View the documentation of my art/life experiment.

When I first received this assignment, I thought it was a little bit much.  Doing some monotonous task over and over for three hours?!  It seemed more like a waste of time than art!  But after reading about Linda Montano’s points of view around the subject and coming to understand her interpretation of all life tasks as art if appreciated and done purposefully, I began to appreciate the assignment.  I was happy that I was being pushed to try something new that I had never tried before.  It became less strange, to me, and more… …reasonable. 

 The task that I decided to repeat over and over is chewing my nails.  It might seem like you can’t do this for three straight hours; but trust me, you can!  When pondering what topic to do my experiment on, I realized that I was chewing my nails.  I also realized that it was something I do everyday but do not interpret as art or do purposefully.  I am borderline OCD, so I tend to be very picky about my nails and hate using nail clippers.  I’ve had a history of bloody cuticles, chewing my nails down to the root, and some very painful chews!  I am not trying to gross you out, I am merely trying to explain that I can DEFINITELY chew my nails for 3 hours before I get them to a shape that I will accept them.  Anyway… …it wasn’t very difficult to sit there doing this for three hours because I had some things on my mind.  I was going to be sitting around thinking anyway, so I incorporated chewing my nails into that and sat on my weight bench chewing my nails for 3 hours.

I noticed many difference between chewing my nails as part of my everyday life and chewing for art.  When I chew my nails in everyday life, it is more or less an obsessive compulsive nervous habit that I do when I am thinking hard about something or trying to study some complicated subject.  When I do it for art, I do it purposefully - I have to sit there and think about chewing my nails and the changes that are being made.  I notice things more - the texture of the nails, the fact that my nails are disappearing, each individual cut, etc.  Also, another difference is that I weirdly appreciate the behavior more when I do it as art.  When I intentionally say “this is art,” I end up appreciating it as art a lot more.  I feel like any mundane task would have been art if I did it with this.  It might not have been art that anyone else would be interested in seeing, but it certainly seemed like art to me.

The 3 questions:

1. My performance is art because it was a documented and intriguing situation in which I produced a change that can be admired, recorded, and evaluated.
2. Art is pretty much anything that you can appreciate and interpret in any aesthetic or non-aesthetic way.
3. The difference between art and life is art is soemthing you pureposefully do to appreciate while life is something you just do to survive.

I feel that my project was a success because it taught me many new things (successful academically), it allowed me to create something I at least appreciate as art, and I got to trim down my nails!  I definitely learned from this assignment and came to appreciate what Montano believes. 

View my film stills assignment.

I found this assignment to be VERY challenging. Maybe that’s why it’s a mandatory assignment. Either way, it’s exams week for me and I’m worried that I’m not going to pass two of my classes and thus need to drop out of my major (they’re classes you must mandatorily pass the first time you take them), so I’ve been stressed out trying to figure out what to do for these film stills in the back of my mind all week. Eventually one day, I went hiking with two friends of mine as a break and I had them take some crazy pictures of me in order to utilize for this assignment. Since they were taking the photos as opposed to me, it was difficult to control the specific shots as much as the content; but I made sure they got enough pictures so that I would have some useable ones.

Anyway, like I said, this was a very difficult assignment. It wasn’t only hard to come up with a topic but also to have a storyline that isn’t an everyday thing. It was hard to interpret Sherman’s stills and mimick them because they’re so good. And finally, because I’m male, it was hard to incorporate the gaze, femininity, gender, etc. into my film stills.

A major focus of my story is masculinity OR the absence of femininity. I think it is important to note that the masculine behavior I demonstrated here is equal to the absense of femininity. When I demonstrate masculinity, I am also demonstrating the absense of femininity. Both can exist at the same time, but the purpose of my film stills is to show how manly I am and to hide my femininity. This is something that many men tend to do.

The story that my film stills try to generate is one of demonstrating masculinity (can also be interpreted as hiding femininity) to other men in the woods. Being in the woods and lumberjack-like is generally considered a masculine behavior. Even women who are lumberjack-like are generally considered more masculine “dyke”ish women by many groups in society.

