Expanding My Horizons

The readings for this week were right up my alley. Spiderman. Superman. Wonder Woman. All of these characters are familiar members of the pop culture I have consumed. For a while I was a comic book collector and devoured everything there was to know about the various heroes. The X-Men and Spiderman were my favorites. From their stories I learned how to examine complex issues in interesting and unconventional ways through subtext and themes instead of across-the-table discussion. Nearly all the articles we had for the readings complemented what I had already deduced on my own. Spiderman as a discussion of social mentality, Superman’s outfit as a uniform, and Wonder Woman as a multi-faceted female figure in society are all concepts that deserve intelligent analysis, but which are often overlooked because of the connections comic book heroes have with childhood and pulp fiction. As a side note, none of the readings were in the least bit boring—I made short work of them and ended up wishing there was more.

TV and movies have also played a huge role in influencing how I create art as well. I draw ideas from the visual looks of movies and find new characters inspired by events or characters from my favorite television shows. These same media texts offer further analysis of complex, pressing issues without the stuffiness of scholarly pretentiousness. Battlestar Galactica is a show that comes to mind. The new iteration of the original show was written with the specific intent of bringing audiences to analyze contemporary society and how it views and reacts to critical issues like religious extremism, military and political tensions, and gender roles in every area of society.

The paintings of Mary and the Baby Jesus served as a reminder that pop culture is not solely limited to Americana; that other nations and peoples have their pop culture as well. Over the winter break I had the chance to visit the MoMa in New York. I was exposed to new forms of art and representation that I would not have considered on my own, predominantly from Western artists. But when I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art later that same week, I saw the art of different cultures. It was fascinating to see the differing ideas of beauty throughout history and throughout the world. What was considered ideal beauty in Mexico two hundred years ago was different in Europe at the same, all of which were different from what we consider ideal beauty today.

As a result of my exposure to other cultures and their art, I have learned how important it is to avoid using clichéd representations or stereotypes in my work. What may seem unconventional to one audience might seem refreshingly familiar to another. I must be constantly expanding my horizons and evolving my perceptions of how something can be represented.