trying to visualize every single description Ben reads from his stories.

I learned a lot in this class. Especially about african american artist I've never heard of. It was invigorating to learn about figures who are important within my culture. I love recalling memories while listening to the blues songs and their roots. Understanding the material of this class evoked me to think about the american song and dance and its importance to my people. I mentioned in one post I was listening to one of the songs in the Anthropology of American Folk Music. The spiritual that was sung reminded of Georgia and my childhood and how things I miss are things I took for granted as a child.

Lastly, I want to mention how inspiring it was for people to open up and sing together. I believe Social media creates this dissonance of how individuals interact. Before their was social media song and dance connected people together socially and culturally, as it did in our class. I feel that this journey has taught me to open more about my artwork and taught me the importance of creativity.

Greenland Whale Fisheries is a traditional sea song. Sung in many versions. One version was recorded by Alan Lomax. The song is tale of how sailors spot a whale and proceed harpoon and capture. The whale ends up getting away. Although the Captain of the ship mourns for losing his prey he mourns especially more for the men who were lost as a result. I listened to many version's of the song. You can hear how working sea songs are connected to the hollering songs of slaves and workers in the america's. I listened to a version of the song by the Pogues. The Pogues are a celtic Band from London who sing a version of Greenland Whale Fisheries that's uplifting and fast-paced.

For this week I did a digital painting capturing more of the eerie nature of being at see and constantly searching for whales. I thought about the fisherman who have lost their lives whaling. I thought of the images of things whaler's may spot at night and or things "they may spot". 

 Howlin' Wolf was born on June 10, 1910, in West Point, Mississippi. He studied with bluesmen Charley Patton and Sonny Boy Williamson before eventually signing with Chicago's Chess Records. I did this piece to represent how blues was slowly transitioning from the country into cities like Chicago and New York. Howling Wolf would ultimately would  become the predecessor for Rock and Music. Howling Wolf sings as strong as his figure. When I listened to "I'm The Wolf". I remembered a time when I was in Boston and I was in Wally's cafe listening to students from the Berklee school of Music perform. If I remember correctly Wally's cafe is a very important place that the reader talks about. Wally's cafe has been a place where many blues and jazz musicians play in the Boston area. At night Wally's cafe is dark. Blues music is playing and people are singing along to the songs they know.

Leadbelly/Irene Goodnight

Alongside Woodie Guthrie, Leadbelly would have to be one of the most important figures in music recorded in Alan Lomax Archive of American Folk Music. Alan Lomax and his father  met Lead Belly in the Angola Penitentiary in 1933. While reading about Leadbelly and coming across many of photo's I cant help but get a feeling a sense of triumph. When I look at Leadbelly's I read alot of stories. I see how his emotions have shaped the contours of his face. When you look at Leadbelly's face you see truimph. He's not particulariy a good looking fellow but when he sings the blues, his face should becomes this visual representation of what the blues is. You sing the blues when you have the blues but I feel that theres always a feeling of triumph why singing the blues. The feeling of triumph is not only precieerved by looking at Leadbelly facial features. When Alan Lomax speaks about Leadbelly's voice he decribes it as truimphant and that it be heard from almost half a mile away.

      Irene Goodnight embodies the emotion evoked by the blues. It sounds as if Leadbelly is almost preaching while he's singing this song. Verse by Verse the listener visualizes the pain caused by the parting of his wife. Stop rambling, stop your gambling, stop staying out late at night.Go home to your wife and your family,stay there by your fireside bright

                                                      Will The Circle Be UnBroken

                                   

Will the Circle be Unbroken. The lyrics of this song very melancholic. The song is sung as it's written. What I found interesting about the lyrics is how visceral the fear of losing a loved is. Its as if even without realizing how to feels to lose a loved one the feeling is almost instinct. What's sad about the song is understanding what circle is unbroken. It's not really an ambiguous theme in the lyrics because the circle could be life and death. What if the circle was more? The circle could be experiencing the feeling of losing a loved one.  When I think of the unbroken circle the picture that comes to mind to is being in limbo. Stuck in a world where colors are limited to emotion. I feel that the visual representation of melancholy should be a world limited of colors. That's why for these two pieces I worked simply in form, why using two colors. 

Blowing Down that Road

Alan Lomax used Folk music as a way of distributing war information through many channels like the phonograph record , the radio program , church folk, and the folk theatre. Alan would then go to towns and collect major folk songs and war content. Alan Lomax succeeded in getting on the air on more than hundred radio shows where he would promote artist like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seger and others artist in the Lomax circle. Folklore music is representative of the past, nostalgic, it was dying. Lomax was convinced that Woody Guthrie was one of the greatest writers of his time. Lomax even considered dropping everything in order to help Woody succeed.

For Woody Guthrie I decided to create a piece for the song " Blowing Down The Road". Woody Guthrie's songs symbolized the working class. Blowing down the Road is a song that embodies the hardships of the american life in the 20th century. I feel a connection with this song mostly because I'm a person who has to work while in school. At times I feel like I'm blowing down that Dusty Road. I'm working hard for a better life and I'm searching for that place where the dust doesn't blow. At the end of my journey I'll be able to find the place where the water taste like wine.

Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight

In class we went over Children's Ballads and there respective origin. James Child is the man responsible for gathering and creating many Children's Ballads. After doing research on the Children's Ballads I found that many of the ballad's origins are of Germanic Folklore. Many of the ballads implicate the presence of the supernatural. In the Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight I found that the according to germanic folklore the Elf Knight is called a "Nix' A Nix is a shapeshifting water spirit which would lure women to their doom. Its not implied in many of the versions of the ballad but the Elf Knight has lured many princesses to their doom. However in many versions instead of the knight succeeding in killing his next victim, Lady Isabel uses the Knights obsession with beauty against him. In that moment she slays the elf knight. I found that many of the live song versions of Children's Ballad are very cheery, when in fact I expected them sound more eerie. Mainly because the ballads I read had to do with death.  Above is a master copy I did of an illustration of the Lady Isabel and the Elf sadly I couldn't find the name of the artist.