Differences , Sheryl Varricchio
As you look at something. Think about what it means. Not everyone can notice what your seeing, so, they word it out differently that will make you want to glance at it again and won’t be able to see it. Either of you will truly see it.
New York City  is one of the richest cities in the world, and yet I can say that it’s also quite poor. Now you would probably ask me how can New York with its millions of people, skyscrapers, corporate businesses, Wall Street, so on and so forth be poor? Well to start, having millions of people the daily lives of all these people are different. Not everyone lives on the upper west side, and we don’t all own properties, we can’t all shell out $500 on a designer bag and then go shop more. There are people like that in New York and this is what is commonly thought to be New York, we as a city are advertised like that. Welcome to the big apple, there’s a Starbucks at each corner. Have you seen the statue of liberty? Have you been to the Empire State building? Or even Time Square? How about Prospect park and Central park?. What we don’t advertise are the people who work humbly for minimum wage sometimes not even, the long hours poor benefits or even no benefits, we don’t advertise the fact that there are desolate lots in our city, or a completely abandoned ran down park. We don’t advertise these things and we don’t truly see these things they hide in the skin of New York like a festering sore. Now there are New Yorkers know about this, but yet they don’t really care about this situation, it doesn’t affect them. However they do love their city, their city but not the city. New Yorkers have in a way split himself apart and isolated each other and thus for every person there is a different New York.
When I took my  walk for this project I had no idea what I was going to juxtapose, however I luckily stumbled across something interesting to talk about. The path that I took was just me trying to get to York st station because for me to get home I take the F train uptown into Manhattan. Even though I was reluctant to take a detour from my usual path, cause to get  home I take the F at Metrotech. But I knew I had to look around Brooklyn eventually and continued on. When my day was done at City Tech I planned on taking a path that I have never taken before. I  exited the building from the main entrance and continued walking on Jay st in the direction of Tillary the buildings around here have a nice vibrant look  so they were clearly well maintained, I kept walking on Jay st until my friend had called me and asked If I wanted to hang out, and of course I would have rather done that, so In a way I took a detour from my detour. He had told me that he was going to wait for me at the intersection between Gold st and Sands st there was a small park near by to play basketball, still in a place I’ve never visited so I pulled out my phone map. I took myself towards that direction making a right on Concord st, as I continued on I noticed how the buildings got drastically dreary looking and they were a lot older than those around Jay st and the Metrotech area the amount of people I saw also dwindled as well. When I had gotten to Gold st I had realized this area was project housing. This area was ill maintained, the walls stained with watermarks, trash strewn across the area barely making it to the garbage can, and a nauseating stench. There was no one was around, this housing area was constructed by the loud road and bridge you could hear the cars wizz by and the roar of the trains, this place had seemed like a forgotten wasteland. This had stunned me, the contrast between here and the Metrotech area that I had been just 5 minutes away from its almost night and day but I had no idea this area was even here. It reminded me of  this line in “City Limits” Colson Whitehead had said  “Our old building still stand because we saw them, moved in and out of their long shadows, were lucky enough to know them for a time” these buildings have clearly been forgotten, forgotten by the city, completely  ran down, unlike the rest of our city that is so celebrated. We’ve forgotten about those that are less fortunate, and we forget that we are able to do things about it. The people here in the project housing live in a different New York then we do, and I would like to see these places built up once again or even renewed and integrated into the whole of New York City. I want to say that over there is a cool place to check out, or lets go hang out there play some basketball by that renovated park. To sum up what I want to say I’ll use what Colson Whitehead had said “I’m here because I was born here and thus ruined for anywhere else.” And that’s exactly how I feel, I love New York the city as a whole, I would not trade this place for any other place to be my home. And I would love to see my city prosper, not just the parts that are already prospering of course.
Sorrow, is a piece of Humument that created by HaiLin Du over J. D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye. A Humument was a new expression of art that was inspired by Tom Phillips created over W. H. Mallock’s novel A Human Document. In this Humument, the artist is bringing out a different interpretation of the original text. The sentence in this artwork is from the top to the bottom, indicating a movement to guide viewers how to read it. The sentence said “I almost I thought I have… hold on, don’t cry, I’ll be very, very, very sad” is a sentence that portraying protagonist Holden Caulfield’s innermost feeling from The Catcher in the Rye. Holden Caulfield is an icon of teenage rebellion in the novel. However, it is a different expression showing the protagonist is being lonely and sad. As viewers continue viewing carefully, everything in this piece has meaning.
At the beginning of creating this piece, the artist is decided to use analogous colors to express a sorrow feeling. However, the artist also applying the idea from the original text and combing with his idea and finally comes out with this final product. As viewers looking at these colors, there is dominating navy blue is surrounded by the black color. In the original text, Holden Caulfield is a spokesman that asking why the society is corrupt. As a teenager, Holden did not understand what is true and wrong. Holden wishes to remain as a child and never grow up, because he believes being innocent is the happiest thing in the world. However, everyone has to face the reality, because everyone has to grow up. As a result, Holden hates the adult’s world, and he wants to protect the innocent from the society.
However, no one understands Holden, and Holden is on his own way. As time passing by, Holden is building a wall blocking himself from adult’s world. The color of this piece is a symbol of the wall that encircles Holden’s innermost feeling. As viewers can see, navy color is dominating the piece which representing sorrow, People may think he is bad teenager, because he got kicked out of high school, running away from home, drinking liquor and etc. None of the adults can understand Holden’s innermost feeling including his parents. Fortunately, at the end of the original text, Holden’s younger sister Phoebe comforted Holden’s mind. In this art piece, artist is chosen a page at the end of the novel. At the top of this art piece, there is a small space that colored with sky color, which represents a light from Phoebe getting into Holden’s innermost feeling.