My story starts out with me walking with a friend of mine in the woods to set the scene. The role of my friend is to give the concept of “the gaze” and “spectatorship” value. The friend will be watching me as I suddenly begin to demonstrate my manliness (hide my femininity) in the woods acting as the character who is gazing or spectating my displaying of non-femininity. It is as though I am showing off for him.

I begin to act VERY rugged, throwing logs, breaking things, jumping over fires, in order to impress my friend. I am trying to show him that I am NOT feminine, rather that I am masculine. The presence of a peer gives me someone to demonstrate my masculinity too therefore touching upon topics like the gaze and gender-defined behavior. The second picture is me picking up a log and carrying it over my shoulder to demonstrate my strength and masculinity (or lack of femininity). The next photo shows me throwing the log to demonstrate even more masculine behavior. The fourth picture is me smashing a piece of ice over my head. The fifth picture finalizes the demonstration of masculinity to my friend in a pretty cool way. I know that in some cultures, jumping over a fire or walking on hot coals in a right of passage to manhood. It means you are no longer childish or feminine, but a man. This final picture is me jumping over a fire to demonstrate that.

One thing that I tried to do to emulate Sherman’s photographs was to leave a lot of background in my photos. I noticed that even though the focus is the character, what surrounds the character is very important. I did not do closeups, rather I made sure the environment was important. The coloring and the forest behind me was very important. Often the character, themself, is isolated from the background. Even though the background was present, the character had to fit out. Finally, the expressions on my face were very important in order to make implications about masculinity or OVERLY trying to hide femininity as my friend gazed/spectated me.

I chose to do this kind of story because the fear of being seen too feminine is something that has always bothered me. I have overcompensated through very masculine behaviors. I’ve been belligerent, carried weapons, been a tough guy, picked fights, etc. I am aware it is an overcompensation because I also have a very calm, feminine side. I enjoy soft movies, reflecting on life, etc. The purpose of the film stills is to demonstrate how I try to act masculine around my male friends because I do not want them to see my femininity, to associate me with the things they see in society/art surrounding feminine identity.

Overall, this was a very challenging assignment and I am nervous about my grade.  I know that I will not have the best film stills in the class, but I think I still did a good job of putting together something that demonstrated my internal struggles with gender, touched upon the gaze/spectatorship, and mimicked Sherman’s film stills.  I enjoyed this assignment, even though it was a challenge!

View my Public Service Announcement

My public service announcement is one that comments on the gaze, spectatorship, and their respective effect on women.  While discussing these items in lesson 9, my group members and I agreed that women are generally objectified both in cinema and in real life.  Men tend to look at women as sexual objects even in the public eye.  When looking at a woman, they generalize her sexually first before learning about deeper parts to them.  As a male, I know that I “check out” women before I even decide to talk to them.  If they are not sexually appealing, I have no interest in getting to know the other parts of them.

 My PSA attempts to exploit this in a similar way to the “this is your brain on drugs” ad campaign.  I used a metaphor - that of breasts being like coconuts.  I included large coconuts (the sexual) as the center focus of the paper while I included other deeper aspects of women (their heart, their mind, their beliefs, their culture) as smaller portions in the corners of the page.  The idea is that most people looking at the PSA will first most clearly see the coconuts.  Most won’t even look past the coconuts!  To emphasize my point, I included the text “Stop Looking At These Coconuts!”  I also included a female symbol to help people establish the connection if they are unable to with the other visual cues.

I rendered my project in this way because I wanted something more symbolic than direct.  I wanted to comment on how male’s first reaction when meeting a woman is to evaluate her sexually.  I mean, I am a man; and I know that I do that.  I think this poster makes a good point that there are OTHER things to notice besides coconuts (sexual).

