One of my favorite places to work is Julie's coffee on Monroe Road. It's an independent shop attached to the Habitat to Humanity Store that sells awesome coffee, has an incredible used book section, and lovely places upstairs and down to work. The furniture is all recycled from Habitat donations. Because of my obsession lately with the Rhetoric of Help, I thought this a fine place to begin a little literacy dig in order to model the ethnographic projects my 1101 students are going to be getting into. In this post/ dig I'm focused on the art in the place. What can be read about the place based on these photos of their original art?
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| Wall Art In Loft |
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| Ceiling Collage - Taken from Loft |
What I love about Julia's coffee is the sense of comfort in the coffee shop. There are books everywhere, tons of options to sit and read a book or work, and original artwork. It's colorful and cozy. What's interesting about it to me is how the bookshelves spill over into the Habitat Restore, which is also a fun place but has a completely different vibe. It's this clash between art/thinking space in Julia's coffee, and utility/sales in the Restore. So, my impression of the wall art in the coffee shop is to bring these two worlds together--to think about how you are helping others by participating in this space (given the purpose of this space to begin with), but you also can help yourself by thinking/working/participating in this space.
ReplyDeleteLove the idea of posting in response to the art on the wall of a coffee shop. The first picture, the one from the loft has got me thinking about how the objects work together as symbols. The hard hats and tools are often used as symbols for work and building. But with the ladder, I'm thinking (maybe because of the conversations from this weekend) about the idea of moving up, one step at a time. These pieces work together symbolically to play into common American narrative of how anyone can work their way up through hard work. Interesting how I'm reading this story coming through from art posted in Habitat, which among other things, implies that some people need a little help to move upward.
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