Student loan debt

          My topic is about The inevitable Student Loans. We all go through it one way or another its like i said inevitable. I picked the topic because we as students think about so much about our futures and what we are investing our debt into. We all will have debt unless we get a scholarship and that's if your lucky. We as students don't even go to college anymore to learn and experience the world better. Its all about how we are going to pay for in the end.  Its so sad that you can easily search up online and see the daily struggles of a college graduate yet the world keeps moving o as if debt isnt a issue. This kind of dept is not our own faults, this debt was not caused by money greed, gambling, and spending. This debt comes from the necessity to learn. The average college graduate will not be able to save enough for retirement till they are 75. As if a human being is so functional at that age. "According to a study by researchers at the University of Missouri, employers were just as likely to hire graduates of expensive for-profit institutions as those with similar credentials from community colleges — or those who skipped college altogether."
        In this world of the Great America the pricier and more flashy named school the better, people trash community college referring them as cheap and not good enough. Which is not true this is a stepping stone, something you can use to reach for higher grounds. Not everyone has money for flashy named schools. So therefore the students are obligated by society to go to these big named universities that have a hefty price to their education. I despise the notion of the society that we live in forces us the incoming generation into dept.
        A good idea that i have for an artwork is to place a stone boulder with chains attached to a statue of a  average human height graduate with the cap and gown in a crowded street downtown. The statue will represent those trying to move on in a fast paced world that we live in yet they are being held back by student loan debt. The people themselves are apart of the message, they pass by with their lives only worrying about the next thing that needs to be done. 

        The statue will be in any populated place, there can be multiple places. A train station, a college campus, a busy city street. There are no restrictions to it, students walk the streets everywhere not just in college campuses. The statue will be made of steel , its message is to whoever stands long enough to really look and understand its message. A college student who has $20,000 in student loans and is late on their rent with only $4 in their pocket for the rest of the day can see that someone out there sees their struggle.

Cobwebbed Beach

I can no longer postpone the flight to the beaches or suburban resorts.

It brushes cobwebs from my brain. I See a New Outlook

I was at the beach with my parents but then a scarf (a tornado) swept the edge

Have you ever sat on a shingle beach with the sun setting?

The salty lips of the waves kissing the sand roughly

Is it possible to recreate this...?

I miss the cobwebs…

Have you ever sat on a shingle beach with the sun setting?

And the salty lips of the waves kissing the cobwebs

Imagine a garden in spring

Chattering magpie,

Daisies peep through,

Open beaked chicks,

Cobwebs shimmering,

Lens clear ponds through windows and onto the smiling lips of the sleepers within.

He wears too much aftershave (smell);

His lips taste sweet like ripe fruit (taste)

I fell through rivers, mountains, beaches, and waterfalls.

His lips on my skin, sucking, kissing

Not many years ago.

When questioned beyond the bounds of propriety, his lips closed like a vice, ...

The End in Past-tense

As the waves rolled up the beach, more and more bodies were revealed

We walked pasted the flowerless cemetery until we made it to the beach.

You sat ...

I withdrew and you opened your mouth revealing a fresh cobweb that read “I love you”. ...

I miss the cobwebs…

As I paddled toward the beach the little cove was very animated, with a large fleet of The over mantel which it has a specially constructed and very odd clock

The disused machinery loomed out of the dark corners, covered in cobwebs ghostly the smelly, brown covers right up to my bright red lips with my eyes tightly shut.

I was at the beach with my parents but then a scarf (a tornado) swept through the edge.

Translated from English to Spanish to Latin to Korean and back to English

(Feels like the previous story is being told from the guys point of view)

You can not further delay, our flight, and the coast spas.

