My Final PR Class

Tonight I have my last class for public relations.  Ever.  In my life.  It's kind of weird because for the past four years I've been on this PR track, and now it's finally coming to an end.  I've had to watch seniors scramble to fit all their classes in at the last minute, but I was smart and started taking the classes as early as possible and spread them out.  So now, next semester, I have all electives.

My last class is an important one, because we acted as a real PR agency for a non-profit organization.  Let's just say that this experience has been....well, an experience.  I've learned that working with clients isn't exactly easy, especially when they don't want to admit that they don't know everything.  But whatever, I'm over it.

I hope that these last four years haven't been a waste.  I've got an internship lined up next semester with Joel Fitzpatrick Design to work on his PR, and from there I hope to be able to make some sort of career from all of this information I've acquired.

So, if you know anyone who's hiring next year...

Sandusky vs. Fine

If you don't know about the Jerry Sandusky and Bernie Fine scandals by now, you must be living under a rock.  After being charged with numerous accounts for child molestation, both Sandusky and Fine are wrecking havoc on their schools' (Sandusky, former assistant football coach at Penn State, more so than Fine, former assistant basketball coach at Syracuse).

When the Sandusky story broke, it was all anyone could talk about for a good month.  It was horrific what happened to these kids, and justice will definitely be served.  But it didn't just stop at Sandusky.  Joe Paterno, college football's most winningest head coach, was fired from his position after failing to report an incident to the proper authorities (though he did alert his Athletic Director).  The athletic administration has been put on trial by the public, both fans and non-fans alike.  Loyalties only go so far in cases like these, though it doesn't seem to matter to the Penn State students.

Fine, on the other hand, was in a bit of a different situation.  He wasn't outright charged by the police with anything, just accused publicly by former ball boys for Syracuse.  Jim Boeheim, head coach for the Orange, came right out to the media saying the Fine did nothing wrong, and that these men are just looking for fame and sympathy after the Sandusky case.  

Did Boeheim just completely skip a day of media training when he signed on as a head coach?  I thought most, if not all, coaches and staff were trained as to how to handle a crisis situation.  And, after more proof came out after a phone call of Fine's wife and the accuser was leaked to ESPN, Fine was fired and Boeheim forced to apologize to the accusers.  It also didn't help that a Syracuse basketball player took to his Facebook to publicly support Fine, but subsequently was forced to delete his post.

Once again, these cases are terrible and tragic.  But that's no excuse for such prestigious and popular universities to not have an implemented strategy to deal with a crisis situation.  Coaches, players, students, EVERYONE involved with anything to do with these cases should know (and if they don't know, be taught BEFORE it happens) not to just go to the media or go public with whatever you're thinking.  

Boeheim learned his lesson.  Let's hope it doesn't take another case like this for other universities and colleges to train their staff.

Virginia Tech- Part II

My heart truly goes out to the Virginia Tech community.  This school, already known for the shooting back in 2007 (where 32 people were killed and 25 others were injured), is facing yet another terrible crisis. Though the shooter was not a student at Virginia Tech (he was actually a student at Radford University), a VT police officer was killed and the shootings occurred on campus.

One of my roommates works for admissions at Hofstra, and she mentioned the other day that the admissions office at VT must be a hellhole after the second shooting incident.  And she's totally right.  How is Virginia Tech going to convince incoming freshmen and other high schoolers looking at colleges that it is, in fact, a safe campus?

For one, they will have to really talk up their campus-alert system that was put into effect after the first incident in 2007.  This security system prevented any other killings by alerting the entire campus that a shooter was on the loose.

I don't necessarily think that Virginia Tech's reputation is ruined.  It's just extremely unfortunate that they've had to deal with two shootings in the past five years.  If they can control their press mentions and get the story to include the positive details about the school, then they can certainly get back on track.

NFL Concussion Catastrophe

Colt McCoy, rookie quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, really got rocked last night when he received a helmet-to-helmet hit from Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison.