I hung this up on the bulletin board at Pollock Commons.  I chose to put it there because it is a high-activity area where many people will walk past it, but it isn’t as busy as the HUB so people actually take the time to see what is hanging.  A lot of people gather or wait for others next to this bulletin board, and you often see them looking at the things on the bulletin board.  I thought it presented a great opportunity to make my point!  Finally, it is also an area that is visited equally by males and females.  It will give me an opportunity to reach out to both sexes.

 Here is a picture of a student looking at my PSA:

I learned a lot through this assignment.  I learned a lot about femininity, sexuality, and the objectification of women through the other assignments; and this one gave me the opportunity to express a point - that it’s possible to be different.  I think it will connect to both sexes but in different ways.  Men will take a step back and re-evaluate the way they look at women; women will see it as a message of empowerment.

Tender Buttons Poem - Ramifications can be found here.

This was actually the most challenging assignment of the year (so far!) for me.  It was difficult because I struggled to understand Stein’s Tender Buttons before I could even begin work on my own poem.  For most of the assignments, I was comfortable with interpreting the original work and it was merely a matter of executing my own piece.  In this case, it was hard to even start because I had trouble understanding Stein’s poetry.  I consider myself an adequate poet and regularly write my own poetry (http://www.edyakabosky.com/poetry), but this style was completely new to me.  To be honest, my first reaction was “wow, she is on a lot of drugs.”

After taking some time to research Stein and her work, I began to understand her better.  Reading through Roast Beef from Food helped a lot.  I started to see a lot of the dual meanings and metaphors, and the poem and its purpose started to stand out to me a lot more.  It helped me when I wrote my actual assignment.

 The poem that I wrote, called Ramifications for some of the hidden meanings, looks at three things.  It looks at my favorite sandals (object), hot cocoa (food), and Jess’s Room (room).  Black Sandals is interesting because I look at my sandals in the closet and its appearance, then compare it to the other shoes around it, then talk about its location in space/time.  In Hot Cocoa, I borrowed from Stein’s technique and tried to make it a semi-sexual/semi-weird metaphorical experience.  Finally, the most unique one is Jess’s Room because it is based on an inside joke that this large walk-in closet we have is actually our friend’s room.  She doesn’t live here, but she spends so much time here that we call it that.  As a closet, it is filled with food, drinks, cleaning equipment, and all kinds of other things but the reader would never know that so it makes for an exciting poem.

For the experiments, I wanted to do many experiments without changing the overall meaning of the poem because I wanted to be able to compare the two later.  I applied three different experiments to different regions of the poem.  First, I went through the poem and added as many extreme metaphors and similies as I could.  This was difficult because I had already written the poem somewhat metaphorical. Some regions I just changed into more extreme analogies, and some I could not make any different.  Then, I added a wikipedia entry about Duck Tales (the cartoon) to the first section Black Sandal and lyrics from Wu-Tang Klan to the last section Jess’s Room.  Finally, I switched the order of the lines in the second section Hot Cocoa.

One new technique that I tried to incorporate into my writing was to use a lot of opposing dualities like Stein does.  At one point, I said that something smelled bad, then immediately said that it didn’t smell bad.  At another point I mentioned staring, then said that no one was staring.  The unique thing about these dualities is that even though they appear opposing at first, they are actually both very valid and true points because they have different meanings and can be interpreted as true based on how you look at it.  Another new technique that I tried to employ was using a lot of individual senses - smell, taste, noise, rather than focusing on the overall feeling like I usually do.  This technique is pretty cool because I think it helps the reader develop a better visualization of what is being written about.  It increases the reader’s own connection to the senses being written about because those scents, tastes, smells, are something the reader can directly relate to.

