I haven't finished typing up quotes but I did have one I wanted to put up here. I also chose a longer passage, thinking that depending on the situation and how many people have read, we may need a longer passage. It can also be shortened or lengthed because I thought these particular pages (189-93) really interesting.

From 189:

“The next morning, Elaine returned to South Forty at 9:00 am for an all-day workshop about job hunting. She did not think she needed this class, but George had told her she had to attend. She walked into the classroom and sat down in the second row. Nearly every chair was taken, and almost all the other students were male.

The teacher distributed manila envelopes. “This envelope is for documents,” she said. “Birth certificates, ID with a picture, release papers, rap sheet, letter from a P.O., dispositions from the courts, and any proof of your ex-offender status.”

            Before South Forty’s counselors could help anyone find a job, she explained, they needed some paperwork. The students pulled crumpled slips of paper from their pockets.

            ‘I got a copy of my bail receipt,’ one man said.

IF YOU HAVE NOT USED ALL 4 OF THE FREE SEPTA TICKETS MADE AVAILABLE TO YOU EACH SEMESTER BY RES LIFE, THEY HAVE AGREED THAT YOU CAN USE ONE FOR THIS TRIP. SO, IF THIS IS STILL A POSSIBILITY FOR YOU, PLEASE request a Student Activities SEPTA ticket (using this form) by classtime on Thursday.

By midnight on Wed, 12/3, please attach a comment here, describing your plans for your final trip into the city alone: when-and-where will you go, in search of what, using what modalities/methodologies/lenses/p.o.v's & forms of simple, critical and/or deep play? Before writing, spend several hours checking out various websites and possibilities:
Léger: Modern Art and the Metropolis, @ the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
KAWS @ PAFA. 118 North Broad Street.
Maxfield Parrish and Tiffany Studios. The Dream Garden. Curtis Center. 6th & Walnut (off Independence Square).
City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.
"Particle Falls": Sensing Change. Public Art by Andrea Polli.

 I saw this pie chart on upworth.com and immediately thought about Heidi Hartman's discussion of feminist economics! This is such a shocking statistic- that 48.5% of minimum wage workers are adult women. During Heidi Hartman's public presentation, she went through graph after graph that made clear the economic consequences of being a "woman" (which was especially reflected during the recession). Here are a few take-aways from her presentation that I thought you all would enjoy.

• The wage gap is narrowing! Men's earnnings have leveled out since the 70's, while women's have increased.
• Women have always had higher unemployment rates. Single mothers have the highest.
• People with children have higher poverty rates, especially single mothers.
• Women in low-paying jobs STILL get less money than men in the same low-paying jobs.
• Men have a higher growth rate in every industry during the recession recovery, while women have a higher loss rate in every industry but two- Manufacturing and Financial Activitites. 
• More women are attending college than men. 

The above statements are based on research done by the Institute of Women's Policy Research.

1) By now, Elaine was thirty-five years old, older than most of the other inmates. Angry young women reminded her of herself in her first years here. Often, she pulled them aside and dispensed advice, urging them to get a job and go to school....Most of the time, though, she just listened to them talk about whatever was bothering them....

Bedford Hills was full of such makeshift families, where one strong woman played the role of matriarch and cared for a few younger prisoners. At any given time, there were at least 10 prisoners whom Elaine considered her "kids"....

Her children were scared of her, and they almost always did what she said....For young women with no parents, a strong maternal figure was exactly what they wanted. "We knew she loved us, Tarsha Thompson,one of her children, recalls. "It was nice to be loved. That's something we were all lacking"....

Just like her own mother, who had always prepared enough food for their whole building, Elaine made sure nobody was left out (p. 103).

2) In Elaine's opinion, clemency was a cruel and unfair game. She saw it as part of the governor's political dance, a way for him to show concern about the injustices of the laws without actually changing them. She did not think the governor should give anyone clemency; instead, he should just repeal the laws (p. 149).

Wondering in the largest and historic library in University of California Berkeley, I noticed the sculpture on the wall, thinking about that how strange it was, which named “Apple from Heaven: The Armenian Alphabet” with, actually, three pomegranates inside instead of apples. Laughing slightly because of such a ridiculous mistake of this artwork, I broke the silence in the library and felt a little bit embarrassed.

Keeping watching this sculpture, I was absorbed. The letters were too abstract to be recognized, but they looked artistic and seemed to have deeper meaning than it looked like. The content was the Armenian Alphabet, boring, but the style that it was built was extremely interesting. Each letter was created by warped iron belts, which gave me a strong visual shock. As I knew, Armenian is a state which owns long history and high-level ancient civilization. This alphabet, as the most necessary element of language, was a symbol of the flourish Armenian civilization. Thus, the warped letters, I guessed, represented the immemorial and mysterious history of ancient Armenia.

1) "Most of the students stared at the form without writing. The prospect of fitting their complicated lives into all these boxes seemed to overwhelm them" (190). 

2) "Elaine walked out the door. Weeks later, looking back on this day, she would have trouble explaining exactly why she had decided to leave. Maybe just because she could. After so many years of being trapped in prison, she did not ever want to feel trapped again" (201). 

3) Each newspaper article in which she was quoted sent a message back to Bedford Hills. It didn't matter if only one or two people read it. Word would get around. Everyone would hear that Elaine Bartlett was thriving" (263). 

Given the recent text we read by Judith Butler, and examining that some deaths are more celebrated and honored than others, and given recent tragedies i thought this seemed appropriate to post. Recently, famous actor of the Fast and Furious movie series, Paul Walker, died. His, like many other celeberty deaths, was widely broadcast on television and social media. Several other deaths also occured around this same time that got less attention and were not as publicily mourned, whose lives werent as revered. Several individuals died in several parts of the world in horrific accidents, and although Paul Walker's death was tragic and he will be missed by many, even Brain Griffin's death got more views and shed tears than the thousands that lose their lives everyday under much more severe circumstances. 

I came across these articles, just thought I would share:

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/11/leaning-out-michelle-obama-100244.html

http://www.salon.com/2013/11/29/lay_off_michelle_obama_why_white_feminists_need_to_lean_back/?upw

Although I rationally/logically understand how death "trumps" other parts of one's identity, considering we will all die and everyone has experienced death/loss in some degree--I take issue with it.  What death can represent/mean to people is incredibly subjective.  

In class, Trayvon Martin's death loomed in the back of my mind--although his death/trial sparked much needed conversations about America's racial climate, his death did not mean the same thing to everyone.  Although it illuminated prejudice, racial inequalities within our legal systems, gun laws, etc.--the grief and mourning experienced by many black Americans was incredibly racialized.  

I am not sure how many white parents had to sit down their children, explain his death--teach their children how to act when being profiled.  That constant feeling of being watching, questioned, body not being valued, being stereotyped--that is what his death meant to me.  Trayvon Martin is my future child, my father, my boyfriend, my brothers, and me.  He symbolized that black bodies are not valued by American society--that we don't count.  Although his death did create some type of political coalition, it was relatively brief and heavily racialized--certainly not a place for common ground.  

After watching the documentary and reading the articles, I realized that as I rewrite my paper I would like to put a greater focus on Barnes, and what he meant for the art, and connect that back to my viewing of the painting. I found myself thinking more and more about his approach to viewing art, and looking back to how he arranged the paintings, and how it was not just about one piece, but rather a whole experience. 

I also feel like I need to do a deeper analysis of my painting, and then connect hoe my experiences with this painting mirror the initial intentions of the Barnes Foundation.