Shotguns by: John Biggers

“Shotguns” is a painting that was done in 1987 by John Biggers. I like this piece of art work because it portrays how black people lived in the south after the civil war, and it also represents where I grew up as child. Shotgun houses are narrow, one story houses that have rooms usually lined up in a row. I like the piece because it gives an artistic view of the way if life in the past, but I can still relate it to how black people are living today. In some neighborhoods houses are still being built like this. Most documents and examples of shotgun houses are given from, examples of houses in New Orleans. There are houses like shotgun houses in every black ghetto, around the country, and not just in New Orleans. In my grandmother’s neighborhood, where I spent a lot of my time as a child, there are many of these houses and seeing a painting that is focusing on a common black way of life is touching to me.

In the picture there are many rows of these shotgun houses. The houses are behind a set of train tracks. These train tracks are symbolizing the common term “on the other side of the tracks.” This means on the other side of town that nobody wants to hear of, or have shown. They are like a cultural barrier, and back in the old days black and white people did not mix together. The front row of the houses has a different woman standing on each of the porches. The women remind me of the common term it takes a village to raise a child, and the way the houses are close also reiterate the fact that the communities in the south are close nit. Each of the women on the porches are holding a different type of house in their hands, maybe to symbolize how their house is all they have.

I do not necessarily have a favorite picture, nor do I really look at different pieces of art, but I do know that this piece of art moves me inside, because of the name and the view that it gives of the southern black community. This picture reminds me of how much I love the country and down south ways. I know everything in the south is nothing to be proud of, but I would rather live in the south with its rich history than live up north where people do not speak to each other, and there is not a sense of unity. The strength of the black women and Big Momma in the family I think is really shown in this picture.

The colors in the picture tell another story about the painting and what it is representing. There are dark and light shades through out the painting; it makes the picture interesting to look at. The coloring of the picture does not suggest that it is a sad or gloomy but rather, it gives the sense that the people in the picture have troubles in their lives, but still have good times. The rows of houses in the background are representing the rest of the neighborhood and how close they families are literally and figuratively.

All of these things about the painting that I have talked about have come from the stories that my grandmother and parents used to tell me about their neighborhoods when they were young. I think John Biggers was raised in an all black neighborhood and is probably portraying what he experienced growing up as a child.

Observing Your Bad Habits

Over my spring break I kept track of my sleeping habits. I was supposed to do a self-experiment and have punishments and rewards for things that I did helped me reach my goal, but I do not have the will power to punish myself. Nor do I have the luxury of rewards. There was nothing that I could punish myself with, and I do not have a luxury that I miss and only have on special occasions that I can give myself for a reward. The best I could do was just to collect data on myself.

I did realize that I did worry more about what time I woke up, got out of bed, went to bed, and went to sleep during the week. I did put more effort into staying on a schedule similar to school, while still getting rest. My typical day over the break would be to get up in the morning and get out of bed within an hour of waking up. I recorded what went on throughout my day, and then documented what time I went to bed, why I went to bed, and what time I went to sleep, and what kept me woke before I went to sleep.

Even though I did not change much with an experiment with rewards and consequences, I did change other bad habits that I have. I became aware of my bad habit of slouching, and I put my best effort into making sure that I ate meal when I woke up in the morning. I know the idea of sleeping less was not going to be so hard when I went home on spring break because now when I go home; it is usually just me and my mother in the house. Due to the fact that I am no longer the only person in the house I have to get out of the bed when I wake up.
On the Monday of my spring break I did get to oversleep, but I did have to eventually get out of the bed, get a shower, and go out of the house. I did not stick to any of the rules of my experiment such as getting out of the bed at or around 12:00 noon, eating breakfast, and going to bed at or around 2:00 in the morning, but I was the first day of my long awaited spring break. I did not lie in the bed all day though. At around 4:00 in the afternoon I got dressed because I had to go with my parents to a meeting at my high school about my brother’s school schedule next year. After the meeting though I went back to my room to be lazy, and catch up on my sleep that I deserved from being in school. I went to sleep just a little after 3:00 in the morning.

