Reading Enjoyment Maximizers (REM)

Project Description: For this project we had to read the book My Ishmael by Daniel Quinn and then choose a Reading Enjoyment Maximizer. There were personal, textual, and community REMs but each of those had many different REMs. There were many different options that we could choose from. We could choose the one that we liked the most because the whole point was to do what felt natural and what we personally liked.

Process: First we had to read the book My Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Then we had to choose one of the Reading Enjoyment Maximizers. I choose the illustrator one. For the illustrator REM I had to draw, paint, or otherwise illustrate my artistic vision of what I read. I had to include a reference to the literature and a brief artist’s statement. First I sketched out what I was going to paint. Then I had to show it to Charlotte and she had to approve it. After she did, I started painting everything in the canvas board and made the 1st draft of the artist statement. I had many people review my artist statement until I got to the final draft. I worked a lot on the painting until I finished.

Reflection: In this project I learned a lot about our world and about our culture. The book My Ishmael made me look at everything from a different perspective and helped me understand why we are like we are. It also helped me understand the difference between Leavers and Takers. By doing the illustrator REM I learned how to show something with drawings. One of the challenges I encountered was trying to organize my time to get everything done on time. If I could do this project again I would spend more time on the painting because even though I did like the final painting I think it could have been better. This will help me later to organize my time better.

Artifact:

Artist Statement