Cross-Course LP Reflection Post

My name is Anna Clio Galea, and I am a fashion design major at Parsons. I have a love of drawing, fine arts, sewing, illustration, cinematography, photography, and fashion design. This year has been one of the most important years in my growth as an artist and designer. I launched my fashion line, and I grew as an artist, exploring new mediums that I had previously shied away from.

Across my first-year courses, there have been many similarities and repeated themes throughout my work. While all my courses have had similar themes, research was one that ran through everything. All of my work this year was heavily research-based, and I (who had not previously focused on this aspect of my work) focused a lot on research and process. A lot of the skills that I learned in Space and Materiality I applied to my studio class second semester. I learned to work with power tools and hardware in most of my Space/Materiality projects, which helped me a lot in my final project for Studio 2. Between my academic studies and studio making, I applied a lot of my research process from my Seminar courses to my Studio courses. The biggest applications were probably in my final projects for Studio 1/Seminar 1 and Studio 2/Seminar 2, as our final projects were directly correlated with each other and influenced each other. The projects and papers that were the most exciting were the ones that I was able to be passionate about and genuinely enjoy, as opposed to the ones I did just to get done.

Two of my favorite and most important projects this year were: my Space/Materiality final project, and my Studio 2 midterm project. In Space/Materiality, our final project required us to work together in groups to create an collapsible enclosure kit. My group members and I planned heavily, by making several prototypes and technical sketches, and considering various construction options. I would probably make a full prototype or do more material tests next time, to minimize absolutely any of the difficulties we had during final construction. What we made was basically a human incubator, made of transparent colored PVC plastic. We sewed together the bag and constructed a wooden frame in the woodshop, which we tied the bag on using rope. The bag had a two-way zipper opening/closing, and the person inside was supposed to climb inside the bag and zip themselves in. These are some photos of the incubator:

The second was my Studio 2 midterm (Deconstruct/Repurpose). This was one of the most important projects to me this year. This project was basically to deconstruct and already existing garment and create something entirely new out of it. I chose a simple dress I bought from a thrift store, and I turned it into a lingerie bra/underwear set, with embroidered constellations on it. This was one of the most important projects to me as I actually ended up listing it to sell online, and it did really well, allowing me to go forwards and launch my lingerie line (www.cliogalea.com) . These are images of the before (the dress) and the final project:

Both of these highlights were the two projects I found myself most invested in, and the ones I enjoyed the most to work on. My Space/Materiality project was one that I worked extremely hard on for weeks with my group members, and looking at it just reminds me of the effort we put in and how it ended up. My Studio 2 midterm was one that I also found myself incredibly invested in, and one that actually changed my life a lot due to its outcome. Without these two projects, my year would have been very different.

Going forwards, I have a lot of hope for next semester. I have a clearer vision of where I’m at and where I want to be in regards to my art. I would love to pursue techniques like embroidery and hardware/wearable tech going forwards, since I just started them in these projects. I would love to further these skills, but also learn new ones like new sewing skills, which I am confident I will learn next year. I am extremely excited for the year to come, and to see where my career takes me.

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