I mean, wow.  That makes me cringe up every time I rewind it.  But get this: McCoy gets back in the game just 2 plays later.
Is anyone else a little skeptical about this?  The kid falls to the ground rigid, rolling around in obvious pain (cranial pain, I might add), and he's up and ready to get back in the game in 3 minutes?
I guess I wasn't the only one, since McCoy's dad is the one hitting the media, claiming that the Browns didn't perform a concussion test on his son even though the signs were obvious.  After the game, McCoy told reporters that he couldn't remember the hit, and that the bright lights of their cameras were bothering him.

Um, helloOoOo?  I haven't even been passed a CPR test and it seems like I could've done a lot more for poor Colt than his highly-trained-and-certified athletic staff.

The Browns better get on this quick and reassure their fans that they do, in fact, care about their players' health and not just their athletic ability.  Otherwise, they could face not only NFL investigation into their care and treatment, but those tragic Clevelandites may just decide to side with a player instead of the team.

American Airlines

American Airlines is on a whoooole other level right now.  We all know by now that American kicked Alec Baldwin off a flight for playing "Words with Friends" on his iPad.  I've heard both sides of the story, reading Alec's so-called "apology" on Huffington Post and also reading American's version.  But, honestly, no matter what American does from here on out, they will be known as  the airline that kicked Alec Baldwin off its flight.  That's because they weren't the first ones to come out with the story, and the first story is the only one that matters.  They should've known that the story would get out, and instead of being proactive about it and making a statement, they let Alec Baldwin take over the Twitter world and really get the story going.

American, let's hope Tyler Perry can fix you up...

PR Invasion

Okay, so I have to make some blog posts for my public relations class.  I thought I was fulfilling this requirement by just having a blog, but I guess not.  So for those of you who actually read this, just ignore the next few posts.

 Just keep scrolling til you see some more pictures.

Sigh

Okay, so.  I've been M.I.A.  I know.  What can I say?  I've been super busy watching TV.  Also, I went home for Thanksgiving, which was awesome.  So, those are my excuses.

In Painting class, I've finished the still life.  It turned out pretty well, I think.  Take a look at the finished product.

I changed a few things around, some colors, and fixed the flowers and leaves.  Overall, I'm happy with it.  Some things could be different, but I'm content.

Our next and final painting to do is actually two paintings.  Two small little canvases, using the same composition, but having to paint them completely opposite.  Meaning different colors, different thickness, different texture, different EVERYTHING.  It's actually a lot harder than it sounds.
I chose a picture of an orchid I found.  I made the first painting basically just the same as the picture.

I think it's pretty, right?  I like to think so.  I really like it, anyway.  So, how do I make it the opposite?  At first I was going to just use complimentary colors, but then I realized that the next painting would still just be red and green.  So I decided to use different colors.  I decided to make the flower blue, but go reverse as to how it's laid out in the first one.  Meaning, where it's white in the above painting, it would be the darkest blue in the second painting.  And where it's a dark red, that part will be white.  I also decided not to blend the shades as much, and instead leave them stripe-y.  And the edges will be blurred with the background.  So, here's what I've got so far:

In the background, I am going to make some kind of multi-colored pattern, or something.  I don't really know yet.  I am TOTALLY up for suggestions...but this is due tomorrow.  Yikes!  Maybe I can get him to extend it til the final next week.

On to drawing.  

After the whole skeletal disaster, we moved onto ink.  At first, the ink gave me a lot of trouble.  It's hard to control, it's hard to get the shade right, and you can't erase or fix anything at all.  When it's on there, it's permanent.  For the assignment we had to do a landscape.  A quick Google search and I found a simple enough picture to copy.  So here is my ink copy:

At first, I didn't really like it.  Well, scratch that.  I didn't dislike it, but I wasn't crazy about it either.  We all hung our pictures on the wall, took a good look, and after a few minutes the professor asked "Which ones stand out to you?"  And the first one pointed out was mine!  By like, 5 people!  I was floored.  Even the professor after class was like, "Hey, how about that, people actually liked your drawing for once!"  Yeah, thanks jackass.

These were a couple other ones I really liked.  Specifically the forest one.

