Semester Reflections

Semester 1

After going through my first semester, I have concluded that I would not trade the experiences I’ve accumulated for anything in the world. I had so many expectations about living on campus and finally feeling a life filled with independence and responsibility, and everything met my expectations. The arts scholars program has been a wonderful thing. I thoroughly enjoy my time living in Bel Air and going to colloquium (even if the class starts at an absurd 5:30 pm, every obstacle can be passed eventually.)

 The colloquium classes have made me very reflective on everything regarding the arts, especially on why I do art myself. One of the questions that really stuck with me in class was the topic of, “What makes someone an artist?” Before discussing the question, I thought I already had the answer: an artist does art and is therefore highly praised for their art, they must be successful. I was wrong, however. My idea of an artist was based on the people I look up to in an artist’s world, it was completely blind to people who do art consistently and who are not at a level of celebrity or known the same way Picasso or Steinbeck are known. I believe I came up with the original assumption of what makes someone an artist due to my want to be known for the art I do, but because of the colloquium, my beliefs of what makes someone an artist have changed.

Every time I sit down with my guitar and play it now, and I feel like I can’t come up with anything original, I go back to my teachings in colloquium and become less frustrated with myself. I am still an artist even if I cannot come up with something every time I play and that’s okay with me. Because of the colloquium classes, I believe my patience and understanding of others have also further developed. Meeting people who are artists like myself but focus on other ways of art, I have been taught many things and have been inspired by the other people in my classes to exit out of my comfort zone and do something new. I like to use what they teach me in unfamiliar spaces and attempt to implement them into art that I  enjoy doing. For example, I was inspired to do an original piece of digital music because my friend Cameron introduced me to his love of House music, a genre I was completely unfamiliar with. My other friend, Rowan, talked to me about his favorite films and how atmosphere and tone in films are very important to him, so I attempted to implement a specific tone in the music I made for my wicked question project. All these influences were useful for me, not only for the short-term project, but for me as an artist long term, and there have been an abundant amount of experiences and learnings I have received from my first year of colloquium just like this one.