Semester 2

Arts TRYathlon #1: Choose Your Own Adventure

12 February 2024, Valentine's Day Card-Making hosted by Art Scholars Peer Mentors

#visualart #collage

In my social psychology course, we learned about a concept called social influence. Basically, in social situations, people are influenced by people around them and change their behavior accordingly. I felt uncomfortable when I was the only person at the event, unsure of whether or not I should stay. But then I remembered what I learned in social psychology, and decided to consciously stay and make the best out of the opportunity. I talked to my peer mentor, Anngelina, who made me feel more comfortable being there. Eventually, two other girls came who were lovely. I got so much inspiration from their Valentine’s Day card, which reminded me of something else that I learned in my art scholars workshop - the creative process. Inspiration is one of the first steps to creating a piece of art, and I find that I get a lot of inspiration from other people. Perhaps this concept of inspiration is related to the concept of conformity as a type of social influence. If someone is unable to come up with an idea of their own, they might get inspiration from another person’s work. Yet, this work also gives an idea of what the norm looks like, causing a change of behavior to match the norm in the same field. Therefore, there may have been both aspects of the creative process and social conformity when I used the other two girls' artwork as inspiration for my own.

Arts TRYathlon #2: Choose Your Own Adventure

29 February 2024, Potted Plant Painting hosted by RA Anisa

#functionalart #gardening

A text from the hall group chat about plants and painting are the only things that I need to throw on a pair of slippers and rush down stairs into the common room. While painting these potted plants, I talked to my peers and learned about some really interesting student-led groups at the University of Maryland, such as Technica. This little action of going downstairs to paint and relax triggered a whole chain of events that allowed me to meet some really amazing people. This concept reminds me of the plot pyramid - a structure of story telling that we learned about in my art scholars workshop on visual novel development. A story starts off with a slow climb - the rising action - until a character meets the turning point followed by a sudden falling action and resolution. I felt like my day on February 29th was the slow climb up, the regularness of going to my classes and studying and eating, with a turning point at going downstairs and the falling action as painting and forming new connections. As a resolution, I thought about who I would give the plant to, and reflected on the people closest to me. In the end, I decided to give the plant to my best friend and future roommate who can never keep a plant alive, which is perfect because the plant is fake. :)

Arts TRYathlon #3: Arts Scholars Event

1 March 2024, Craft & Chat: Diamond Painting hosted by TA Alyssa

#visualart

Placing individual diamond stickers for hours with little progress was both calming and tested my patience. TA Alyssa provided us with gorgeous empty diamond painting kits in the shape of mushrooms, moons, trees, and suns. I sat in the Bel Air Lounge for hours, watching people come and go, determined to finish my diamond painting. I did not. In fact, I didn't even get more than halfway done. The conversations I had with others while doing repetitive tasks became more and more surreal. We went from a discussion of the music we listened to to what our ideal government structures were to how we felt about highschool to silence. It reminded me, once again, of the plot triangle that we learned about in the video novel development art scholars workshop. Specifically, it reminded me of the slow climb of rising action, where we slowly learn about characters. In fantasy books, this could be world building. In history stories, this could be learning about the protagonist's place in their social structure. But for me, itI was sitting in a room full of people and learning about their past and future dreams, while the sun got lower in the sky and we were soon too tired to continue picking up little diamond stickers. Quite fun stuff.

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