Category: Writing Blog

Final Reflections:

Looking back at this class and this project, I realize how incredibly important public art was and will continue to be. It is controversial, it is complicated, it is simple, it is beautiful, it is messy, it is creative—it is so many different things. What I love most is that every single piece of art can mean something different to each person.

I learned so much about the history of Los Tres Grandes and their influence on so many other people. What is so fascinating especially to me is the way their art made people feel—they made people think about the world around them in a completely new way.

I will miss this class mostly though because of the people I got to experience it with. I strengthened some already great friendships, and got to know some new faces. I wish everyone the best in their Dartmouth careers!

Oral Presentation:

For my oral presentation, I want to talk about the writing process I have gone through so far with my research paper. I want to speak about the different sources I found, and the ways I went about to find them. I am particularly excited about sharing my experience speaking with Jose Clemente Orozco’s grandson, Clementé. It was so fascinating to hear him speak about his grandfather, and I would love to share with my class the incredible source he was to my research paper.

Also in my oral presentation, I would like to talk about the process I went through when creating my ePortfolio on WordPress. This is my first time ever using WordPress, and I have learned so much about it through this class. I see this webpage as something incredibly useful for upcoming classes—it is a great way to store information in an attractive way. I have had a lot of fun playing with the different settings and structures, and have gained a tremendous amount of insight into how web design plays out. Using the WordPress website was very valuable to me because of this.

First Draft of Research Paper:

For my first draft of the research paper, I focused mainly on gathering information about the different aspects of Jose Clemente Orozco’s life—particularly the part of his life that he spent at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. I had a lot of fun exploring the library and finding a bunch of resources to potentially use.

The hard part now is narrowing my research paper down—I feel like I could go a bunch of different ways with this paper, and I need to sit down now and sift through all of the information I gathered. I am thinking about focusing on the controversy of his mural here in Dartmouth’s Baker-Berry Library, The Epic of American Civilization.

Finding sources:

Since Jose Clemente Orozco painted The Epic of American Civilization in the Baker Library, he is incredibly important to the Dartmouth Community. Therefore, I had no problems with finding information about his work and his life. I started my research on the internet, specifically on Dartmouth’s Hood Museum website. I really enjoyed that it was such an interactive site. I especially liked how I could see Orozco’s artistic processes from beginning to end as he created The Epic of American Civilization. From here, I went onto the Dartmouth Library website to search for physical books that I could use. I found a wealth of information about Orozco in the Sherman Art Library—I ended up checking out three different books. One of which is his autobiography that offered incredible insight into his life.

On top of all of these sources, I was able to speak with Jose Clemente Orozco’s grandson. It was an experience unlike any other. I loved hearing him tell stories of his grandfather that have been passed down. I am really looking forward to including some of his grandson’s quotes in my paper. 

Deciding on the research paper topic:

For this research paper, I wanted to dive deeper into one of the Los Tres Grandes. Coming into this class, I did not know much about any of the artists. Once I read more about them and studied their works, I knew that I wanted to know even more. In particular, I was interested in diving deeper into the works and the life of Jose Clemente Orozco. What fascinated me about him from the very beginning of the class was the way his art did not necessarily try to persuade his audience of one certain thing—I interpreted his work in my own way, just like everyone else. I love that each person has a different interpretation on his work.