Week in Review: 10/16-10-20

Day Three:
There was a short break after our mid semester exams so there were no classes on Monday or Tuesday. When we got back on Wednesday a new block or quarter started and there will be new classes starting which means I do not have observational drawing or studio research anymore. Our new classes will be Experimental Drawing and Studio Make. During our lecture we listened to a select group of upperclassmen present their art and that their college experience has been so far at Alfred University. After their presentations we got to talk to the students one on one to ask any additional questions about our work and about student life.

Day Four:
Thursday was our first day of the class called Studio Make. We were asked to bring our work gloves and our safety glasses in our toolboxes for the next few days. The class was split into two groups for half to gather supplies and for the other half to go to a wood shop training class. The group that I was in what where we went outside to gather tree branches, leaves and vines for our next big art project. After collecting our materials we brought all the supplies back to the foundations studios.

Day Five:
On Friday the two groups switches spots so today I went to the wood shop training. We were shown how to use certain saws and sanders as well as the safety precautions along with using the supplies. After the workshop we had time to work on our projects because now the other group gathered the other half of the materials that we need for our project. With the remaining time in class we had the chance to work on our projects. The concept of the project was to create a bunch of leaves and twigs and build off of that piece of the project. The rest of the day I worked in the studios to get a head start on my project. Also, the important part of this project was that the project that we were starting is our only project of this quarter which means that we will be working on this piece for the next six weeks.

Week in Review: 10/2-10/8

Day One: Observational Drawing
On Monday we did a group critique at the beginning of class of the charcoal box drawings that we had to draw for homework over the weekend. The requirements for the drawing was that it would be in charcoal, to have the drawing be on Stonehenge paper, to use sight lines, and for it to be a value drawing. After our critique the professors split the class into two groups and had individual critiques of our pieces. Each student put their piece that we did for homework on their easel and the professors would come over and give us specific feedback on our artwork. After our critiques our homework was to draw another value piece of the boxes with spotlights over the boxes.

Day Two: Observational Drawing

Tuesday started with another group critique of the homework assignment to draw the boxes in high lighting. We had our pieces on the wall and we reflected on the group's progress over the past six weeks and how our works improved. Most of the feedback was minimal because of the individual critiques the previous day in class. After we had time to tweak our pieces and the professors told us about our final assignment for the course. The final assignment is to basically utilize all the skills and techniques that we have learned the past six weeks in class and to show the professors what we have learned.

Day Three: Combined Class
The professors decided to not have class today so we can all work on our art pieces for midterms and let us use the time in the studio and use that time how we choose.

Day Four: Studio Research
Studio Research was to be held in the glass blowing studios to perform glass casting on our small sculptures that we made from the materials in the performance art piece. (There will be a separate blog post about the whole glass casting process in the future)

Day Five:
Class was still held in Harder Hall today and my group took a tour of the glass studios and the neon lab. We also watched a glassblowing teacher do a demonstration of making a glass vessel.

Month in Review: Video

Here is a visual summary of most of the projects and things I have been doing the first month of college. There are many images of field trips, art pieces and extra videos of my daily life at Alfred University. 

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.

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

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 

Week in Review: 9/4 - 9/8

Day One: Observational Drawing
The first day of classes that week was that foundations students were divided into two groups A&B. I was sorted into Group B where I was going to focus on observational drawing and studio research. In class that day we did observational drawing in the university's main courtyard using charcoal. The goal of this activity was to try to draw/sketch faster as well as become more accurate with our observational skills. For each piece we did we had five minutes to complete. We did observational drawing for about three hours that day. The homework that night was to draw three scenes with trees/architecture in them. For each piece we did we were expected to spend one hour on. This piece was due the next day and the pieces had to be completed by sunset that evening.

Day Two: Observational Drawing
The next day we had to all hang up our pieces for a critique from our art professors. Everyone had their pieces finished and we had an hour long critique on almost everyones pieces. A lot of the students in class felt nervous in a way because our objective was to draw fast and accurately. The way we did our assignment was very different than most students art styles. For me personally it was out of my comfort zone but also with a medium that I was familiar with to some extent. After the critique there was a presentation of artists and different art styles. There was also a demonstration on creating 3D forms to proportion. The homework was for students to create a fantasy scene incorporating 3D forms into their piece. This assignment is due Monday September 10th.

