eight

I came up with my lede
Like clay, we are molded by our culture and fired by passion to become lustrous members of a community. 
Michael Jacobs, who has a bachelors in psychology and masters in anthropology, defines culture as “the sum total of all learned knowledge and behavior that is passed on from generation to generation in a given society. That includes everything except for those hard-wired instincts and processes that are part of our genetic makeup, such as, the way our brains process visual or auditory images, the way we smile, and other human universals.” Cultures of specific communities are all unique in their own ways, whether it be technology, cuisine, economy, religion, politics, clothing, music, art, and more. This essay explores the way public art impacts the community, both locally and widespread. 

(more of my draft will come when I get the responses from my interviews)


I realized that my interviews weren’t set up successfully to make a strong article. I backtracked and refocused my questions to find new artists to interview, both sculpture and mural. 

The first is Tony Matelli, a sculpture artist in New York and MIAD grad, explores art and the community in his own way. His work often involves food on classical greek and roman sculpture form, and extremely lifelike sleepwalkers. I have reached out to Tony for my additional interview and am waiting on his response to the following:

1. Can you talk specifically about the reason for creating a few of the series you do and their meaning? Does the placement of the sculptures play into the meaning?2. How is your work received by the public? 
3. Is there a certain reaction you hope to see in people as they visually process your art?
4. Who/what inspires you?
5. What is your favorite medium to work with?
6. Can you describe two or three important projects that you have completed? Why were they significant? 
7. How do you think art shapes a community?
8. how do you believe putting your art into the world has shaped communities within art?
9. How do you think art can connect people? 
10. Do you create for yourself, for an audience, or for people with a background in art? 

I rethought my questions on the Couto brothers, but ultimately decided it wasn’t as good of a choice to use their responses, because their work is not featured in the city anymore, which I did not know while doing prior research. However, I will still be recording their responses to the following to include for added perspective in my article: 

1. How do you think art impacts a community?
2. how do you believe putting your art into the world has shaped communities within art?
3. Who/what that inspires you?
4. how do you think art can connect people?

Additionally, Emma Daisy Gertel, who did the Westown in Bloom mural is a good source for an interview because the mural was created specifically for that location and I know it positively affected a lot of people, as I was at the ribbon cutting. 
Questions for Emma: 

1. Can you talk specifically about the design for the Westown in Bloom mural? How does the placement of the mural augment the meaning? 
2. How is the work received by the public? 
3. Who/what inspires you?
4. What is your favorite medium to work with?
5. Is Westown in Bloom similar to your other work?
6. How do you think art shapes a community?
7. how do you believe putting your art into the world has shaped communities within art?
8. How do you think art can connect people?