Spring Break

Today officially began my Spring Break.  And it couldn't have happened on a better day.  Its actually warm outside, its nice and sunny, and I have absolutely nothing to do but enjoy it.

This morning I had my last critique for Photo 1.  I think it went very well.  We were all very tired and over finals week, so we didn't talk a lot.  Still, its nice being done with it.  I'm looking forward to next quarter.  My project turned out very nice.  I did a lot of cropping, which is extremely unusual for me.  I'm pretty much a full frame kind of gal.  If I can't get the image I want when I take the picture I feel as though I missed something along the way.  I think all of my choices were for the best though.  Also, for the first time ever, I turned in 5 prints without a single speck of dust on them.  It only took me all quarter but I printed flawlessly!  Didn't even mess anything up when matting.  Honestly, this final could not have gone better.  When I get them back they are completely going to be decorating my walls next year.  Using my own photos for wall art, one dream accomplished.

After our critique was done I had to run over to the sculpture studio to pick up my sculpture before they trashed it.  I cannot tell you what I'm going to do with it, but I put in so much time and effort I didn't want her to just get thrown away.  I have titled her "Broken Dancer" as she has a very visible knee injury.  I think it's very appropriate.  The biggest problem was trying to fit her into my car.  As a plaster construction she isn't very flexible, and as a full time college student and worker, I tend to keep essentials in my car making it difficult to find room in my back seat.  She is currently nestled half in my trunk and balanced on a large crate in my backseat.  I hope to resolve this issue over break.  Especially considering that my front seat is occupied by a small bronze pregnant woman seat belted in to avoid hard breaking incidents.  My car is turning into a sculpture garden, and this cannot keep up.

In case anyone was interested, I have begun the process of spring cleaning my life, though I have miles to go.  The pizza box I used as a paint pallet for my color final has been thrown away, though the color aid paper is still lumped in a small mound at the foot of my bed.  My drawing supplies have been tucked away into their respective packages, but my drawing paper and board are still leaning against my bookshelf.  Its a process, you see?  It can't be rushed.  Definitely cannot be rushed when the weather outside is so lovely.  I did finally put the tripod away though.  It was getting difficult to maneuver around my room.  I'm sure that once I start to tackle the laundry issue that things will happen more quickly.

I actually plan on doing some projects over break so hopefully I won't be too wrapped up in having fun to forget to post.  I am about to start a 6 month personal drawing class.  I talked to my professor about ways to keep up with it without taking the class until September and she recommended a few things.  So as of Monday that project begins.  I've never drawn anything that wasn't assigned to me, and I'm really looking forward to it.  We'll see what becomes of it.

Done!

I have just completed my final project for the only class I have left this quarter!!!  It feels so good to be finished.  Seriously, a ginormous weight has been lifted off my chest.  Its easier to breathe and smile and think.  Lovin it!  To make things even better, I had an interview this morning that required my "unofficial" college transcript (essentially just a list of all the classes I've ever taken and what grades I recieved) and discovered that 3 of my professors posted final grades already.  Factoring in the 98% chance I get an A in photo, I will get 3 As and 2 Bs for this quarter.  Infinitesimally better than I thought I would.  In the interest of full disclosure, I totally deserved those Bs, too.  I was missing homework assignments in both of them.  Again, be realistic with your expectations.  I hate the fact that something as idiotic as not doing homework lowered my grade.  I will strive to do better at that in the future.

Today is a beautiful day though, and I'm FINISHED with classes until March 28th so I'll be leaving my apartment for  at least the next few hours.  I'm in way too good a mood to waste the day.  I'll clean tomorrow, seeing as my busy schedule has left piles of art projects lying around drowning in dirty laundry.  The quarter system helps me to understand spring cleaning.  Its what you do between Winter and Spring quarters to reassemble your life after finals.  I will most definitely be participating this year.

Finals Week

Lets start with a huge I'm sorry for not posting in 2 weeks.  Final projects for 4 studios while crunch time at work and personal life issues does not add up to a good blogging schedule. 

However, today I had 3 of my 4 critiques and I am officially done with Drawing 2, Sculpture, and Color.  All I have left is Photo, which I worked on for about 3 hours today and I will be returning to work on tomorrow.  Final critique is Friday, but lab is only open tomorrow, so its finish or bust.  All I have to do is mount my photos so I'm not terribly concerned.  I actually had pretty good luck printing today.  I got 6 done in 2 hours, a new personal record.  No dust or anything, even I'm impressed with myself.  I'm thinking someone upstairs saw how manically stressed I was and threw me a rope, even if only a short one.  It definitely helped.  Thanks!

Guesstimating my grades for this quarter leaves me a little disappointed.  They tell you not to take 4 studios, but you never realize why until too late.  You don't really feel the pressure until about 3 weeks left in the quarter.  Then you feel compelled to drop large objects off of buildings just to see what you can break (normally trying to hit one of your projects that's taking too much time to not turn out how you wanted it to).  I know understand.  If I can avoid it I think I'll stick to 3 and no more.  They say 2 but...yeah, as always we'll see what I can take when my aneurysm splatters the wall.

