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I lucked out this semester. I only have classes Monday-Wed and get Thursday and Friday off. Actually, it sounds a lot cooler than it is because on Mondays and Tuesdays my day starts @ 8am and goes straight until 10 pm. My Wednesdays are a lot better because it starts @ 10am goes straight until 5 but you could imagine how pooped out I am by evening.

So here I am, @ work on Thursday. I'm physically tired but mentally and emotionally alert and excited because I'm done with classes for the rest of the week.

Oh right! I'm right now looking at the title of this blog and realizing how much I've digressed from what I actually wanted to write about.

Because I'm finally an upperclassman, I finally got my very own studio space from the illustration department. If I were to bring you there, (and you know I would especially since I'm a tour guide), you'd probably think it's a ghetto wreck. But you don't understand, it's my ghetto wreck and that's what makes it more special. Maybe it's because I become intimidated by sterile rooms and workplaces (kinda like the apple stores) but the ruggedness of the room gives me more freedom to experiment and make mistakes. The mess that the past students left are now engraved memories of their baby steps to becoming an artist. It's pretty cool if you think about. I have about 30 mins until I get out of work. I'll probably go to my studio.

Work It!

It's already the second week of classes but I still feel like I'm not settled in yet. Fortunately, the weather has been great and my classes are really fun. I was pretty nervous about this year before I actually moved in. I knew that classes were going to be much more challenging than last year and that competition was going to rise within my illustration department. I started to fear all the potential failures and sleepless nights I was going to go through this year. I don't know why I worry about stupid things like this especially when the semester barely started.

My cowardly attitude changed after going to my evening illustration class last night. I'm currently taking this class called New Directions where we study and create contemporary work through non-traditional medias such as wood, clay, collages, etc. During the class, my professor showed us a children's book that he was currently working on. Unlike his other books, he used a different method and technique for this book. Surprisingly, he told us how his editor (or was it art director) did not like his approach. For the first time in my life, I saw my professor for who he really was; he was just a working illustrator like the rest of us. He showed us all the tedious and painstaking steps attempts he took in order to fix his mistakes. Unfortunately, the book publishers still didn't like the end results. It was weird to see such an award-winning, well known artist/professor struggle so much with a simple book assignment. What really astonished me was when my professor said that he really enjoyed the struggles that he went through.

I have forgotten how much I love art and the process of striving to make art work. What I realized is that you need to constantly work without thinking about the end result. Though it is equally important for the result to be good, it all starts from the process of WORKING.



Okay gotta get back to work.

peace.

Good Day, Sunshine

It's been bea-u-ti-FUL for a past week or two here at Syracuse. The temperature has ranged from around 67-80 degrees and hasn't been humid at all. It's so nice to just lay outside in the quad and not think about final projects and exams. It's almost like meditating- clearing everything out of your mind and taking a breather. Now that I think about it, this past winter was fairly a warm one. We didn't get a tremendous amount of snow or had that bad of wind chills. This winter was kind of like winter back at home- home for me is Long Island by the way. I don't know if I'm just being positive because the semester is coming to an end but I really, really loved my sophmore year. I loved all the classes I took, the illustration professors I met, the new friends I made, the WEATHER of course (especially now), and even the struggles I went through. Syracuse is definately my second home and has become a great comfort zone. Though it is comfortable here, I still feel like there are many new things to discover and and new paths to take. In terms of my career, I still don't know what I want to become but I think taking many classes according to my major gave me a certain path to follow. At least, now I know what direction I'm walking towards. Even though I'm super happy and positive now, I'm sure that I'm going to go back to my dorm and cry over the million artwork that must be completed in the next week and a half. But "s`all good"... the extra stretch is always the hardest but the most memorable part of the semester. I decided that I'm going to enjoy the next two final weeks.

Art is Not "Easy."

Many people get the misconception that visual art and design is really easy and doesn't require a lot work or thinking. Yes, it's true that you can listen to music while you paint where as you cannot when you read 50 pages from a textbook, but I believe that the level of work and intensity is just about the same. I know this for a fact because I take as many academic courses as art courses. It doesn't matter what your major is or how you challenge yourself; as long as you're getting challenged and solving a problem in order to comprehend something, you are learning. I think that a student has the power to bring meaning into that major or class.
Before I digress, let me explain why art is not easy. If you read my previous entries, you would recognize that I am an illustration major. Underneath the brilliant layers of acryllic and oil paint, there is a thicker underpainting of information and research. Though many illustrations consist of many unproportional, extra exaggerated caricatures and funky galores, it is VERY important that they still have the universal theme of what objects should appear as. For example, when exaggerating a face, you still have to know the bone structures beneath the skin because people still need to be able to recognize what works in real life. My art teacher in high school once told me the cliche saying, "in order to break the rules, you must know the rules." I believe that this is true because if there weren't any basic structure or formula to something, there would be no point in making a statement at all. Hence, researching movement, anatomy, environment and other means of nature is very important when creating art.
Last week my professor told me that physically making the art takes a very small amount of time compared to the time that is invested in reaching and planning out how it will work. He had been working on an artwork with animals for a month however, he spent 3-4 weeks on just studying the movement and habitat of animals and just about a day to actually paint it.
Because illustrators are time efficient and have to do many projects at the same time, it is a big deal when an artwork require a lot of time and effort. If you calculate everything, we really don't have enough time and have to constantly be working. I don't know about you but I really don't think that art is easy at all. But because I am an artist, I have the responsibility to keep creating something new. As long as my effort has great results and enough impact to stir other people, I think that time, money and energy are all worth the anticipation and struggle in the end.

