Prompt #2 : A Day at the Palmer Museum

    When we visited the Palmer museum, I walked around for a while to see if anything stood out to me. I finally find two pieces that caught my eye. I end up choosing the first one because it's a piece of art that I feel I can relate to, which is why it's rhetorically interesting to me. It's title is Affirmative Action and it was made with acrylic on canvas. The artist's name is Jerry Kearns and it was made in 1987. This picture looks like it was taken straight out of a comic book and blown up and put onto a large canvas. It's background is a city, with large buildings and the only color's used in the whole portrait are red and yellow. The woman in the picture is black and white. She looks angry and she's working. She's digging dirt with a wrathful, but determined face.
    The rhetorical situation of this piece deals with women's rights. Looking at it, you can tell it's taking place in a largely populated city during the 1920's. The historical moment it hits upon the the fight for equality for women and that whole movement. The comment that it makes is that the woman in the piece looks like she's trying to prove herself. She's trying to show that women can do anything that men can do. By the way she's dressed, you can tell that she probably stays home a lot to cook, clean, and take care of the kids. She wants to break out of that role and doing the "dirty work" helps with that.
    This piece makes me feel empowered, which is why I chose it. I'm all about independence and women being able to do things for themselves. It makes me feel good to see this type of work because it reminds that women in this time period fought for the the things women can do today, especially voting. This connects to my values because I was taught by my parents to always try and do things for myself. I should never let anyone discriminate against me based on my gender, race, religion, or personal views. I'm an African-American young woman and I take pride in who I am.
    The artist, Jerry Kearns, likes to bring social movements to life by creating art to go along with them. He's very invested and involved with the issues, which is why this piece is part of his collection. Looking at some of his other pieces, you can tell that he's very modern and he takes risks with his work -- some of these risks might not be acceptable to others.
    The claim that I think this piece is making is that women can do anything men can do. This claim is very persuasive to me because I don't believe that one gender is better than the other. If a man can do it, then a woman is able to do it too.
    My experience at the Palmer was amazing. At first, I wasn't very interested in going because I've been to art museums before. To me, they seem interesting, but after a while, they get boring. Going to the Palmer changed that. I was so fascinated by all the art work and I would definitely go back. Each piece that caught my eye had a story behind it and I want to learn more about that.


Here's a picture of the piece that I chose :