Overall, I think my poems are successful in the fact that they did help me learn and train myself.  I definitely developed better skills and understanding of this new type of language by doing them, but I don’t think they are publishable.  In fact, I think the poems themselves are ultimately bad, but the techniques and way of expressing myself about the topics (both the basic and the subtle) in this way was a growing experience.  I was pretty satisfied with the original poem, but the experiments seems a little random to me.  Some of the metaphors I added were good, while others just seemed like I was shoving something in there to make it seem as weird as possible.  I was not very happy with the Duck Tales or Wu-Tang Klan part although it is kind of interesting to see Wu-Tang lyrics.  They’re ambiguous enough that some readers may not realize they were not part of the original poem.  I do, however, really like the line reversal that I did.  I thought it helps the reader backtrack through the poem and still get the same meaning but from a different perspective.  It was very cool.

 Overall, these poems aren’t great but they did force me to gain a better understanding of Stein and this type of language she uses.

Comic Strip Quilt can be found here. 

Using images to tell a story instead of words seemed to enhance my ability to express my story.  I could have just written the story out in text; but by being forced to draw a comic strip, I was forced to think about the situation a little differently.

I drew a comic strip about my grandparents coming to America from Poland.  A few weeks after they were here, a flood destroyed the home that they had put everything into.  My grandfather had to rebuild the home himself.

Using the comic book format, I didn’t only need to know the story but also needed to think about visuals.  For instance, I had to think of my grandmother crying as opposed to just knowing the flood was hard on her.  I had to think of an image of her crying in order to draw it.  I had to think of my grandfather hard at work rebuilding a home after he had just lost everything and was in a new country.  After I had seen visualizations myself, I was able to express these things to other people better.  A good demonstration of this is the final picture where I show my grandparents having finally completed their new home with their family.  It shows their smiling faces (even if poorly drawn!) and demonstrates success and overcoming all of their problems.

Link to my triptych - “The Exhaustion”

 As a double-major in Computer Science and IST, I am constantly under heavy pressure to enter the corporate world.  Almost all of our events are sponsored by corporations, and I receive 10-20 emails a day telling me what companies are holding events on campus.  We are constantly under review, updating resumes, and pushed to network with corporate representatives.  The whole idea is to get competitive offers for high-salaries that we can weigh against one another in order to find ourselves on the fasttrack up the corporate ladder. 

Ironically, this semester, many of my friends have expressed a distaste for this style of corporate training.  We are overwhelmed with stress, exhausted from job interviews, and ready to leave the corporate world behind.  It’s kind of strange because it’s been a common theme among my friends to complain about how much unnecessary pressure is put on us.  I decided to express this feeling in my everyday triptych called “The Exhaustion” which demonstrates (1) working hard on courses I don’t really care for, (2) working at a corporate job I don’t really like, and (3) finally getting the relaxation that we have all fought for but being too exhausted to enjoy it.  I feel that this triptych demonstrates my overall feelings towards the corporate world and functions as a rebellion against it.

In the first photograph, I am seen doing my schoolwork.  This demonstrates all of the pressure that I have been through to do well in school in order to succeed in life.  To put you in some perspective, I have only relaxed 2 hours this entire week (it is now Friday).  It was a busy week because it was career fair, and some of the stupid organizations that I am a part of have been running events; but I am constantly engaged in schoolwork.  I put 40 hours into the computer science assignment that I completed last week.  Meanwhile, in the background, there is a poster of “the beach.”  This shows that my true goals are to relax and find myself at the beach.  The reason that I originally came to PSU for IST and Computer Science was to make enough money that I would be able to afford a beach house for my ex-fiance and myself at an early age.  Getting enough money to buy a beach home remains my goal, and I work very hard in school to get there.

 The second photograph demonstrates my job search and employment.  I look very uncomfortable, tired, and dis-sheveled in the photograph because that is how I feel about the job search.  I am constantly meeting corporate networkers and am left feeling tired.  It is a bleak photograph with dark frames to demonstrate a feeling of tiredness.  I think the black around the edge looks a little bit like eyes beginning to close putting into perspective my tiredness.

 The third photograph shows me at the beach - my goal - but I am too exhausted to enjoy it.  It looks like I am about to collapse.  The photograph was originally taken after I ran on the beach this past summer, but it still demonstrates my point very well.  I am very afraid that by putting myself through so much, I will no longer be able to enjoy the things I like (the beach that you saw a poster of in my first photograph in this instance). 