Day Three:
Wednesday was the day both groups are combined and we watched a movie about an artist who worked with as bunch of different mediums and how his art evolved over the years and where he first started.

Day Four: Studio Research
Classes on Thursday and Friday is taught by different professors than in the beginning of the week so I was also in a different floor of the art studios that day. Studio research that day everyone had their sketchbooks and we were asked to answer three questions:
1.) What is one childhood book that you would reread if you had the chance?
 For me I chose the book The Giver by Lois Lorwy because I enjoyed reading that book in middle school and I have reread it before because I liked the storyline.
2.) What is one item from your past that you still treasure today?
One item that I hold important to me is my first tutu that I wore in a dance recital when I was four years old. This item is important to me because I have been dancing for a very long time and it is nice to look back and see where I started in this tiny lilac tutu and now I am on my 14th year of dance. It reminds me how hard I have worked to be in the place I am today.
3.) What places do you find intriguing? Explain.
I think that anywhere away from home is intriguing because there is so much more out in the world that I do not know of yet and wherever I go there is something to learn or discover.
After the questions we shared our answers and we walked to the university's ceramic art museum. Our homework assignment is to pick a vessel and observe it for two consecutive hours and take notes/sketches of the piece.

Museum Experience:
For me personally I enjoyed doing the work a lot because I never really had a chance to take a ceramics course in high school and I felt like this experience made me appreciate ceramic art much more than I did before. I also think I had a bit of a roadblock when doing this assignment because my professors said to watch a piece for two consecutive hours and I think the idea of sitting myself down for that long was difficult but I ended dup really enjoying myself and not getting bored with it. I know that some students were very bored after a half an hour and even left before the two hour mark. However, once I got into my creative mindset it was easy from there with my full focus on the piece and doing sketches as well as taking notes.

Day Five: Studio Research:
The last day of the week was when we all shared our notes from our observations in the museum to our classmates. We also did an exercise about cognitive fitness where we would walk around the room and draw our surroundings from memory which I found was very challenging yet very interesting. Our next assignment was to create our own little museum of things that we find in a section of campus. By Wednesday we have to find four items of our choice in our select groups. Another art homework we were assigned to was to create or maintain an online presence as an artist to have a platform to display our work. I have used this blog in the past so I am trying to post more updates on my art and my progress throughout the years. Our task on our blog is to post weekly or daily of something we do every day. My current ideas in the works is doing something dance related and pose across campus doing a certain pose of places I go to or have been to before.

Week in Review: 8/28-9/1

The week of August 28th I started the fall semester at Alfred University. I am in the class Foundations which is Art 101 at AU. Foundations is about learning about different art styles and mediums as well as giving students opportunities to see who they are as an artist.

The first week of classes There was a visiting artist named Emmy Bright working with the foundations students to make an art installation by the end of the week. 

Day One: 

On day one the students were introduced to the visiting artist and they did a lecture presenting their work. We were then divided into groups to create linoleum folds/stamps. Our homework that night was to make four letters carved in a creative font or text by the next day as well as a 100 word autobiography of us as an artist. 

Day Two:

The next morning all the students came in with their handwritten or typed autobiographies and we had to keep reducing the number of words in our autobiographies. It went from 100 words to 3 words. Our next task was to use the full alphabet that we made as a group and stamp our three word autobiographies onto big pieces of paper. The homework for that night was to find cardboard as tall as us and use our stamps to make prints the size of our hight.

Day Three: 

Day three was when we got into different groups and we made designs using the prints that we made. We also used cardboard to stabilize the structures and secure them with paper mache. Our homework was to coat the cardboard in two layers of paper and then set our patterns onto the surface. 

Day Four:

The fourth day was putting there three letter autobiographies to the murals and letting them set. 

Day Five:

The last day was installing the murals in the art space and thanking the guest artist for working with the students.