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Art 211 - 2 Sections

Published By: Bingham's Lens

A collection of visual and written ideas produced by the student artists of Western New Mexico University while working with adjunct faculty member, Tyler Bingham (Spring Semester 2017).

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Tasha Cash

I have always liked art. Doing the studios was a wonderful experience, since I have always done drawing or painting. Having a new aspect of art was very informative and fun.

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Kyra Conerly

One of the things i've learned in this class is the importance of of a line.




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Kaitlin Gregory

Most people don't need to understand art. To some, art is still life on a blank, white wall. Others understand art by placing it in a place filled with love, and letting it tangle with the memories being made.

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Jadaa’ Jacobs

Art Appreciation has taught me so many different things about art and brought me to understand more about it and how it can display someone's emotions.



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Delicia Ortega

I chose black and yellow paint for the picture because I knew adding black would make the light colored paint stand out.

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Oscar Pena

This is a contrast of light and dark tones. You start off in the middle and you either go to the dark side or the light side; it's your choice. Just don't mess up.

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Anthony Polk

Now I see art as a way of expressing emotions and telling a story. It is something that I now do in my spare time if I'm having a bad day.



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Efrain Segoviano

I saw a massive wave of volcanic molten lava wash over an abandoned building. Nature took back what was hers from humanity when people decided to leave waste where it doesn’t belong.

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Zac Taylor

The picture holds a mirror to our own world, the difference being the lack of color. It is a reflection of our world without the calming greens of lush forests or the vibrant shades found in everyday objects.

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Cera Wilguess

This piece is inspired by summer. The yellow paint, along with the sunglasses represent the sunshine and long days soon to come. The blue is for water, a wonderful thing that we lack here in the desert. The red's for strawberries, watermelon, and the sunburns soon to come.

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Jeffrey Arrington

There is an anxious dichotomy between the image and the experience. The impasto quaity of the black paint points to the darkest depression and nihilism that can mar any beautiful experience.

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Lydia Chacon

I have learned that art comes in a variety of shapes, forms, and techniques. I enjoyed this class very much, I did art that I never would have thought of doing.



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Brenda Dominguez Delgadillo

Art shows you the perspective of someone else, and that is an experience that everyone should have.



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Rodolfo Dominguez

I never realized how much influence art has on the world. I never realized how powerful messages can be when they are translated from art.

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Nick Farley

I tried to take a picture of my hand. When it came out, it became clear to me that the original photo did actually work.




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Kevin Finch

Fireworks exploding on the fourth of July creating a light sow in the night sky. An endless stream of sparkles lighting up people's faces only for the moment.



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Gabriel Gomez

The gun is sitting as though it were purposely placed by a robber that wanted to get caught. As though the bat was seen as a weapon also.

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Don Gwyn

There the Gray Aliens stood ten in all with nowhere to run or nowhere to hide. There was no time to reach their aircrafts. The overwhelming deadly toxic ash cloud overtood them in a fraction of second.


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Elisabeth M. Jaquez

The scene's only prevalence seems to be the straight edge going diagonally on the corder of the page. It is a side of a mountain. So perfectly placed, descending to the valley below is the Sun, peeking from behind yet another peak.


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Tre’ Von Jones

The red represents the anger of having to cook so that's why I covered the cooking utensil with white paint.

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Nadia Justiniano

The idea is to show the world my existence with spaghetti, creating the first letter of my name with spaghetti, using yellow to show the light that I transmit to others and the positive thinking to follow your dreams with love....

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Sarah Molleur

A representational image, the glasses help you see your way through life while the keys allow you to open new doors. The black paint is the chaos we face throughout moments.



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Paul Montoya

You can be lost in darkness in the break of day. Most of us know to walk on stones if they are there, but in the end it is up to us if we are going to follow the path or not.

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Nkeiruka A. Njoku

In those final moments when the product of reception and translation, is nothing but series of electrical waves sending sparks that make up images. A likeness of symbols once familiar but now more exotic and overwhelming.

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Ian Ocheltree

Kos was the blessing of our people. She brought us food, fire, and wealth from the sea. Our only blight were the hunters who came to take her away. If only they knew peace then we might have not cursed there dreaded hunt.

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Adrianna Odogui

I was constantly being recorded growing up by my grandparents or parents. Of course we didn't have cell phones or cameras like we do now; I used to LOVE getting the movie strips and looking through them.

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Nicholas Rodgers

I was walking on a cliff. I stumbed upon a vast ravine. Something was happening at the bottom. On my way down I ran into another person. He was coming up from the bottom.

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Kaitlyn Rutherford

The sun radiates more than heat. It radiates joy, love and serenity. Everything revolves around this glowing force of nature because we strive for its warmth.

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LaTrell Spivey

For me in this photo there is a girl. Teh girl seems to be stuck, but that girl is only making her way towards a successful life.

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Fred Thomas

Contrast is one of my favorite things. Most people think colors like black and white are boring but I think they are amazing. They go well together and that was my main motivation for this piece.