In order to incorporate some of the course concepts, I made sure to emulate the women of this time by including the tools of my trade in my photographs.  The pencil and the notebook represent my schooling while my jacket represents the corporate world.  I also wanted to rebel against what society pressures me to do much as the art of women throughout history has done.  I am rebelling against the College of IST through my artwork much as they rebelled against their cultural roles.  I am reflecting on the present and 2 stages of the future.  It reminds me of Sofonisba Anguissola’s work in the sense that I am reflecting on my present oppression (as she painted her male teacher painting and developing herself) along with the various photos she did of herself as a developed or older woman in the future.  I, too, painted myself where I see myself though I wanted to express my unhappiness with this rather than accomplishment.  I was able to reflect on, myself, and how I feel without outwarding stating it - much like Artemisia Gentileschi seemed to do in a lot of her work as well. If my piece was posted without explanation, there would be much debate about its origin and meaning just like we did with Artemisia’s Judith in this week’s studies.

I am really grateful for this assignment.  It allowed me to express something that I have been feeling for the past couple of weeks.  I wasn’t originally sure what I wanted to do - it seemed like too much of an assignment.  Once I realized I had something that I actually wanted to express, I got really excited and am really happy with my work.  I am sure that I will continue down the corporate path, but this project may help me understand myself better and be able to make some better life decisions.

Architecture Design Experiment  - note: this is the best artistic skills I have.  I nearly failed art in high school.

To be honest, I found this assignment EXTREMELY challenging.  It was probably one of the most AWKWARD assignments I have ever done.  I don’t know the first thing about a woman’s needs.  I am male, and most of my experiences with women have ended on an extremely negative note - probably largely because I thought the woman’s functional needs were completely different from what they actually are.  It was the first assignment we worked on that I could not identify with in any way.  I did not want to come off as too chauevenistic (ie: designing a house filled with flowers and chocolate and princesses and things), but I do not know the actual needs of a woman other than what I have seen in the media and what I know about the women who are close to me.  I tried to stay away from media perception (I did in fact think what the women lived like in Flavor of Love a few times before reminding myself it wasn’t a good idea); and instead, focus on the needs of my mother, female friends, and ex-girlfriends.  I will probably come off as stereotyping in many ways, but I at least recognize that I am not familiar enough with a “woman’s world” to design a house for women.  I HAVE to try because it is the assignment; but in the real world, I would never claim to know enough about a woman’s functional needs to design a house for them.  I will include notes of where I got my perceptions from.

First off, let’s look at the commons areas of the house.  I have modelled this part of the house after my perception of sororities.  Thus, this area will have beaded doors as opposed to big, hard, wooden, phallic, doors where openness is encouraged.  I feel that women are less possessive than men so personal property and individual ownership will be less vital.  Things like kitchen, couches, TV, etc. will be communal - modelled after the sorority atmosphere.  There will be a large social area in the middle of the house where women could dance or have parties or entertain guests.

The bathrooms will be large with gigantic bathtubs and plenty of bubble bath.  I swear, I am not trying to be chauvenist.  Most of the girls I know (including ex-girlfriend) love bubble baths and want huge bathrooms with lots of space.  After some research (I lost the link but I found an article on what women are looking for in the housing market these days), I read that women also like giant windows overlooking gardens in their bathroom…  So these bathrooms will contain gigantic windows overlooking a hyacinth garden outside.  This window will generally be open to allow for the beautiful smell and colors to be let in.  The bathroom will be filled with all kinds of exotic soaps and oils to create the vision and scent of relaxation - almost like a spa.  Outside of the bathroom will be a room full of mirrors that make any woman look extremely beautiful.  I find that most women take a great pride in their appearance and always like to feel as though they look good - even ones who claim they don’t care about things like that tend to crack at some point if they are complimented enough.  One of my friends was saying how jealous she gets of how other girls look, just yesterday; so this room will be designed to make every woman feel beautiful.

