Karen's "Mind, Body, and Spirit"

My interpretation of Karen's Genre and Topic: So I feel like I kind of cheated a little being paired with Karen to critique her work. Over the coarse of the last couple of weeks, she and I have had several discussions (before class) regarding our projects; therefore, I already knew what topic she had chosen, and about the fact that she, too, had changed her genre on multiple occasions. Having said that, however, I went into her critique with an open mind and I was blown away by the display of multiple works/genres she had created in such a short amount of time (since the first day of class).

Her first display, I didn't get...at all. She attempted to use structure (using the plastic wrap/tape method) which didn't work well for the message she was trying to get across. I really couldn't even make out the structure she was trying to create.

The second display was a scale of three aluminum plates, wired to wooden dowels/steaks, which hung from one of the light fixtures in class. I interpreted it as a scale, symbolic of balance; and, as we had previously discussed in class, it was probably also a way to deliver the message of balancing the inner self with the outer self. The scale appeared to be very balanced, as also represented by the triangle we see on gym walls and in Yoga classrooms. We discussed, for just a moment, how in Buddhism, mind, body and spirit all hold an equal piece of who we are and they basically feed off of one another...a happy and healthy mind promotes a healthy body/lifestyle, and a healthy body reflects a healthy spirit, which then leaves a healthy spirit to continue feeding the mind and the body, and so on.

To my surprise, Karen was trying to demonstrate the complete opposite of balance. Because real life is a constant struggle, and maintaining mind, body, and spirit is rarely done in equal parts without holding out on one thing or another (exactly like we had previously discussed in class with the painting of body image), she wanted to show how although we do stay happy and maintain healthy bodies and good in spirit, there is always a sacrifice (in our American culture) to maintain one certain aspect of our lives or another. In the end there is usually balance, if speaking in terms of percentage, but reaching that is never a perfect 33.333333333% contributed by each of the three--mind, body, and spirit.

Her last display, I thought portrayed her message clearly. She used three rounded plates, all of the same size and color to once again represent the scale model. On each of the plates she had the same volume of rocks (in weight)--again, representing equality and balance. But to show the unbalance of how we naturally function, one plate held large and bulky rocks, mostly rounded and all of the same size; the second plate held very sharp, pointy, and flat rocks; and, the third held much smaller, very round and shiny rocks (almost pebble like). I thought her concept was easy to visualize and understand. After discussing it further, she verbalized wanting to take it up a notch and we kind of thought that maybe she should decoupage her concept onto a frame or onto a table top if she wanted to take it to a larger scale for display.