life’s not a paragraph

i meant to write about this earlier but today is one of the last days of the foundation student show! i mean its pretty self-explanatory. but for those of you that have never visited the new england school of art and design, you don’t know that we have a gallery within the school!

the curator, jeff hull, is well-known in the boston area. he actually curates for a few other galleries in boston in addition to the nesad gallery. usually we get a new exhibition about every month or so. we’ve had some really interesting stuff this year (resa blatman has been my favorite so far!). throughout the year, there is a mixture of student work, faculty work, and local artists’ work. since its getting towards the end of the year we are currently showing a collection of student work from the foundation (first year) program. who ever wanted stuff in the show could submit their work from all of their foundation classes– drawing I &II, 2D design, 3D design, color, painting, and design issues and processes. the faculty from different departments within the foundation program judged it all and decided what would be put in the show.

it’s actually pretty incredible to see your classmates’ work up on the walls in the gallery. i am surrounded by so much talent. i am happy to say that a few of my pieces were accepted! i am going to be a little sad to see them taken down on thursday. :/ hahaha

its been almost a week since i came back from spring break, which is kind of crazy. this week went by so fast. which means that the rest of this semester is going to go by even faster! :O i don’t really want it to. what i really wish it that i was flying back to mississippi right now. and spending another week (or two) down there. alternative spring break was so amazing. i am so lucky. i had one of the greatest weeks of my life.

i learned so much over this break. i learned about the civil rights movement in the 1960’s (a woman came and spoke to us about her experiences during the time. her husband was the president of the NAACP for 20+ years!). i learned about poverty and housing issues not only in meridian, but all over the country. i learned about the strength of humanity, and our unbelievable way of taking something like hurricane katrina and using it as a springboard to create hope and change.

i met quite a few people who fled from new orleans and the mississippi coast to escape hurricane katrina. one woman, ms aileen, (who has received a habitat house) lost everything in the storm. but she wasn’t bitter or angry. she gets strength from her faith, and she is one of the happiest women i have ever met. fonda (the president of the habitat chapter that we worked with) told us that they refer to katrina as a member of the family; she has become a part of each and everyone of them. that statement really surprised a lot of us. and the thing is, it’s so true. even though i was there for only a week, i could tell from that these people were working hard to overcome the destruction she caused, but never, ever are they going to forget katrina.

the trip was really inspiring in so many ways. it was, without a doubt, a life-changing, perspective-altering experience, and i know that it’s going to be something that i take with me for the rest of my life.

is it sad that i still have to say that grade school saying to remember all the s’s and i’s in mississippi? hahaha i’ve had to use it a lot because of my trip! i’m leaving tomorrow! 😀

actually, after i am done writing this, i am probably going to go to bed. i have to wake up around 5:30 tomorrow morning. :/ but i have to be at the airport before eight to check-in. i need to give myself plenty of time to make sure i have everything together (even though i spent quite a long time this afternoon packing haha) and make sure i have enough time for the t. it says online that the trip should take about thirty-five minutes… but i don’t really trust that. haha i’m going to give myself a hour. plus i have to trek through torrential downpours tomorrow morning. that’s going to be fun. hahaha

i know it’s going to be worth it! i can’t wait to get down there! i’m not going to be able to blog while i am down there. but don’t you worry! when i get back i am going to have so many stories! i hope you all have a great week (whether you are on break or not!)!

i’ve been on a photography kick lately. it has been awhile since i went out and just took pictures. luckily, i was able to integrate photography in my last project for design issues and processes. i mentioned in an earlier post that i was interviewing rania matar, the photographer, for class and that i had to create a piece inspired by her work.

since i don’t have the ability to take photos in the middle east, i figured that i would take photos of what i am surrounded by– boston. rania’s latest book is called “ordinary lives”. my idea stemmed from that. the ordinary lives of people in boston.

i carried my camera around with me for about a week. unfortunately, it rained six out seven days that week. needless to say, i didn’t get very many photos those six days. but the seventh day, that saturday, was so beautiful…. sunny…. warm… perfect. everyone was out in the commons. i got so many great images for my project.

and now i am going down to mississippi! i am really looking forward to taking pictures of the process of building a house. i will definitely be posting a bunch when i get back!

i’m done! yaaayy! i am officially on spring break! and i am very excited. i still have a lot of non-school related work to do, like searching for apartments and plane tickets. but its so nice not to have anything due tomorrow.

it’s been a long few weeks. and i have had to do a lot of work. luckily, though, i have been able to do some of it with friends. for my midterm in drawing two, we had a portfolio critique. basically, that means i had to fix up all of my drawings from the beginning of the semester and bring them in to school. then i had an appointment with my professor to go over them all one-on-one. she critiqued my work and told me what i was doing well and what i needed to work on. it’s a bit nerve-racking, but i have worked really hard in that class this semester so i wasn’t too worried about it.

it went really well actually! but before i went, i had to finish/fix all the drawings i had. most of the drawings i started i didn’t finish in class. that meant i had to finish them all… and there were quite a few. haha one of my friends in my drawing class lives at the 10 west dorms. last weekend, i went over there with another friend (my future roommate marissa!) and we worked on our drawings together! we sat in the common room for about 3 hours drawing, eating, and talking. haha it was great! it made all the drawings i had to do a lot more fun and a lot less stressful. i definitely plan on having work sessions together a lot more often.