I Brush cobwebs from her brain. I see a new perspective

I was on the beach with her parents, 
as well as the napkin  swept the boardwalk.
Have you sat down next to a creek with a shore, 
with the setting of the sun?
Salty kiss on the lip's waves and sand
You can recreate this ...?
I want a spider ...
Have you sat down next to a creek with a shore, 
with the setting of the sun?
And the salty sea kiss

Imagine a garden in spring
Chattering magpie,
Split pearls,
The open mouth with clear Cobwebs,
Lens through pools of clear windows and a smiling mouth, 
the hair outside standing.
Too much aftershave (odor);
Her lips are as sweet as ripe fruit (taste)
We fell the into the shores of the rivers, the mountains, and waterfalls.
I kiss your lips that are on my skin,
Not many years ago.
I was questioned further about the honesty of a visible mouth  ...
The end of the past,
Thus the movement of the waves on the shore are one of a kind and other bodies of the revealed are Pasted with flowers, 
until they got to the cemetery. 
We walked the beach.
I proclaimed by the mouth of the recess, 
that the vail of the new me, haves to say, that  "I love you". ...
I want a spider ...

As I paddled through to the living there was a small beach cove, 
I was on the beach with her parents, 

You sound Faint ...

a specialty built into them, 

and with a great very strange appeal the custody of the

Obsolete machinery loomed out of the dark with it, 
and it left the smell and covered the spider 's web,
brown red mist ,
and with the mist it covered my lips with closed eyes.

as well as the napkin that is seated upon the bank of the shore.

WHO AM I?

Who Am I? Well thats a secret that only the few who takes the time to figure it out can really know. I decided after many other fails of choice, to take a picture of what i hold closely to my heart. The books are my obsession with Young Adult novels and the princess cup shows how much i love Princess Tiana but also that's my coffee cup I never drink coffee around the house without it. (Im also obsessed with coffee). The pooch on top is my baby, my snowball, my teddy bear , ect. His name is Terrie and he is a maltese, he was meant to be the "Family" dog but he is my dog. I stole his love and now he is mine.Behind him is a photography wall within my room, i have some of my favorite pictures from the past year up on the wall.These pictures once stood in my old High  school art gallery. In the right hand side sits a small framed picture of me and one of my best friends that ive known since grade school at prom. 

I chose the medium as photography since that is my only artistic field that that i dont suck at. And clearly i am loving it. Over the years ive been jumping around through different interests and my family sees it as inconsistency but in reality im just looking for what and where do I fit in. By combining these five objects im showing the peices of my life that represents who i am. 

Young Lords

Dear the whole group of

¡PRESENTE! The Young Lords in New York, 

                    I am writing to all of you because I can not pick just one of you, this exhibit was a team work between all and together it tells a wonderful story. Sadly I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the wonderful pictures you all displayed. Though I had a few questions about the exhibit, How did you all gather all of the personal stories about what happened in 1968? Where any of you connected to the families or residents of the neighborhood who lived through this time? 

The medium of the artworks that i saw varied between photography (which is my favorite coming from my own photography background) and newspaper misshaped onto a wall that all dated back to when this all happened. And there was a broom stick that I couldn't quite find which one did this but the broomstick had teeth instead of brushes at its end. I love how the raw emotion from the residents, they were all captured in there natural states. 

I can tell that the motivation and the reasoning was that you all wanted 1968 to be remembered for the struggle of the communities piled garbage that the sanitation department didn't come to pick up. The neighborhood was forgotten till they made a statement with the help of the young lords by dumping the garbage into the middle of the street and burned it all. They took action instead of waiting for the city to finally do something. Spanish Harlem was a dump but the people who lived it it wanted to make it a better place. Thank you for your time.

           Sincerely 

Karilis Cruz

Buddhist home

Title: Buddha head
Artist : Unknown but most likely from China
Date: unknown but retrieved in 2012
Culture/Geography: China
Medium: paint and clay
Source: Gotten from Ross in New Jersey


 Household items can hold a special memory or emotion to the person who places the object on its own shelf. Especially when it has its own pedestal. The object i chose was a Buddha from a department store in new jersey called Ross. The Buddha is all bronze colored. The head is full of spikes all around, I believe its made out of clay because of the weight it has when you carry it.There are parts of the sculpture that is shiny. whoever made this made it look like an old artifacts from china but in reality its from a department store. My family has had quite an obsession with these Buddhas there are at least five other Asian artifacts most likely from department stores around the house. My object shows the values that my family likes to keep in mind like peace and serenity, we try to keep things mellow and zen. In the words that we speak we hold our own wisdom in whatever stage it is. We are open minded to the unexpected and we have unity because thats what family is about. Buddhas represent peace, serenity and a clear mind. Meditation is a clear ideal lifestyle of Buddhists.

