Part 1

I really enjoyed hearing each professor’s reason’s for creating art and getting to see samples of their work. Each had a different perspective that stemmed from their varied backgrounds and expertise, which made for an interesting mix of exigence, execution of ideas, and concept development. Bill and Hollis both had fairly conceptual ways of thinking and explaining their art work. I really liked what Hollis had to say about how memory is just a perception of reality, and it’s not always the truth. In the interest of preserving/representing things of the past, it made sense that most of the things we know about reality come from our own subjective memory. I thought that her way of portraying natural disasters and giving the aftermath meaning and direction was really fascinating because she literally constructed destruction by stringing objects together, along with the memories tied to them.

My favorite insight of Bill’s was that life is not linear. In his personal work, he let’s ideas guide him without thinking of things chronologically, which I found was a really freeing concept when it comes to making work. The work he began after he quit his commercial photography job had such a real and etherial quality to it, which showed how much artistic expression can be held back by doing more commercial work for so long. I really liked his ending statement, because he told us to find a way to love what we do so that we can stay connected to it, and to ourselves.

Juan’s presentation was different than the other two, mostly because his was more about design and a little bit of problem solving and processes. What I gathered from his work was that design is a really broad field of study and work, and so many things can be achieved through design elements and visual communication. The prototypes he showed reminded me that everything is a process, and that sometimes when things don’t work out, you are led to another idea or solution. Although Tuan designed a lot of different things for a broad array of purposes, there was a common aesthetic throughout his work that was representative of his style.

 

Part 2

After graduating from St. Ed’s with a degree in art, I would like to go to grad school and get a masters degree in something like industrial design or theatre design and stagecraft. I’d really like to be able to design sets for films and theaters, but also be able to build them. I have played with the idea of possible owning a set design company with some of my close artist/theater friends, but I think that would definitely be after the next five years. In order to get to that point, I’d want to build a really strong portfolio in my undergrad studies here to ensure I get into the best masters program for what I want to do.

As of now, I am really interested in learning how to vigorously prototype designs, and I am really excited to gain some basic building skills in the shelters project for Foundation Art & Design. I am going to take some technical theater classes here at St. Ed’s like Stage Craft and Lighting, as well as some film classes. I’ve been attending and volunteering for some film festivals and screenings, as well as interning with Jenn Hassin because I want to create a well rounded network of artists and creators that I can get experience working with and gain insight from. In five years, I’d like to be in grad school with a more specific idea of what I want to do, and how I’m going to use those resources to achieve my goals out side of the university.