This page is a scene that Holden is in an argument with Phoebe, and Phoebe starts to cry. From the original text, Holden expresses he hated his sister, because his sister wants to run away with him. However, the artist interprets this page into a different meaning. Holden is rebelling the society, because no one can understand him. However, the artist expressing Phoebe’s tears makes Holden realize he has someone he wants to care about. This art piece is designed to be sorrow, but the hidden meaning of the small space is indicating Holden’s mind is being comforted by his innocent sister. The artist hopes every viewer can understand the true meaning of the original text, and also can understand the interpretation of the artist.
Overall, Sorrow is an art piece indicating everyone to view something differently. The purpose of this artwork is to remind people should not make any prediction from the observation of the surface. The artist hopes everyone can understand Holden’s innermost feeling, but also has a deeper meaning which to inform people things can be interpreted in a different way.
This is the combined mashup of the stacato and legato patterns, the image just comes to me as I draw the song
Through Defeat is a humument created by Alexander Guerrero, and is a piece that is inspired by Tom Phillips’s artistic rendering of text. In this humument Alexander uses the negative side of colors in psychology and text to convey the feeling of dread that is most often associated with defeat.
Traumatized - adjective
Definition:Â Psychiatry. to cause a trauma in (the mind)
Source:Â http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Traumatize?s=t
Encounter: I encounter the word when I read the article “CAR Sees Child Soldier Increase” in December 21, 2014
Understand:  The word traumatize is used when Véronique Aubert (Senior Conflict & Humanitarian Policy and Research Adviser for Save the Children) said “many children are traumatized from witnessing violence or being forced to take part in it.” From that sentence, I did not understand what the word traumatize means until I looked up in the dictionary. Traumatize in the sentence means many children are injured in psychology by witnessing or be part in the violence. However, the word traumatized and traumatize is different, because this sentence using the word traumatize as an adjective with the past tense. In the end, I have learnt this word can be used as a verb and adjective depends on the sentence.
Building New York, a Humument created by Kevin J. Ayala is a Piece that was inspired by Tom Phillips’s rendering of text from the original Humument. In this Humument, We are shown of Ayala’s expression for New York and his love for it explained by this short Humument. Complemented by the drawing of what seems to be an interpretation of New York during a night time setting, it reads, ” I’m Here because i was born here, Building private New York, All worldly possessions in hand, Look, there is the first brick in your city”. The text that Ayala creates this Humument from was from Colson Whitehead’s “City Limits”, a Essay describing people first encounters with New York and how its settings begin to change overtime, but not the person’s Interpretation of “Their own New York”. The piece was made in Brooklyn, N.Y in December of the year 2014, Being displayed in the Brooklyn Gallery of Art and Poetry.
This piece seems to be made from an actual document (Or a possible copy) that contains part of Colson’s Whitehead’s essay, “City Limits”. The document was painted over with what seems to be gouache paint, using cool, dark colors to compliment the Night setting of what seems to be drawn as Ayala’s Small interpretation of what New York looks like in a small window, With Buildings Painted on both sides of the page, along with a small view of a bridge in the middle of the buildings (what seems to be Brooklyn Bridge). The one red rectangle on one of the buildings that surrounds the word “Brick” in the humument really gives diversity into the work, also passing the message of seeing “The first brick in your city”
By Using Whitehead’s Text, Ayala wanted to give a short but meaningful message of experiencing New York for the first time, and what it has to offer to that person’s experiences in life. For all his life, Ayala has lived in New York, surrounded by influences and inspiration. To capture those small moments in life, he decided to study in an artistic major. This way, he can draw out those small moments in his mind and be able to transfer that idea in a creative way, either be by poetry or a drawing, painting, etc. For his whole life, he always had a thing with music and drawing, the music part being an influence into poetry. Originally when he created his Humument, it was a project in his freshman year at City Tech College located in Brooklyn, New York. For his whole English 101 class, the writing that was done was mainly revolved around the New York area and its influences towards the student.
Ayala’s influence to make this humument was once again, his love for the New York state and its appealing moments, areas, etc. The picture drawn for the humument was inspired by the Brooklyn area, and its plentiful buildings along with a sight of the Brooklyn Bridge. The area was new to him during the time and it was something he wanted to explore with his free time, thus came the idea of the picture for the Humument. Ayala was so fascinated and intrigued by the surrounding Brooklyn area, he wanted to capture that scene with both a drawing and a type of poetry. Since his situation fits the theme of Whitehead’s “City Limit”, Ayala thought it would be the perfect essay to use to describe the experience of his first time on Brooklyn when he attended college.
Ayala’s Piece has earned its place in our museum due to its artistic look and excellent use of poetry within a text as a normal Humument would do. He really did capture the meaning of coming to an area for the first time, beginning a new map of your personal New York and your experiences that are to come in the future.
50 Word Note:
Building New York, a Humument created by Kevin J. Ayala is a Piece that was inspired by Tom Phillips’s rendering of text from the original Humument. With Text Taken from Colson Whiteheads “City Limits”, the Humument shows a single red Brick (Over “Brick”) to show the ” First brick in your city”
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