COVID-19 Art Gallery

COVID-19 Art Gallery

The pandemic that we are all experiencing is a frightening and life-changing event. It’s one of those stories that we will pass down to our grandchildren that will be part of our history.

The showcase’s idea is students, professors, and kids draw their perception of COVID-19 to show the difference between adults’ and children’s thinking during those difficult times and their “perception” of COVID-19.

Caitlyn Fish

Age: 20

Tim Young

Age:

Julianna Sandholm-Bark

Age: Ageless

Alexander Sandholm

Age: 5

Dominik Wachter

Age: 21

Fatma Rashad

Age: 47

Haya Damnhouri

Age: 10

Sarah Moumenh

Age: 10

Peter Carson

Age: 56

Emmet Carson

Age: 8

Learning like Sisyphus

Learning like Sisyphus

Writing is the bane of my fucking life. One of my first memories of school is arguing with my teacher about some writing assignment where we had to write about what we wanted to do when we were older.

“Ms. Huggins,” I said, “why do we have to do this?”

“Because this is our assignment for right now,” she responded.

“But how am I supposed to know what I want to do?” I asked.

“What do you like?” she replied.

“I don’t like writing,” were the last words that came out of my mouth before I got sent out of the class.

 

I was never a good kid, but I was also never a bad kid. I always straddled the line between the two. Most of my fights with teachers came from missing assignments, a majority of which were writing based. When I finally got to choose classes in high school my first and most important criteria was how much writing was involved. Once, in 10th grade, I changed English classes on the first day because the syllabus the teacher laid out had too much writing for my taste.

So, I shot myself in the foot.

While teachers where hammering proper writing technique into my classmate’s heads I was sitting there thinking about how much I hated writing. This screwed me over because now that I’d given up the fight against writing I don’t have the skills or knowledge to write comfortably. I don’t instinctively know what good writing is for me. I can hear it in others work but I can’t tell what my good writing sounds like. Every paper that I write sounds awful. Practically all of the lines I write feel wrong. To make it all worse I second guess myself so much that essays take forever to write and I spend extra time on something I hate.

“But Max,” I  hear you say, “why do you hate writing so much?”

Well, dear reader, I don’t fucking know.

That’s the worst part about it. If my hatred stemmed from a place that I understood, I would be able to combat it or work against it, but I can’t. The best way I can respond to that question is this; I hate writing because it does not have a concrete solution. There is no answer, no exact method or exact formula to solve or complete. Teachers have tried with me throughout the years to work around this but each of them tried something different. Let me use an analogy, once you are taught the Pythagorean Theorem (a² + b² = c ²) you have learned it, no future math teacher will come up to you are say, “Here is the new Pythagorean Theorem; a² + c² = b².” If they did, they should be fired. That’s what it felt like for me when I was being taught to write. One year a teacher would teach the point-evidence-explain method for structuring a paragraph then the next year another teacher would say, “No no no! You need to link at the end.” Then the next year someone else would say, “Why are you doing this? This is so basic! Go try this other obscure thing.” I felt like I had found a building block to improve on and then it would be stripped away the next year to be replaced with a new skill. It was like playing a new round of Jenga every year.

One thing that didn’t help was my dysgraphia. For those of you who don’t know dysgraphia is a condition where you are unable to concentrate as easily along with a difficulty writing that also leads to terrible handwriting. It was a massive relief when I was diagnosed. Unfortunately, the diagnoses came late in life, at age 16, which meant that I spent years having teachers punish me and berate me for my piss poor handwriting or my lack of focus. I spent countless parent teacher meetings listening to teachers telling my parents about the latest time that I disrupted the class or about the essay they couldn’t read because of my hand writing. When asked why I couldn’t write cleaner or pay attention all I could respond with was, “I don’t know.” There were countless times when I would lay staring up at the ceiling wondering what was wrong with me. I think that this combined with the fact that English classes give you awful, timed essays that are exactly the opposite of what someone with dysgraphia needs led to my hatred of writing.

To this day I still hate writing, but I’ve learned to actually get the work done. It’s a pain and makes me feel like Sisyphus, destined to push the current assignment until it’s done only to have another waiting for me the next morning. Unlike Sisyphus I feel the load lightening. Every assignment takes less energy, not much less but still less. I doubt that I’ll ever make it to the point where I enjoy writing, but I may make it to the point where it doesn’t hurt anymore.

 

Meet The Artist – Dot Rogers

Meet The Artist – Dot Rogers

 

The students enrolled in ARHS 2200: Current Art proudly present this conversation with the Liverpool-based visual artist Dot Rogers, which took place on June 23rd. Dot spoke with us about her commercial work (murals, window displays, visual branding), her education projects for museums such as https://www.theatkinson.co.uk/whats-on/museum/egyptology/, and her other work as an artist and animator. Her talk is chock-full of practical advice, such as how to create the conditions for new work opportunities, how to manage difficult clients, and how to develop thick skin. Dot’s work can be seen here: https://www.instagram.com/dotrogersting/

 

Dot Rogers

by Julianna Sandholm-Bark

Horoscoop

Horoscoop

It’s difficult to question the unknown, it’s even harder to admit to yourself that there is an off chance that there is nothing more to life than itself. Reality can be scary if the truth is we struggle endlessly through a world of pain, ultimately getting swallowed by a void of darkness, and our ashes are left to be scattered mournfully in fields of silence. So why are we surprised when we find out one of our friends is an astrology junkie, telling us our lives have true meaning in the stars? “People need something to believe in,” one interviewee explained, “and if it’s not going to be Jesus [religion], then it’s going to be astrology.” 

