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It's finished! This is my finished sculpture of a coral reef undergoing the bleaching process. This is what will be displayed at ArtsFest at Maryland Day. I also made a little storybook that tells the story of a coral being bleached.

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This is a low quality photo of a high quality time. Last night I took my little brother to go see The Addams Family- The Musical at his current high school/ my old high school. This was a show I had never seen before, so I did not have anything to compare it to other than the movies. I thought this show was very well done for a high school production, and the writing in this show is extremely clever. There are so many underlying jokes, some a little inappropriate, that make you laugh the entire time. I laughed out loud at some of the jokes because they were extremely funny. I have loved The Addams Family (do do do do *snap* *snap*) ever since I was little and thought Wednesday Addams was the funniest person ever. I’m really glad that this show lived up to my expectations and captured the essence of the Addams’ very well. 

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Yesterday, my mom and I went to the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC to see Yayoi Kusama’s  infinity mirrors display. It was AMAZING. The one you hear about that everyone goes to is called The Souls of Millions of Lightyears Away. This is the mirror room with hanging bulbs that make it seem like you are in space. In order to see this room, you have to stand in line for about an hour, but it is so worth it. The piece is breathtaking. You only get thirty seconds in the room, so it’s hard not to waste any second of it, which of course I did. I wanted a picture of it, but I feel like doing this took about five seconds away that I should’ve used to soak up the magnificence of the experience. There were other mirror rooms as well, but none as impressive as the souls one. I highly recommend seeing this if you can before it leaves the museum in May. 

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I finished assembling my coral reef sculpture last weekend! It turned out a lot better than I expected it to, which was a huge relief. This also means that I am right on track with my capstone timeline. I will be well prepared for Arts Fest on April 29th and for the Academic Showcase on May 4th. 

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Capstone Advising 2

In my advising meeting today, Kenna and I discussed my progress so far on my capstone. I am right on track with my timeline, and I have the whole sculpture assembled! We also discussed what to do before Arts Fest. I still need to finish the project and write an artist bio, which Kenna has offered to help with. I also need to assemble my physical process binder to be displayed with my project. We briefly discussed my academic poster draft as well. Kenna suggested making my language more concise so that there is less text and making the photo of my finished project larger so that it is a main focus point on the poster.

My next steps with my project are to paint the sculpture of my reef so that it looks like it is undergoing the bleaching process. I will be using acrylic paint that I have at home and sponges to do this. I would like to have the whole thing painted within the next two weeks so that I can just focus on presentation for Arts Fest after that. I also need to start working on my artist bio, which Kenna is going to provide information for. This keeps me on track with the timeline I set out for myself earlier in the project process.

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Capstone Peer Review

Q: What connections did you see between your project and the projects of those in your small group? What was the most helpful piece of feedback (or support) that you received? How will this help you proceed with your project?

While looking at the responses from other arts scholars in my group for this assignment, I noticed that I’m not the only one who is farther behind than they wanted to be. Not all of the people in my group were still at the beginning of their work though. Chyna has made great progress on her hand art, which was really inspiring to see. It motivated me to get more done on my sculpture over the spring break. Ideally, I wanted to be completely done assembling the coral reef, but I am about 75% done as of today. In the next week I will be 100% done assembling the reef, and then all I have to do is paint it and refine the presentation.

The most helpful piece of feedback I received was from Kaitlin. She mentioned thinking about specific types of corals, which was helpful while assembling the corals over this week. I thought about individual types of corals and how they should look and how they would look together on the same reef. I had to put more thought into composition than I was before. Composition is a really important part in my project because I really do not want it to look like a tacky arts and crafts project; I want it to evoke emotions and provoke thought. While completing the last of the reef assembly, I will be considering composition and seeing if I need to change anything to make the piece look more wholesome.

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@chynascpsarts   I am in love with your capstone project. I really like the meaning you find in people’s hands. In regards to your Arts Fest display, I think it would be more meaningful to have the actual paintings on display for people to take closer looks at. I think this allows viewers to kind of have their own journey while interpreting your artwork. If you have photos of close up intimate parts of your paintings instead of the real things, I think it can be limiting to the viewers own creation of meaning from your work. I think you could possibly do both if you want to challenge yourself to do both levels of painting and photography. Doing both would be very interesting because viewers could have their own journeys to create meaning and they can also see how you view the meaning in your work. Either way, I think that your project is a really great idea, and I’m very excited to see it. 

