While I was performing Maintenance Art in the area around the USU, I felt like I was doing something that wouldn’t really catch anyone’s attention but then two random students told me and my group that we were doing a good job in keeping the campus clean and they thanked us too so that made me feel really good of what I was doing.

Mierle Laderman Ukeles cleaning the steps of an art museum and Richard Serra flinging molten lead against the walls of an art museum are different because Laderman’s choice of cleaning the steps seems passive while Serra’s action of flinging molten lead seems aggressive. They are the same in which they can both be considered art depending on someone’s view and they both portray a type of message. They are both “art” because Ukeles chose to clean the stairs, she wasn’t ordered to clean them and Serra’s way of flinging molten lead shows how even aggression can be an art because it is a human emotion.

I do believe that Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ Maintenance Art performance at the Wadsworth Atheneum is “art” because she cleaned the stairs of an art museum without anyone telling her to do it. Her performance at an Art Museum made it art because a janitor could’ve just cleaned the stairs since it’s the janitor’s job but she didn’t want to wait for the stairs to be cleaned so she took matters in her own hands. If she had gotten hired as a janitor somewhere and performed that job for 6 months, it wouldn’t have been art because it would be her job to clean the stairs and she would be instructed to do it but since she wasn’t a janitor, she did it on her own which shows that she cares about the art museum and its appearance. The three things that makes an act “art” is when there is a deeper meaning behind that act, the emotion that is put into it, and the hidden message that it tries to show.

An object or an action can become art because of some intrinsic property of the medium because it is something that is relative to the object or action. An object or an action becomes art because of the intention of the person performing it because the person’s intention could have a hidden meaning or a story behind it. All paintings on canvas are considered art because they are exhibited in art museums but it can be the same case in the other paintings on canvas that don’t get exhibited in art museums because every painting is done with a sort of meaning to the artist or creator that was creating it and that in itself is a really beautiful thing and should be considered art. A house painting isn’t art not because we don’t exhibit painted houses in art museums but because we paint houses in a normal color to protect the outer layer of the house. A painting on canvas can sometimes not be considered art like for example the banana taped to the wall, I just don’t see a meaning behind it because the person, Maurizio Cattelan, just taped a banana to the wall. Painting a house can be considered an art depending on how it is painted like and how creative the painting on the house is like for example, making the house look like it’s upside-down or putting stripes on it or making it look like there is no house.

Mierle Laderman Ukeles and Jennifer Lopez made me think differently about “Women’s Work” because I saw how a woman is usually doing things for us dumb men and we take it for granted. “Women’s Work” is always art because they are always taking care of the children and clean the house and our clothes and when they give birth to new life, that is art. I would get on my hands and knees to clean Kobe Bryant’s Star because he was loved by everyone, he influenced a lot of people, and he will be missed by everyone.

Idea #2: Finger painting

It was a pretty confusing experience because I have never done finger painting before in my life and so when I was finger painting, it felt different than using a paintbrush because your fingers feel the paint touching the paper.

It was harder for me because at first my painting didn’t have that much color in the middle so I decided to add more blue and green to it but then it still didn’t have enough color so again I had to add more color. It was confusing & frustrating because I didn’t know how to draw it at first because I didn’t want to mess the painting up. Compared to other paintings, my painting is like a personal accomplishment to me because it was something that I created and put in effort in creating it.