Tuesday I was woken up by a stranger calling my phone, and my mother knocking at my door asking me if I wanted to go shopping with her and my aunt. So I did get up, and get dressed before 12 noon. In fact I was up, dressed, and ready to go by 10:00 that morning. I did not eat breakfast before I left the house, but I did go in the bakery down the street when we stopped there and get some food to eat. Of course I was not healthy, normal breakfast food, but it was food. When I got back home I was tired and had a headache so I did go to sleep for maybe one and a half to two hours. I woke up though to go to my brother’s band concert at school. I was still tired when I got back home from the concert so I ended up going to sleep earl around 1:00, which is good because I never go to sleep before at the last 2:00 when at school.

Wednesday was a busy day. My mother made dentist appointments for me and my brother, so I had to get up early. I got up and took my mother to the grocery store. I was out of the house by 11:00, but I did not eat breakfast. After the dentist I went back home and did not do anything else substantial all night. I stayed up for a long time though on the internet talking to old friends, and making new friends with people who were like me… Bored and up too late at night. I did not go to sleep until sometime after 5:00.

Thursday was the day I got my hair done. My appointment was 2:00 that afternoon, and I knew I had errands to run for myself before I went to the beauty salon. I set my alarm on my phone to wake my up at 12:00 so I could get up do what I had to do and still make my hair appointment on time. My mother made me eat breakfast before I left the house so for the first time all break I sat at the table and ate breakfast. After I left the hair salon I went to my high school to watch some of my brother’s baseball game. When I got home I left with some of my friends to go to one of their houses for the night. Even though there were all college students and other people there at the house our age, we were all asleep by 2:00.

Friday morning I had an alarm set for 10:00 so I could go back home. My mom was a little jealous of my friends, because I came home and still went somewhere with them. She said that we saw enough of each other in school. When I got home I ate breakfast and got a shower. My mother and I planed a girl’s day out with shopping and a movie. Later that night I was scheduled to baby-sit my little cousin overnight, while her mom threw her older brother a birthday party. I entertained her until around 11:00. We both watched the UNC Men’s basketball team. I went to sleep after the game around 12:00 that morning.

I woke up at 7:56 on Saturday morning because my little cousin was staring at me. We both eventually went back to sleep, and slept until a little after 12:00. I ate breakfast, took a shower, and went on a walk in the front yard with her. Later that night after we took her back to her mom, I went to my brothers swim banquet, and then to the movies with two more of my friends to watch The Hills Have Eyes. I did not go to sleep before 2:00 Saturday because I was having visions of fear from the movie.

The goal of this experiment was to change or maintain my school sleeping habits over spring break. Over any break out of school I usually spent the whole day in the bed. I wanted to get out of this habit and take myself out of the habit of being a homebody, because now that I am in college I should have a life when I am home as well as when I am in school. Besides being as lazy as possible on Monday, I got up before my designated time every other day of the week, and I did have things that I had to do outside of the house. Most of the days I was home I also stayed on my same sleep schedule for bed that I have set for myself for school, except on Thursday, when I went to the movies to see a scary movie with my friends. I stayed awake that night out of fear. I know I would have been up and on the phone or on the internet all hours of the night over my spring break and in the bed when I did not have anywhere to go, had I not been trying to change myself for this experiment. Like I stated earlier, I did not give myself punishments or rewards for doing things that abided to my experiment, but I observed my behavior, and my being conscious on my actions led to me maintaining good posture, making good food choices, and now that I am back in school from break I have maintained good study habits. These good habits all come from me planning out my day and thinking to myself about the positive and negative effects they will have on my life. So I have concluded that not all experiments have to have consequences and rewards, some experiments whose goals are to change ones self can just be observations. Because the more you pay attention to, and care about your own actions the more of better person you can become.