If you're
looking for a unique blog you are fixing to after this post. Through out my
second semester of WRC I have written papers for this class and my works
improved as the year went by and although the grade doesn't reflect though
I know I have. These posts have been written and thought out by me
deeply and what you're about to read you will see posts that I have
spoken out of heart will touch you and other posts someone I look up
to.
Hello, my name is Jerry Sanchez, but instead of teachers having to write
down on the class roll call by what I go, I really go by Jerry...at least my
doctor said that Gerardo in English was Jerry so since then I have been going
by that. I am from Houston, Texas and since Houston
has developed into an enormous city I am technically from
Spring. My whole childhood to this day I love playing and
everything that is affiliated with soccer. I played soccer for 4 years when
attending Klein Collins High School. Like I had said in
the beginning, there is a blog post about a visionary and
who I admire. I look up to this visionary artist because I also love drawing.
Since I was a student in elementary school I loved it, the freedom being able
to create anything you mind desires to being able to forget about
anything temporarily and deeply focus on just drawing. Leading me to
decide on majoring in art, but specifically graphic design. I am
currently an undergrad student who attends University of Texas at San Antonio.
The summer before my new chapter in life, going to college, friends and family
members tell you what to expect out of college. I received great tips
from everyone and thankfully every one's tips helped me significantly, but
one thing that stood us apart that everyone had a completely different first
year of college. My first year was difficult to get adjusted to, but as the
weeks go by I got adjusted to it. I met amazing people these months and God
puts people in your path so that you can decide whether I
should spending time with the right people or the wrong people. At
times I thought and felt I was around the right people but God gives
you signs you are wrong. When finishing up the school year i figured put who
they were. Nonetheless I had an amazing first semester and don' regret anything
and this first year of college has brought me moments that have made
me mature.
WRC has taught me to write the correct way but Mrs. Sundol and
the way she helps us to make my class experience helpful. My writing was always
weird because I truthfully can say that I didn't like writing but its not
because of the subject but its because I am reserved and like to
keep my thoughts I have to say privately. That being said when I do write, I
write with what I feel. From my first paper in WRC I didn't get a good grade
but every paper we got back I took in the mistakes and
tried to improve on those for the next papers. The methods of researching has
as well changed since starting out. Mrs. Sundol and our
textbook taught me the sources the correct steps in finding out what
sources and taught us the things you need to have a good paper.
Shepard Fairey who said “lets make art not war.”
Sheppard Fairey is a renounced activist and street artist but when finding his
love for art in High School he became in love and attached to the work of Keith
Haring and his his way of thinking, "make art not war." Sheppard
Fairey was introduced to street art in the 80s because of Keith Haring's work.
Street artists are a just as any normal artist but whose canvas or work area is
the street, wall, or on a sidewalk to promote there art and make a name for
them. Although many people may believe to look at street art as vandalism, many
seem to forget the message behind the street art pieces. Street art gives
people the urban perspective to show people the everyday issues that we
sometimes turn our back to. Keith Haring is an iconic artist who is known by
many artists as one of the founders of pop art just as Andy Warhol who
“many people believe is one of the pioneers of the street art world’’ (qtd. in
Keith Haring X OBEY), explains Julia Green, executive director at The
Keith Haring Foundation. Keith Haring created a visual imagery that included
characters, slogans, and patterns like anyone was doing. His pieces were like
any other styles of art anyone has seen. The vibrant colors to being able to
recognized it works from a mile away and how that it was Keith
Haring. David Stark who is a foundation member of The Keith Haring
Foundation also in The Works on Paper 1989, went as far to say "Keith
Haring was a prodigy in the world of art his constant generosity of spirit and
fearless productivity under death's shadow." Keith Haring loved art
but he grew in a humble environment and always thought of
the people around and loved helping people out no matter who it was, according
to “Haring’s Kids Lesson Plans”, Haring was devoted to the children and worked
with children in schools and hospitals. He donated his work to institutions,
created books, and posters to educate children to advance their causes.
Keith Haring is one of the originators for using his art to show a message in a
way many artists usually do not. He was a visionary who visualized the world in
a way many people did not in the sense that everything had meaning behind it.
He believed that “art could reach all kinds of people, as opposed to the
traditional view, which has art as this elitist thing…” (Works on Paper
5). Keith Haring was born on May 4, 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania during a time
when modern art was not as popular and becoming an artist was a long shot goal
because to this day becoming a well known artist is difficult. Not many artists
have the privilege to say that being an artist is helping them
financially. Just as any kid growing up, drawing was always something kids
loved to do in class and at home but you could observe that Keith
Haring didn't just like drawing he loved it. Keith haring started
from cartoons from Walt Disney and Dr. Seuss. Keith Haring attended Ivy School
of Professional Art in Pittsburgh after graduating high school. Haring was
pushed by his parents and his guidance counselor because if Keith Haring was
serious about having a career in the art field it was best for him to attend a
school that was for specifically for an art career such as the Ivy School of
Professional Art in Pittsburgh, but then Keith dropped out after two semesters.
That year after dropping out Keith Haring moved to New York to attend the
School of Visual Arts. Haring's unique language and his environmental and
material poetry brought forth a network of interweaving signs that could act on
the nervous system of a city such as New York, according to Germano
Celant, author of Labyrinths of Life and Death.