All in all a very stressful two weeks filled with panic induced comas, fits of hysterics and crying, and resolving with lots of praying and apathy.  I made it through alive.  I wouldn't say intact, but as we all know, coming home with a purple heart beats the hell out of not coming home at all.  So I'll take the mediocre grades and what shreds of my sanity remain and hobble onto the next quarter.  At least that contains only photo classes and art history.  Yay!

Scholarship

Didn't do a whole lot today, unfortunately.  I got caught up in the nice weather and was slightly less than productive.  I finished my project in color, actually managing to get the paint to cooperate with me for once.  After that I rushed around and quickly put together a very rough portfolio of my best works...that were in my car to submit for a scholarship through the art department.  I'm not sure I'll get it, actually I'm pretty much banking on not, but it never hurts to try and at least I can say I know for certain, right?  After that it was back to the Air Force Museum to work on my 2-panel drawing that even after today is an unfinished 1 panel.  I'm planning on going back Friday to finish it up.  I'm almost positive that I won't be able to finish it by the end of our class Thursday.  After that there was a brief pause for dinner with my bestie, and then to the photo lab to reprint my homework assignment due tomorrow because I turned them in with my scholarship portfolio.  Over all it was a fast but good day.  I'm looking forward to sculpture tomorrow because I should be able to get my sculpture nearly complete.  I need to shave down the back a little more and round out the belly (this will make more sense when I post pictures after finals week) but considering I have 2 class days left to work on it before critique as well as an entire weekend, I'm pretty excited about where I'm at with it.

So to end an incredibly long and boring paragraph, I'm gonna say hopefully tomorrow is more interesting.

Final Projects

As of noon today I know what every single one of my final projects are.  I'm actually extremely excited about my photo final.  It has to do with light.  How it bends, how it reflects, how it casts shadows.  I'm very amenable to this concept.  Its the entire reason why I became interested in photography in the first place.  Light fascinates me.  Drawing final is a 2 panel combining 2 projects from this quarter.  Still not sure what I'm doing yet, but I should get started on that sooner rather than later.  I only have a few more projects to do in color class, and those I should be able to finish in class.  Solid.  Still working diligently on my sculpture final which is shaping up nicely.  Besides being strenuous and extremely tedious, I'm confident that I will have it done in spectacular fashion by the final critique next wed.

Now I need to wrap up all of my homework assignments and notebooks and 2 tests to study for and I'll be home free.  For some reason week 8 is the worst.  Week 9, when I should be freaking out about everything that's due, all I'm doing is getting excited about being done.  I have 4 classes left of each class.  I cannot wait to be finished and on spring break! 

I'll take pictures when everything is done.  Til then I'm just going to enjoy the ride :-)

Weekend activities

Alright, so I lied a little.  While I am still firmly committed to not working on school work, I am technically still doing work from school.  Basically I'm taking this wonderful Friday off to...do laundry.  And involved in that laundry is working on getting all the paint and plaster out of my clothes that either didn't come out the first time or have yet to be treated.  I love being busy, I love being busy, I love being busy...

Other than that I don't foresee myself doing anything else art related this weekend.  I do have actual work to deal with so I'm sure that will consume my time.  I may post pictures of my final projects when they're finished, but I haven't decided yet.  Let me know if you wanna see them!  Just remember I'm still in my first year of art studies, even if I am a senior.

Weekend!

Miracles do happen!  Today at the Air Force Museum, using charcoal, I managed to keep all of it on the paper and not on me!  This has never happened before.  I can barely walk into the drawing studio on a graphite day and not get charcoal all over my face.  But in broad indoor lighting and public atmosphere I kept all of my charcoal to three fingers, all of them being used in the drawing process.  I am so totally excited!

Ok, so back to some semblance of professionalism.  I picked a spot in the Cold War Gallery as it tends to have a special place for my family.  We normally spend a lot of time in that gallery anyway so I figured since I knew it so well I could get right to work.  I chose a spot up on the overlook for a good vantage point.  Lately I've been an extreme rebel and have been breaking the rules of art a lot.  Well, there aren't really rules, but as a student I'm not supposed to center my subject in the middle of my paper.  Not in drawing, not in photo, not in any composition.  They say that once I've graduated I'll understand why we don't do this and how to use it effectively, but not until then.  While I think they are very right about all of these reasons, I have had a compulsion that I can't resist.  Its come out in nearly every class.  Today, I centered a giant plane right in the middle of my paper, splitting it directly in half.  I'm in love with it, and technically it won't always be in the center as this will be a 2 panel drawing.  She seemed to be ok with it.  I'm working on a new technique using compressed charcoal, a medium I've always had difficulty using.  Now I actually know what I'm doing and the end result is turning out quite nicely.  Granted, it looks better from far away, but the point is the texture, not the details.  That's something I've always had difficulty letting go of.

So thus ends my week and begins my weekend.  As I said earlier I'm taking the weekend off and not going to school.  Probably won't post again til Monday.  Yay weekend!