Final Reflection

Hi y'all.  I hope everyone has had a meaningful experience as a 2014 Summer Fellow.  My experience was pretty chill.  I helped out Shelley Spector for 2 months.  I assisted her in doing many simple things that she herself could do, but for the sake of time, I can replace her.  She would make the educated decisions in terms of her work and if something physical and minor had to be done, there I was.  She was very calm about everything she did, for she budgets her time well and is aware of when something needs to be done and how soon.  On top of being a full-time artist, Shelley is a mother and a wife.  She really balances it all out.  I do not know if I could have a family of my own and get really into my art. I think I would have to see where I go on my own while I am young and have the energy.  Sure I'll have a companion or something of the sort, maybe, but kids are just a whole realm I am not ready for.  My only offspring is my body of work, which I am still very much trying to render and define.  But Shelley is well into her adulthood, so whatever.
   I plan to continue helping Shelley out.  I think I will continue to learn from her and maybe even meet some nice people along the way.  I am also planning to intern at a local gallery, The Kugel Collaborative.  It is an art space provided by the Chabad organization of Uarts and surrounding Philly art schools.  All of the displayed work is created by Jewish students or graduates.  It is relatively new and we are trying to make it a dominant presence in the art community.  I have shown work there on occasion, and now I have the chance to have a part time position as a curator and gallery manager.  In the past we have only had the gallery open during receptions, because nobody really works there or anything; the Rabbi is a busy man and can not always be in there during the day.  But now if there are people who commit time to keeping the gallery open during daytime hours, who knows who could stumble on in and see the cool work that is exhibited.
I am really looking forward to the year to come.  I hope everyone has gained something from this and will proceed to prosper in the art community.

NCSU Learning Styles & Strategies Assessment

     I recently took the learning styles assessment on the provided link from North Carolina State University.  There are 4 categories of different scales. Active versus reflective learning; sensing versus intuitive learning; visual versus verbal learning; sequential versus global learning.
     My results show that I am both an active learner and a reflective learner. Active learning means that when I learn something new, I have to do a physical practice of this thing, draw it out, or tell someone about it, rather than just doing it.  Reflective learning is simply thinking about the newly learned skill.   This makes a lot of sense because while I tend to think a lot about doing something before I actually do it, once I actually do it, all of it clicks.
     I am more of an intuitive learner than a sensing learner, which means that I enjoy learning about possibilities and relationships more than concrete, factual things.  I like innovation more than repetition.  Hence, I want to do different things all the time.  The last thing I want to do is to work for the machine in a cubicle or something like that.  I want to do different projects and achieve different goals, all the time.  I want to travel and experience new, different cultures.
      On the scale between verbal and visual learning, I placed a 9 out of 11.  I am extremely visual, for if someone is lecturing, it would help if they had a picture to go along with it. This would explain why I do quite well in my art history classes. If I see something, I get it.

     Between sequential and global learning, I am sequential, meaning I learn better in small or individual learning levels, with steps on how to do something– as opposed to learning in large groups and getting the solution in unorthodox ways.  Although I sometimes, rarely, learn in a global manner, I am much more inclined to understand after rigorous explanation and visual aid, which includes looking at a list of steps.  Rarely will I present a solution without explaining myself.  This can be related to the art I produce.  The decisions I make are well thought out.  Sometimes it takes me a while to produce a solution, but when I do, it works.  And I am able to explain it when the time comes.

   

How have you observed your alumni host demonstrating leadership in his or her current position?

      Kay Healy demonstrates leadership in her work environment by having complete control of her studio space. She is dedicated to her work and I not only look up to her as an artist but a mentor. She is always open to ideas and will listen to what anyone has to say. The way she talks about her life experiences reassured me that I am doing what I love to do and headed in the right direction. The way she teaches and let's her interns and fellows learn form her is beneficial because she treats you with so much respect.   

