CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES IN THE ARTS

REFLECTION
AQUINO, DINAH D.S.
ARTS 1 - B2
PROF. JUALIM VELA
FIRST SEM. 2020
 R E F L E C T I O N

When I first knew that I got Arts 1 as an elective course, what first
came upon me was anxiety. I have had enough classes already during my
former years in schooling to tell that most of the instructors who teach art
are visual arts-centered. Being person whose passion is in music, what I
always feel whenever I enter an arts class is anxiety for the only thing that
I could perfectly draw was a stickman figure; not even a tree, an animal,
nor a cloud. I knew perfectly that my interest is simply not into visual arts.
But when the first outputs for this class were already given by our
professor, I was totally surprised and appalled. To my great surprise, not
only that the course Critical Perspectives in the Arts was about artworks
but also about critiquing an art which meant essay writing - another field
that I am not good at. I thought, I would mess this subject.

But as days passed by, I got accustomed to writing essays for my

outputs and critiquing which was required to answer each question in the
module. At first, this subject would totally bore me, but actually it did not. I
I was actually challenged to answer the learning activities as they were
indeed difficult and would require every student to think critically and to
always look at the bigger picture. Every finished activity for me was a huge
feat. But among all of the activities that I have made, what have struck on
me the most were the activities about Tablazon and Minor Paper about
Contextualizing Art Production. By doing the activity Tablazon, I was
reminded of the past that Filipinos especially Filipino artists needed to
experience under the Marcos regime. I was first overwhelmed by the
lengthy readings but I enjoyed the reading process. I was astounded
about the new information that I acquired about the Marcos regime that I
have not learned in my earlier years of schooling. I am reminded of the
harsh fate that the demised innocent Filipinos undergo during the
regime. As I was reading the reading materials, a mix of emotions was
actually I felt. Next, doing my part in the minor paper about art production
made me realize of the realities that artists experience. I am an aspiring
musician myself and I honestly struggle to promote my art and produce
great contents because I lack equipment for they are real expensive.
 R E F L E C T I O N

There were times that after countless efforts to establish my

small youtube channel, I felt that I should just give up this dream of mine
as an artist. I believe that there is something in my playing of guitarwhich
is different from other existing artists. I knew that this talent has the
potential, but what a sad truth to face that in order to achieve an
exposure, it would take me a lot more of efforts, blood, and sweat as
compared to other artists. This activity made me realize that artists come
from different backgrounds - others came from an influential family or are
just wealthy enough to make invest on materials that they would need in
the production of their art.

Overall, studying Arts 1 was pretty good in my opinion. It is not visual

art-centered as well. I just cannot thank enough our professor who is very
much understanding of the situation of his students in a remote learning
setup. I really appreciate his efforts to still greet and ask us of our current
situations even if we were in an asynchronous setup. Despite early-ended,
I was able to learn things that I could bring in my future endeavors not
just a student, an artist, or a person myself. Indeed, remote learning setup
is really difficult and is different for everyone. But from my experience, I
fortunately enjoyed the class despite everything.