This is what I know about art - Teana Maitland

 This is what I know about Art

    Quote: "I left my desk to take a walk, but as I made my way to the exit, I began to cry.I looked around, and it was still just a regular Saturday for everyone else. I didn’t think much of it until a few days had passed, and it was just another Tuesday, followed by just another Wednesday."

    

    Reaction: This quote stood out to me because when I first learned about the killing of Eric Garner, it truly broke my heart as well. It captures the deep emotional toll his death had on her, but I believe it weighed even heavier because he was one of us. While she felt that pain, this quote also highlights how desensitized the world around us has become, because tragedies like this happen far too often. It’s as if when one of us is killed at the hands of the police, we grieve, we hurt, but then life just moves on, as if nothing happened.

    Quote:"I needed the agency to make my own decisions about who and how I wanted to be in the world. I wanted to have a voice in the art world. Only this time, I wanted it on my own terms."

    Reaction: After spending years working in the art world and various museums, I think she has reached a point where she is tired of suppressing her artistic ideas and silencing her voice just to fit in. This quote reflects her longing to create on her own terms, in a space where she feels free to fully express her passion for art without compromise. I think she also wants to find somewhere that is more diverse and has people that look like her. 

    Quote:"On social media, I aimed to connect the burgeoning #BlackTwitter community to Black art. My primary strategy was to use it to entice Black audiences to come to the museum."

    Reaction: I see this as a form of activism. After spending time in the art world and facing constant frustration with the lack of diversity in museums and galleries, she took matters into her own hands. By using social media by pushing for more black art and more black audiences to come to the museum. 

"(Law) Black Enforcement"

    

    I titled this one Black enforcement because although they are looked at as law enforcement they seem to only enforce brutality on Black people. This photo can have many meaning but what I gained from it is that we voice for black lives matter and most of the time they are the ones that go against it. The police officer being white male also speaks volumes because most of the injustices that I have witnessed are at the hands of white police officers. The police officer writing in chalk can mean that even though its being shouted because its in chalk it can also be erased. I also feel like him writing in an empty classroom over and over can show that again even though we've been voicing black lives matter sometimes its not heard or seen by others.