Today we started our last new thing, and I was sooo nervous about it.  We started doing figure drawing today.  As in the human figure.  As in the naked human figure.  We did a man today, and we're doing a woman on Thursday (that's what she said).  More on this later.  For now all I'll say is, it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

In 3D Design, I just finished my work on the roses.  When we last left off, I had finished the roses and the vase with the foam board.  I had to decide if I wanted to paint the roses, the vase, both, or neither.  My issue with painting the roses is that, because they were so tightly wound and had the hot glue already, it would be tricky if not impossible to make it not look messy.  But then I had this idea about Alice in Wonderland, and the whole "Painting the Roses Red" scene...

So after that I just had this whole vision of the roses being white but painted red, and they're sitting on a vase in the Queen of Hearts's castle but she doesn't even notice...okay, well, now I'm off in my own little world.  But you get the idea, I hope.
Basically what all this means is that I painted the roses red, but you can tell that they've been painted.  Here's the finished result:

Everyone was really impressed by the vase because it's hard to cut foam board so cleanly and neatly.  Overall, I'm really happy with how this project turned out for me.


The last thing is ceramics.  I don't ever have any pictures from this class, which you can all thank me for later because it's never anything good that comes out of there.  Once I get a few pics, I'll be able to explain the project.


Ok.  Wow.  What an update, right?  All I have to say is, thank GOD the semester's almost over.  And then what?  I'll have all this leftover art supplies, like paint...and charcoal...and a wooden smoothing tool.  What am I going to do with all of this crap?

I'm all caught up in my classes!  Even ahead in some.  I think I'm starting to do well in painting, while I seem to be getting worse in drawing.  Ceramics I'm starting to like more, too, even though it is soo super messy.

Painting:  The still life is nearly done, I just have to do some cleaning up and touching up this weekend.  This is the scene we had to work with:

I cut it down a bit, and the professor said we can mess with the colors and even make up the shadows.  My view is slightly different because I stood farther back.  But this is what I've worked on so far:

So, obviously I changed the colors.  But I'm really happy with how the pots turned out.  The shading is pretty good, I think.  I have worked on it since I took the picture, but nothing big has changed.  I'm still working on the flowers and the bottle.  Hopefully I can get another A on this and finish strong.

Drawing: We spent so much time drawing skeletons and bones, and I absolutely hated it.  There was just something about it that I couldn't get, and no matter how much I tried I couldn't get it down.  These are the best ones I ended up with.

And everyone else did sooo well.  Again, I felt like crap in this class.  I've started to really hate it and dread going in the morning.  

We just started on working with ink, so we'll see how that goes.

Ceramics:  I've finished my big piece that I was working on.  All set to be fired, and then I'll glaze it.  Here's how it turned out.

I still don't really like the supports, but I tried to take them out and it nearly collapsed on me.  It was a bitch trying to put them back in, but it turned out alright.  I think it was pretty successful.  I put some slip paint on it before it gets fired, so then the glaze I put on will turn out in different colors.

Speaking of glaze, I finally glazed a piece and got it fired.  Remember one of the original pieces, the manipulated slab?  Well, I dipped it in a really cool blueish green glaze.

 

It's kind of metallic-looking, and pretty cool if I do say so myself.  You can see in the second picture that it must've gotten stuck to or burned by something in the kiln.  Geez.  Thanks, professor!

3D Design: Today in class I made a vase for the flowers.  It took a lot longer than I planned because the first one I made was terrible.  So I made it a simpler design, and it looks much better.

The reason it took so long is because of the side.  I had to cut out a strip, then score, break, bend, and fold every half inch so it could twist on the sides.

     


But basically the whole point of this is, I'm all caught up in everything!  Hmm, I feel like I should find some wood to knock on or something.

Playing Catch Up

Well, now that my field hockey career is completely over, it's time to refocus on my classes and catching up on my work.  I've basically missed the past two weeks of class because of traveling and away games, so this week I was really swamped.

It's been especially annoying for my 3D Design class because it's only on Fridays, so I have missed the past 8 hours of class and was soooo far behind.  Or so I thought.

I go into class yesterday and find out that last week apparently only 4 people showed up for class, and two people were still working on the first project that I thought was finished 3 weeks ago.  Guess I'm not so far behind.

The professor for 3D design is really nice, and really laid back.  And I think that's part of the problem.  There's no real due dates or class structure.  The class is supposed to run from 9am-12:40pm.  But people just come in at random times and leave whenever they feel like it.  I feel like I'm in one of those high schools where you sit on bean bags outside and the teachers are former hippies who still smoke weed.

