I moved!
I’ve started documenting all of my art school things over here, which I just started with some stuff for a summer class I’m taking at Parsons.
RISD Drawings
I also applied to The Rhode Island School of Design, which required three drawings in addition to the portfolio. I have about a month until I’ll know if I’m accepted or not (I kind of think of RISD as a long shot anyway), so in the mean time, and while riding the high of getting into Parsons, here are my three RISD drawings.
From the school website:
Three drawing samples are required of all candidates. The first drawing must represent a bicycle. The second drawing must utilize both sides of the sheet of drawing paper. For the third sample, your visualization must combine image and text.
The Parsons Challenge
Hooray and huzzah, I got accepted into Parsons The New School! I admit I was a little uncertain about Parsons because I finished some portfolio pieces for RISD after the Parsons deadline that I thought were stronger and would have significantly boosted my Parsons portfolio. In any case, YAY!
So in the spirit of YAYOMGPARSONS, here’s my Parsons Challenge. I found the incredibly vague instructions very frustrating, and had to change my plans a few times as I hunted down more information online and found some clarifying remarks by people from the admissions offices in various FAQs and forums. It was also frustrating to look at the few examples people had posted online and, for the most part, not know if they got accepted or not. So if you’re reading this and found this post by looking for information on the Parsons Challenge, good luck and I hope this helps.
From the school website:
Explore something overlooked within your familiar surroundings and daily life. Choose one object, event, activity, or location.
Interpret your discovery through 3 pieces of art using any medium. Support each piece of art with an essay of approximately 250 words each. The series you create should convey a conceptual and creative response of the subject matter you have chosen to discover.
Acceptable media can be any visual art form such as: drawing, video, photography, sculpture, 3D work, collage, digital images, etc. All 3 pieces of art may be created with the same media, or different mediums.
Your work will be evaluated on the concept conveyed through your writing and visuals and the relationship you create between the two.
Thinking Outside the Box
Good news, everyone! I’m done with my art school apps!
The other day I was looking through some old photos– partially because the word “recent” is extremely vague when it comes to deciding what art pieces you’re allowed to put in your application portfolio. Turns out “recent” may also mean “nothing you did in college, asshole” which is fine because I was AWFUL at documenting my art projects in college.
Case in point: Assignment 3 for… this must have been Intro to 3D art. I really liked making this project, and I think it looks super cool. It’s just a shame that I don’t think my conceptual understanding of it was very strong, so therefore my explanation of it during classes left the TA somewhat unimpressed. I ultimately got an A in that class, so it hardly matters.
I don’t have any other pictures of this project except for these two itty bitty low quality, badly lit combo pics. Ugh. What was I thinking?
It was really cool too. There were real plants that I collected around campus. The box/mountain/whatever is water bottles and papier mache. The animals are a mish-mash of things I bought at the campus thrift store and bits of stuff we had lying around. Sadly, it got a lukewarm reception when I presented it. It was all “Huh. So what’s the fancy schmancy artsy fartsy concept behind this?” and I was all “FUCK YOU IT LOOKS AWESOME” (Obviously I didn’t say that out loud).
I think it lived under the stairs for a while before I threw it out because 1. where the hell does one keep something like this? and 2. it was molting dead plant bits all over the place.
Godspeed, Assignment 3. You were sent before your time into this breathing world
It’s a painting! It’s a sculpture! It’s fashion! It’s a self portrait! It’s all of those things!
It was originally just going to be a fairly straightforward painting of myself–excessively yellow, yes, but otherwise normal. It was supposed to be a continuation of an Asian-y caricature self portrait I did some years ago. Unfortunately, or fortunately, it sucks really hard and I was going to scrap it. At the time, I was also thinking about the whole point of art and what sort of function art and the artist has in today’s society, so I cut the canvas off its frame and made the painting into a pair of shoes.
The upper part is canvas and acrylic paint. The soles and heels are cardboard covered in more canvas, and lined with felt.
Oh god he looked into the Time Vortex
Nothing fancy, just a graphite drawing of one of the cats from around the time we first brought him home and he was super skinny and weird looking because of his giant head. Well, he’s still weird and still has a giant head, but he’s not skinny anymore.
Still as big as a cow.