· Describe a challenging situation you’ve experienced as a Summer Fellow. How did you handle it, and what did you learn in the process?

e   One of the most challenging things about working as a fellow was being a part of someone else's artwork and vision that wasn't my own. I enjoyed the new view on making because through school and my own experience it's always been about why am I doing X Y and Z, but as a fellow I did not have to pick my brain apart, all I had to do was think more about technique and the task at hand. That does not mean I did not have any moments where I thought or used skills that I have used in my own work. But overall that was one of the most challenging experiences to overcome.

f

What Art Sanctuary has taught me

With classes already started, summer  has finally ceased for us college students. However, my time outside of the studio was still filled with learning. My time at art Sanctuary has been an experience for since the beginning. Working with a group that is so involved with the community opened new perspectives as fair as art goes. Being opened to new art forms as well as ideas and inspirations, I met interesting professionals in their craft. They shared their advice as well as their stories and I learned about their journey. Through flexibility and professionalism, Art Sanctuary has shown me that while in the field of non-profit art organizations it takes both drive and patience to succeed. Holding this in mind, I hope to take the lessons I learned and move forward this year. It is great to know that even though this program has ended, I have been made a new addition to a great team

Things I mdae while at Art Sanctuary

While working in a non-profit art gallery, seeing how I am an illustrator, I was asked to assist any way I can artistically. While in preparation for CBW, i was assigned the task to produce some images for an ad space that they took out to promote the event.

Another Field trip with Art Sanctuary

Back when I first started in April, I attended Art Sanctuary during their month long even called the Celebration of Black Writing. Throughout the month of May there was some kind of influential event or gathering that Art Sanctuary participated in. At the Barnes Foundation, the executive director, Ms. Valerie Gay, hosted one of the Barne's podcast shows

Patterns, Patterns, Patterns

                                 

These are two of the patterns I made for Kay. The patterns will be printed on Tyvek and will serve as the "walls" of row homes. Using Kay's original line work, I arranged the patterns and colored them digitally. I had a lot of fun working on them and can't wait to see everything printed!

Farewell!

Well, The summer is coming to a close and sadly Machele and I have had our last day. I have to thank Machele for an amazing experience that has given me so much valuable information on what its like to be a designer. Seeing and being a part of the design process and building a brand has been incredible. Nothing compares to first hand experience and I had a summer filled with just that. The things I learned this summer I will carry with me not only into my junior year but also with me into the professional world. I cannot thank Machele enough for being such an awesome mentor and always making the projects about more than just churning out a product. She really took the time to explain and discuss things with me and gave value to my opinions as well. I also need to thank the Uarts Fellowship Program for giving me this opportunity. Have a great school year everyone!

Franklin Flea

This past Friday Machele and I came up with ideas for her display at the Franklin Flea. I came up with an idea to emphasize bookshelves by spray painting books in colors that would compliment each shelf. We chose colors that would bring out the color and detail on the shelf but not take away from them. This created a nice aesthetic for her display and gave it a nice cohesive look. Understanding how to display and present your work is important to understand as a designer. You can have the best products in the world but if you don't know how to present it well you wont get your point across to your buyer.    

Last Day...

Unfortunately, yesterday was my final day working and weaving with Myra. Throughout the Summer Fellows program, I have learned many things applicable to artistic style, as well as give some fresh insight to another artist. I see the importance of planning, as one little slip up may lead to a big mistake later on that may prove harder to fix. Patience will always be more rewarding than trying to push through a problem quickly. Reaching outside of normal practices can lead to unexpected, yet great results. Though I still feel I identify myself more so with two dimensional art, I have the utmost respect for those artists who work in the three dimensional world. Myra is obviously very skilled in her craft and I appreciate her taking the time to teach me how to weave and letting me into her studio.

Weaving... Grass!

Myra has had this old loom set up in her studio for quite sometime and the warp is rather broken and tattered; too much so to make a tapestry or rug on it anymore. She has had this vision to weave grass, reeds, and other plant material through the warp and create a sort of eco-friendly weaving. I was very excited to work under a new medium of grass as well as expand upon my knowledge of weaving. Unfortunately, due to time restrictions and warp length, I will not be able to see the finished product. But I was able to help get the project moving along and weave about 4 yards.