So, due to this structureless class and people not doing their work, turns out I was able to catch up and actually get ahead of most people in one class.  Heck yes.

The newest project is basically just creating a mold or form out of foam board that contains 3 separate parts and not using right angles.  Kind of the opposite of our previous 17-sided figure using only right angles.  So I got this idea to do one of my favorite craft projects, making a rose.

I used this little DIY Instruction webpage, and created the spiral on the foam board.  Then I had to kind of break up the foam in the board so I could spin it all together.  And it worked!  And turned out really well!  I had to use hot glue in order to keep it together without unravelling.

I made three roses, and then hot glued them to wire rods.  I had the choice between the wire rods and wooden sticks, but the wire moves better and makes it more visually dynamic.

Whoa.  Visually dynamic?  Guess the art-minor in me is really coming out.

Yep, another mobile upload.

A Hockey Hiatus

On Thursday my hockey team left campus to travel to Baltimore and Philadelphia for our final games of the regular season.  This week, we travel to Norfolk, Virginia to play in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Conference Tournament, for a chance to qualify for the NCAA tournament.  We're leaving on Tuesday evening, so I am missing a whoooole bunch of classes.  Not that I have any problem with that.  I just hope my professors are understanding...

So that's why I won't have any new updates for awhile.  Right now in...
Ceramics: I've just cut out the spiral in my 14-inch piece.  Hopefully it doesn't completely dry out over the weekend.
Drawing: we're learning "perspective" and "vanishing points."  I am putting those in "quotations" because it's all a bunch of made-up stuff that forces me to use a ruler and measurements in a drawing of a cube.
Painting: we turned in our reproductions on Wednesday.  I was done with mine last week, and I already know I got an A on the project.  Apparently the next painting is a still-life (shocker).
3D Design: I'm so behind in this class because it's only once a week and I missed last week and will miss this week.  We're still supposed to be working on the same project, the one with foam board and no right angles.  Still trying to figure this one out.

Once hockey is over, I'll be able to really catch up on everything and hopefully do well on the projects.

But hopefully we'll be missing next week too for NCAA's!  It's a long shot, but cross your fingers!

Long Island Arts Alliance

As you should know by now, I am not an artist.  So why am I taking all these art classes?  I'm a Fine Arts minor.  It was supposed to be photography, but I couldn't fit the classes into my schedule, so it turned into an all-around art kind of thing.

Which, actually, turned out for the better.  My major is Public Relations, and I'm in my final PR class of college (woohoo!).  The class acts as an actual PR agency for a non-profit organization, and my group this semester is working with the Long Island Arts Alliance (LIAA).  So it all connects!

Our main goal in the class this semester is to help the LIAA put on their second Roundtable event.  A group of panelists, including a keynote speaker, will discuss how arts education on Long Island has diminished and what we can do to gain support, both publicly and financially through the government.

We don't have all of the details yet, but I CAN tell you this.  The keynote speaker this fall is folk singer Lucy Kaplansky.  She's a really amazing talent, and we're so excited to have her speak and perform!

If you're around Long Island and into the arts at all (and I mean any kind of art: dance, performing, singing, drawing, painting, sculpture, writing, you name it), check out the Facebook Fan Page or the Twitter profile.

This event is going to be FREE, and if you're looking for a way to promote the arts, this is the perfect way to do it.

The Afghan Girl

I'm actually sitting in my Painting class right now writing this.  I've already finished my painting that isn't due until the end of class on Wednesday, so I brought my Macbook into class to "write a paper."

Riiiight.

So, last time we left drawing class, we were working off a photograph to make a realistic (or "illusionistic" as my professor says, since it's the "illusion of realism") drawing with graphite pencils.

If you remember, this is the girl that I drew.

And this is my drawing.

I did make a few little last minute changes, like shading and stuff, but overall this is how it turned out.  I was so absolutely thrilled with this drawing because it's the best drawing I've ever done in my whole life.  It may not look exactly like the picture, but I thought it looked pretty damn good.  Especially for me.

I had the most trouble with the face, which I think is obvious.  Faces are hard to do because everything is so subtle.  How do I get that skin texture with a freaking pencil?  I don't know.  And the eyes were tough because they are the focus of the whole picture.  

