I’m Rachel and I just finished my first year at Parsons. I actually applied as undecided but declared fashion design as my major moving on to the second year. I really struggled to choose my major so foundation year actually gave me a chance to be experimental and challenge myself.
I find that the works that share similarities in the certain aesthetic that I wish to achieve are the ones where my class assignments gave me more artistic freedom. I find that my art/designs are best speak to what I wish to achieve when kept minimal and refined. I find that the works that came out the best were when the professor helped me throughout the process instead of telling me step by step what I needed to do. I am an independent worker and thinker and very controlling when it comes to my art. That is also why I feel like I struggled on group projects since, I couldn’t completely control what was going on. I also feel like working independent is better since I could work at my own pace and time. There are moments where I spend hours just making art without a break or days when I just don’t even feel like touching my works. This translates to my academic studies as I have to work on the time where I feel like producing meaningful work. I also work more willingly on projects/papers that interest me. I had many projects throughout the first year I felt no interest in and just felt like it was just another assignment to do. This was especially felt in my drawing/imaging class where we would just draw objects for assignments. I put no effort as I felt the assignment did not challenge me as an artist. However, the class was helpful as we were learning Photoshop and Illustrator which applied to all my other classes.
For my seminar class with Eli I decided to explore sexuality and women as it is an important topic to me. I sort of researched this topic with no specifics so I learned that I should have certain questions in mind while doing research. The research that I did and what I found about BDSM actually inspired me to explore it in art for my time class. My time class professor gave us the liberty to do whatever we want so I chose to make art on bondage. I did research on bondage by looking at the works of photographers in the past that captured bondage in its true form. It was interesting to see what I had researched could turn into a form of art. I decided to make a wearable sculpture that involves a deconstructed parts of a woman that are considered sexual and made them into shields instead. The woman would choose what she got to cover and show with the addition of ropes binding her giving her sexual freedom.
For the future I would like to explore more topics in relation to women as I feel my art is the most raw and real when I talk about something I can relate too. If I do more research on various topics on women then maybe my art will speak to that research. I also wish to continue finding my own aesthetic as aesthetics are a huge part of what I make. I’m also hoping to learn newer techniques to create clothing as technology is also becoming a big part of fashion. I already learned how to 3dprint and laser print which were challenges at first but are now integrated into my designs.
