What I've Learned: Modernism

Throughout this unit I learned many things about life, dreams, writing, and reading. Both Hemingway and Fitzgerald have taught me that dreams are pointless if they are only materialistic and if they are obsessed over too much. This is because materialistic things do not carry over when I die and if I obsess over a dream too much, it can disappear or change leaving me almost empty with no hope left. Also I have learned to read carefully, look up unknown words or things, and annotate to to help me further understand the material. With writing I have learned to make good outlines because the better the outline the better paper and easier it is to write. This is what I have learned from the Modernist unit that we covered.

"Foundation" by Austin Engelage

Austin Engelage

Tourais: Period D

November 22, 2010

Bull Series Explanation

“Foundation”

The title of my series is called the “Foundation” series. It represents the true essence of skateboarding and what it means to me. I did many special things with the drawing that have significant meanings. I also learned what skateboarding is and what it really means to me during this project.

My project represents a lot about skateboarding as we can see from the series of drawings. The first drawing is the physical overview drawing of skateboarding. There is the stairs, skateboard, person, and surroundings. This picture serves the purpose of showing the audience the first physical look of skateboarding before one begins to explore what it really is.

The second drawing takes some things away that start to make the picture more meaningful. Everything but the board, person, and stairs is gone. These things were taken out because none of those things really matter in terms of the picture and in terms of skateboarding in general. When a skateboarder is doing a trick the only thing he is thinking of is the stairs and his board which is why I left those things in.

The final picture there is barely anything. The only things I left are the outline of the stairs and the board (without the trucks & wheels). For the person I chose to take away his outer body and just leave the frame, brain, and heart because this is what the essence of skateboarding really is. Skateboarding is all about mind over matter and overcoming more mental fear than physical fear. It is also about clearing obstacles in your path to make you a better skateboarder and person which is why I made the skateboarder in the picture is going over the stairs. The board says “foundation” on it because it is a skateboard brand but also the series of pictures represents what the foundation of skateboarding is.

Three Day Blow Aengelage

In "Three Day Blow" Nick and Bill talk about a lot of stuff including sports, books, and mostly about getting drunk. Nick wants to get drunk to dim his pain and he never really stops talking about it. He wanted to get drunk so bad because he had lost his girlfriend Marjorie, and was having a hard time dealing with the pain. He was empty inside, and the 2nd paragraph on page 47 shows it.

Last 3 Days Nov 12

Over the last 3 days I have learned a lot about the transformations about art and literature. I have learned a lot about Hemmingway and his style of writing, and I find it very interesting. I love how art also follows literature in the theme of reduction. I cannot wait for the reduction project because I already have ideas for it. I learned that reduction is when you take a subject and take as much out of it as possible to still give the audience the same message. For example in Picasso’s “Bull Series” he took a bull and reduced to nothing but the outline of his body, horns, and testicles, and the rest of the bull is implied. This is the same in Hemmingway’s work when he reduces a story to much less than what it was and yet he still implies most of it. I also learned that the way art was made has changed from the literal thing in the picture, to perspective, to a reflection of society. The final thing I learned was about Hemmingway’s life and how he became to be a writer after his service in Italy for the army. We learned about where many of his story’s inspirations come from and about how he made up a lot of the stuff he did in Italy when he came back to America. The relationship between literature and art intrigues me and I am looking forward to continuing this unit further.