Prior to engaging in the professional development, we ask that you take some time to complete the following action items:

1. Find an artist’s image of a person (in your home, on the internet, from a museum, by guest artist Sarah Maude Griffin–HERE) that you connect with on some emotional level. Consider a familiar emotion, situation, event or person that you relate to within it. 
2. If it’s a digital image, please put a copy of it into this folder so we can show it and discuss at the program.  If it’s a physical image, either bring it with you  if you’re willing to transport it, or perhaps take a photo if it.
3. Spend five minutes free-writing about the image:  What questions does the artwork raise? Why did you choose this particular piece? Think about memories, emotions, and sensory connections you may have with the artwork you chose.
4. Be prepared to introduce the image you chose to the class (project image or bring a printed version) and explain your connection to it by answering:

• What elements of this work drew you to it? 
• What memories, emotions, or sensory connections does this work elicit from you? 
• Are there elements of this work that inspire you or change the way you think about yourself?

Here are a few others to get you thinking:

• President Barack Obama by Kehinde Wiley, 2018
• Propped by Jenny Saville, 1992
• The Soaring Hour by Delita Martin, 2018
• Big Daddy with Hats by May Stevens, 1971
• Wigs (portfolio) by Lorna Simpson, 1994
• Triptych, August 1972 by Francis Bacon, 1972
• What’s precious inside of him does not care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence (All American) by Amy Sherald, 2017
• Alma Haser, puzzle portraits