For this week’s blog post, I want to reflect and talk about the Ukraine – Russia conflict and our conversation about it In class. Before class, I had definitely heard about the threat of war between Russia and Ukraine, but I didn’t really understand it and the severity of it. It is very disheartening to hear that there could be a big war and large loss of life in the next few months, especially when it seems semi preventable. Obviously, I’m no expert on this subject, and I somewhat just learned about it, but to me, I think referring to this as a big identity crisis is spot on. Really, Vladimir Putin seems like a paranoid dictator with way too much power for his and his country’s own good. Something that I had never heard about and find really interesting is how Russia’s history or at least a big part of it Is invasion because of their lack of natural borders. I am certainly not justifying Russia invading its surrounding countries, but I could see how at some point they had to do something. I think they should have tried negotiating first, and coming to some sort of an agreement or treaty with their surrounding countries. If Russia was able to invade 11 countries, I’m sure they could have worked something out instead. Now, I am going to ask some questions that I’ve thought of during and after our class. My first question is what does it look like to live in Ukraine right now? Is there mass panic or hysteria? I am trying to imagine the US in this situation and I can’t even imagine feeling the fear they must feel right now. Also, what does it look like to live in Russia right now as well? Because of the global pandemic, supply chain issues are already bad, and on top of that being cut off from trade with the rest of the world? It is hard and getting harder to get the necessary resources to live? To me, it sounds unpleasant to live in both places right now. Another question I have is around how long will it take for Russia to recover from the Ruble collapse? Could this be a multi-year struggle? Finally, my last question is what will Ukraine look like 10-15 years from now? I have no sense of the damage that could be done, so what is the worst-case scenario for Ukraine now? I think that’s all my questions for this post, so I’m going to end here. Sorry for the shorter post!

Hello, Mr. McDonnell. For this week’s blog post, I am going to talk a bit about our short renaissance unit and talk about my Harlem Renaissance project that I completed yesterday. The renaissance period and ancient Rome are very interesting topics to me. As I may have mentioned, I have always loved ancient Greek and Roman mythology and history, so our renaissance unit has been one that I have very much enjoyed. It was also really cool to learn about the development of art and artist’s technique throughout this time period and others, and that even crosses over into the art class I took in the first semester. We as a class all learned how to draw in one-point perspective and two-point perspective, and although it seems easy, it’s really not. I think it was Maia who said something along the lines of “why couldn’t these skilled famous artists just draw what they see?” and now I understand that there is a little more to it than simply just drawing what you see. Something else I enjoyed was the project we did where we had to investigate the mysterious murder of one of the Brothers (Lorenzo was his name, I think).  I wish I could have been there for the very end of it because being virtual definitely makes you feel disconnected from the group. Now, I think I’m gonna switch gears and talk about my Harlem Renaissance project a little bit. As you will soon find out, I chose to do my project on Louis Armstrong. The writing part of this assignment was not very hard for me because all I had to do was just explain my process and drawing, but I did have a bit of artist’s block while trying to create the drawing. I knew from the start that I wanted to include Louis Armstrong’s Cornet somehow because really that was what he was most famous for, and eventually, after doing some brainstorming, I decided to have all of the life accomplishments of his spewing out. I hope it is alright that I traced the photo of Louis Armstrong and touched it up here and there. I really didn’t trust myself freehanding such a realistic person, and I wanted to try my best to have it look exactly as I imagined it so everyone who sees it can understand my vision. I think I was in eighth grade, maybe seventh, when I did a project on him, so I had some existing knowledge on him and knew how interesting and accomplished he was. Another crossover between classes is that we are reading a book in English class right now that talks about the Harlem Renaissance, so it’s pretty funny and cool to see everything sort of connecting and relating in a way. I think I’ve said everything I have to say for this week’s blog, so I’ll end it right here. Thanks!