The reason I love the art assignment is because it enforces the fact that art isn't just drawing and painting, and I adore that. Thanks for the thought-provoking challenge!

I met Sonya Clark when she did her artist in residency at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, she made the "Monumental Cloth" piece. She's a very very nice person, and an excellent teacher. I'm so happy to see her on the art assignment!!

The two artists highlighted in this video are huge inspirations. Thank you Sonya for this wonderful assignment. It was lovely meeting you earlier this year at UofM. Much love! - Brian

What is interesting to me in the work of Sonya is the meaning of hair in my life as a Jewish person. one why the Nazis dehumanize prisoners was by shaving there heads. In Auschwitz museum there is a room full of human hair. When Sonya talked about the connection of her work to her history I thought about her work with hair and what it means in my history.

I really like Sonya. She makes such thoughtful and helpful art works, and I love how she describes her processes

I'm not crying at the story about Gonzalez Torres. I'M NOT CRYING. This art style is so touching.

Whoa. I remember visiting the Guggenheim as a little kid and seeing that giant mound of candy. Definitely didn't grasp the depth of it at the time, but that's a crazy flashback... 25 years ago

Another assignment that I couldn't stop thinking about for the last 24 hours. I immediately knew what aspect of my history I would pick and I really want to do this... just not sure what exactly I should do with it yet, how I can actualize and visualize it. It's something that's very important to me, also very personal and complicated...and you can measure easily, it's an actual number and has always been, it's just hard to grasp it...to make something else out of it. I have an idea though. And I want to make this. Might take some while, but I hope I'll get to do it.

I want to point out that John himself has done this! Remember when he signed all first printings of TFIOS? I remember in a vlogbrothers video he showed Hank the sharpies he has went through. All those empty sharpies are the material and they quantify all the time John spent making those sharpies inkless because YES all preorders of TFIOS will be signed!

I love her and I love the concept behind this assignment.

Sonya is my favorite person up to now ! She seems to be a perfect art mentor !

Mr john green that beard is amazing. Love the example, love the assignment! My Concept assignment: all the plates i've emptied, an instagram account. Reverse food phtography, photographing the aftermath of all the meal tables I've eaten at to represent all the people/conversations i've had over food. Concept assignment 2: my body's hourglass ratio/ vital statitics measured out on strips of bacon, photographed in a display, cooked then eaten hahaha

this is a very interesting assignment! Sonya Clark seems amazing :D

I'm not sure how much of it I have left, because I've been ceremoniously burning it off and on for awhile now, but my entire life I've most closely identified as a student. The sheer amount of pieces of notebook paper and worksheets and workbooks and exams and quizzes that I've completed in my 14 years of schooling thus far is probably astounding. Much of my involvement outside of the classroom is dedicated to improving sustainability efforts at my university and though trees regrow, from a carbon neutrality standpoint, trees are better left in the ground. If I were to complete this assignment I could see myself putting together a stack of papers that I got 100% on, maybe 19 of them to represent my age, and simply displaying them on a table. In a sense there's a literal sustainability component to collecting binders full of old academic efforts. There's also a more tangible, but less literal, component to me which is the psychological sustainability aspect and the amount of personal pressure I've put on myself to write essays and equations on a sheet that will be graded and forgotten about, reviewed and recycled. I know I'm extremely privileged to have the opportunity to be exposed to so many amazing educators but there have been many times where to achieve academic perfection I've pushed myself to a point that isn't sustainable and I've broken down. After so many of these episodes of just circling thoughts, and extreme anxiety, it get's to the point where you begin to question if everything you've built your identity on is just a sheet of paper, that you'll just throw away, and it won't really matter how it's disposed of because it really isn't that bad for the environment, it doesn't have a substantial impact on its surroundings.

I made an ode to Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A), called Untitled (Portrait of Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Ross Laycock In Love), and it was a pile of sparklers with the weight of one body.

This assignment really inspired me, and it's something I think I've needed. I've been trying to piece together a personal history that doesn't quite fit but seeing it in quantitative terms is something so different, something I hadn't thought to do. I'm understanding myself a little better. I already have three ideas that I can't wait to try (and art does not come naturally to me). Thank you Sonya for the inspiration. Separately, it was also fascinating to hear about your work!

the difficulty and importance this assignment (for me) is in all the options: which piece of my history? which medium? how to make them work together. i have the feeling in order to get myself to do this assignment, i may have to at least start a couple of projects and see which one grows into itself. lots of options that, at the same time, lead to something specific. whew.

Super dark, but intriguing. The Ulysses quote sums up this assignment really well.

Who else is reminded of the song Seasons of love? Do you measure a year in a life with cups of coffee? I look forward to doing this assignment. I probably won't be able to upload it, but I will really enjoy the process of this one.

thank you for this

I like this assignment. It reminds me of Chris Jordan's "Running the Numbers" series (www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/rtn/#prison-uniforms-set) Different approach, but similar concept of using measurement, and art, to let us grasp something otherwise ephemeral or hard to conceive of. To tie this assignment to measure something in our personal history is very intriguing.... it's got me thinking now. :)

Gosh I love Sonya Clark, such a great choice of artist!

this episode made me cry

This is my homework for school

Thinking as I watched and wanting to send to two people close to me who have birthdays this summer - 60 and 80

How are artists so smart!?

great, now I have that song from rent stuck in my head

This is gonna be my first Art Assignment! Or the first one I will participate in. I actually find the first step easier then the second one, but I already have an idea in my mind. When we have to measure and actualize, is that limited to what actually happend? Is it okay to measure something that has been dark in something that is positiv; to counteract?

I've got it, now to make it before i turn 26 or the numbers will get messed up.

do the case for the 1975

A pile of candy the weight of your significant other... It makes me feel so incredibly sad.