I went into my neighbor’s apartment the other day to find them hanging photos of half-naked men on their dining room walls.  I wouldn’t normally add this to a house; but because of my experience that women living together might want a room full of pictures of hot guys, I am going to add a room of attractive photos and posters of men and/or women (depending on the occupants’ preference) to the house.  The room will be used for eating.

 I added a large kitchen with lots of windows.  I know a lot of girls who actually like to cook - not just a gender-role, and they always want more windows.

 I know that women need time by themselves a lot.  So I have added some small rooms with little couches and candles where girls can just go to think and reflect on their life.  These rooms might also be used for studying or academic pursuits.  I also know that women need time with cute animals a lot (again, this all comes from my friends).  So next to the tiny rooms for being by yourself, is a tiny room filled with puppies.  Yes… …a room filled with puppies.  It’s different from contemporary houses, and I do feel that it meets a need for affection and love that many women feel; so even though it seems crazy, I chose to include it in my house.

Every occupant of the house will have her own room with a solid door.  This will allow for privacy.  Many of the girls, I know, who live together, often wish they had more privacy.  Giving each woman a big room that she can customize to her preference will account for this.  I did not design the rooms in any particular way because I do believe that, though women share many things, they are still completely individuals who would want to customize their rooms in many different ways.  What I did choose to include are gigantic closets for women who have a lot of clothes and/or shoes and/or things.

 There is a tiny chapel for prayer.  I do not believe this is a feminine characteristic per se, but I know my mother is very religious along with other women and might use this.  I wanted to include it just as an option, especially since church was emphasized in the reading that we are basing our homes off of.

 There will be flowers throughout the house to produce a pleasant smell and sight.  This house will be located near the beach to produce the relaxing sounds of ocean waves and scent of sweet-salty air.

The house will be squarely shaped.  Girls who live in sororities don’t need anything special from a home.  Just a simple brick building will suffice.  I don’t know enough about female preferance to make it anything otherwise.

 On the interior of the house will be a gigantic swimming pool with a beautiful aesthetic fountain.  So many girls I know like to tan - not because they want to impress anyone-  but just becuase they enjoy it.  This will also be a good place for women to socialize (as I think they like to) or to read (as I think they like to).

Girls in State College always want someone to walk them home.  They want to feel safe at night, much as the women wanted huge protective walls in the reading.  So I have an extremely well-lit walking path out front so that the occupants never have to come home in the dark.  The front door will also be guarded by gigantic ferocious yet cuddly cats - like lions and tigers.  They will be good for protection so that the women might be able to sleep safely, but they will not be mysognist like men. 

 I asked a friend of mine what I need, and she said: “you need lots of pillows. women love comfort. candles“  So I added pillows and candles everywhere.

I know that my house is kind of ridiculous, but I wanted to blend together the little bits of things I do know about women while having a bit of fun with it.  I think my house is definitely different from most contemporary houses, and a strong argument could be made that it is designed more for woman than homes of today.

=======

Female Testimonies:

“i love it.  can i have that house? you are a genious”
“hahaha i love it”
“I like that theres community space and private space. I like that you took different things you knew women liked and made a conscious effort not be misogynistic.”
Crying girl: “All I really want right now is a room filled with puppies.  And lions and tigers outside to protect me.  That is the perfect house.”

My back of the head portrait.

I learned about my gender neutrality in this assignment.  I learned that I could make whatever gender choices I want despite my pre-defined sex.  This is because my appearance and physical sexuality (shown to be male in my self-portrait) does not ultimately define who I am.  It merely states the obvious - that I am male.  The white background, on the other hand, demonstrates that I have the opportunity to fill the rest of my gendered-self in.  I can make feminine, masculine, or neutral decisions as I see fit.  The picture is simple and plain to show that I still have the ability to make my own gender choices.  I am clearly male, but the rest of my gender is undefined, ambiguous, and can be filled in with any color I like.  Life is more complex than this portrait; this portrait only demonstrates that I am born male while the white and simplicity is left for me to fill in with my gender decisions.