At first she was looking cross-eyed, and everyone in class was freaking out as I was working.  "Oh my god, she's got a lazy eye!  I can't tell where she's looking!"  Chill, people.  It's a work in progress.

So I go into class really confident, pin it up on the wall, and take a look around at the others.

And once again, all my confidence was completely shattered.

Even the people I didn't notice before did so extremely well on this project, I was blown away.  Mine was like, at the bottom 20% of the class.  I was so disappointed, which totally sucks since I worked so hard on this.  

I really just don't know what to do about this.  I won't get an A on this, but seriously, I don't know what else to do.  It's not like a test I didn't study hard enough for.  I worked for hours and hours and HOURS on this drawing, probably upwards of 12 to 15.  That's a long time!  More than I've ever studied for a test.  Actually, probably more than I've studied for every test I've ever had (What?  I'm not big on studying).

What do I have to do to get an A in this class?

Van Gogh Reproduction

My Van Gogh reproduction has turned out really well.  So well, in fact, that my professor told me today (and the painting isn't due for another week) that I have a guaranteed "A" for this painting.  YAY!

Is it sad when I say that this is the best work of art I've ever created?

Screw it.  I'm proud.

Ceramics and 3D Design

I realized I never really have any pictures of my ceramics pieces.  I think it's because my hands get so messy with clay so I never want to take my camera out.

But just a little update, our next assignment is making a 14-inch piece (using coils or strips of slabs) that has many changes in its profile.  The professor suggested using an already existing piece and making it our own.  So after Googling a little bit, I chose to do this one.

Yeah, yeah.  It's gonna be hard, but I'm not doing an exact replica.  I'm changing the bottom a bit so it goes in and then back out, and the swirly part is going to have to have support pieces because it's made out of clay and not wood like the original.  I've got the bottom almost built, so this week comes the hard part.  I'll try to snap a shot this week to give you a visual.

Now, my 3D Design piece is really annoying me.  It's just, I don't know.  I just don't like it.  We had to paint it using only red, blue, and yellow, and I just feel like those colors make anything look very elementary.

I actually hate how it turned out.  It's just so... I don't even know.  You can decide for yourself.

Next class I'm starting the next project.  Basically the same as this one, only instead of using only right angles and straight planes, we are not allowed to use right angles.  And we don't have to have the mold filled with plaster, it could be made out of just the foam board.

I am learning to dread this class.

Pointilism

The next drawing assignment is a focus on pointilism and realism.  Basically what we do is draw a grid on a picture, then create a larger scale grid on our paper, a draw one box at a time.  You only draw in each box what you see per box, you're not really supposed to look at the bigger picture as a whole until the end.

Here was our "warm up" pointilism piece.  An eyeball.

Yay!  It actually looks like an eyeball!

I'm actually really digging this project.  This is the kind of thing I can get behind.  I mean, that looks pretty real, right?  It took me a couple rows of the grid to really get into it, but once I could see how it was progressing I really enjoyed it.  And my professor called it a "really great drawing." 

!!!!

So, the next step is to pick a photo and do the same thing, but on a larger scale.  The photo is 6 x 8, so the drawing would be twice as big, 12 x 16.  I decided on this, one of my favorite photographs ever.

"The Afghan Girl" from National Geographic 1985

Okay, you should really check out the original (in color) and read the story, too.  When I was younger, my parents had like every single National Geographic, and those magazines are what originally got me interested in photography and why I took a photo class in high school.  And then, on the first day of class, we watched a short movie about the life and career of National Geographic photographers.  Coughfatecough.

Anyway, the whole point of this little anecdote is that this is one of the pictures that got me involved in photography, which led to me minoring in Fine Arts, which led to me taking this drawing class.  I normally wouldn't even attempt to draw this, but I think I did pretty well with the eye so hopefully I'll do it justice.  I'm really excited to just see the end result.

Oh, and we're using graphite pencils for this.  6 different ones, in fact, all with different softness of lead so they shade darker, sharper, etc.  I'm a fan.

I know, I know...

I've been slacking.  I haven't posted in a week (gasp!).  But in my defense, I've been super...lazy.  Not busy.  Just lazy.

