Semester Reflections

Semester 4

Looking back on my past reflections, I'm grateful to have been able to write and journal my beginning experiences in college. I feel they demonstrate a more personal form of communication, allowing me to express myself more structurally. Two ways my art has been inspired throughout my art scholar's experience are as follows: the Clarice "field trip" I went on, which played jazz music, really inspired me. In that crowd, I was able to zone in and see the passion each member put into the craft. I was able to see them tap into a zone I've never seen so close up. Another example of my art was inspired by the workshop I took part in this semester. It was the scrapbooking workshop, and there we learned many techniques and methods of tackling collage art.

 When first conceptualizing my capstone, I was heavily inspired by rap music as a whole. It helped that many people in the art scholars were interested in that kind of music, and that I could discuss with them my thoughts on who I should pick to represent my main idea. What pushed me to make my capstone heavily rap music themed was thanks to the playlisting workshop I attended in my first year as a scholar. That workshop taught about how music affects how we feel, and just made me more aware of the thought that goes into something as simple as a music playlist or album.

Thanks to the capstone project, I was exposed to many different types of art and project types. Some people were making quilts, others paintings, and even books! As a whole, the art scholars helped me be more open to accepting how art can change depending on someone's personal experience. 

Thinking back to the CPSA250 class, my group had people developing vastly different capstones. One of my friends made a project mixing a concept and poems, another made a project comparing a bug's evolution to a human's growth. By critiquing and helping them come to finalize their projects, it helped me want to diversify the understanding of my own project, while also growing it in places that I felt were lacking.

The art scholars gave me a small taste of what my artistic future may hold. It put me in an environment with people whom at first I didn't know, who all have their own unique perspectives and thoughts. Despite that, being able to critique each other, and ultimately come together to put up a huge public exhibit. It tells me that strangers with a drive, all chasing the same thing, can effectively work together with the passion they hold for art.