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Nikki Vasquez

As I was working on this particular project, I noticed that the splatters began to make shapes...This work brought out the kid in me and I think it's one of my favorites.



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Randy Venegas

The emotional framework that took me to the point of making the choices that I did was myslef, it is what was used in the background, and also it brought on extreme joy with the colors motivating primarly happiness.

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Jaden Wright

Two opposites fighting against each other: black fighting white, good fighting evil, but creating complete balance.

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Body Ritual Among the Nacirema

The anthropologist has become so familiar with the diversity of ways in which different peoples behave in similar situations that he is not apt to be surprised by even the most exotic customs. In fact, if all of the logically possible combinations of behavior have not been found somewhere in the world, he is apt to suspect that they must be present in some yet undescribed tribe. This point has, in fact, been expressed with respect to clan organization by Murdock. In this light, the magical beliefs and practices of the Nacirema present such unusual aspects that it seems desirable to describe them as an example of the extremes to which human behavior can go.

Professor Linton first brought the ritual of the Nacirema to the attention of anthropologists twenty years ago, but the culture of this people is still very poorly understood. They are a North American group living in the territory between the Canadian Creel the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. Little is known of their origin, although tradition states that they came from the east....

Nacirema culture is characterized by a highly developed market economy which as evolved in a rich natural habitat. While much of the people's time is devoted to economic pursuits, a large part of the fruits of these labors and a considerable portion of the day are spent in ritual activity. The focus of this activity is the human body, the appearance and health of which loom as a dominant concern in the ethos of the people. While such a concern is certainly not unusual, its ceremonial aspects and associated philosophy are unique.

The fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease. Incarcerated in such a body, man's only hope is to avert these characteristics through the use of the powerful influences of ritual and ceremony. Every household has one or more shrines devoted to this purpose. The more powerful individuals in the society have several shrines in their houses and, in fact, the opulence of a house is often referred to in terms of the number of such ritual centers it possesses. Most houses are of wattle and daub construction, but the shrine rooms of the more wealthy are walled with stone. Poorer families imitate the rich by applying pottery plaques to their shrine walls. While each family has at least one such shrine, the rituals associated with it are not family ceremonies but are private and secret. The rites are normally only discussed with children, and then only during the period when they are being initiated into these mysteries. I was able, however, to establish sufficient rapport with the natives to examine these shrines and to have the rituals described to me.

The focal point of the shrine is a box or chest which is built into the wall. In this chest are kept the many charms and magical potions without which no native believes he could live. These preparations are secured from a variety of specialized practitioners. The most powerful of these are the medicine men, whose assistance must be rewarded with substantial gifts. However, the medicine men do not provide the curative potions for their clients, but decide what the ingredients should be and then write them down in an ancient and secret language. This writing is understood only by the medicine men and by the herbalists who, for another gift, provide the required charm.

The charm is not disposed of after it has served its purpose, but is placed in the charmbox of the household shrine. As these magical materials are specific for certain ills, and the real or imagined maladies of the people are many, the charm-box is usually full to overflowing. The magical packets are so numerous that people forget what their purposes were and fear to use them again. While the natives are very vague on this point, we can only assume that the idea in retaining all the old magical materials is that their presence in the charm-box, before which the body rituals are conducted, will in some way protect the worshipper. Beneath the charm-box is a small font. Each day every member of the family, in succession, enters the shrine room, bows his head before the charm-box, mingles different sorts of holy water in the font, and proceeds with a brief rite of ablution. The holy waters are secured from the Water Temple of the community, where the priests conduct elaborate ceremonies to make the liquid ritually pure.

In the hierarchy of magical practitioners, and below the medicine men in prestige, are specialists whose designation is best translated "holy-mouth-men." The Nacirema have an almost pathological horror of and fascination with the mouth, the condition of which is believed to have a supernatural influence on all social relationships. Were it not for the rituals of the mouth, they believe that their teeth would fall out, their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends desert them, and their lovers reject them. They also believe that a strong relationship exists between oral and moral characteristics. For example, there is a ritual ablution of the mouth for children which is supposed to improve their moral fiber. The daily body ritual performed by everyone includes a mouth-rite. Despite the fact that these people are so punctilious about care of the mouth, this rite involves a practice which strikes the uninitiated stranger as revolting. It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures.

In addition to the private mouth-rite, the people seek out a holy-mouth-man once or twice a year. These practitioners have an impressive set of paraphernalia, consisting of a variety of augers, awls, probes, and prods. The use of these objects in the exorcism of the evils of the mouth involves almost unbelievable ritual torture of the client. The holy-mouth-man open the clients mouth and, using the above mentioned tools, enlarges any holes which decay may have created in the teeth. Magical materials are put into these holes. If there age no naturally occurring holes in the teeth, large sections of one or more teeth are gouged out so that the supernatural substance can be applied. In the client's view, the purpose of these ministrations is to arrest decay and to draw friends. The extremely sacred and traditional character of the rite is evident in the fact that the natives return to the holy--mouth-men year after year, despite the fact that their teeth continue to decay.

