Displacement Story

Rob was just a run of the mill teenager living a run of the mill live. Born and raised in Burien, WA he was on a track to nowhere. He desired something more, something adventurous. He noticed guys at Highline HS, the school he attended, always wore blue. Every day they wore blue bandanas, blue t-shirts, blue everything. They looked like Smurfs but ones that could kick your ass to Timbuktu. Rob saw these men and thought to himself, “I want to be just like them.” Little did Rob realize that these were Crips, members of a large and deadly gang.

The average pasty white male growing up in the suburbs of Seattle wanted to become what most people consider a thug. Rob did not see these men as thugs. To Rob these men were heroes that were going to break him out of his conformity to life. When Rob first approached the Crips they laughed at him and thought he was joking. When they realized he was serious they agreed to let him go through initiation purely because they thought it would be entertaining.

During his initiation Rob accidentally stumbled onto a drug deal where some of the elite gang members were present. To protect the identity of the elite members most members, especially initiates, were not allowed to ever see them.  Since Rob had not been fully initiated into the gang and they were not sure that they could completely trust him the elite members told a group of members to take care of him.

While Rob was walking home from school on one of the side streets of 1^st Ave. a group of Crips chased him down. The first member to get to Rob was Joe, the one who brought Rob into the gang, tackled him to the ground. After that the rest attacked him and got as many punches and stabs in as they could. This continued until they had beaten every inch of life out of Rob. Rob laid there in shock and aw as Joe, Albert, George, Martin, Mike, Tyrone  and Will tore him apart. The members whom he thought were his heroes and had become his brothers took his life. One simple accident and his life was gone.   

Spinners Interpretation

The first thing I noticed about the painting is the lady in the white shirt. I believe this to be Arache. She is more abstract and stands out in the painting. I also noticed that she is in the light whereas the other "spinners" are not. I noticed that the front of the painting where Arache is, is very dirty. It has clutter, it's dark, and it looks like everyone isn't really paying much attention to the details. The back of the painting is bright, there is sunlight and there are people, all in a circle and seeming to be involved in the same work or conversation. They are also well dressed.

I also spent time just looking at the painting. It looks like several pieces of art. I believe that Velazques intended for his audience to see this. It looks like behind the four ladies, there is a bunch of other ladies in the back room, that is the first piece of artwork, the second would be the tapestry that I believe Athena wove. It is also in the light and has things flying around which could symbolize the gods.

The painting also demonstrates that Arache's workers or helpers are not working together, you have one on the right watching Arache wove, another one picking things up, and two conversing and they don't seem as interested. In the back, you see all of Athenas helpers all involved. None of them seem to be distracted or uninterested. This led me to believe that Velazques wanted to show us who has the higher power, which clearly is Athena.

Found this on theCHIVE thought that the class might enjoy it.