It is Yimeng Zhao and I also call by Olivia, I am an international student from Beijing China. I came to the United Stated since I was fifteen years old. I graduated from BMHS in 2016 as an Honor student and then attended to Parsons the New School of Design for my undergraduate school and major in Interior Design.
I love doing art and design. I enthusiasm on drawing and art grows even stronger when I began my high school study. I have selected honor art class during all four years of my high school, which helped me build a solid foundation of sketch, color painting, and the sensitivity of the combination of colors. I am also a member of national art honor society and vividly participate in all kinds of art-related activities. I want to be an Interior Designer in the future because of I believe that with the perfect combination of modern art of interior design and the magic beauty of geomantic theory I hope I can find a new way to contribute to the field of interior design.
The similarities in my works were they all included lots color, very colorful, playful and full of imagination also very creative. The differences between my works were they all very divides; each course has different style and have nothing in common with each other, since they are different courses and each teacher want to see different things from us therefore the concept for each courses are not the same.
Each course has different theme and working method, for example, in my time class, we used laptop as working method because that is the class for us to learn different computer soft wares such as: Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere, etc. And we learned how to uses those to make carton video, shooting video and how to edit it. For my drawing class, I learned how to draw different objects by using drawing tool such as: pencil, charcoal and oil painting, of course, sometimes my teacher will teach me how to use Illustrator and Photoshop to accomplish our assignments. For my studio and seminar class, I learned more about concept other than tools or methods, those two classes teach my how to think and make things as an artist. For my Space class, my teacher teaches me how to make things by using different tools, for example, I went to the wood shop for learning how to use wood cutting tools so I can make a chair for our final project, I went to the Laser shop for learning how to use laser cut so I can safe my time to do my project also make it looks clean and creative, I went to the plaster shop for learning how to mix plaster with water and make a plaster sculpture. And for my ESL class, I learned about English grammar, vocabulary, American culture and how to write good essays. Everything I learned through first foundation year were helpful, I can accomplish my studio and seminar project by using Photoshop and other computer software also other skills and tools that I learned from another course.
There are indivisible connections between my academic studies and studio making, because of academic studies helps me form my ideas and concept statement together but studio making helps me make transform from my concept to material object, so I can better present my ideas to my audiences. I believe that interest is the best teacher for student to have, for me, the reason that projects and papers were more exciting was because of I had interest on them, I can do the domain that I am interested in so I can put more efforts and times into it.
Research helps me to learn more about my study field, for example, I did lot of research for the seminar final paper, without doing that, I might not accomplish my paper because if I don’t do research I will not have chance to learning about those three domains that I am interest in my daily life.
There are two highlights that I selected from my first-year course, which are, first one: The paper I wrote for my seminar class which were about food, color and emotion. The initiated step from the beginning of this semester was I choice visual cultural as my theme for my studio and seminar courses. The only big project we did for this semester is to study those three domains that we choice, I choice food, color and emotion as my study field and I followed the assignments that my teacher given to us step by step to prepared this final paper. First, I had bridge#1 which was to identify and describe my three domains and their connections to one another, how did I interest originate and how does the domain manifest itself in my work etc. Second, I did nine research tables about those three domains, it is a very important step, because I did lot of researches on my three domains and that is the key stone for my final paper. Third, I had bridge #2, which is Beverley Buchanan Response, basically I reflected on the connections between my domains and those two works that I selected at the Brooklyn Museum, one from the Buchanan exhibit, and one from another artist. Fourth, I did Brideg#3 which was Annotated Bibliography of my sources for the final paper. Last, I wrote a rough draft for the final paper and revised it as the final step. I don’t think I will prepare differently next time because I think to follow my teacher’s assignment step by step is the best way to accomplish this final paper. The final paper basically talked about how does emotion affect our preference of different kinds of food, also how food color influence our behavior on the identification of the type of drink and food. Color and Emotions Influence our Consumption-16vz2ml(the out come)
The first highlight represents the improvement of my English writing level, it is important for me because of through the research process, I learned a lot about how to do research, how to write a correct form of Annotated Bibliography and the right way for self-study. The most successful part of this project is I had a basic knowledge of connections between food, color and emotion, since I always want to open one of my own restaurant in the future so this final research paper will help me to prepare the concept of my future restaurant.
The second highlight from my first year is my final project for studio class. Same with my seminar class, I spend the whole semester to preparing this final project. First, I selected three domains that I want to investigate for this semester, second, I created a map that can be represents the relationships between the domains that I selected, third, I wrote a draft statement that in related to my domains and my projects thus far this semester, fourth, I did 20 sketches of my prototype that related to my final project, fifth, I created three prototypes that representative one of the direction I am planning on going in because of I need to setting up the criteria I would like to investigate with the prototype. For the next step, I wrote a formal concept statement that outlined the concept of my project then I designed and created a working prototype of my project. Last, I finished my final project and took it to class and presented it by performance form. I don’t think I will be preparing this project differently because of the same reason with the first highlight work, I believe the best way to do this project is to follow teacher’s lead step by step.
For my final project, the main inquiry is to discover the connections between food, color and emotion, it was taken by performance form and I choice four audiences whoever interesting in food, color and emotion just like me to had an experiment of my project. Basically, I put four different emotion drinks in random color paper boxes and let each of my audience to choose a color, then I let them to put blindfold on and give them the emotion drink from whatever the color box that they choice.
This highlight represented of my research achievement for this whole semester and mine understanding of the connections between food, color and emotion. It is important for me because of the process of this project taught me a lot and the experience for this class was amazing. The most successful part of this project was I created something that is match with three of my domains and it completely represent my concept statement.
Since I learned so many useful things through my first foundation year, therefore I have so many anticipate for next three years, I am very exciting for my Interior design specialize course in the future. My question is: are there still going to have so many papers for interior design student? Or I can do more handwork Interior design model instead of writing papers. I think what I learned through Space class can be very helpful and generate for my Interior design courses next year, because I learned about how to cutting wood, how to use 3D printer and how to use Laser cut etc. I want to learn about Interior Design specialize course in the future since I am major in Interior design therefore I think to learn something about color theory and basic building system will be very helpful for me.
