Home work 38

HW 38 Art Project Cool



1. I wanted my graphic story (true) to illustrate the hot and cool aspects of the cool culture from West Africa that has affected African-American culture and I think probably almost every culture’s idea of cool. The cool part of cool is the detached attitude that shows a feeling of calm and strength, and the hot part is the energy and power of movement or action. These two sides of cool are obvious in jazz music’s hot and cool sides and in African-American dance, where the head stays cool and the body gets wound up. Our cool cultural heroes are usually detached in that they stand apart from everyone else, and powerful because they show great energy in some area. I tried to show in this graphic story how just focusing on the cool side of cool, the detached side, can be a negative thing. The players on the soccer team who don’t work hard have their idea of being cool on an underdog team that involves not listening to the coach and not making an effort. When the team starts winning and standing apart in its own way, these players start working harder. What I am trying to get across here is that just acting detached from whatever you don’t want to be a part of or what you want to stand out from in order to be perceived as cool and not using your energy to develop some part of yourself is self-defeating because this is the part of cool that gives you more self-esteem.

2. I decided on a graphic story because I didn’t have enough to create a video at
School. I chose to write about the SOF soccer team because it lost all but two games the last year and won all its games (on the field) this year. I decided on how many graphics I wanted to have to tell the story, decided on the sequence of the action and what I wanted the coach and players to say. I completed each graphic before going to the next one so that there would be continuity and then added color at the end.

Creating art is extremely cool because when you are drawing,
painting, singing, acting whatever), you are expressing yourself and your own originality.
An existentialist might say you are creating your essence, what makes you you. This means you are developing your own potential separate from anyone else and giving your life some meaning. In African tradition it is the hot part of being cool.