Editorial Sketch

I am focusing on the fact that a lot of people were putting into prison because they do drugs, and most of them are African Americans.

Black and White Editorial: Final Sketch

Hey guys!

The Constitution Day panel, to begin with, was extremely interesting. I enjoyed how the three panelists had their own individual opinions about the prison system, but I tended to listen more to Ms. Susan Burton. Her story about how her addiction has put her back and forth behind bars, and yet managed to change her life around completely, and is helping women in a similar position she once was in. Not to mention, she experienced life in prison, which I felt was really good to listen to for this panel discussion. 

This leads into the meaning of my final sketch. When Ms. Burton was talking about how she wasn't really given a fair trial, and no judge or DA saw that she had an addiction (which could have put her in a recovery house of some sort), I based my illustration for this project on that. I really wanted the struggle to be apparent, which is why the small figure about to be smashed with a gavel is looking away form the audience. Not to mention, I wanted to convey how a fair trial can make one feel minuscule in contrast to a law enforcer. In all retrospect, the law system in the United States is flawed in many ways, for I know many individuals that have been in Ms Burton's position, and I feel that this topic should be addressed.

Diana's Editorial Sketch

As I scrolled down this blog, looking at the sketches from Constitution Day, I quickly realized something: Dana was right. I am fine artsy. In focusing on capturing depth through illustrating the foreground figures with more contrast and more details, I forgot to create a visual response to the panel discussion. This is merely a depiction of what I saw. Should I be satisfied?

What I really want to say, as a response to the discussion, is how appreciative I am for having the opportunity to listen to the panelists. While I was much disturbed by the seemingly stark detrimental effect and ineffectiveness of the prison system, I enjoyed how informed and passionate the panelists were about bringing about change. In particular, David Simon and Aaron Henkin impressed me on an intellectual level; I loved how they're approaching the issue of mass incarceration in a calculated way, thinking about how to beat the system and inform others. This doesn't mean that I wasn't impressed by Susan Burton; she's an amazing, strong women who translated her struggles as a previous drug addict into strength to support women who need treatment. Overall, I'm glad to have attended Constitution Day at MICA and felt motivated to vote against sending someone in prison for the possession and/or abuse of drugs.

Edit: I want to convey how capitalism adds to the corruption of the prison system

Map project - Research and Sketches

For my map project, I spent a day in Fell's Point and another day in Inner Harbor. I wanted to make a map on the places young girls can go and chill with their friends. So, I thought Fell's Point and Inner Harbor would be two good places to hang out with friends, since they both have many cool places to go. I also thought that since the water taxi is running between Inner Harbor and Fell's Point, they can easily hang out in one place and go to another place by the water taxi. I re-visited some of the places I often went in both Fell's Point and Inner Harbor. I looked for good restaurants, good picture spots, cafes, brunch places, cute boutique and ice cream/gelato places. 

Last Saturday, I went to Fell's Point with my friend and we walked around and looked for good places to eat, chill, walk around and take pictures. It took me awhile to get the streets down on my paper, because I am usually really bad with directions. So I spent a lot of time just walking around and drawing out map on my sketchbook. I also went into some cute boutiques and and other shops to see what kinds of stuff they have and checked their prices. Many of the stuff were little pricy, but there were a lot of cute things that girls would love to try out with their friends. 

Also, I found a cafe where girls can drop by to get a coffee or sit down and chat with their friends. There was also my favorite brunch cafe that I really want to include in my map. I also went to some ice-cream/gelato places and tried some new flavor. It started to rain really hard from the afternoon, so it was difficult to do sketches outside. But I managed to do it under some stores' roofs or I still just drew outside. I stayed there until it got dark to see how it is like to to be at Fell's Point at night. It had a different atmosphere from a day time, which I loved.

