Back to School - the end of first semester

Classes are done for this semester!

I am so busy catching up for Christmas that I haven't had a chance to miss it much yet, although I felt a pang last week.
I am taking next semester off so had to go back and clean out my locker and collect my brain cells (unfortunately only felted ones - I could certainly use more of the real ones). This installation "Creative Thought" was for my fiber class. One of the great things about ACAD is that you are really encouraged to be creative and do things that you would not normally do, especially in first year. This project had to be large, soft, and site specific - the rest was up to us. The stair wells at ACAD are great venues for display from multiple perspectives and I wanted to experiment with more creative felting techniques - brain cells seemed like an appropriate choice. It turned out to be more challenging than I thought (stretching my brain so to speak). I think they will be in a show in the spring and then they will move out to the forest next to my home for a short "showing" - I suspect the squirrels will have a nesting frenzy.

I hoped to have some other "professional" pics to wrap up the semester - one of the benefits is access to a professional studio for photographing your art. Unfortunately my files have been misplaced in virtual reality so I'll have to share them later if I can find them, but here are some final bits.

One of the most fun ceramics classes was a group project. We were divided into teams of three with the challenge of creating the tallest yet handsomest thing we could with limited clay and 5 hours to do it in. I am proud to report that our structure was the tallest at just under 5 feet!

In our final ceramics project, we had to pick our favorite food and design a large serving piece with four individual plates. The design had to work conceptually and functionally with the food it would serve yet look nothing like a traditional serving piece. Free association: chocolate, brownies, fairy cakes ... enchanted forest!












This semester has been an amazing journey and I have learned so much. For those of you thinking about making the leap to art school I thought I would close with a few answers to questions that I have been asked.

Did I get as much out of it as I hoped? Absolutely - probably ten times more. So glad I did it.
Will I continue? For sure I will take more classes next fall. I'm still not sure about whether I will finish the degree although I would like to. So far I have not had to take any courses that seem like a poor use of my time and I'll keep going as long as that continues.
Would I recommend it to other more-than-mature students? Absolutely, but research it well first and go hang out at the school to feel what it is like - preferably take a credit course to get a sense of what to expect. There is a definitely more work than I expected and I am an academic nerd. I hope I don't overstate this next point, but be prepared to be a "stranger in a strange land" - there is some culture shock which will either leave you laughing, totally confused, or SHOCKED. Personally I loved 99% of it but I can see that it might not be for everyone. Some of the things to expect:

• You would think with technological advances that the administrative side of attending post-secondary would be easier - not so - I could go on for pages about frustrating administrative silliness (and have to the Powers That Be). 
• Remember how annoying it felt to be a teenager that nobody treated as an adult ... although now as adults we know why? Be prepared to be dealing with people and an organization that are used to dealing with teenagers - you should expect to be lumped in with them - it is no less frustrating now although strangely charming. 
• Be prepared for at least a little age awkwardness. Be comforted in knowing that there are a few of us out there as well as some "moderately" mature students. Age has never been very important to me and I didn't encounter any serious challenges, but I was often conscious of generational differences. I certainly learned a lot about myself and human nature in general. Most days I could forget about it or ignore it, but not always. General knowledge is obviously very different on both parts - I could get lost in conversations about current culture and yet found myself explaining things that I assumed were common knowledge. I had to wrestle with myself a few times to stay out of what seemed to me to be some pretty naive discussions - but they were ones that would ultimately benefit no one. Be prepared for shocking language to mean absolutely nothing to everyone else - with one exception, my choice was to ignore it. Be prepared to revisit youthful angst in general conversation and art and try hard to remember how important it was at that age. There is often an urge to shift into knowledgeable, experienced adult mode with information to share - I recommend trying to be very selective about when to do this. 
• Art sensibilities can be quite different and it can be hard to get your head around - I bet there is a Master's thesis in this. I am convinced that shock art and exposure to very graphic images have made younger students perceive things differently. I occasionally found components of some of the other students' work to be quite jarring whereas nobody else noticed. For example, what is with skulls? I do see their organic beauty, but they are everywhere and certainly don't have the dark meaning that I associate with them - they seem to be this generation's butterfly. And there is this strange nostalgia about the 60s and 70s and a tendency to use images and colors associated with those times to symbolize social conscience, rebellion, and an interest in changing the establishment. Very interesting and surprising for someone from that time, especially since the images are sometimes hardly recognizable to me. We had some very interesting class discussions that I think we all learned from.
• Essentially, if you really want to do it and are prepared to learn, adapt, and be open minded and flexible, there is nothing insurmountable and a lot to be gained - go for it.