oh art school...

I found a post I wrote in this blog as a FRESHMAN and some of it still applies to my artmaking. Though at the time I wanted to leave school and go to texas, but that would've been a horrible idea. I'm still at the same school and have taken some really fantastic classes here. The teachers still care about your concept and execution, but instead of criticizing you for not being conceptual, they care more about your vision and what you are trying to achieve, which in my opinion is way more important than the intrinsic meaning behind the work. One of my teachers was a very famous influential video artist, and I think the advice I got from her was best since she knows what she's doing. I don't wanna make art that's just for other people, I want to make art that I WANT to make, and that will make ME happy, first and foremost. If I don't, then what the hell am I doing?

Every brain is different, and not everyone is going to understand my concept. I understand that now. But art school teachers shouldn't be telling me what kind of work to make, they should be giving me suggestions that would be fitting for the kind of work and ideas I'm interested in, which is way more practical.

There's this one class I'm taking right now where I'm having the same problem as in my freshman core classes. The teacher didn't like my first project idea for an installation. I took an old idea I had begun in a performance class and created it into an experience by taking out the performance aspect and leaving the light installation. It had no specific concept at the time, but I guess I just wanted to create an escape for people to get away and forget about life for a while. The first thing my teacher said was "maybe I didn't explain the assignment correctly..." and said that I wasn't supposed to take something I've made before, I had to create something completely new. Which sucks because some of the work I make is based on taking old things I've made and trying new things with them. Which is brilliant for when I have the artist's version of writer's block.

Anyway, we recently had our second crit, and this other guy in my class did the SAME thing that I did for my first project! And EVERYONE loved it. Great.

I showed my piece after that, and everyone loved it too, but the thing is that I didn't really care about it that much. I put very little effort into it, and just made something that my teacher would like, since I was so discouraged by my first crit.

I scheduled a meeting with my teacher and told her what was all bothering me. Basically, she straight out said that the class was more conceptual than technical, and if I take the next level class then I'll learn more of that. I wish I had known this all sooner so I could go back and take a different class, but whatever, I'll tough it out and get the credits.

Oh man... this semester is gonna be interesting.

Howdy Ya'all

I had the BEST time in Texas! Thank you everyone for asking, by the way.

So, it was kind of a shock being in nice weather for once. Coming from Chicago, I can't say I was disappointed by the 60-70 degree weather. Ahhhhhhhh... I want to go back so much! WHY on earth did I decide to go to school in Chicago? Oh right, my school has an excellent fine arts program...

The windy city needs to get that whole windy thing checked out. Maybe I can somehow convince my parents that I need to take a year off, or something. It would be nice to just get away from all the stress, spend some time with Chris, and maybe make some cool artwork while I'm there. That would be M-A-zing.

But that would never happen, my parents are forcing me to spend the next 3 years freezing my ass off and working until I die... I'm gonna try talking to them about it, but I know that they just want me to get through college as fast as possible, since it costs so much.

"Blind Light" by Andrew Gormley

SAIC!!

So I've been at SAIC for a week, and it has been pretty awesome so far. Chicago is amazing! The red line always has musciens playing a variety of instruments, even instuments I can't name. A cute guy from greenpeace tried to recruit me today, but I got away before he could get my credit card number. As much as I love the environment, I didn't know if I can trust them. Also, I'm an ART STUDENT! I don't have money!! I eat easy mac and jell-o for dinner! (Well, sometimes Talya and I can cook something nice, but not too often now that classes have started.) Anyway, I love living in the dorm, I'll post pics once I get batteries for my camera. My phone doesn't ring when people call, so I've decided to pick up at random times and answer. So now I'm waiting for my mom to come and pick me up, because I'm way to tired to take the train home; I might fall asleep and someone may have their way with me! :O So until next time, my friends. Remember to link to the comments, and leave me a memorandum. Ta ta!

How Intense

Anyway, so I started my art classes in Chicago, and I am POOPED beyond belief! I walked so much, and I was so tired, that when I got home all I wanted to do was curl up and pull a Rip Van Winkle. So, this has influenced me to consider taking the L to my class for the next 2 weeks. Problem, I've never taken it alone before and have no idea how it works. The pictures on the website look very pretty and colorful, but that doesn't help me know simple things, like which side I have to get on, or how to know which direction the train is going in. It's probably really simple, but what can I say? I'm scared of things when I don't know exactly how they work. And I hear that they're sometimes late and sometimes smelly. I'm trying to save time and energy, so any help would be great. I'd rather take the bus, but google is only giving me subway info. :/

Anyway, the art classes are fun! I'm taking painting and photography. Photography was actually my third choice, I wanted to take drawing... the point of me asking for drawing and painting is because I suck at both of them, and kinda want to get better before I go to SAIC. But photo was still fun, we went to Millennium Park and took some pictures there, and tomorrow we're going to "learn" how to develop our film. Everything is review for me, even though I haven't really done anything for a year, but I still remembered how it all works. In painting, our teacher talked a lot about random things (like how she collects dead birds and paints them) but we didn't really do anything today, we just watched her paint an example. We're going to be using oils, which is weird for me because I'm so used to acrylics. I hope they don't lose my paintings, like SOMEONE did. ::coughcoughTHEARTSCENTERcoughcough:: So yeah, one class I know a lot about already, and one class I somewhat know stuff about, to sum things up. Anyway, time for me to go now and hit the sac, because that sac needs some hittin'.