Christine Sorensen English 1101 Mr.

Borerro 1 October 2012 History Of my Literacy Defense Essay In second grade my best friend Lauren took rigorous art classes. That made me very jealous. My mother finally gave into my begging and allowed me to join Lauren in taking them. They were very pricey but definitely taught me an enormous amount of art techniques and how to interpret art. That is why for my literacy project I chose to do a painting. Visual art is the form of expression I feel most comfortable with. There are so many different ways a piece can symbolize metaphors, theme, and create an interesting story with in those principles. This is how I am able to only use one genre because a painting can describe so much without words. For example my literacy history in a paper would be all over the place because I have had so many ups and downs. In my painting I just interpreted that into a roller coaster, an object that has many twists, turns, ups and downs. Some experiences that I have had with my genre as I previously said dates back to when I was seven years old going on eight. I was in second grade and I thought I really understood the world. Then I saw my best friend bring home the coolest projects from this place she used to go once a week. My face would practically turn green with envy every time she would show our class at school or our moms. Finally I was able to convince my mom that I really needed to take these classes and if I didnt something terrible was going to happen. My first class was a real confidence boost they said I had a natural talent for being able to percept depth in a scene and color structure. On the contrary though, some days I would get really upset because my instructors would be really hard on me because I couldnt understand what was wrong with my project. Art is a genre that helped me realize experiences in life that illustrate the world isnt a straight path there are many

hills and turns you have to take. Art is something that I have always seen as a text being able to illustrate that so easily to me. As our class was debating whether something was a text or not I was very defensive that a piece of art work was a text. Just because something doesnt have words doesnt mean it doesnt send a message or has meaning. Almost every graphic I see I can see some kind of message in it. There are so many different principles of art that can create metaphors, emphasis, passion and control, rhythm, and most importantly communication. The ways artists draw lines whether they are organic or linear is something that can be interpreted in a message. Emphasis is a principle of writing and of art. In writing someone would want to emphasize a particular part of a piece to give the story theme, so would an artist for the same reason to give the piece theme. Regarding that art is so visual I was able to fully recognize and understand these principles and connect them to writing more thoroughly. Art is something that gave me strength in my ability to analyze. I have always been a problem solver but mostly with math and science not with reading and writing. Art helped me find meaning in a text. Behind the words that are right there, there is a reason why they are there. That is something that I wasnt able to grasp in reading and writing till I understood art. There is close to always a reason why the lighting is positioned a certain way in a piece of art. Just as there is close to always a reason why a story is written in first person or third. It gives a text a tone that helps interpret a message and reasons. Art, specifically visual art, is a genre that has strongly effected my literacy on the reading and writing spectrum. The way I value writing is based on my experiences with visual art and that is how I consider writing to be good writing. I have come to realize that I only value writing if it sends a message or has a theme. I dont always appreciate writing with no depth. For example, those poems

that just sound pretty do not have meaning they are just there to be there. In my opinion every art piece no matter what even if it is an impressionism piece of a couple of hills it has some kind of meaning. To me that is what makes good writing something that has depth. Ascribed to the fact that my genre was a painting it is critical that I have to point out themes to emphasize. My first theme is the roller coaster which demonstrates the ups and downs of my literacy career. It starts I a a slight incline then takes a small dip. This is when I was in elementary school and I was doing really well at spelling in the first few grades then it came to real English. In fourth to sixth grade I just did not understand English because I never read. I always flunked diagnostic tests. Even though this was all going on because I was still so young I didnt think it was that big of a deal. During my seventh grade year I really struggled in English. I moved during my winter break to North Carolina from California and it was a difficult move for me. The curriculum was very different and my teacher was not a patient with me to help me understand how things worked in that school system. I ended up with a D at report card time and I cried my eyes out. Luckily I was able to pull of a B in the class at the end because I worked my butt off and really tried to understand reading and writing. Although I still had a long way to go. The twist/loopty-loop in my roller coaster shows the transition from middle school to high school. My high school teachers were all mediocre till my senior year. Even though they were all mediocre English was very different for me because the classes became a lot more rigorous in reading books. Things got better my sophomore year when we read a Mid Summer Nights Dream and that is when I really discovered my ability to use critical analysis. Also my junior year I became very good at analyzing when I was in AP US history and I had to analyze primary sources. My final incline on the roller coaster is when I had Ms. Ledford. She really gave me a lot of confidence and gave me

different ways to interpret texts. The dark cloud in the end represents the difficulty for me to see what is going to happen to my literacy. Another part of my painting that I wanted to point out was my was the kiosks at the theme park. They represent my sponsors. The left side of my painting where the sun is shining is the Lanie Fun house and the Ledford Lost and Found. My Lanie Fun House represents that she helped make reading fun for me and introduced me to good books. Ledford Lost and Found represents that I was kind of lost with my literacy when it came to reading and writing and in her class I kind of found my niche in her class. On the darker side where it looks like a rain storm is coming in is a greasy burger place. It is named Father because if I were to eat a burger before getting on the roller coaster I would probably throw up. My father was really hard on me when it came to reading and writing because it comes so naturally to him and I dont think he understands why it doesnt come easily to me. The other is the dunk booth which represents the confidence lost in my literacy. The dunk booths that I have seen are usually filled with clowns that are mean and make fun of you. I really dont like them. My painting uses almost all symbols and metaphors and that is something that I have felt really explains themes. The conventions that are used to help tell my story are the metaphors, symbols and emphasis. The emphasis of the roller coaster being in the center of my painting and being red. Including all the metaphors and symbols that surround that. Some benefits to my genre would be that I think sometimes when I write papers I can lose my flow and things become confusing but in a painting I can lay everything out and explain them easily. There are definitely limitations though. One of them is that without this essay someone that found interpreting paintings a difficult task wouldnt understand my painting at all. Overall my genre being visual art was something specific to me because art is a big part of my literacy history

and it is probably the only way I would be able to fully explain my history in the way I have viewed it.