Spring Term So Far
It’s been a long time! Classes have been pretty hectic this spring term so I haven’t been able to keep up with this. I’m taking English Literature II, Western Art II, and Social Ethics this term, so it’s been very heavy on the reading assignments. Luckily, Drawing Structure and Expression II and Advanced Painting have been far more relaxing. I’ve also continued dividing my work hours between the library and the front desk as well. Recently, the project I’ve been assigned for the later is scanning slides for Professor Brus.
The second half of Drawing Structure and expression is pretty much like the first. We’re still drawing from the model using pastels. There have been some differences. Gabe let us experiment with other mediums for the last two weeks. Some people tried out water color and other kinds of washes. This week we’re in the middle of a long pose. My drawing is a bit strange because I decided to do my sketch with a neutral color, so my color palette is extremely bizarre.
At first, I thought Advanced Painting was going to be a pain because it meets from 10 and officially ends at 4:40. Basically, it’s an all day class which takes place on Fridays. This really bummed me out, but it was the only class offered that semester, so I took it. I ended up being really surprised. It’s turned out to be my favorite class. Linda Brown’s teaching the five of us (yeah there are only five of us, awesome huh?), and been guiding more than lecturing: she’ll introduce us to artists, give us a task, then leave us be for the rest of the day to muddle through on our own. If we’re really stuck, she’s close by, but I find it very nice to be left alone like this. The idea scared me at first, but I’m really enjoying it now. Tomorrow, we’re making about twenty postcard sized collages for our next painting. With our first painting, we abstracted a still life with a specific color palette. On our second painting, we drew using our first as a base. The third was less strict and required an additional color. So far, all three of my paintings look related to each other, so changing to collage should help me not be so dependent on previous objects.
In Western Art II, we’ve started at the fourteen century and progressed to the sixteenth. We’re studying High Renaissance and touching upon Mannerism now. Professor Bokhari has also assigned a research project to complete for the class, so I’ve also visited the first of four museums last week with Pearla. We went to the Harvard Art Museum and I definitely recommend going if you have some time. The collection isn’t as extensive as the Museum of Fine Arts, but the pieces (jems) they do have are definitely worth looking at.
In English, we’ve finished up Romantic Poetry and moving into Victorian Prose. I turned in my first essay today. He assigns in class writing assignments at random. We’ve had two and both of them I did pretty well on, but I still get nervous. I’m finding it difficult to pull the deeper meaning out of the poetry we’ve read so far, which is a bit embarrassing considering I’m thinking about minoring in creative writing.
Social Ethics is probably my biggest class. It meets once a week on Tuesdays. We’ve been reading from two texts, Nicomachean Ethics and Politics, both written by Aristotle. Our first reading was hard, but once you get use to the mathematical way Aristotle things, the concepts become much easier to understand. This class has also forced me to pay more attention to the news of late, though I’m finding it extremely difficult to make this into habit. As an Artist and image maker, it’s extremely important to know the news. Pretty much essential. I just find it hard to get into because I can’t really do anything with it and I generally don’t have time to read the paper or watch the news.
As for work study, I’m still stumbling over stuff, but the library work has become much more fluid. I also started getting to know my peers better that work there. The front desk, Molly handed out this handbook which has pretty much helped me stop so many mistakes. I feel like superwoman, lol. Now, I’m just waiting to continue scanning slides. After that, I have to read The Case of Jekyll and Hide and Life of Lycurgus. Then, this weekend I’ll be going home to celebrate my sister’s birthday. It’s crafty, but I can’t tell you what it is because I think she might read this. I’ll let you know next week.