I’ve been trying to decide how I want to display my work at Arts Fest. I’m on the fence between having the works there or taking pictures of the works and having them printed to add a photography aspect which I’ve wanted to explore. I’ve shown in other posts snapshots of hands in whole paintings. I like the look of details of paintings and statues. I was thinking about adding that aspect in and showing details of my drawings and paintings. It’s also a way for me to get comfortable looking up close at my pieces. Usually I don’t like to get too close because I feel like it looks better from farther seats. However, when I took a snapshot of the hands in my self portrait oil painting I loved seeing the imperfections and brush strokes.

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@anjalircpsarts   I think this is a super cool idea. Making a comic book is a very interesting project. I really enjoy the skeleton people you illustrated above, especially the skeleton dog. He kind of reminds me of the dog from The Corpse Bride but a little different, and I like him a lot. I really like the concept of the living family finding themselves in the skeleton world while moving, I think it’s very unique. I was wondering if this project has a deeper meaning to you? Or if you have a personal connection to any of the characters or parts of the story? 

(ugly photos of ugly doodles !!)

This is me practicing some more, getting a feel for drawing. I’ll be drafting my comic book over my spring break (which starts now). That charming dude in the first photo is Steve, our main character. He and his family, who are moving away from their neighborhood, take a bit of a wrong turn and end up in a different world inhabited by skeleton people. The stories revolve around their new life in this strange little world. First photo also shows some of the work from the worldbuilding workshop I’m taking– the world I’m creating is where the comic will take place. Second photo, Steve’s wife. There’s also Steve’s son and his mom (the grandma with no chill). Names will happen soon, I promise. 

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@kaitlingcpsarts  This is such a cool project. At first, I had no idea what you were doing, but after reading through your capstone posts, I think that designing projections is such a cool, unique idea. This fire effect in particular looks really really cool. I think that this would apply very well to your story and your ideas for the projections. I also read your post about the story board you made, but some parts were a little hard to read. I thought you mentioned something about a cow? What is the cow’s purpose or meaning in your story for your projection? I think I understand most of your story, but the cow seemed to come out of nowhere. I’m sure you have an idea for this already, but it was a little hard to get it out of just your capstone Tumblr posts.

The link above shows how I will go about making the fire effect for the beginning. This is one of the parts that I’m really excited for, but also the part I feel could end the most poorly overall because fire can look very fake very easily. While what he shows will work well for the beginning of the fire coming into view, I will need to adjust the base of the fire for the later parts, so it can be large enough to basically engulf an entire corner of the wall. In addition, I’m going to try to make a bit of a longer loop to try to make it less noticeable.

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Stumped

I have discovered that halfway through the semester is when I really start to drag, both academically and creatively. I’m finding it harder than I thought it would be to finish my capstone project because I cannot motivate myself to do anything that isn’t due like the next day. It is kind of like writer’s block, but different. I’m really really trying to get over it though. Now that I’m on spring break, I have a lot to accomplish to get done on time. I think that I just need to push myself a little harder to start working on it. Hopefully once I do start working, it will be easier to make some progress. I think other art scholars are experiencing the same thing, but I don’t know. Hopefully it isn’t just me dragging and making slow progress. 

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After my catastrophe with the glue gun, I was able to finish building the base for my coral reef. I had originally imagined my base a little larger and not perfectly symmetrical. I wanted it to be slightly more organic so that it would seem like a natural formation in the ocean. However, I was limited to the shapes and sizes of floral foam I could find in my local Michael’s. I decided symmetrical was the best way to go with what I could find to make it visually appealing. Over spring break, I want to have all of my corals assembled on the base and, hopefully, have them all painted so that I can focus on fine tuning the appearance after spring break. The few corals you see on the table next to my base are made of coffee filters and cupcake wrappers. I have several of these that look like really cool ruffled corals. 

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CATASTROPHE! 

Catastrophe has struck. While hot gluing floral foam together to create a base for my coral reef sculpture, my baby hot glue gun broke. I was trying to glue relatively quickly and pushed on the trigger too harshly, causing to to make an awful cracking noise. The trigger stopped working altogether. I had to stop gluing and wait for my mother to bring me the full size glue gun from my grandparents’ house. 

This was a minor setback, but I am glad that it happened at home instead of at my dorm in College Park. I was able to get a replacement glue gun, which I would not have been able to do in College Park. After getting the new glue gun, I finished my coral reef base over the weekend, putting me right where I want to be in my capstone time line. Now, I just have to work on securing corals to the base and painting the reef to make it look partially bleached. 

