Daily Practice:

My daily practice this week was not of photographing things but it was of viewing wildlife. I think my favorite day this week was of it being evening after dinnertime and I was sitting on the bench in the statue garden on campus and I saw something move. At first I was really startled to see something move because it was really close to be but it was really a tiny white and gray stray kitten. It looked really curious to see me and we just looked at each other for a minute. The kitten seemed a bit intimidated by me because it was a stray and it did not have much experience with human contact but I did not move as all and tried not to scare it. It slowly got a bit closer to me but then it hid behind a small tree a few feet away. It kept watching me from afar just like how I observed it. It eventually went off into the bushes but I thought it was a very interesting experience because it looked so curious but it did not see me as a danger to it. The other days I saw a chubby white and brown cat, some weird looking mushrooms and some birds in the Whitney Museum and some deer at night time. I personally enjoyed this week because it was nice to go on little walks to view wildlife each evening after dinnertime.

Week in Review: 9/25-9/29

Day One: Observational Drawing
Over the weekend the foundations students had a class field trip to New York City to visit art museums and take a trip down to the city. Over the weekend we had an art project for observational drawing to draw the interior of a building on campus so I decided to challenge myself and try to draw a spiral staircase. I was required to do a first draft sketch and a final piece in charcoal. I tried to use loose charcoal and a paintbrush to push the pigment across the paper which I thought was very useful for large scale drawings. I used a combination of loose charcoal, compressed charcoal and pencil charcoal. At the beginning of class we had a large critique of our pieces because instead of everyone having a single drawing to display we had two to show. My critique was that I decided to do a challenging spot but my lines were a bit odd and that they needed a bit of work. However overall it was a nice piece from me but there was still areas that I could improve on. The professors also enjoyed my first draft of my piece in pencil with better lifework and how it was more clean. Later in class we set up our easels in two large circles and there were a bunch of cardboard boxes in the middle and we had to use charcoal to draw them. We had to first make our newsprint a medium gray value. Then we had three minutes to shade in our most dark values and then use our eraser to lighten up spots in our composition. After six minutes of shading and erasing values we had another three minutes to pull the piece together using whatever we needed to complete the piece.

Day Two: Observational Drawing
Tuesday was mainly continuing our timed observational drawing and looking at anchor artists for reference. The professors changed the assignment by not having students shade the newsprint a medium gray so we can add in our values ourself. I think this was very interesting because it helped my confidence in my drawing skills and to use my eraser less when doing observational drawing. Our homework was to do another drawing on Stonehenge paper of the boxes and utilize what we have been learning the past week.

Day Three:
During the halfway mark of the week both foundation groups combine to hear combined announcements of the art department. In class we watched a series of videos about artists in New York and how/where they work. The artists presented in the videos all had different art styles and approaches to how they did art.

Day Four: Studio Research
Thursday foundations class was held outside and when I came up to the studios I saw a long table covered in brown paper. We were told by our professors that we were going to eat that day. We were part of a performance art piece that class and we were provided breakfast. We got to sit down wherever we wanted to and we set out our places with plates, bowls, spoons, etc. We had to trace where we placed all of our utensils and things at our place setting and we had to get up and were told that we may have some coffee and juice. When everyone was socializing we were individually called to sit down at an assigned place by the professors across from another student. We had our name written down at our place and it was not the seat that we were originally at. We were then able to get our food and after every five bites of food we had to stand up. After everyone was done eating we had a partner activity to do. The person across from us was to be our partner in our performance art piece and we had to give each other instruction on something that we are good at. For example, I told my partner the instructions on how to draw a tiger and she told me the instructions to make a cappuccino.  After the sets of instructions were finished we had to use our leftover food and plates to make a sculpture. After we made our sculpture we had to redo it to a smaller scale. After our pieces were reduced to the size of a small plate we had to work with our partner to create a combined piece using the materials that we were given. Later we find out that we have to stabilize the form to be cast in glass the next week.

Day Five: Studio Research
Friday was the day that we had our four paintings/drawings the height of ourselves critiqued. The pieces were supposed to interpret our combined sculpture that we made the previous week. We also analyzed groups sculptures beforehand so everyone have have an understanding of each of the eight group's art pieces before critiquing them as a class. Some people took the abstract approach to their piece and some other people did more observational drawing work. Everyone was to do their assignment in either charcoal, graphite or ink. Since the students had a lot of flexibility through interpretation and through mediums the whole studio was full of a variety of art styles which I liked because it showed a different approach to a student's way to create art.

Sketches from Block A:

Here are some sketches and art pieces from this first quarter and my progress throughout the first few weeks of school.