 Art can be interpreted differently depending on the individual, when they look at the glorified object or piece they either like it or cant get the right emotions from it. John Cotton Dana disagrees with modern museums, they only show glorified objects from basic wealthy people of the time or era it was acquired. Museums all seem to look around the same, they don't step out of the box that has been set by other previous established museums. And he fears that all museums will follow this regime. Museums should do their own thing to capture the audience more, art should be interpreted differently depending on the individual. The aesthetic value should stir up a serious of emotions from the audience. Not all objects put into museums represent the culture of the era but alot of these objects come from other regions. These objects can show the morals and values of the era. Just like the Buddhist walkway in my house.

Met Musuem

Pope Benedict XIV

Marina And Yucca

The two works of art I chose at the Met Museum are over 300 years apart but show portraits of people. The First Artwork is titled “Pope Benedict XIV”, it was made in 1746, the medium used was oil on canvas, the artist’s name is Pierre Hubert Subleyras. The Second work of art is titled “Marina And Yucca” made in 2012. The medium is  Two-channel digital video, color, silent, 3 min., 30 sec. Even though that both are made 3 eras apart they show the same concept, a person posing. Both Artists captured human beings but in different times.

       The First work of art is an idealized portrait of the Pope. It has a two dimensional Pope in his traditional religious clothing. The colors look muted, toned down but still capturing the religious feel.

       The second work of art is much more different because it is made with two-channel Digital Video. It is still two dimensional because its still on a screen but that not the part that makes this interesting the one with the man in the red shirt you can see slightly moving. Her eyes twitch a little, the breeze ruffles her hair a bit too. Its almost like she is still for a picture, that is never going to be taken. The colors are bright, her sweater is bright red and the surrounding looks like its daylight. “Kydd makes what he calls "durational photographs"—a paradoxical description signaling the artist’s dissatisfaction with film’s conception of time. Poised between cinema and still photography, the pieces only became possible when the resolution of video imagery had reached a high enough level that a moving image could at least approach the mesmerizing clarity of the best color photography. Marina and Yucca is a two-channel piece in which the spiky spray of a yucca plant juts out toward the viewer, trembling ever so slightly in the California breeze, while in the other monitor a seated young woman sits immobile with her eyes closed” (MetMusuem blurb) The description above really captures what the piece was all about.

       These two artworks were made in different eras but the similarity is there. They both show a person posing, they were both made to represent something either religion or combining still photography and cinema and they both are set in a museum.

       I choose these two artworks when I setted my eyes on the digital video in the photography gallery. I loved how to really see the movement you have to stand and stare at it long enough to catch it. I than headed back to the European gallery, In search for a portrait of anyone to compare the two eras. Just from the two I can tell the different technology and materials used and even the different views of the two Eras. I believe the portrait is In the museum because at the time that it was made it was considered a work of art and it still is. The painting clearly shows a religious figure from over 300 years in the past. The Two digital video is put into the photography gallery because it captures its viewers with the combination of still photography and cinema.

