The week after spring break feels kind of strange in Arizona.  It’s cold in the mornings, hot in the afternoons, there isn’t any home work due, no tests to study for, and everyone just got back from a good week off.

Spring in Arizona means that it’s like 55F (12.8C) in the morning, and 85F (29.4C) in the afternoons.  It’s hard to judge what to set the thermostat at.  So, because UofA isn’t organized enough to keep the temperature in all of its buildings consistent, some buildings have the heater on still, and others have the air conditioning turned on.  The least the administrators could do is keep it consistent.  

The lecture hall that my psychology class is in has the heat on still.  My professor (a doctor in her 40’s) came in from a building that has the air conditioning on––she was wearing a sweater.

“Whew!  It’s hot in here!”  She tugged her sweater over her head.  Now, if you have a room of 500 undergrads who just got back from spring break in Mexico, you can guess what is about to happen next.

“Take it all off!” Multiple people yelled.  

Dr. Bedford snickered into the microphone.  ”I haven’t shown those off for quite some time.”

The boy sitting to my left nudged me.  ”Ironic, considering she was just lecturing about social awkwardness.”   

This was taken in my 3-D studio class. We cut the foam into smaller squares, layered them, and glued them together. Now we are working on carving the foam into something that’s recognizable.

I have taken a camera into all of my classes, and no one has ever said any negative comments about it. I’ve found that my professors think that it’s a little strange at first, but once they are in the passionate parts of their lecture, they become oblivious to the camera.

My drawing teacher encourages the use of the camera in the classroom. A lot of our still life drawings take 9-15 hours to complete, and we’re only in the classroom with the real still life objects set up for three of those hours. So, you know, the drawings need to be finished outside of class, and it’s hard to get everything exactly correct from memory alone. Additionally, the camera is extremely useful for converting three-dimensional objects onto a two-dimensional plane. For me, a student taking her first ever drawing class, it is mentally exhausting to look at the three-dimensional world and try to replicate it in two dimensions. It’s something that takes time, practice, and experience, but a digital camera is little guide to give a push in the right direction.

Photo Set: Big Blue Foam Project

The next English paper that will be turned in (five weeks from now) is to be written using a technique called Mystory. This technique was first created by Gregory Ulmer, a professor at the University of Florida Basically, it combines several different topics and looks at each topic through the lens of the other topics.

My professor requires my class to have 5 topics, a few of which are pre-selected.

1. Future career: Graphic Designer / Print & Layout
2. An idea from the book Escapism by Yi Fu Tuan
3. A narrative to respond to
4. Option: Photography
5. Option: Visual appeal and the flow of font

This might get hairy.

In my 2-Dimensional Studies class, our current project is a twelve panel collage. Each panel is 5 x 7.5″, and all of the panels have to reflect a common theme. My theme is “Urbanization.”

My professor said that we can do the collage by hand or on the computer, so I jumped at the chance to use Photoshop and Illustrator. It takes me five times as long as a lot of good photoshoppers, but I’m not going to complain– it’s a learning experience. I have never really used Illustrator before, so after creating only a couple of the panels, I’ve already tripled my knowledge of the program. Handy!

I think that my art classes are just as difficult as other classes, but in a different way. Forcing out creativity for so many hours every day, all week long, is exhausting. Also, art, unlike research papers, can not be slapped together the night before it is due. It is very time-costly.

Update

View all of the panels here.

I tumbled into the art room, panting and stomping. A lady, who acted like a professor, looked down her nose at me.

“Art 101?” She asked.

“Yes!” I answered, a little too enthusiastically. The lady went back to her reading.

People were seated in a circle on the floor. A couple people sat in the few available chairs. I flopped down almost on top of a boy sitting zen-like. His eyes were closed, but he was peeking at me out of the cracks.

A girl rocked back and forth, holding her knees and making fish faces with her lips.  She seemed as though she was completely unaware that doing that looked “weird”.

A few minutes past the hour, the instructor began to call roll.  All 20 people who were supposed to be in the class had showed up.  There were no open seats.

“I’m very sorry that everyone who was hoping to get in is unable to do so.  You should leave now, because there is no point in sticking around.”

More than half the people in the room got up and left.  Those who remained were weird.  One boy followed an imaginary light with his eyes.  The fish-face girl continued to make fish faces as the instructor read through her syllabus.  Another girl concentrated very hard on her wandering fingers; her hands chased each other as though they had independent brains of their own.

The instructor droned on, “One of life’s little ironies is that art supplies cost a small fortune, and artists are usually poor…”

After class I called my mom and told her about all of the weird people in my class.  She said, “I think you’ll find more and more of that, the deeper you dig in the art world.  Those artsy types could really care less about what the world has to say of their actions.  In a way, they’re kind of like homeschooled kids.”

Homeschooled kids?  Now this is something I can identify with!