Quick Observational Drawings: In under 20 minutes 

 Night Drawing of Kanakadea Hall

 Observational Drawing of The Science Center

 Observational Drawing: Harder Hall

 Observational Drawing: Sculpture Garden

Quick line drawing of Harder Hall

Glass Casting: Experience

September 28th in foundations class was held outside and when I came up to the studios I saw a long table covered in brown paper. We were told by our professors that we were going to eat that day. We were part of a performance art piece that class and we were provided breakfast. We got to sit down wherever we wanted to and we set out our places with plates, bowls, spoons, etc. We had to trace where we placed all of our utensils and things at our place setting and we had to get up and were told that we may have some coffee and juice. When everyone was socializing we were individually called to sit down at an assigned place by the professors across from another student. We had our name written down at our place and it was not the seat that we were originally at. We were then able to get our food and after every five bites of food we had to stand up. After everyone was done eating we had a partner activity to do. The person across from us was to be our partner in our performance art piece and we had to give each other instruction on something that we are good at. For example, I told my partner the instructions on how to draw a tiger and she told me the instructions to make a cappuccino.  After the sets of instructions were finished we had to use our leftover food and plates to make a sculpture. After we made our sculpture we had to redo it to a smaller scale. After our pieces were reduced to the size of a small plate we had to work with our partner to create a combined piece using the materials that we were given. Later we find out that we have to stabilize the form to be cast in glass the next week.
For me and my partner, we decided to put glass over our piece instead of having our relic be imprinted in sand. We had to instruct the students/teachers working with the glass what we wanted them to do and after the glass was poured, we got to use glassmaking tools to manipulate the glass to the shape we wanted. In our piece, we used baking soda to add a frosty look to the glass and give it a unique texture. 

Our "Relic" of our performance art piece

Glass Studios

The finished piece casted in glass

New York City Field Trip: 9/23-9/24

This weekend the foundations had a class field trip to New York city for the weekend where we got to tour multiple art museums and have a chance to go off of campus. We had the options to pick the museums we wanted to go to and I decided to visit The Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Art and Design (MAD) and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Everyone also visited the place called The Gallery District (I think that is the name). We also had free time to get dinner and do what we please so I took the subway to Chinatown and Little Italy and got dinner with a friend who is a first year at an NYC college near there.

My experience at The Whitney Museum of American Art:
My personal opinion of the Whitney was that it was very interesting with a lot of different exhibits with a wide range of mediums and themes that many people liked. Some floors I did not like as much because I had some difficulty understanding the art because it Wass more abstract but I still thought it was very interesting because the artist made a piece so profound and interesting to the eye. I also found the interactive exhibits very different and captivating because it let me have a sensory understanding of the art displays. I personally liked this exhibit where you got to walk through water and sand barefoot and the water was cold. It made my senses more heightened and made me feel very refreshed. IT gave me a different perspective of art that that not just in 2D form.

My Experience of MAD:
I signed up for visiting MAD not having any sort of expectation or idea of what it would be like. I was pleasantly surprised with the art exhibits because a lot of them focused on the relationship between art and sound and how your senses impact your perspective of the art. I enjoyed this one exhibit where there was a "Sound Playground" and it toyed with the idea of playing with sound (pun intended) and when you interacted with the exhibit it would make sound. The bars were like touchpad that DJs use and would light up when stimulated by touch. I liked this experience because I did not know how much sound is influenced on how we as viewers interpret art.

Visiting the Met:
I have been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art before and I think it is one of my favorite American museums that I have visited in my little experience of visiting art museums. I always admired this one piece of a deer covered in crystal spheres and a window is placed behind it to mimic the look of it being transparent but is it really a taxidermied deer so if you look closer you can see the animal. This piece is called Pix-Cell-Deer by the artist Kōhei Nawa (made in 2011).

Daily Practice:

This week my theme was to incorporate pointe shoes into photos each day. I decided to do this theme because I am dancing daily and go by the Miller Performing Arts Center everyday and I thought it would be fun to practice my skills of photography and creating interesting compositions. My favorite photo of the week was when I went to take photos at one of the main libraries on campus and I liked how the photo was positioned on camera. 

Week in Review: 9/18 - 9/22

Day One: Observational Drawing
On Monday we had a critique on our pieces that we did over the weekend and

Day Two: Observational Drawing

Tuesday started off with another critique on our charcoal pieces that we did for homework. My piece was critiqued and the professors said that my piece was very painterly and done very nice. The only piece of advice for me was to improve on mimmiking curves in drawings. 