Astrology examines the exact positions of the planets and constellations at the exact moment of a person’s birth and argues that these correspond systematically to their temperament, personality characteristics, interpersonal relationships, occupation, and auspicious periods of life.  

Nearly every culture on earth has a practice of studying the stars; many modern movements or campaigns in war were guided with them — even the French government has an astrologer to consult today. Nonetheless, as a result of glossy magazines screaming pseudoscience and thinly veiled personality tests with loose associations to psychological conditions, astrology can seem fatalistic and narcissistic on the surface. Additionally, the scientific world has dismissed astrology as possessing no explanatory ability for understanding the universe. It is considered pseudoscience as it has not been proven reliable in controlled studies and has little scientific validity. Not to forget those that struggle with accepting astrology due to their faith, because the belief in the other-worldly goes against bible ruling. In fact, the Bible specifies astrologers as among those who will be “burned as stubble” in God’s judgment.  

Under the surface, however, and when analyzed with methodology, diligence and faith; it calls into question our role in the universe, the nature of free will, and our understanding of humanity. It leads many people to consider whether physics and the alignment of the planets, may veritably have an impact on their existence. After all, if the moon can influence the ocean’s tides, what other forces are we having to contend with? Astrology connects us with the universe. Our bodies and the stars are all made of the same matter, so is it so impossible that maybe these ever-fixed markers guide us through life and transitions as we struggle to guide ourselves? 

The American Federation of Astrologers recently reported that 70 million Americans, or about 23% of the population, read their horoscope every day compared to 12% readership recorded in a 1999 National Science Foundation survey. Although the result could be interpreted as the aftereffect of the evolving media landscape, it still indicates a considerable rise in horoscope viewership over the last two decades. Out of the seven interviewed volunteers, we found that two read it occasionally for the purpose of entertainment, four people read it at least once a week and one reads it every day. The only subject, when asked to comment on her daily routine, the subject responded that “reading my horoscope every morning gave me something exciting to wake up to. In a way, astrology might be the most stable thing in my life,” she joked “it’s there for my every morning with relatively good advice, no matter the given situation.”  

I, myself am a skeptical creature, with trust issues to worry about. If you were to ask me a few months ago, whether I believe in astrology, I would have replied that it’s a nice idea, but “I’m too afraid to get my hopes up.” Despite these expectations, astrology ignited a spark of curiosity within me, and I finally took the bait once one of my closest friends began investing herself in the study of horoscopes, moon positions and even the magical properties of crystals. It was funny, it was even slightly ridiculous, and yet soon after I was saging rooms, watching libra tarot cards readings on YouTube and participating in lunar rituals. 

Can you blame me? I’m not even a hundred percent sure I believe in it, yet I cannot lie that the concept and practice of astrology entertains me. It doesn’t stop at horoscope readings — astrology involves many practices including tarot cards, palm readings, crystals, moon rituals and the belief in chakras, auras and energies. The world of astrology is beautiful, creative and, as one very charming participant described, a “comfort zone.” “There’s no pressure in astrology,” another believer explained, “it’s just reading the sky. There are no rules, no strict guidelines. Definitely, no wars were fought over it.”  

Astrology is not scary, it doesn’t bite. Hence, I challenge you dear reader to spin your wheel of fortune aka. Going on the internet. Simply, google your birthday and then type in ‘horoscope personality’ and see what comes up. Mine reads: As a Libra born on September 29th, you are creative and resourceful. While at first you may have your moments of shyness, as you grow older and gain more confidence, you will arrive to a position of power. Pretty cool, don’t you think? I would even say; spot on 😊! But people are biased and it’s hard to acknowledge your true nature, hence now I challenge you to google the horoscope of your friends, family and co-workers. Does it ring more true? 

If you remain unconvinced, welcome to the majority. The concept that a zodiac reading, usually presented as short as a medium-sized paragraph, could apply to 1/12th of the population is hard to imagine to be true. By stating that large groups of people share personality traits, emotional plot twists and even luck, it consequently questions individualism, and diminishes our agenda in being unique individuals. However, these words are being written by an astrological enthusiast, who reads her horoscope once a week. What I have taken from this transition is my belief in the universe, in its balance and its intersectionality of events. I believe, that your horoscope finds you. Whether it is a magazine, an online app, a YouTube tarot reading or even a TikTok, you were always meant to stumble upon it and read it, and the more you focus on one source of information, the more it will align to you and you energy/soul. Nevertheless, I encourage readers to power their critical thinking whilst reading horoscopes. Because what is important is that we remember that sun does not revolve around us, but that the Earth and us revolve around the Sun. 

Meet The Artist – Dot Rogers

Meet The Artist – Helen Molesworth

Ever wondered what “pleochroism” or “chatoyancy” meant? On February 16, Meet the Artist and Career Services co-hosted a Career Talk with renowned gem expert Helen Molesworth, who gave us an overview of her 20-year long career in the jewellery industry. Helen’s compelling story took us from her classics-reading days at Oxford University, to her studies at the Gemmological Association of Great Britain, to working as a jewellery expert between London and Geneva (she was in charge of selling the private jewellery collection of HRH the Princess Margaret in London in 2006), to joining Gübelin as managing director, to recently becoming head of business development for Gembridge, a new digital platform for trading gemstones, pearls and jewellery. An extraordinary story, and one that is likely to remain imprinted in the minds of the Webster community for a long time to come. For more information about the speaker, please visit www.helenmolesworth.com

Helen Molesworth

by Julianna Sandholm-Bark