But I'm making up for it now, with a great little story about my trip to the Met last Monday.

So, as I said before, the next assignment for my painting class is to do a reproduction.  I chose Van Gogh's "Wheat Field with Crows."  And there's a paper that goes along with the assignment.  We have to go to either the Museum of Modern Art or the Metropolitan Museum of Art so we can see in person the artist's style, brushstrokes, texture, etc. first hand.  Painting is my only class on Monday, and since we had the day off practice and I had nothing else to do, I thought to myself,

 "Hey, why not just go in today?"

So I go home, grab a coat, and race on over to the train station.  I'm pulling into my parking spot as the train is pulling into the station, so now I have to wait 30 minutes for the next one.  Oh, well.  No big deal.  I've got all day, I'll just catch the next one.

Once I get into the city, I know exactly what to do.  Before I left my house, I used HopStop.com to get directions via subway to the Met.  All I have to do is take the C train right from Penn Station to 86th Street, then walk a block to 85th and 5th, where the Met is.

But no.  Of course it couldn't be that simple.  I get to 85th Street, and not seeing any giant buildings with lots of stairs, I ask a hot dog stand guy where the Met is.

"Ohh, that's on the east side.  This is 85th West."

Oh geez.  Are you freaking kidding me?

Then he tells me, "Just walk straight through Central Park.  It's right on the other side."

I know something is wrong when the path splits into two, and neither of them go straight.

To make a long story short (too late), I end up walking more than 50 blocks from the Upper West side to the Upper East side.  Had I known it was that long, I may have taken a taxi or something.  I was wearing a pair of my favorite shoes, but they're not meant to be walking 50 blocks in New York City, so I started getting blisters on my heels.  By the time I saw those big white stairs, I was so relieved.  I'll just go in, sit down for a bit, look at the paintings, and have a nice relaxing afternoon.

The Met is closed on Mondays.

I think I stood and stared at the doors for a solid minute.  That doesn't sound long, but think about seeing someone just staring at a door, unmoving, for a whole minute.  By the time I peeled my eyes away from the sign, I knew I was in trouble.  I was not about the walk all the way back to the subway I took, and I had no idea where the closest station was.  I sat down on the steps to try to collect my thoughts and figure out what to do, and then it started drizzling.  The coat I grabbed to wear to the Met was my good suede leather coat.  I took my umbrella out, figuring it would be ok.  But no!  There's a hole in the lining, so only one half covers me!

I start just aimlessly walking down Madison Avenue, trying frantically to protect my coat, before I realize, "Oh, shit.  I'm on the Upper East side.  Everyone here is rich, there are no subways!"  I end up giving in a hailing a cab the 60 blocks back to Penn Station.

Once I'm on the train, I spread out thinking I'll have the seat to myself.  Nope.  It's super crowded so a really annoying a SMELLY guy sits next to me.  As I'm moving my things around, my coffee spills on my jeans!  Greeeeeat.  And then, just to add the cherry on top of my already brilliant day, the ticket guy informs me that it's peak time and I have an off-peak ticket, so I owe three more dollars to ride the train.


SERIOUSLY??

An All Around Update

I've gotten my first grades back in both drawing and painting.  And both grades were a B.  UGH.  It's just annoying because, especially in the drawing, I tried really really hard.  I mean really hard.  I'm just worried that these classes are going to really hurt my GPA.  A personal goal I set for myself is to be on the NFHCA Academic Squad and receive the CAA Commissioner's Award all four years of college.  You need a 3.3 GPA to get those awards, and I've gotten them for the past three years.  I can't screw up my last year because of these stupid art classes!

Okay, I take it back.  They aren't stupid.  But it's still frustrating.

Anyway, here's a quick little update.

Painting: First project got a B.  But we did a class critique where we drew a number that corresponded to someone's painting and we had to critique that painting on use of color, composition, craftsmanship, etc.  My professor told me after class that I had the best critique in the class.  So, apparently, I can't paint well, but I can certainly tell others what to do and how they need to fix it.  

Hmm.  Maybe I should change my major to psychiatry.

Drawing:  Our abstract assignment is done.  And I am really surprised about the outcome.  Here is how my composition turned out.

