The reading for this week, I felt reinforced the trip to New York we just took. So much of the reading was about artists that we saw on the trip to New York, such as Faith Ringgold and Romare Bearden. I had seen how their work was intertwined on our trip to New York but now I saw how their different pieces of artwork were connected through the text. Bearden, through his artwork discussed in the text, claims a place and shows different aspects of african american life. He is able to show urban life and rural life in the north carolina countryside as depicted in his exhibit called “Projections”. He was able to create a picture for outsiders to visualize how the life of an african american was at that time and to create their humanity through his art. He also created resistance, which is what this class is all about, by adding objects into his art that would depict how other civilizations have encroached on the life of african americans. The train depicted how the white civilization traveled into his life and the life of his community whenever they pleased with no regard for how it would impact the african american community.

After reading about Faith Ringgold in the piece for today I understood some more of the art that viewed in New York created by her. She fought for equality and because of that fight she was arrested. She not only used images of black and white people but also used images of the american flag to show how her mistreatment and the mistreatment of the rest of the african american population was polluted throughout history and throughout the future. Her art in my opinion would strike through the hearts of more people that many artists before her. Her use of the color black and of the american flag are identifiers that all of the american population can relate to. It is interesting to me how she can use something that so many people are accustomed to and turn it around to bring about a whole new meaning, both for resistance and for change.