Comic Strip

The assignment this week was to create a comic strip of my heritage. I decided to go back as far as my grandparents and show what countries they were from. The comic strip also shows a little about me and my future.

My mother’s parents came from Hungary and Russia. My grandmother is 100% Hungarian and my grandfather is mostly Russian with the last name Skalaban. Both of their parents came over to America and had gave birth to them, making them both American citizens. My grandparents have been married for forty-five years. My grandma and grandpa Skalaban had four children all girls, with my mother being the first born.

My father’s parents came from Poland and England. My grandmother was mainly Polish and my grandfather was mostly English. Both of their parents came over to America and had children, making them American citizens. My grandmother gave birth to three children, two boys and one girl. The youngest boy was my dad. Unlike my mother’s parents my dad’s parents went through a divorce. My grandmother remarried and her husband adopted my dad. My dad and my last name is Jennings.

My parents met when in high school and started dating. My mother went to Bloomsburg University and my dad went into the army. After the army and college they got married and shortly after had me. They were married for ten years when they decided to split up. Now I have a step-father and step-mother making my family huge.

This is my last semester at Penn State, but I think my college years will always be in my heart. College is a time when you really mature and grow-up. I have made a ton of friends here and will never forget all of the memories of State College. I am going to be an accountant at Pricewaterhouse Coopers. I see my past being Penn State and my future as an accountant. I have a heritage to contribute to that I will pass down to my children.

Self Portrait Option One

The self-portrait of the back of my head is something that helped me learn more about the art of this type of photo along with a little something about my gender. In the photo of the back of my head you can see my hair is in a knot with my two arms pulling it into this knot on either side of my head. The background of the photo is completely white and there is a spotlight focusing on the knot in my hair. There are many reasons why I chose to take a picture like this and certain works that influenced my creativity for this picture.

Similar to the artist Jeanne Dunning’s pictures I decided to focus on the back of my head. I wanted this picture to display emotion and something more than just hair on a head. In her photo called "Neck" she focuses on the models neck and the beauty of it. I decided to expose my neck as well, but instead of it symbolizing beauty, I wanted it to symbolize confusion and frustration. The hairs on my neck and many strands of hair are loose pointing in different directions. This symbolizes frustration and anger.

The artist Lorna Simpson also influenced my photo by incorporating the white background and black spotlight focusing in on the knot in my hair. In her photo called "Coiffure" she uses a contrast in colors to focus on the neck and back of the model. I thought this was a unique technique and decided to focus on the knot in my hair by having it spotlighted, making it the focus point of the piece of art.

The poem we read for class that was written by Sapphos on jealousy, also inspired this picture. I thought it was brave how she was expressing her feelings and frustration through the poem to the world during a time period when women’s opinions did not matter. When I was reading the many versions of the poem as well as constructing my own poem, I noticed her jealousy and great expression of emotion and it inspired me. I realized that no matter what emotion you are expressing you should express it, gender does not matter. I have a personality where I do not like to say no to people. I want to help everyone out even if it is severely inconveniencing me. This picture displays my frustration and rejection to other people. I think it can be complicated being a woman because women are suppose to be helpful to others, while men have the “I don’t really care attitude.” So through this picture I am displaying what I learned about not having to always say yes, or be the nice girl when I am continually going out of my way for others that don’t reciprocate. This picture is me before, when I was pulling out my hair and when I would get myself in a knot, which isn’t going to happen anymore

Women's World

The building that I created is called WWCC. This stands for Working Women with Children Center. The building is designed to accommodate working women with children by providing a relaxing, family environment. There are many features that this building or house does to better assist women with children better than a regular home.

Since the function of this house is to assist working women with children more efficiently there are four main features. The first helpful feature in this house is the large kitchen. The kitchen is designed to give the mother more room to move about the kitchen and prepare food. There is ample amount of space between the island and the stove so even if the child wants to play with the pots and pans they will not be under foot. The kitchen has high counters and sensory stoves that alert the child when it is too close to the stove which helps to protect the children from getting a burn or a hold of dinner before it is ready. In the kitchen it always smells like great food is cooking including a well-balanced diet so the children are getting all of there nutrients.

The second feature of this house that is different than a regular house is the large family room/ play room. It is in here that the kids are able to play in a large space with all their toys. They have access to the computer, but the internet has child safety sites on it. There is lots of light that gets into the room through the windows to help brighten the atmosphere for the children. Along every wall is storage space for the children’s toys which will keep the house tidy and teaches the children responsibility. This room is kid safe and will allow the children to spend time in there unsupervised.

The third feature that both the mother and children have is separate personalized bathrooms. The children’s bathroom has lower sinks and toilet. It also has a large bathtub to assist in easier bathing for the child. The bathroom has kid soap, kid toothbrushes and toothpaste, everything a child needs for good hygiene. The bathroom has two sinks instead of just one to alleviate the chance of fighting between siblings. By having the smaller sinks and toilets the child learns to be independent early on in childhood. The mother also has a personalized bathroom that is very large and relaxing. When you first enter the bathroom it smells of relaxing lavender. There is a large tub for bubble baths and plenty of mirror space for getting ready.

The last feature that is in this special house that accommodates both the mother and children is their bedrooms. The children have separate beds that are slightly lower than a normal bed to make it easier for them to get in and out of bed. They also have a large space for playing in their room along with another toy box. The light switches are also lower so they can easily turn the light on and off by themselves. The room smells fresh like Lysol because every time they leave the room an automatic fan sprays Lysol to help keep away the germs. The mother’s bedroom is also personalized for her. The room smells of chamomile and is adjacent to the bathroom to make late bathroom trips very easy. There is a whole wall of closet space to hold all of her necessities. The bed is a tempra-pedic mattress to help comfort and support the mother’s back and assists in falling to sleep faster.

The strengths in this house are listed above, but like a regular house every home has it’s weaknesses. The house is designed for a mother with two children that are between the ages of four and ten. The children’s rooms are not designed for babies nor young adult teens due to the smaller beds and bathroom accessories. Therefore, the WWCC is only usable by working mothers with two children that are in elementary school. If a mother has three children a bunk bed can be put in, but the age requirement would limit the amount of time a woman would be able to live here. The building does fulfill its function of assisting working women with children, but it is only practical for a small percentage of women in the working field.