And my professor actually liked it!  His biggest critique is that I could use the white of the paper more to let some more light come through the drawing.  But, I don't know, I still just don't get it!  It's just a bunch of shapes and textures.  I don't really like it at all.  But for some odd reason he really responded well to it.  I even said in class that this sort of thing isn't the kind of aesthetic I respond to.  I think it's harder to draw a glass bottle than to make up a bunch of shading on a paper.  I just hope this is the last thing we do with this sort of topic...but I doubt it.

This is the one that I responded the most to:

Not many "textures," just the shading really.  But it was alright.  For this kind of thing, at least.

Ceramics: I'm in the process of firing my manipulated slab piece.  After it's out of the kiln, I'll glaze it.  My profile piece I just painted with slip glaze today, which will then be fired and will come out already colored.  I tried to do a blue with green on top kind of dripping and swirly, but I don't think it worked.  But this was just a test, since I'm not really fond of the profile anyway.  We also started work on the wheel on Tuesday!  It's definitely challenging and will take some getting used to, but I really like it.  I actually went back into the studio today to work some more, and I made a cute little pot.  Unfortunately with all the clay all over my hands/arms/shirt/pants/hair/face, I couldn't get my camera out to take a picture.  Maybe next week.  Seriously, the only bad part about the wheel is the clean up.  It's sooo messy.

3D Design:  Nothing.  Don't have class til Friday.

And....that's about it.  Remind me to tell you about my "trip" to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  That's a great story, for when you're having a bad day and want to feel better about your life.

Why My Drawings Suck

You guys want to see why I feel so inadequate in my drawing class?  This is why.

Seriously?  SERIOUSLY?  

Painting Project #2

I am finally finished with the first painting project.  You know the one.  The one with the shapes and shades and all that other boring crap.  Here is the final outcome:

I was working on this thing last night, late enough that the janitor walked into the studio and had to leave when he saw me still in there.  There are some obvious changes from my first couple coats, but I think in the end it turned out okay.  There are some shades that obviously look similar, but it came to a point where I had to stop trying to make different colors because I kept accidentally making the same ones.  I think it's fairly clear that my dominant color is blue, right?  And in this picture, some of the oranges don't look so orange, but rather brown or red.  But in the painting, I think you can tell.

We got assigned our second project today, and wouldn't you know it, it's another reproduction!  These beginning art classes just looooooove having us make reproductions.  Apparently we're not skilled enough to be creative on our own.  Anyway, we had the choice between paintings by Guaguin, Van Gogh, and my food friend Cézanne!  Yeah, no way in hell am I going back to that Still Life with a Ginger Jar and Eggplants.  So, I chose a Van Gogh painting.  Here it is:

"Wheat Field with Crows"

You may think at a glance it's pretty easy and simple.  But take a closer look.  Those individualized wheat crops in that field are gonna be a challenge.  I think the brush strokes in this painting are really beautiful, and I'm really excited to make my own version.  In fact, I was so excited that I stayed late after class and got to painting.  First I blocked it all out with charcoal, but since there's not really much besides the landscape, I jumped into the paint.

Here's the first coat:

I'm coming across a couple problems already.  First of all, the printed out version I have is a lot brighter and more vibrant that other versions I'm coming across.  I'm gonna have to decide whether I want to go for the bright and bold or the light and dull.  I am also having a little trouble mixing the right green, but hey, it's just the first coat.

I'm really excited about this painting!  Since I've already got a head start on it, I'll hopefully be able to spend a lot of time on this one.

3D Design- Getting Plastered Again

I've still been catching up on some work I missed from a couple weekends ago, and it didn't help that my 3D Design professor didn't show up for our class on Wednesday.  It may have been the fact that I had reminded him we didn't have school on Friday and he didn't realize Wednesday was a Friday schedule, but whatever.  Now I'm still behind, but I don't know what to do with it.

After I filled my foamy duct-taped mold with plaster and let it sit for a couple days, I went back into the workshop and peeled away the mold.  And when I say peeled, I mean scraped with my fingernails to get off.  