It is to be hoped that, when a thorough study of the Nacirema is made, there will be careful inquiry into the personality structure of these people. One has but to watch the gleam in the eye of a holy- mouth-man, as he jabs an awl into an exposed nerve, to suspect that a certain amount of sadism is involved. If this can be established, a very interesting pattern emerges, for most of the population shows definite masochistic tendencies. It was to these that Professor Linton referred in discussing a distinctive part of the daily body ritual which is performed only by men. This part of the rite involves scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument. Special women's rites are performed only four times during each lunar month, but what they lack in frequency is made up in barbarity. As part of this ceremony, women bake their heads in small ovens for about an hour. The theoretically interesting point is that what seems to be a preponderantly masochistic people have developed sadistic specialists.

The medicine men have an imposing temple, or latipso, in every community of any size. The more elaborate ceremonies required to treat very sick patients can only be performed at this temple. These ceremonies involve not only the thaumaturge but a permanent group of vestal maidens who move sedately about the temple chambers in distinctive costume and head- dress. The latipso ceremonies are so harsh that it is phenomenal that a fair proportion of the really sick natives who enter the temple The concept of culture ever recover. Small children whose indoctrination is still incomplete have been known to resist attempts to take them to the temple because "that is where you go to die." Despite this fact, sick adults are not only willing but eager to undergo the protracted ritual purification, if they can afford to do so. No matter how ill the supplicant or how grave the emergency, the guardians of many temples will not admit a client if he cannot give a rich gift to the custodian. Even after one has gained admission and survived the ceremonies, the guardians will not permit the neophyte to leave until he makes still another gift.

The supplicant entering the temple is first stripped of all his or her clothes. In everyday life the Nacirema avoids exposure of his body and its natural functions. Bathing and excretory acts are performed only in the secrecy of the household shrine, where they are ritualized as part of the body-rites. Psychological shock results from the fact that body secrecy is suddenly lost upon entry into the latipso. A man, whose own wife has never seen him in an excretory act, suddenly finds himself naked and assisted by a vestal maiden while he performs his natural functions into a sacred vessel. This sort of ceremonial treatment is necessitated by the fact that the excreta are used by a diviner to ascertain the course and nature of the client's sickness. Female clients, on the other hand, find their naked bodies are subjected to the scrutiny, manipulation and prodding of the medicine men.

Few supplicants in the temple are well enough to do anything but lie on their hard beds. The daily ceremonies, like the rites of the holy-mouth-men, involve discomfort and torture. With ritual precision, the vestals awaken their miserable charges each dawn and roll them about on their beds of pain while performing ablutions, in the formal movements of which the maidens are highly trained. At other times they insert magic wands in the supplicant's mouth or force him to eat substances which are supposed to be healing. From time to time the medicine men come to their clients and jab magically treated needles into their flesh. The fact that these temple ceremonies may not cure, and may even kill the neophyte, in no way decreases the people's faith in the medicine men.

There remains one other kind of practitioner, known as a "listener." This witchdoctor has the power to exorcise the devils that lodge in the heads of people who have been bewitched. The Nacirema believe that parents bewitch their own children. Mothers are particularly suspected of putting a curse on children while teaching them the secret body rituals. The counter-magic of the witchdoctor is unusual in its lack of ritual. The patient simply tells the "listener" all his troubles and fears, beginning with the earliest difficulties he can remember. The memory displayed by the Nacirerna in these exorcism sessions is truly remarkable. It is not uncommon for the patient to bemoan the rejection he felt upon being weaned as a babe, and a few individuals even see their troubles going back to the traumatic effects of their own birth.

In conclusion, mention must be made of certain practices which have their base in native esthetics but which depend upon the pervasive aversion to the natural body and its functions. There are ritual fasts to make fat people thin and ceremonial feasts to make thin people fat. Still other rites are used to make women's breasts larger if they are small, and smaller if they are large. General dissatisfaction with breast shape is symbolized in the fact that the ideal form is virtually outside the range of human variation. A few women afflicted with almost inhuman hyper-mamrnary development are so idolized that they make a handsome living by simply going from village to village and permitting the natives to stare at them for a fee.

Reference has already been made to the fact that excretory functions are ritualized, routinized, and relegated to secrecy. Natural reproductive functions are similarly distorted. Intercourse is taboo as a topic and scheduled as an act. Efforts are made to avoid pregnancy by the use of magical materials or by limiting intercourse to certain phases of the moon. Conception is actually very infrequent. When pregnant, women dress so as to hide their condition. Parturition takes place in secret, without friends or relatives to assist, and the majority of women do not nurse their infants.

Our review of the ritual life of the Nacirema has certainly shown them to be a magic-ridden people. It is hard to un- derstand how they have managed to exist so long under the burdens which they have imposed upon themselves. But even such exotic customs as these take on real meaning when they are viewed with the insight provided by Malinowski when he wrote: "Looking from far and above, from our high places of safety in the developed civilization, it is easy to see all the crudity and irrelevance of magic. But without its power and guidance early man could not have mastered his practical difficulties as he has done, nor could man have advanced to the higher stages of civilization."

By: Horace Miner