I attempted to demonstrate this neutrality by making the portrait as plain as possible.  I wore a plain, simple, shirt that is not gender specific.  It is not even a color that is predominantly associated with one sex or the other.  It is grey - plain and simple, like the white background.  It is a shame that I could not do this portrait towards the end of the semester because I used to have long hair, and my hair will probably be much longer then.  I might have been able to make my hair appear neutral, too.  I tried to wet it to make it look longer, though.  Despite my attempts to make it neutral, I am clearly male due to my muscle build and physique - but I feel that it does do a pretty good job of demonstrating how that is only sex, it does not necessarily account for gender roles/choices.

It is difficult to relate my portrait to the readings that we have been doing.  My best analogy is that of the amazon women we read about - how they fought alongside the males, rather than staying away from battle like most traditional societies.  It closes the gender roles towards that of neutrality, similar to what I tried to demonstrate through my self-portrait.  Likewise, one might relate it to the Greek state in Athens where women were considered weak-minded and strong-emotionally.  You can’t see anything about my mind or emotions in the portrait becuase I went out of my way to ambiguize them.

It is also similar to the guerilla girls and how they hide their identity by wearing masks.  It keeps you from making assumptions about them based purely on their sex - I think that was one of their main goals in wearing the guerilla masks.  By turning my face against a blank wall, I was able to accomplish the same thing.

Overall, this project has reminded me that though male, I have the opportunity to define my gender as feminine or masculine as I choose to.

I had a good time composing my own Sappho Translation.  I learned a little about myself and was able to identify with the poet.

After analyzing a number of the translations (the english ones!), I felt that a common structure in a lot of them.  It seemed like many of the translations were broken into 4 stanzas, 4 lines each.  The first stanza focused on His eyes being that of a God, His sitting near her, and His listening to her.  The second stanza gives flight to an intensity of the senses - a tightening tongue, loss of speech, a beating heart, and a warmth.  The third stanza represents these feelings coming to the brink of overwhelming the speaker - there is massive sweating and then a complete loss of the senses.  The speaker’s ears deafen and his eyes go blind.  Finally, the fourth stanza represents the speaker turning green (grass) and dying.

I stuck to this general structure when writing.  I tried to develop my own aesthetics and took some artistic liberty with some of the preciseness of words but it generally follows the script above.  I tried to put myself in the shoes of the speaker.  The lesson called for us to decide whether we wanted the poem to be ecstatic or tragic in tone and substance.  I feel that mine started out as ecstatic, noting Her beauty; but it ended in tragic as the speaker’s inability to survive Her beauty and vibe leading to His death. 

I also chose to consider both the speaker and Her proper nouns for both my poem and this blog entry because I wanted to give off the feeling of Godliness.  I noticed that several of the translations did this as well.

1. Ed - it isn’t very exciting. People usually associate it with the talking horse, laughing hyena, or Ed Edd and Eddy. My roommates name is Evan, but I strongly encourage people to enunciate the latter syllable because I think someone’s calling me as soon as I hear an E…. like…evAN.
2. Double in IST & Comp Science  - junior.
3. Reading, PA
4. Entourage and Weeds
5. Mushrooms
6. Shakey - Neil Young’s biography.
7. I don’t really have any exceptional stories that come to mind.
8. Pretty comfortable
9. Interesting how this reads ‘gender’ over ’sex’ because I think gender has some cultural elements aside from biological. Gender affects me pretty regularly - I’m fairly feminine in some regards and get along with women a lot more than most guys - but I also have some pretty harsh masculinity - anger, rage, jealousy, wanting to fight, wanting to punish and dominate - some of its good, some of its bad. It’s pretty much a regular affector from the cultural standpoint of masculinity/femininity; but if we’re talking pure biological sex, it’s not much of a deal.
10. maxwellkruger.com