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On Friday night, I went to see Ahamefule Oluo: Now I’m Fine with my boyfriend after seeing his performance at Scholars’ Concerts in Close Quarters event. This show was his full length comedic/musical performance. With all of his musical compositions, he told us the story behind them and what the music was representing in his life. This was really interesting because it helps you interpret the music before listening to it instead of creating your own interpretation while listening. Overall, I really enjoyed Ahamefule Oluo’s performance, but there were some parts that I did not enjoy as much. I thought that some of his jokes fell flat and just weren’t that funny. There were a few jokes that were just uncomfortable. I think I would’ve liked this performance more if it were more heavily centered on the musical aspect instead of the stand up comedy. 

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Last night, I went to the Concert in Close Quarters event hosted by scholars, featuring Ahamefule Oluo and Soulchilde. Their band Industrial Revelation was amazing. They play jazzy soulful music that really captures you. Every song took you an a journey from beginning to start. I am going to see their show at the Clarice as well to hear more of their content.

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Learning Agreement

My Mission: 

I want to create a sculpture of a coral reef undergoing the bleaching process to help spread awareness about the effects of climate change on underwater environments. This sculpture will be displayed at arts fest along with a brief description with some educational facts and a binder containing my process and more scientific information. I will be learning a new art form, sculpture, while simultaneously learning more about threats to coral reefs.

Objectives:

to learn sculpting using recycled materials

to be clear that the sculpture is intentionally made out of recycled materials, but not to be tacky

to present this sculpture at arts fest along with information about coral reef threats and my process binder

to be specific about ways that viewers can help to protect reefs from the effects of global warming, directly and indirectly

Process:

This project will be completed over the whole semester, and it will be finished in time to be displayed at arts fest on April 29th. By the end of February, all of my recycled materials will be collected, and most of my corals will be constructed.  These materials include packing peanuts, wire hangers, coffee filters, cupcake liners, Q-tips, plastic water bottles, plastic liter soda bottles, sticks, cardboard, and other miscellaneous items. By mid March, I will have a base constructed and will begin assembling the reef. By the end of March, the reef will be completed and mostly painted. Throughout April, I will refine my presentation including the reef, the description, and my process binder. 

Research:

I have done preliminary research about coral reefs and specific threats to them. This information is contained in a research paper that I wrote for my oceanography class, “Impact of Global Warming and Anthropogenic Activity on Coral Reefs.” In addition I have created a Pinterest board of different techniques used to make corals out of household objects. I am also drawing inspiration from a sculptor named Courtney Mattison who has created a series of sculptures of coral reefs that are means to spread awareness and influence lawmakers to take action to save the environment.  

Sources:

• My Pinterest Board- https://www.pinterest.com/deedeelishious/corals/ • The Green Museum- http://greenmuseum.org/archive_index.php • Recycled Art- http://www.recyclart.org/art/ • Courtney Mattison’s sculpture work- http://courtneymattison.com/ourchangingseas-iii/ • My research paper- “Impact of Global Warming and Anthropogenic Activity on Coral Reefs” (this paper uses several scientific papers and journals as sources within it) 

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Capstone Advising!

I met with my adviser, Kenna, on Friday to evaluate my progress and the future of my project. Kenna and I discussed the logistics of completing my project and the timeline. We discussed using different materials for corals, and she suggested the use of plastic bottles to build corals off of, which is a great idea. We also discussed flipping my original timeline. I am collecting materials and constructing corals before building a base because it will be easier to build a base once I have a better idea of the size and amount of corals I have. We also talked about presentation of information along with my project. She suggested producing information in layers so that viewers can look deeper at more detailed information if they want to, but also provide surface information for everyone to see. 

The next steps for my project are to collect more materials and build corals. Hopefully, this will be done by the end of February. I have some corals completed and painted, but I need to build more. I also need to start documenting at every step so that my finished process binder contains all of the information I want. This starts with documenting my advising appointment and progress so far. In the next month I also need to brainstorm ideas for base structures and materials that will best display my corals.

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This semester, I decided to join the UMD color guard. I did color guard all four years of high school, and I really missed performing when I no longer did color guard or theatre last year. Since joining, I have performed at every home football game, and have practiced everyday. I really love performing and color guard especially. It is so rewarding to be part of the Mighty Sound of Maryland, and it is super fun hearing the crowd cheer after you perform (especially pregame). Joining was a huge time commitment, and it proved to be a challenge to keep up with my academic work. I do not regret any of it though. It has been such a wonderful part of my college experience.