Part 1: Based on the notes you took during class, write a brief description and response to each of the Faculty presentations or
“The Hollis, Bill and Tuan Show”

Tuan– Did lots of work you’d expect out of a graphic designer, such as designing packaging, tags, tote bags, posters, etc. But I also liked his moving boxes with screen printed designs on them (clever!) as well as the fact that he makes all his presents have a personal touch by either making them all himself, or adding a design of his. I’m the same way about my presents, and while I used to feel ashamed of never buying my friends things for their birthdays, I now feel like I don’t care if my present isn’t handmade! I also tend to do “design” work for my parents, even though I’m not a designer. Both of those things really resonated with me.

Hollis- I got very excited when Hollis showed us her autobiographical graphic novels because 1-I love graphic novels and 2-I make little comics about dumb things that happen to me all the time. Hollis’ work was a lot more serious than mine, of course. I also like how her drawings of natural disasters and debris are all very neat and linear, yet the illustrations she’s done for her graphic novel are more expressive. The installations were also very neat and I can’t imagine having the patience to arrange so many different objects into a shape that I feel is “right”. I also realized how even though my work always speaks to me, it’s not very very personal, and I want to do something much more personal for my final Visual Studies project.

Bill- I do not know too much about the world of photography, so I was amazed to find out that Bill is quite a high-profile guy! His story really seems to resonate with the traditional story of an artist being successful, then hating their success because it stopped feeding their souls. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure I like the images he does where he puts them into photoshop and sort of abstracts them, but I do like that he experiments, and I’d certainly like to know what it is exactly that he does in order to make the images look like that. Not that he’d tell us, probably.

Part 2: Create a 5-year plan. What are your long term goals beyond college? What do you need to do to accomplish those goals?

I’m assuming this is a 5-year plan for after we graduate? I don’t know if I can come up with a specific and set plan but I could try…
I’m currently hoping to get a residency with the Mexican American Cultural Center, which would allow me to do small solo, or mostly solo gallery shows and teach classes at the MACC. The residency is renewed every 3 years, so I imagine that if I’m still living in Texas by the end of 2019, I’d renew my residency.
I’ve also been toying with the idea of volunteering at Houston Elementary to create an after school program where kids who don’t get to learn what they want in class (since the educational system only wants to focus on learning how to pass standardized tests) get to investigate and be inquisitive about the world. I’m still not sure about that because the bureaucracy is pretty awful and I don’t exactly know how to plan something like that.
On more down to earth ideas, I want to make comics and zines and put them up as a “pay what you want” type of thing on a website like gumroad. I’ve also wanted to learn how to create stationery and have actually learned quite a lot. I’d love to start a small hand-made stationery shop using etsy. In this case, I already have lots of materials, I just need to convince myself to actually do it now.
Then on the bigger scale of dreams, I really would like to work in film as an art director or something similar. With that, I suppose I have to build a strong portfolio and maybe start out working in small animation companies and work my way up. This means I need to get better at drawing things like landscapes because I do tend to cheat around that.

I suppose in the end though, my biggest obstacle is my fear of failure. I get so caught up in telling myself “I probably won’t succeed” that I don’t even bother trying, which I understand is detrimental to myself as an artist. I’m guessing it’s sort of like taking the plunge into cold water, but once you’re in it, you’re a lot more comfortable.