Day Three: 

Review the itinerary for the upcoming New York, NY field trip. We had the option to go to the art museums of MOMA, MAD or The Brooklyn Museum. The whole group will visit the Whitney Museum of American Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Day Four: Studio Research

Thursday is when we analyzed our sound drawings that we did for homework. Then we partnered up with other students to talk about our pieces and the inner meaning to our pieces. We then had to write a review of our partner's piece on their blog after interviewing our person. We also had to pick a song that fits their art piece. 

Day Five: Studio Research 

Friday was the day there was a bunch of activities exploring the relationship between movement and art. Also there was a discussion about performance art. We went to the park and did a lot of partner exercises to take in our surroundings.c

Sound Drawing: 9/21

Out of studio

For me when I made my piece it was late at night and I was very tired from a long day and that transferred into my art. When I went to the sound area it was later and I had taken a lot of classes that day and it made my artwork be made differently. I think the sound contributed to that because it was very weird and avant gard to stay the least. I used colored charcoal and a very muted color scheme.  But when I was in the sound booth I noticed that I used more color like my emotions were heightened in that specific art piece. 

In studio

Daily Practice:

For my art class of studio research I was assigned to do a daily practice where I record an everyday moment throughout the week. I was deciding on themes for my weekly theme and I had the idea of doing splits across campus because I am a dance minor and I am constantly dancing and fidgeting. So I made it a mission to do playful and humorous photos throughout the week my adventures going to class and getting meals.

Some of the locations I did splits were:

1. The information desk at Powell
2. The middle of the road in town
3. Under a bridge on campus
4. In the dance studios at Miller
5. In Cohen Studios 
6. Openhym Residence Hall
7. Walking path after Midknight 

I think my favorite picture this week was of my second day of doing the daily practice in town. In this picture I had to run out in the middle of the road when no cars were passing by. 

I thought it was really great that I had a fun task to do on my way to classes which I personally thought it made the hours go by faster and gave me something to look toward to after a long day. One moment that I thought was very amusing was on Friday when I was at the Cohen Studios in town and my group was working on a project due the next morning and I had to do my daily practice so I told my roommate to take my picture and in the middle of our display I dropped into the splits and my group thought it was really amusing that I have been doing this every day for a week. 

To see all the images I took throughout the week click on the link below of my daily blog of progress on my art projects and daily practices. 

https://dailymybart.blogspot.com

Week in Review: 9/11 - 9/15

Day One: Observational Drawing
Monday the art professors critiqued our work of the fantasy pieces. Some of the pieces students made were not exactly what the professors expected to see in the project. However, the critique went well and a lot of constructive criticism was said to hep improve everyone's art. After the hour long critique we went outside and practiced observational drawing and practiced identifying where our eyeliner was in our sketches. The homework due the next day was to make a black and white charcoal piece of a building and to make the structure proportional and true to scale as well as drawing where our eye line was on our piece.

Day Two: Observational Drawing
Tuesday's art class started with a critique on our homework assignment in charcoal. The professors said how our work had improved since the last critique. After our critique we went to the main art studios and did more practice on our observational drawing. Our assignment was to use dry erase marker on a window panel and outline what we see. After that activity we went outside for more observational practice and in groups we went to the library to see a section of the library that is dedicated to art books. The point of visiting that section of the library was to tell students that it is a great resource to visit and find inspiration. The homework due next week is to find a light source from outside and make a charcoal drawing of it. The only light values of the piece is the bare paper and to make the piece have a lot of dark values.

Day Three: Lectures
Halfway through the week was a more relaxed class. There were lectures from Alfred students and the staff about resources on campus and how to get more involved in the art program. We met with our assigned academic advisors to answer any questions that we might have as well as learn more about specific majors and concentrations.

Day Four: Studio Research
In studio research we had to find 3 or 4 object in our designated areas and bring them in. (Refer to the blog post Review Collection Installation). That morning the groups were finalizing their museum displays and had a critique on all four installations. After our installations we watched videos of performance art from John Cage. The reason for watching those videos was to show us how much sound impacted how viewers interpret art and performance. Our homework was to write a review on our experience doing the installation and to record ten sounds throughout the day with assigned prompts.

Day Five: Studio Research
Today a few students presented their blogs and their recordings. The professors also talked to us about blog tips and how to form a certain theme or aesthetic to our blogs. There were also some technical issues with students with other platforms of blogging. We went over how to fix those issues when uploading audio files and posts for homework. We also listened to the sounds students made and used clay to interpret what we heard into something physical to show how sound does affect our artwork. We went over "The Rules of Art" and how we interpreted them.

Notes in my Sketchbook

Clay and Sound Exercise