An idea of what Art Sanctuary is about

Art Sanctuary is located on 16th and Bainbridge right off of South Street. There's an open gallery that you can come see the featured artist's work as well as live performances every third Friday which is called Art Sanctuary Live. Here are some the policies and values that we uphold as a non-profit gallery:

Something New...

We started working on the 4-harness floor loom shortly after I was able to understand the basic weaving techniques. This is the type of loom a person would typically think of when they hear the word 'weaving'. Using an array of foot pedals and other various mechanics, the floor loom is basically a glorified frame loom, but much faster to weave on. We have started a simple scarf to get the hang of the new loom. Setting up, or as weavers call it, dressing the loom, can take up to 2 hours attaching the warp-almost as long as it will take to weave the entire scarf.

Finally Weaving!

After preparing the loom for a few days with the techniques of warping and twinning, I was finally able to start weaving my tapestry. Tapestries on this kind of loom are made of yarn and an array of different weaving techniques. Here is what I have started so far just doing a standard weave.

The basics of this type of weaving are simple: over and under. But the process of combing down what you have done must be executed in a particular manner to avoid letting the warp show through. If you pull too tight (like one might do whilst weaving clothing when the warp is meant to be exposed) then the tan threads would show through the pink yarn weaving. Also: the toilet paper is at the bottom to avoid cutting through woven parts, saving hours of work!

First Meeting...

With my first official meeting with Myra, I was able to actually get to work in her studio. We started warping frame looms, which, if you can picture it, is just strings making figure 8's through and around an empty wooden frame. Warping the loom is the process of making the figure 8's so that this threading may be used as the base for the actual yarn to be woven into. The cross in the figure 8 is crucial as it keeps the threads evenly spaced and untangled through the rest of the weaving process. Once the loom is warped, toilet paper is woven for a few inches at either end. The toilet paper leaves just enough room to cut the tapestry off the loom at the end without having to cut through the weaving and ruining hours of work. On top of each section of toilet paper, a couple strands of thread are braided and twisted around the warp to further space out each thread. Going into this, I was under the impression that the string was simply wrapped around the frame, and you were ready to start weaving. But, as you can see, there is much, much more in the process and following this process is what sets asides a simple weaving from a work of art.

Philly Phair

Hey guys! so last Sunday I helped Machele with her booth at Philly Phair. I helped her come up with a display arrangement and helped set it up. While selling products was obviously a desired outcome of the trip the main reason was to get her brand out there and generate internist. Machele wanted use this booth as a chance to get a sense of her target audience and ask her customer questions. We did this by asking those who visited her booth to complete a short survey that asked what they thought about the products. To get an idea of the type of market she was aiming towards with her products the survey included questions on what occupation and interest the participant had. Here are some pictures of the booth!

Museum Trips with Art Sanctuary

As the summer went on we started taking on high school interns. During the week they are involved in small learning plans during the day. this time around they went to The Philadelphia Museum of Art to follow up on a previous lesson. Here are some pictures from the trip

Meeting Myra Reichel

At the start of working with my Alumni artist, Myra Reichel, I was a little unsure exactly of the type of work that she was in. Myra is a weaver and works particularly making tapestries, but I had only seen a few of her pieces online. After visiting her home and office, both of which she runs her studio out of, I saw that she has done more than I thought. From simple to complex, Myra has rugs and tapestries and even clothing around her house and office that she herself has wove. Being a photographer and mainly working in two dimensional art, I wanted to step outside my comfort zone and get hands on with some three dimensional work. I used to take a sewing class in middle school and I loved it, so I thought I would try my hand at weaving. Throughout my time with Myra, I will be learning to warp and weave a loom on my own, set up a large floor loom, and accurately learn weaving techniques form someone who has been in the business for over 25 years.

Postcards!

These chairs are the postcards that will promote Kay's installation! They were first printed on a standard postcard, but then were laser cut at the Imaging Lab. Here I am tracing the silhouette of the chair with the pen tool in Illustrator. The path was later used to guide the laser.