Once moving to New York he was influenced by the rebellious art movement
and unknown art works. Keith Haring was deeply in New York’s cultural
environment, and was well affected buy the city life and when arriving
to “New York in 1978 as a scholarship student at the School of Visual
Arts. All at once, he began to experience a multicultural urban community with
its' own expressive vocabulary" (Journey of The Radiant Baby
17). The School of Visual Arts and in the vibrantly experimental East
Village, gave Keith Haring life and energy. In the 80s, New York was deeply
influenced by hip-hop attracting Keith Haring also attracted “to the street
culture of hip-hop music, break dancing, and graffiti art was partially born
from his rejection of the attitudes of the establishment power structure and
his determination to inhabit a larger world” (Works on Paper 4). Keith Haring
wanted to spread the street's voice and his art but in the beginning he had
trouble deciding how his work can be seen by the city. Inspired by the
graffiti on the walls of the downtown subways his belief of visual
communication, Keith Haring worked on the walls down in New York subways and
began filming the pieces. Keith Haring was working on and quickly created
a popular following for his lively figural and patterned imagery and his
cheekily outlaw activity. Haring shared few of the “tagging” tactics of
urban graffitists "being drawn instead to the possibilities of a
new public and vernacular kind of signage" (Encyclopedia Britannica).
When Keith Haring was discovering his style in art he was helped by his
teachers at the School of Visual Arts. Keith Haring discovered himself staring
from a group of drawing then realizing his drawing had meanings behind them
such as vocabulary leading him to think that drawing in the street because he
had something to say and spread. Keith Haring just as any artist, when finding
himself Keith “bought a roll of oak-tag paper and cut it up and put it all
over the floor and worked on this whole group of drawings. The first few were
abstracts, but then these images started coming” (The Keith Haring
Foundation). One day when Keith Haring was “riding the subway and saw this
empty black panel where an advertisement was supposed to go, he immediately
realized that this was the perfect place to draw. He went back above ground to
a card shop and bought a box of white chalk, went back down and did a drawing
on it. It was perfect–soft black paper; chalk drew on it really easily” (The
Keith Haring Foundation).
Just as any artist, Keith Haring cared much about the feedback of the viewers
because he wasn't doing his work for commission but for the people. Having any
type of feedback from the community motivated Keith Haring to keep doing what
he did best and which was going the streets a voice; “having this incredible
feedback from people, which is one of the main things that kept me going so
long, was the participation of the people that were watching me and the kinds
of comments and questions and observations that were coming from every range of
person you could imagine, from little kids to old ladies to art historians”
(The Keith Haring Foundation).
In
1982, Haring had his first New York one-man show at the Shafrazi Gallery.
At this time Keith “Haring worked on sets, record sleeves, book covers” and
because of his diverse projects many people at this time saw his work with or
without knowing him ("Camila Rockwood"). Not only did he create
paintings and sculptures for the show, he engulfed the entire gallery with his
bold color choices and frenetic designs. A critical success, he soon became one
of most popular artists of the time with exhibits in Japan, Brazil, and many
other countries. Haring collaborated with other artists and performers,
including Andy Warhol and William Burroughs. Wanting to make his art more
accessible, Haring opened Pop Shop in New York City in 1986. The store sold
posters, t-shirts, and other items baring his artwork and designs. He was also
interested many social causes, painting an anti-drug mural that same year. In
all, he did more than 50 public works and held numerous workshops for
children. What made Keith Haring unique was that he never changed even how
he was even with his accomplishments; Keith always tried to be humble and
care for his family and his community. With the successes Keith Haring
achieved he found it wrong to sell his work in exchange for money and because
of that Keith Haring donated most of his work to charities. Keith’s
reputation gradually began and kept growing as the years went by and as Keith
Haring kept work in different countries around the world but Keith Haring was
not in the art profession to popular, although he appreciated feedback from
people in the community and artists, but Keith was concerned in the people
around him.
In 1988, Keith Haring received saddening news that he had
been diagnosed with AIDS. Although it was a dark time for Keith Haring he
did not take a step back from art, but used this tragic event as a way to
spread awareness of AIDS. Keith Haring found this unfortunate event in his
life as an opportunity and kept moving in his life and started many of his
pieces to leave an image that spread the message of AIDS. “No matter how long
you work, it’s always going to end sometime. And there’s always going to be
things left undone. And it wouldn’t matter if you lived until you were
seventy-five. There would still be new ideas. There would still be things that
you wished you had accomplished. You could work for several lifetimes…. part of
the reason that I’m not having trouble facing the reality of death is that it’s
not a limitation, in a way. It could have happened any time, and it is going to
happen sometime. If you live your life according to that, death is irrelevant.
Everything I’m doing right now is exactly what I want to do” (The Keith Haring
Foundation). The next year, Keith created The Keith Haring Foundation in
response to his diagnoses and to support AIDS organizations. Keith's foundation
focused on children’s programs. The Keith Haring Foundation continues
to receive charitable support of other AIDS-related organizations and
people around the world.
Keith Haring publicized his work "based on a contract with the
public that emerged with his first subway drawings and although it was not a
written contract and more of a personal thing, he cared about the
community" (Keith Haring: Journey of the Radiant Baby 14). Keith
Haring tweaked the way many people view their everyday lives in way that we
appreciate the small things and you can see the way he viewed the world by his
work. Keith Haring his art to give the “streets” a voice. The way he painted
his pieces showed how he expressed himself and cared about the community just
as some artists forget where they came from when becoming known. Keith
Haring was a visionary because although he may not have changed the world or be
considered a hero he did spread positivity in his works and viewed
the world as no one else; Keith Haring was "interested in humanity
and wanted to make a world a better place" (Keith Haring: Journey of the
Radiant Baby 20).
I am Jerry
Who needs
family, friends, and adventure
Who loves
sports, art, music
Who sees
opportunities,
Who hates lazy
people, dishonesty
Who fears
failure, and wasps
Who dreams of
success, prosperity, a good career
Who has found
poems of Edgar Allen Poe
Resident of a
city 30 minutes from downtown Houston
Sanchez
