Start of the Spring Semester!

A new semester is upon us! I’ve been so busy getting settled with everything that I haven’t had a spare minute to sit down and blog. We’ve had a couple weeks of school so far and things are really picking up.

On Mondays, I have Figure Studio 3D, which uses a live model to sculpt from. For the first class, we practiced drawing the model from different spots in the room, since unlike painting, sculpture needs information from all sides of the model. Since that class, we’ve been working on a wire mesh armature of a figure, then covered that with wood glue and tracing paper for a hard exterior. Then during last class, we started to actually cover the figure with clay to build up the different surfaces. Instead of clay however, we’re using Model Magic, children’s sculpting putty which is super light weight and easy to mold.

On Monday nights, I have Ideas of Western Art II, which is a survey course of Western Art pieces and artists. So far we’ve covered the Italian High Renaissance and some Baroque art. High Renaissance is the art history that I focused on while I studied in Florence, so I’ve been pretty comfortable with the material in this class so far!

On Tuesdays, I have Seminar class. In the mornings, we meet with Audrey to discuss our long term projects. Our first prompt is about exhibiting Vulnerability. I’ve been over a few ideas and taken some photographs, but I think I’m going to take a new direction this week; I’ll keep you updated. 🙂 In the afternoons, we’ve been taking field trips with Randal. Last week, we went to Gallery Naga on Newbury St. to see work by NESAD Alum Benjamin Evan and photographer Lana Caplan. This week, a few of us presented a sort of artist talk to the class. We put together presentations with some of our work, work that inspires us, and what kind of work we want to make in the future. It’s really interesting to hear how my classmates and friends feel about their own art, and it’s been really good practice to talk about my own work.

On Wednesdays, I have Figure Studio 3D in the early afternoon and then Women, Art and Society for my night class. This class has been sweet, I obviously love the subject matter being a fine art major and a women’s studies minor. We haven’t had too many classes though, since the Wednesday before last was a snow day!

On Thursdays, I have an all day sculpture class. For the first hour, our professor does a little overview of some art history that she wants us to think about, and then we move to the studio. So far we’ve done two sculptures. The first was using a found object and changing the contour. I took a small desk fan and attached a bunch of plastic knives to it, to make it look like the fan is spitting out something scary and violent, but still white plastic similar to that of the fan. For the second project, we had to use one piece of paper and fold it to make a sculpture. I tried to work with the requirements of the prompt in a new way and decided on using toilet paper- I knotted a roll of toilet paper (for 5 hours!) and created a pile type shape with a spiraled roll at the end.

I lucked out again this semester with a four day week. I’m also working a whole lot at NESAD, and this past weekend I took a trip to Vermont. My cousin just moved to Burlington, and we had a great weekend thrift shopping, art looking, and pizza eating!