After girls spend enough time in Fell's Point, they can take a water taxi to get to Inner Harbor. There are also many boutiques and places to eat and chill there. There are some shops like H&M and Forever 21 that have cheaper clothes than the ones in Fell's Point. Also, they have an aquarium and also nice places where they can take pictures with their friends. Just walking around the harbor is also a good idea to spend time. When I was there, I walked around the harbor a few times and tried to record every shop I'e been to on my sketchbook. I went to the sweets shop, cake place, cupcake place, asian restaurant and also a bookstore. Also, I spent most of my time outside, sketching the sceneries. The weather was perfect this time.  

Map Research

The day was September 21^st, 2013.  Kind of a gloomy Saturday as far as the weather goes. I woke up at around 11 AM. I dressed myself, had a quick lunch, and headed out on my journey with sketchbook and charcoals in hand. My hunt began to find the best record stores the Baltimore area had to offer.

My first stop was in Hampden. I took the first available shuttle there and once I arrived, I came across my first destination: Celebrated Summer Records. This shop was actually located within another store called Atomic Books, and going through their vinyl I noticed that the majority of the selection consisted of punk and hardcore music (which pleased me greatly).

Down the street was my next stop, The True Vine. With its colorful environment and great selection of vinyl and LPs, it seemed that I had started off my day on the right foot. The owner, Jason, was incredibly friendly, knowledgeable, and I could’ve left with a quarter of the store’s display in my pocket after speaking with him. But I suppose leaving with just a sketch of the building sufficed, as I still had a long way to go on the day’s expedition.

I then walked a few blocks east and came across JOJOSOUTH Record Shop in Wyman Park. This almost boutique-like shop was hard to find at first, but once I stepped inside I was delighted to see how unintimidating the environment was (mainly because of the low ceilings, perfectly suited towards my 5’2” stature). The selection was reasonably priced and clean, and I found a couple of rare gems while rummaging through.

Venturing past Johns Hopkins University I ended up in Abell, where I found Normal’s Books and Records. The location was pretty inconvenient, as it is nearby some pretty rough neighborhoods. Additionally, a rival bookshop called The Book Thing (famous for its free public book exchange) was located right down the street. Nonetheless, this store felt quite comfortable and I lost myself inside for a bit before taking off to start the 2^nd half of my voyage.

I arrived at Penn Station and took the next bus to Fells Point to rest my tired legs. I stopped to get some coffee, and then found El Suprimo Records. This store was a converted basement, and had a wide array of different genres. Also, it was quite loud inside… which honestly was just the way I liked it. It was around this time that it began to rain, so I hurried along to the next stop.

I promptly arrived at probably the most well known record store in Baltimore, The Sound Garden. The thing that stood out the most to me about this place was that it had its own parking lot, which is RARE for its location. This one was just as good as the others I visited thus far, so I made my sketch and kept moving as the evening approached.

My last stop in the actual city of Baltimore was at Dimensions in Music in the downtown area. This store specialized in much more urban music such as hip-hop and rap. I took a quick sketch down, and the friendly staff bid me adieu as I trekked back to MICA.

And yet, this wasn’t the end of my journey! A friend of mine came to pick me up after dinner in her father’s minivan, and we drove off to her hometown of Catonsville. In Catonsville was the last stop on my voyage, Trax On Wax. The store smelled wonderfully of incense, and was decently organized. My only complaint would probably be the randomized prices.

From this lengthy tale, you can probably already assume that my final project is going to be on “Record Shops in the Baltimore Area”. I plan on doing it in sort of a garage band flyer style, much like the ones I see on billboards around MICA campus.

Editorial Sketches

There was a special moment at last week's Constitution Day lecture that really struck me, and that was during Susan Burton's speech. She spoke about how she had lost her 5-year-old child when he was accidentally run over by a police car, and I felt like I could really relate to this situation after losing my mother to cancer 10 years ago. I know how long it takes to recover from an incident as devastating as losing someone so close to you. For my piece, I really wanted to capture this powerful point in the presentation.

Thumbnails:

Rough sketches:

Final sketch:

map research

My map will be focus on churches in Baltimore. I spend my time on working around and founding beautiful churches.