Saturday Blog

I can't believe January is almost over! This second term is pretty much one third done, and there's still so much to do! I have multiple art projects to complete from now until April 1st, and I'm also coming up to midterm time. My last photo project was to take found and old pictures, and combine them with pictures I've taken to change the meaning. It was very interesting because I had used Photoshop a lot, but never in this context. Here is one of mine that I really liked:

I'm really looking forward to Reading week, which this year falls on the last week of February. I haven't been home since the 8th of January and might not be able to see my family until then. Plus, a break from all of these assignments is in order!

Last night, Paul and I met up in Toronto and went to the Royal Ontario Museum (Paul had never been before) to look at the dinosaurs, bat cave, wildlife and more. After that, we walked over to a fancy restaurant for our Winterlicious reservation. Winterlicious is a culinary and dining program across 150 Toronto restaurants offering fixed-price 3 course lunch and dinner menus. We went to a nice mediterranean restaurant and had a fun experience of fine dining.

Pictures!

So, today I was at Sheridan for my photography class and brought my camera with me. I quickly popped in the first and second year show to grab these pictures I had promised some time ago of my sculpture project:

This is not exactly how it looked during my critique of the project, but I think that this looks much better. In my critique, the phones were hanging over the emergency phone and hung by one single string to a wire hanging from the ceiling. I'm so sorry I don't have a picture of that to show, but this will do. I really like the simplicity of the phones' colour along with the colour of the walls, and how they are simply hung by one thumb tack on the wall.

Back into the Groove

It has taken me a while, but I am finally getting settled back in to the routine of being a university student. This semester is going to be a very busy one for me, with lots of artsy projects to think about and essays to write. Here are some things I am doing right now that I am excited about.

In my sculpture class, we are taking every day objects and making enlarged copies out of them using cardboard. The object I have chosen to enlarge is a can opener, and I am very excited to see how it will turn out. On another exciting note, my paper phone cast project was selected to be in this year's first and second year show, at Sheridan, and although I never received a picture of my final piece from critique, I will attempt to snap a picture of it in the gallery and upload it shortly.

In drawing, we are to make clay anatomical sculptures of body parts, and then we will make drawings based on our sculptures. Our body parts were picked at random with a game of darts on a skeleton projected onto the wall. I got the right forearm, and created a sculpture showing the muscles and veins under the skin. Here is a picture of my almost complete sculpture:

I was not very excited to start this project at all because I am by no means a biology or anatomy student and had absolutely no idea where to start. Once I had almost completed the sculpture, I started to get really excited about the possible compositions I could use with it. We are doing compositional studies on 6 small pieces of paper with ink, and then we will select a favourite to enlarge on a massive piece of paper. Last year in my painting class, we had to make sculptures and paint them on sheets of paper that were 4 x 5 feet, and although it was absolutely terrifying to work on such a large scale, I was very pleased with the result. Here is a picture of that painting from last year:

This blog turned out to be quite a bit longer than I expected, so I apologize for that, and I do hope you enjoy reading about what us artsies do at school! :)

My Favourite Things

"Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes."

It has finally happened - Mississauga has snow! It was blizzarding like crazy outside tonight while I was nice and warm inside. I love the snow. It is so pretty. I really don't like the cold, but it is a sacrifice I am definitely willing to make to witness the beautiful white blanket that covers the ground.

When I went home, all of the trees were snow tipped and frosty like in a miniature Christmas village. It made for some beautiful wintery pictures! I am not much of a landscape photographer, but I love the linear pattern of the trees' shadows on the white snow we saw on the snowshoeing trail this weekend.

1 Week Down... Many More to Go!

I have completed the first week of classes of 2011. They all seem good so far, and I am excited for this semester. I have my three studio classes that I had last semester (Drawing, Sculpture and Photography), and I also have three more classes, which are Canadian History, Art of the Earlier 20th Century and Activism in Visual and Media Culture.

I also had the pleasure of coming home again this weekend to spend it with my family and Paul before things get busy with schooling. I was also able to do a little bit of homework and take some more pictures I can hopefully add to my iStock portfolio. It's different this term because since Emma has a co-op job in the same town as my dad, she gets to be the only child for once and I'm the odd one out. I have to admit, I am a little jealous, but I know that I will be able to visit all three of them when I come home and will be able to see all three of them when they visit me!

2011

2011 is finally here. So far, it feels exactly the same as 2010, but I am optimistic that this year is going to be great. I had an amazing Christmas break with family and friends, and now I'm settling back into my house in Mississauga. I have a lot to look forward to this year. I'm so excited to finish up my second year of university and start on my third. I'm also anticipating that I will get my first cheque from iStockphoto and continue to expand my portfolio. Those are just a few off the top of my head, but I know there are lots more things to be happy about for 2011.

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And I'm sorry to anyone who has been keeping up with my 30 Day Challenge. I got a little busy and sidetracked on the last two days so I will quickly finish them up now.

Day 29 - A picture that can always make you smile

This picture makes me smile because it represents the only place I've ever lived where I've had an entire week off of school because of the insane winter weather. Being in the city during winter really makes me miss the snow.

Day 30 - A picture of something you miss

When I'm away at university, I definitely miss my family and Paul the most.

Day 28

A picture of something you're afraid of

I'm afraid of being alone. I like to surround myself with family and friends. When I'm alone I get really freaked out and don't like it.