This is the end result:

Turns out, the fact that I had to fill one of the rectangles on top by itself wasn't really a huge issue.  It all worked out!  The biggest problem is that there's some holes along the edges, and I guess I'll have to fill them in with plaster by hand.  I would've asked my professor about it, but since he wasn't it class, I couldn't.

And wow, can I just say, I thought it was hard making that square to go into the mold on the side.  Getting it out was like, 17 million times worse.

Apparently, the next step is to sand everything down, make it all even, and then we're going to paint it.  Lucky I'm taking this painting class and already have the supplies, right?  These art classes are starting to get really expensive...

Still Life

I know you've been dying to see how my still life turned out.  Here it is:

Well, it's done, I'll tell you that.  And it's hanging in the hallway in the art building.  But before you get excited, I'll tell you that everyone's is hanging up.  And this is what's getting me down.

I was actually pretty proud of my work on this still life.  I thought I made some good progress and it definitely ended up better than when I started it.  I was really happy especially with the pitcher on the right side, the one with the handle.  I wasn't in class for the critique, so I didn't get to hear what others had to say about it.  But as I was walking into my painting class on Monday, I saw them hanging in the hall and my heart just sank.

Why does everyone in my class have to be so good??  I'm naturally pretty competitive, so I immediately compare what I do to what everyone else does.  Ugh.  I know I shouldn't look at theirs and compare it to mine since everyone is different and has a different point of view, etc. etc. all that crap to cheer you up.  But I can't help it.  That's just how I'm feeling.

Our next assignment is soooooooo dumb I literally cannot get over it.  We have to make a design using only ten horizontal and vertical lines and one diagonal line, and then use a black Conte crayon to create shading and textures in the different areas.  Conte crayon is kind of like charcoal, only it doesn't smudge, you can't erase it, and it's harder to wash off your hands.  This is our "abstract" assignment.

I HATE abstract art.  Honestly, I just don't get it.  You throw a bunch of slop around on a canvas and I'm supposed to marvel at your artistic genius?  I'm looking at you, Jackson Pollock.  If a seven-year-old could recreate your painting, I'm not impressed.

It's Been A While...

I've been slacking with my posts, I know.  I can't help it!  We were in Virginia all weekend, and I was really busy trying to catch up on the work I missed.  Now we've got a four-day weekend (thanks to the Jewish holidays, something unheard of in Kentucky...), so I'm going to make up all my work and maybe even get ahead in some things!

Well, that's the plan anyway.  We'll see if it works out.

Let me see, where did I leave off?  I guess I'll start with ceramics.

I am REALLY behind in my ceramics class.  Every time I try to make something and I don't like how it's turning out, I just smush it all back together and try to start over.  The problem here is that I don't like anything I'm making!  So I have nothing really to show for my work.  The only thing I have is this, my "manipulated slab:"

  

I do like this one.  I like the texture, how it kind of looks almost rocky.  And I was happy with how the changes in the profile turned out.  My only problem here is that it dried soooo quickly.  When I tried to make a bottom for it, the top part cracked off!  I had to put strips of wet newspaper on it to get it a little damper so I could reconnect the pieces.

Today I caught up on our last project, which was making a piece with slabs again.  We had to cut out a profile and then connect all the pieces so it's like a little box/vase thing.  If I'm gonna be honest, I don't care about this specific project.  I'm just doing it so I don't get an "Incomplete."  Instead, I'll get a check mark.  Hmm...I guess this is one of the reasons why I'm feeling more and more like I'm in elementary school.

Tuesday we're starting on the wheel!  I'm really excited for that.  I used the pottery wheel once in high school but the pot I made just looked like a giant egg, it wasn't nice.  So this time, I'll make it count.

Painting Update

Today in painting class, we started on our second coat of paint.  So now we're having to decide what's going to be our "dominant" color and our "subdominant" color.  I chose blue as my dominant, and so since the subdominant has to be the complement, turns out it's going to be orange.
I just hope people don't confuse me for a Gators fan by the end of this thing.

Here's what my painting looked like after the first coat:

Thrilling, I know.

Now here's what I've got on coat #2 so far:

You can kind of tell which ones I've gone over and which ones I haven't.  I'm not really going in any sort of order.  I end up just mixing some colors together, picking a random shape, and going for it.

Hmm.  Maybe that wasn't such a good idea...