Cross-Course Reflection

My name is Yoojin Lauren Lee for Fashion Design major in Parsons School of Design. I am born in Seoul, South Korea, but I have been moving around cities and countries due to education in a very young age, such as Vancouver, Seoul, Beverly Hills and New York. In a family who supports my careers, they helped me become who I am today.

Before I came to Parsons, most of my artworks were based on natural beauty, purity, innocence, nature, etc. The theme was based on people’s natural and pure instinct; however as the time elapsed, my style and how I portray art altered. When I started to begin any kind of art work or writing, I focused more on the aesthetic rather than the meaning. I still agree with myself that aesthetic is important; however now, I realized I have to start to plan it out and create some kind of meaning toward the artwork or imply symbolism, giving an imagery to the audience. There are tons of skills that I learn in one course that I utilized in another. In space class, I learned how to laser cut. The following week, I used the same technique for Sustainable System’s class. In integrated seminar’s class, I learned the steps and how to research, which helped me out to research a site properly in studio’s class. Between seminar and studio, the two classes’ bridge projects had connections or helped each project out. For example, In bridge project 1, we had to create an artwork inspired by our important or special objects in studio. Meanwhile in seminar, we had to explain why the object was important or special, which helped me a lot for the studio’s bridge project 1 presentation. The projects in seminar and studio were simple, but also complicated at the same time. The theme of the projects were simple, but broad, which gave us the opportunity to decide what we want to do or write; however, I had difficult time deciding what I want to create and what I want to write. I am excited and satisfied with projects that I learned most from. Within all the class in this semester, all of the projects were extremely helpful, and I learned a lot of new skills and techniques, which will definitely help and guide me in the future.

The two highlights that I selected from my first year is from studio and space. For Int. Studio 2, I selected bridge project 1, which is creating an artwork that is inspired by your personal object. For Space, I selected a planar project, which is a project that studies the golden ratio. Both of the project needs research, information, and a history overview. Even though both projects are two complete different projects, the process is similar. Before starting any of the project, I had to research and contain some knowledge of what I am going to create. For Int. Studio 2, I had to ask my mother and my grandmother the history and the story behind my object. After that, I researched the Korean War for myself in order to know how the Korean War was actually like. For Space, I had to study the definition of the Golden Ratio. For Space class, there was an exact instruction how to create the planar object, so I can not plan the steps differently; however, for the Int. Studio 2, I had difficult time coming up with an idea. If I could re-do it, I would plan the idea ahead of times. The outcome for Int. Studio 2, which was a embroidery hand-made handkerchief containing the story of my grandmother, was extremely successful. For Space, the planar project contains two color, red and black, making a great combination. In the core of the planar project, there are multiple holes, which make the project more interesting. Both of these project were extremely successful, because I had learned so much skills and techniques through this project.

Int. Studio Project (Bridge Project 1 [Personal Item]) – Handkerchief