So…uh…hi guys. Long time no blog. In extremely overdue news, I am applying to art school, which is why there hasn’t been much posting here. After a while, I figured I might as well continue documenting my artwork, and it can’t hurt to post my own work up in my own blog, even if it does get submitted in an application. Just in case, though, new things get a watermark.
Back in the summer of 2009, I drew a picture during a painfully long educational theory class that made me want to punch myself in the face. It was based off the interpretation of an unseen antagonist in a children’s book as drawn by a first grade Spanish bilingual student. Yes, I steal art ideas from children who can’t even speak English. Just like Hans Holbein. Deal with it.
You can see the original drawing here.
Seeing as how it was done just for fun, I was lazy and there is a lot wrong with it. I recently went back and did a new version, changing a few things to make the rat a little more mobile so it could actually chase something down and kill it rather than knock it out with the stench it probably had from not being able to move to bathe itself — which is not to say that isn’t how it killed people in the book. Children’s books are often vague like that.
(Click on it for the full version)
As you can see, it sucks slightly less. It also took forever, which wasn’t so bad because I worked on it in between other art projects that required actual thought. Then when I got tired, I made dots for an hour or so.
Hm. I’m not sure how often I’ll do these art school application posts. I have three more drawings to do for a hoity-toity school I’m not going to get into (but what the hey you only live once so why the hell not) . I shall endeavor to remember to post once a week or so.
Monsterbeast
I’m not sure if this counts even remotely as “art,” but what the hell, I made something new.
About 2 weeks ago, we got a new cat. While perusing the internet for cat-related things, I came across this page on traditional woven cat beds. I love me a craft project, and so set about making my own.
For mine, I used cotton rope, strips of blue fake fur, and rudimentary basket weaving skills I had learned in 3rd grade (I will have you know that the yarn basket I made then totally got put on display in the library. Huzzah). You can see Kitty in the background, generally not giving a fuck about all the effort I was expending for his benefit.
In fact, he made his opinion of my project quite apparent when I tried to show it to him. Everyone’s a critic.
Here’s the finished product. Of course it couldn’t be a normal basket. It is me, afterall.
The face was made with felt sewn on afterward. I left the top open because Kitty doesn’t seem to like closed-in spaces. Not like it mattered, really. Kitty wasn’t that interested in it since he can sleep anywhere he damn well likes. I think he hurt the basket’s feelings. OH GOD LOOK OUT KITTY IT’S COMING FOR YOU!
Alas.
The Tortured Artist
Clicky por biggy
My Own Personal Ulysses, by Sharon
I’m going to do my own version of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks. Yes I will divide the original picture into a grid, and divide the canvas into a grid, and transfer the image onto the canvas. Nothing can go wrong! OMG why does this drawing look so weird? Hm I’m going to keep drawing and it will turn out all right. Wait a minute. How many spaces did I divide the original picture into? 8. How many did I divide the canvas into? 6!! OH HOLY CRAP WHY AM I UNABLE TO DO BASIC MATH I HATE MY LIFE! Ok well I should use this canvas for something anyway. I’ll just start painting whatever and it’ll be ok. Well the messed up diner still looks cool so I’ll keep it in. Hm yes I like the color red. I’ll put some red on it. OMG WHY IS THE RED SO STRONG THERE IS TOO MUCH RED THE ENTIRE PAINTING IS RED THIS IS A DISASTER! I guess I’ll neutralize some of the red and turn the rest into a forest. But it still looks so red and angry. I’m not this angry. I don’t want people to think I’m all emo and tortured because I accidentally used so much red. I’ll put some more green and blue in. There, that looks ok. But what the hell is this gaping black space in the corner? It looks like some swirling maw of hell. Goddammit this painting wants nothing but to be dark and emo. Fuck this I’m going to paint in a pack of corgis. Try and be emo now, motherfucker.
The End.
Clickers
Also, I took a picture of the corgis in detail with my cell phone, and the camera was on a weird setting which did this. Enjoy the ghost corgis as they come for your eyes, adorably.
This entire exercise has been an unending series of accidents. Yes, I am a simple beast with simple amusements.
Bloooooooms
Those flowers are kind of creepy. I bet they turn the hummingbirds into zombies. That would be a weird movie.