Sara Bareilles

This past friday, Orange Night Live (ONL), a community that holds free live performing concerts for students, had a free Sara Bareilles concert at our Student Schine center. I fell in LOVE with Sara Bareilles's album last summer but her live performance made her cd sound like chicken scratch. Her voice dominated the whole auditorium. Not only was her voice beautiful but she had a strong personality. She said that we were the second university that she's visited. She was hilarious and improvised jokes as the crowd shouted great comments about her voice. She was very passionate and looked like she was just having fun as she sang.

This sort of made me think about the illustration department in our university. I'm really blessed and thankful to have a great department to work in. The reason why the illustration department is so great is because the professors are very happy when they do their work and the students really learn from that. When you walk into the junior and senior studios, everyone is very enthusiastic while they do their work. It's a really fun atmosphere to be in.

Anyway, although I didn't get a lot of work done this weekend, I had a lot of fun thus I have no regrets.

What do you mean what are my plans for the summer?!

If you think that you're on top of your work, you are "oh-so-very" wrong. Actually, I apologize for assuming that everyone is lazy as I am. I just tend to be behind things once in a while. I didn't really think about my summer plans until this spring break. Maybe it's because I was too busy with my school assignments and whatnot but I never really thought about my summer plans. Originally, this summer I was going to take a class with one of my favorite professors in our study abroad programs at Florence. Working with my professor was my primary reason to go away this summer. Though I was pretty settled with this plan, I was still had interest in interning. Little did I know, last week my professor announced that he cancelled his study abroad class. After this declaration, I lost interest in going away this summer. I realized that I was more interested in exploring internships related to my future career while being with my close friends back at home.

So... I started my real research for internships this past weekend. Let me just tell you right now that there won't be much left to be researched by the third week of March. My advice to you is, whether you have high interest or little interest in something, go for it. My mistake was not applying for many internships while applying for the study abroad program. In present time, it always seems to be too busy to plan for the future but in the bigger picture, the future is just as or even more important than the present. By this, I do not mean that whatever you do now is not important. If anything I advocate you to worry more about whatever you do now than something that hasn't happened yet. My point basically is to not take the future so lightly especially in a fast paced world because the future is just a day ahead.

To whom this may concern

My name is Gina and I am a sophomore at Syracuse University. I am majoring in illustration and minoring in psychology. Currently my home is in Jericho, New York (which is located in Long Island) but plan to live in NYC after I graduate. Many ask me why I chose to come to Syracuse and my answer has always been because there are many opportunities to experiment and experience here. Though college pressures us to get good grades and pursue a high-end money making job, college is really about making mistakes and trying new things. I've been here for barely two years but I've already tried many things that I never would have. I was fortunate enough to get opportunities to try competitive ballroom dances, attend Juice Jam events, cheer from the floor seats of basketball and football games, dance at concerts and many more. I think it's very important that art students expose themselves to a city-like campus filled with different people with different majors.
How I decided to be an illustration major is actually kind of funny. Exactly a year ago, I hated illustration or just the concept of illustrating. I was infused by the stereotype that all illustrators are old fashioned children's book artists with no avant-garde set of mind. On March 7th last year (yes, I remember the date because it is my birthday), all the Visual Art majors had to go to a forum where all the majors and professors were introduced before students made final declarations of their majors. I was BLOWN away by what the illustration professors had prepared for us. There were so many things that I didn't know about illustration. Because the University exposed me to different options, I was able to wisely chose what fit for me. I love illustration and I don't regret picking it as my major. I also enjoy studying psychology and the way people think in a deeper perspective. I feel like art and the science of behavior go hand in hand because in order to create something, one must know different aspects of the world.


Anyway, I can rant on and on about art but I'll restrain myself and get to the point. As a human being in a competitive and changing society, I ENCOURAGE YOU to let go of everything you know and make yourself vulnerable in an environment with many opportunities and choices. I think Syracuse University really advocates these ideas.

Take a chance and try something new today.


-g