First Year: Overall Reflection

First year kicked my ass. I started with no job, no money, and all of my hard studying of speaking Spanish went down the drain for classes. Studio 1 gave me Langdon Graves who was, without a doubt, one of my best professors. She always knew how to give feedback, and although she would never tear me apart in her critiques, I always knew when my projects needed to be refined.

Space/Materiality was the hardest class, but it was the most rewarding. Here I learned one of the best Fine Arts/Design techniques: to model a project. I never used this before, and when I began to use it I could definitely see a difference in my work. Objects as History was the best class for me, and my professor, Zachary Violette, was a master at what he taught and knew how to engage myself and the rest of the class. He made Art History both fun and interesting.

For the Final Project of Space/Materiality, I was able to lead my group to success with my project design and instructions. While I pride myself with that a lot, I couldn’t have done it alone.

Second Semester I definitely started strong, and was more confident about myself as an artist getting into it. I had come back from National YoungArts Week as a finalist (which definitely taught me a lot of skills). My schedule was also better, as I no longer had night classes. My best class was definitely Time: Composition, where I learned how to cut and edit video. I was able to pump out 3 consecutive projects that were all visually and aesthetically unified through the use of improvisation and narration.

The hardest class had to be Sustainable Systems. Art and Science have always been my strengths, but when they are together it’s a different ball game, and definitely not one that I like to play.

I’m definitely looking forward to next year, as a Design & Technology Student.