The reason why I'm able to forgive people so easily is because I've seen what not being able to forgive can do to you.

Pratt's Pre-college

For the summer of 2013, I'm planning on taking Pratt's summer pre-college program.

Me, being a very undecided individual, is planning on choosing the major "Art and Design Discovery: Explore 2D and 3D techniques in this interdisciplinary course; sample areas of study such as fine arts, illustration, graphic design; and delve into the 3D process of designing objects within industrial design."

That sounds PERFECT for me because it has a little bit of everything, which I'm hoping will really help me decide what I want to do in college. Obviously I'm keeping Communication Design in the back of my head, but I want to explore my options. I also earn 4 college credits for completing it!

So the Art & Design class will be my major, but upon signing up, they also enroll you in other mandatory classes. This includes a Foundations class, an Art History/ Appreciation class, and a Portfolio development class.

Now that all that is out of the way, I want to get down to the nitty gritty. I'm planning on applying for a scholarship for this program, which will be due on March 15. I need to do this:

ART, DESIGN, and ARCHITECTURE: Submit 5 – 10, color photos /digital prints, or 35mm slides. Individual prints should be no larger 8.5 x 11 and may be printed on any paper. No other formats will be accepted. Images of paintings, drawings, 3-D work, sculpture, ceramics, jewelry, printmaking, photography, and other media may be submitted.    (All applicants may include some images of work in their chosen elective however observational drawing is a key component to any portfolio.)

I'll be working on that. I have a few things in mind already:

[ #1 ]

 OR

[ #2 ]

Better picture of this:

[ #3 ]

(Better picture if needed)

OR

[ #4 ]

 A print of that linocut I've been working on.

[ #5 ]

Those giant charcoal drawings/sketches that I did last year for STAC.

[ #6 ]

[ #7 ]

A better photo of this:

[ #8 ]

A completed version of this: 

None of these choices are set in stone yet. I am still open to working more and developing more pieces to add in. I have to consult with Luke and Ganes and see what they think.

I'm excited.

Yet another ongoing photo from the piece I've been working on every Sunday. This time around instead of 2 full hours, I only had around 30 minutes to work. I tackled the grapes. I'm hoping to finish the rest of the grapes next time.

Today, I was trapped in yet another social gathering that involved my parents and their friends. Bored with nothing to do, I took my sister's swiss army knife and began to mess around with the napkins. I cut up a snowflake.

Then, my sister and I had a brilliant idea. This happened.

This is my most recent documentation of the Inside-Outside project that I'm working on in STAC Art. I don't even know where I'm going to go with this. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Instead of paying attention in Mr. Pasquier's class, I decided to draw him instead.

After quite a while, we got started on the mural.

We took to lettering in "Winter Poem" with the help of myself, Courtney and Ellen! I am quite impressed about the turn out. It turned out much better than what I thought it'd turn out looking like.

We were originally supposed to paint it, but we decided to keep it penciled in because it has this sort of raw quality to it which was just wonderful.

Obviously, we have to see how the barbed wire and the birds go along with it, so the idea isn't set in stone yet.

This is going to turn out great.

 

Here's an update on my drawing.

Party Hardy

So last night, I organized a STAC "Ugly-Sweater-Holiday-Potluck-Party" at my house! I am rather impressed with myself, because I NEVER go out of my way to organize social gatherings. Whenever I think of "social gatherings" and the word "host" involved, it gives me a headache. Host being the host, will be stuck with all the work of the party and won't have any fun. I've also had some bad experiences with hosting, mainly cause I either suck at it or don't do it enough. Well, not doing it enough does equate to sucking, yes?

We played some good 'ol boardgames. Stuff like Taboo and Apples to Apples; it was a hit! Plus, I set up a campfire in my backyard to make s'mores, and obviously what kind of party would it be without karaoke? Plus, making it a potluck was a pretty smart idea on my part. Since it was my first time hosting something serious, it was a nice to have other people bring stuff that they wanted to bring.

Hopefully, everyone had a great time. I mean I did, anyway.

Hosting was not as bad as I thought it'd be. There was a lot of running around and slight sweating, but it was much more enjoyable than I thought it'd be. It's interesting to see what it's like to be a host for a change instead of an attendee.

Feels good to do something that brings people together.

Painting a soccer ball

My boyfriend's birthday is coming up (in 8 months...none the less), and I was just tossing around some ideas for what I should get him. I arrived at the idea of painting a soccer ball because he's a HUGE soccer fan.

Now, I have a couple of designs sketched out already, but they're not definite.

The first one is of a series of building protruding from the ocean, followed by a sunset/night sky in the background. The second design is of the ocean, a boat, and the milky way galaxy + constellations as the background. 

I'm sort of leaning towards the second design. It's simple and lovely, to me anyway.

Time to think technically- I was doing some research on the web, and I couldn't find ANYTHING about painting soccer balls, but then again, who routinely paints soccer balls? Since soccer balls have a hard and shiny surface, I was thinking that it may be a little difficult to prime. I may have to sand the surface (if it's even possible) of the soccer ball first and apply gesso on top to create a base. I would paint it with acrylics. I will have some planning out/ research to do....except my only problem is that there isn't much stuff on the web about it! 

I might just have to do a trial run and see what happens.

Today in STAC, I got working on the mural project that Luke told me about.

I carved some linocuts of barbed wire. It'll turn out cool.

Photography 365

I have a photography 365. I started November 8, 2012. Check it out here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/meeshl/sets/72157631964884282/

Had some free time in STAC and came up with this. 

When in doubt, doodle.

I go to fine art classes every Sunday morning from 10:30-12:30. It's run out of my good family friend's basement, whom I've known for 7 years. My teacher, Bing Chen, comes of a family of well known artists, himself included. He's a great guy.

I'm currently working on this still life piece. It's done with colored pencil (Crayola and RoseArt....none the less. This is because he also has many young students, so he can't afford to buy expensive materials for them to use. I'm going to start bringing my own Prisma colored pencils. Why haven't I thought of that earlier?!).

We're working on inside-outside projects in STAC Art, and I believe I accomplished quite a lot today.

I also learned a bit about myself through this. I spend so much planning and trying to organize things, and not enough time just letting go and letting my painting/artwork do the speaking. Today, I let my painting guide me and go where it wanted to go. I think it came out decent, but it's still a work in progress. I don't know how the end product is going to look like.

Eventually, both the red dots with become target signs. I need to finish that next time, and put a wall in between the two different textures.

Linocut

I had this drawing that I had done in my sketch book, and I wanted to turn it into something bigger. So I went to Luke for some insight. He suggested that I turn it into a linocut, and I loved the idea so that's what I did!

It is still a work in progress obviously, but I'm getting there. I would like to eventually put down some (burgundy?) block paint, print it, and accent it with some gold/cardamom yellow. I'm planning to create maybe 20-25 prints, and gift them to people for the holidays.

Progression

We ended STAC today with some improv.

I'm quite satisfied with myself because I feel like I've made a lot of progress in the realm of "not-being-self-conscious" when I'm trying to act in front of an audience. 

I didn't care if I made an ass of myself because I knew that the more you put yourself into you, the better the reception. And that's precisely what I did. Compared to last year, I also feel like the amount of stress and pressure to do well was alleviated. 

The moment I gave myself into it, the moment my mind freed up and ideas were allowed to flow. I will be looking forward to doing more improv!

"Those who mind don't matter, and those that matter don't mind." - Dr. Suess