Smiley Library and Lincoln Memorial.

While I really wasn't raised with a positive attitude toward libraries, books were anything but lacking in my childhood. Growing up, every librarian I can remember made the library into a scary place. I always felt flustered,and uneasy, like I was invading their space and creating a major inconvenience. In high school for instance, the librarians were so unwelcoming, that they were openly referred to as the "book Nazis". This background, I think made me uneasy in even the child friendly Smiley Library; I spent most of our time there in the garden.
I was always encouraged to read, however, and books were always present in abundance. When I was in elementary school, and very impressionable, an aunt who i have always been very close to, was attending UCR and encouraged me to read a lot of what she was being exposed to. In 3rd grade, she started with Sandra Cisnero's House on Mango Street, 6th grade brought about bell hook's Bone Black and Communion, and by 8th grade I had devoured A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn,The Marx Reader, and The Angela Davis Reader.
I very much enjoyed visiting the Lincoln Memorial, my favorite part being that so many different aspects of the time period were represented, not only his autobiography. As an artist, I would like to be able to further analyze the controversial Norman Rockwell painting displayed in the memorial, as it represented so much of what was occurring during the war, everything from racism to feminism.