 Artist Statement
In the last five years, McNeal has traveled to Mexico, Cuba and Morocco to photograph and record the lives of community activists, healers, farmers and musicians.
In 2006, McNeal completed a photo documentary of a Zapatista village in the state of Chiapas, Mexico while working as a human rights observer. The photographs of children, families and the jungle forest they live in powerfully capture the dignity of the indigenous people and the ancestral lands they are struggling to protect.
In January 2008, McNeal traveled to Cuba and photographed three prominent organic farming projects around the city of Havana. Outside of the city, McNeal traveled to the Pinar del Rio province and photographed the people, places and spaces involved in several prominent local environmental and tourism projects.
Local photo projects have focused on San Francisco counter culture and include images from St. Stupid's Day and Easter in Dolores Park.
As a sound designer and audio documentarian, McNeal has done field recording in Fes, Chiapas, New York City and San Francisco. Soundscapes are based on a fusion of street sounds, ambient conversation, and layers of percussion. Audio documentaries have featured "Picture the Homeless" a street level homeless advocacy group, members of New York's Haitian community organizing protests against the NYPD, local groups working to save community gardens, and a Lower East Side community center fighting developers over use of an abandoned school.
Currently, Marilyn is a working on Imaginopedia, a multimedia wiki that seeks to reinterpret narrative, information and community while offering visitors the opportunity to co-author original "stories." Recent entries have included ASCII code, email subject header spam text, pencil sketches, digitally manipulated photos, shapes made from 3D modeling software, embedded video, stop motion animation and audio clips.
A resident member of the Million Fishes artist collective, McNeal has exhibited her photographs, sound design and mixed media work in the collective's bi-annual group shows since 2005.
"Good writers will tell you that they write in order to find out what they think, not the other way around. Making art is just like that. You have to have the courage and patience to stay with an idea until it materializes into something more interesting than you expected. And you have to start somewhere and not dismiss how small a place that may be.
- Uta Barth |
History of Professional Work & Education
In 2000, McNeal began her teaching career in New York and instructed at The New School University, Borough of Manhattan Community College, Long Island University and the Technology & Learning Center at The Armory. After returning the San Francisco, McNeal taught at Positive Resource Center and LYRIC and was a volunteer computer instructor at the San Francisco Public Library.
Marilyn has taught web production as Adjunct Faculty at the City College of San Francisco since the Fall of 2004 and received her Master's degree in Media Studies from The New School for Social Research in 2001. Her online course space can be visited at www.webinstructor.org/
Awards, Publications, Lectures, Exhibits
In 2006, McNeal was interviewed for "Crossover: How Artists Build Careers across Commercial, Nonprofit and Community Work." by Ann Markusen, Professor of Planning & Public Policy at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota. A year later, in May 2007, McNeal was invited to speak at the Alternative Lecture Series at the San Francisco Art Institute - Graduate Center. Her presentation, Social Media & the Alternative Narrative, focused on the role artists can and do play in the reconstruction of reality online.
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Teaching Methodology
I am particularly interested in helping students develop cross application
digital literacy. By providing a clear conceptual overview followed
by step-by-step instruction and materials, I help students develop
a strong foundation in digital media production essentials.
To
augment this process, I often create instructional materials on
the spot, first showing, then typing up the words that convey what
was just demonstrated. This is extremely difficult to do but well
worth the effort because it offers students a critical bridge between
the language they hear, the language they need to repeat to themselves,
and the actions associated with the language.
Finally,
I emphasize problem solving. I think it is vital that students learn
how to figure things out using online resources, experimentation
and common sense. Most students will not have the luxury of being
in an instructor-led environment all of the time. I speak to that
reality and encourage their discovery and research skills from the
very first class.
". . . teaching is where I find out what I really think. It is only in the act of having to explain a complicated idea, in having to find language for what rambles around in my mind, that I find out where my convictions lie, what ideas I am
excited about most and what I just can't buy.
. . . teaching is a place where you can really give.
- Uta Barth |
Application
Knowledge
Graphic
Design & Desktop Publishing: Photoshop, InDesign, Publisher
Web Production: HTML, Fundamentals of Web Design, DreamWeaver
Animation: Flash
Web 2.0: MediaWiki, Moodle, Drupal
Office Productivity: Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook
Computer Basics: Intro to Windows, Internet Basics
Employment Readiness: Keyboarding, Job Skills, Resume Writing |