so on friday a representative from windsor newton (the paint company) came to talk to us. i don’t know if i’ve mentioned this (i don’t know how i could’ve forgotten to mention this honestly!) but i am going to prague in may for three weeks for my painting class! 🙂 i’m so excited! i’ll have to write another post on this, but right now let’s focus on the windsor newton guy.

ok. so this representative came in and gave a little demo. he talked about windsor newton, gave us a brief history of paint pigments and oil paints, and then he told us about water-soluble oils. i don’t know how many of you have experimented with oils… probably a lot of you have actually. but as much as i have dabbled in the world of art media, i have never used oils. i went through a watercolor stage when i was really young (probably 9 haha), and then i realized how hard they are to use so i chose to try acrylics. and needless to say, i have been using them ever since.

i’m listening to this man talk about this-seed oil and that-seed oil, and glossiness, and thickness, and the paint taking 2-12 days to dry, but this quick dry medium cuts that in half, and thin layers then thick layers…. honestly, my brain is going in circles. i have no idea what he’s talking about. i nod and say “oh wow” when everyone else does, but i truly couldn’t be more lost. i only got a few things out of the presentation: free paints (always great), that you can clean up water-soluble oils with water, regular oils with turpentine (and i could’ve figured that out), there is some sort of liquid (whether it be seed-derived or otherwise) that i need to use with these paints and that i need to pay attention to the types of brushes i use.

major problem: this information is not going to help my when i go to the store to buy paints. well, at least i know the kinds of paints i need. but other than that, i’ll be completely winging it if i don’t get some help. hahaha when i get back from break i am going to have a serious paint chat with my professor!

on monday afternoon i met with rania matar. for those of you who did not see my earlier post, for one of my classes (design issues and processes) we were required to select a local artist, interview them, create a piece of work inspired by their work, and then present our interview and our project to the class.

i chose rania matar, a photographer based out of boston. most of her work focuses on the middle east, although she has now started to do more work her in america. her latest project is titled a girl in her room, which is (logically) a series of girls in their rooms.

my meeting with her was really really interesting. i went to her house to meet with her actually. she was running around printing large photos to bring with her to a photography festival in houston. i felt bad that i was taking up time that she needed to prepare for traveling but she said she was fine and she really didn’t mind!

the woman was so generous. i talked with her for about an hour. we talked about her work, her background, and where she finds her inspiration to create all of these pieces. as an artist, i know, that this is really personal. sometimes, it is just really hard to share with people, especially someone you’ve never met (i.e., me!). she has had such an interesting life, growing up in lebanon during the civil war, moving to america to study architecture, raising a family, and now, living as a published photographer. her perspective is unique, and i think that is something that you can see in her photographs.

we talked about a lot of stuff but i’m going to share something that stuck with me. when she was talking about photographing palestinian refugees, she mentioned that many of her lebanese friends and family members couldn’t understand why she would want to photograph a refugee family or a woman of hezbollah. and she said (this is paraphrased), that it was the american in her that made her want to photograph these people. that if she hadn’t lived in america for so long, she would be so accustomed to their presence in her life, she wouldn’t have seen their struggles as something different/worth capturing.

i thought this was really an incredible statement. and i found that i could relate to it. everything in our lives shape us. even though rania is lebanese, her viewpoint is completely different from her lebanese friends and probably from most of her american ones too.

so then i looked at myself…. my neighbors are middle eastern, i took a class about the middle east last semester, and last year i lived in a country that had been occupied by the moors for hundreds of years. are these some of the reasons why i am so affected by her work? is it because i feel some sort of connection to her images? these questions made me re-examine the way that i look at my likes and dislikes….

what connects you to your likes and dislikes?

i am almost done with classes today and that means only about one more week until spring break!!

tons of my friends at other schools have their breaks right now, and i am so jealous! haha this weekend is going to be full of work. i have homework and projects due in practically every class next week. i’ve got a paper in spanish, a presentation/project in design issues, my drawing portfolio to fix up for drawing, and a sculpture due for 3D. unfortunately it seems it’s finally going to be nice this weekend and i am going to be stuck inside! 🙁 my motivation will have to be the week off.

i cannot wait to go to mississippi! i know it’s not going to be the most relaxing vacation. actually, it’s probably going to be exhausting. but it’s going to be so worth it. i have been going to the weekly meetings and i really like my group. i think it’s going to be an incredible week.

ahhh but that’s still a week away!! i just need to get through this weekend and i’ll be on my way to warm weather and construction sites! 😀

the world is going crazy. first off, it has been rain/snowing here in the northeast for the past four or five days. i was supposed to go to new york this weekend to visit my grandmother, but i wasn’t able to go for two reasons: 1. it snowed almost two feet in new york city. 2. it was so windy that i lost power in my hometown from all the trees that were blown down (actually my parents still don’t have power :/) it snow-rained again today and i think its supposed to (off and on at least) until monday.

and now there has been a huge earthquake in chile, with crazy aftershocks and tsumanis hitting many islands in the pacific. i don’t know about you but the weather/ (dare i say) tectonic plates are going completely mad. is this how the year is going to go? a massive earthquake every month? gosh, i hope not. i feel very lucky that i live in such a safe place, but it makes me a bit worried. at least we are starting to move towards spring and insane snowstorms aren’t as likely to happen in the coming months.

my heart goes out to all those affected in chile and all those who are still trying to recover in haiti. everyone take a moment to send some good, supportive thoughts their way!