Friday, January 23, 2009

Spring Semester

I have been to my first classes for the semester for the spring, so I thought I would share what I'll be working on this semester.

My Texts and Images II is a class that combines Art History and literature to form an understanding of the time period from different viewpoints. It is taught by 2 professors: one for texts and one for images. Last semester we mostly studied ancient art and texts, which isn't the most exciting to me, but this semester promises to be MUCH more inspiring. We are focusing on movements that began as "counter-culture."

The books we are reading are:

A Theologico- Political Treatise by Benedict Benedict de Spinoza (1670)(Ewles translation):
This is a philosophical examination of religion and society. Apparently even though he was religious himself, he wrote the book from an objective point of view and received great criticism for it.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1831) (yay)

Notes from the Underground by Dostoevsky (1864):
an existentialist narrative.

Civilization and Its Discontent by Sigmund Freud (1930)

Mother Courage and her Children (1938):
A play set in the time of the 30 years war, but performed during WWII

The Web of Life by Fritjof Capra:
An introduction to Systems theory, which incorporates a number of disciplines which are grasped around common models of organization.


For the Images half of the class we will be studying movements starting with Renaissance art and ending with neo-expressionism. I am so excited to study these periods of art- some of my favorite!

In my Drawing-Painting-Printmaking class I will have to complete (at least) 4 22 X 30 inch or larger paintings and decide a direction to take for my final project/thesis! I have a ways to go with that because I will need at least 24 paintings to be a part of the final project, but everything I do from this point really should be done with that in mind.

All the while I am working on my teaching certification via my Region IV online class. I have never taken an online class so it is kind of odd. I will also be substitute teaching.

Hopefully I can keep up with everything!