Th female Body

The female Body by Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund was made with the mediums Terracotta and paint with the dimensions 11 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 2 1/4 in. It was made in  ca. 3500-3400 B.C.E. The peice is representational and stylized.Most of the status were made in the Predynastic Period.  "Statuettes of this period, the legs are usually not articulated and the faces are beaklike."(online blurb from the Brooklyn Museum) As seen in the photo the figure's hips are exaggerated the rest of the body smaller compared, small breasts and small waist. "The symbolism, function, and identity of the figure are not certain. However, similar female figures painted on Predynastic vessels appear to be goddesses, because they are always larger than the male "priests" shown with them."  this era women in paintings nude or not were stylized to what man wanted.  John Berger beleives that art was almost always shown with the female body modified and portrayed the way the viewer, as in the man, sees the ideal female body as. Berger stated once "She is not naked as she is, she is naked as the spectator sees her". The female body is shown so much in art because in the society we live in is run y mostly men, we as women is supposed to stay quiet and form our bodies and our looks into the idealized women bodies shown in paintings and sculptures and many other ways including photography in a magazine re modified with Photoshop.

The Vine

Harriet Whitney Frishmuth

This Sculpture called The vine shows a women stretching as if she herself is a vine.It was sculpted in the 1920s by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth.   The sculpture is 3  dimensional the light hits it from above as she is leaning back reaching out like a vine. In the early twentieth century, sculptures of dancing women were producedthey were inspired by the success of dancers Isadora Duncan, Loïe Fuller, and Anna Pavlova. Frishmuth often turned to dancers for her the themes of these sculptures and paid these women to pose for her with dance poses. Just like in the picture taken of one shown, this statue balances on tiptoe in the middle of a performance, a grapevine suspended in her hands. Bunches of grapes lie at the her feet.  The statue is made out of bronze though the metal looks old and weared out it adds the feeling of light from above. The artwork looks in motion the women is in mid dance leaning back all elegantly. "The idea of launching your body back, without seeing, is liberating but also terrifying" said by Francesca Harper, a dancer. I agree because the women looks liberated without a care in the world just like a vine, Growing and stretching. "One of the dancers said she held this pose for twenty-five minutes and, honestly, I don't know how anyone could do that" said by Thayer Tolles. That sounds painful but it shows the dedication to create these artworks.

Childish Behavior in the park

I love searching for accidental art. It can happen in under a second, you just have to be quick enough to catch it. I took this picture at a toddler's 3rd birthday party.These are her cousins and other family members, they were snatching up all the candy that fell from the pinata. There was alot of screaming and shouting.I even saw some adults helping out with their candy picking.  I was really glad with the way this picture turned out the bubbles from the bubble machine was released at the right time. The little ones played hopscotch, raced around the park for prizes and later ate cake when the sun settled down the river.I got to see family who i have not seen since 2 Halloweens ago when the family had a dress up party in the Bronx. But on this day it was hot and humid with the whole park filled with multiple parties, I guess it was the day for the celebration. I thought opposite I am not a fan of the hot, though I sticked to the shade for coolness even so that it rained earlier so you would have believed it would have felt cooler. This side of my family I don't see  usually , so at first i was timid to them but after a few laughs they were family for sure, the kind who loved to party and have a good time even if the times are rough. So there that's a look to my some part of my family.

Karilis Cruz: The world around me

                                                                        Art surrounds me, I see the world through a photographer's eyes. Anything can be turned into art just as long as you have the right imagination for it. A leaf in the woods can become art, showing the beauty of the natural world giving the credit to mother nature who really deserves it. Art mostly stands out in its 3D form extending its arms to me,calling out the inner photographer. Lighting is crucial the way that light reflects off the captured scenery draws me in, go ahead catch the light of life. Lighting focuses the attention to the main point of the photograph .Lighting can also set the emotion of the picture.The viewer can feel what the photographer originally wanted the viewer to feel.The purpose of a photograph is too tell a story either short or large depending on the components within the picture, the picture tells the story for the artist. Just like the saying goes "A picture can say a thousand words".

Photograph taken by me 

Into: Karilis Cruz

                                                          My name is Karilis Cruz, I am Dominican . I am a photographer and a freelance writer. Between the beginning of high school and the last year of high school I have tried to pursue my writing I have gotten multiple recognition for it. One of my stories I have submitted to the Scholastic art and writing competition, and gained the title of Honorable mention. I have also gotten short works into Anthology books.