April 1st!

April first is finally here which means it is the last month of this semester! It's always some what a bittersweet feeling when it's the end of the semester, specially when I'm taking classes I enjoy. But mostly it's a sweet feeling because it's another semester done, more credits added, and that feeling of a successful semester. In my print making class we are down to our LAST project. This is one of the classes that will be a bitter ending because I'll miss Professor Francis as it's his last semester teaching and this class was an overall joy to be in as there was so much freedom to create what we wanted. If I end up taking intermediate print making in the future, it wont be the same without him.

Anyway, here is an update of my latest linoleum cut print. We had to add color to this piece so I did one with color and one without. I'm really proud of this piece because a lot of my classmates focus on details in their pieces and I was inspired to incorporate detail into this piece because of them. Although it was extreeeeemely time consuming, (3 hours alone just for the tail) the feedback I got on critique day made it worth it. In addition to the overall end product! I'm in love.
 The pictures read from left to right show the design on tracing paper, the design transferred on the linoleum, a close up photo of the details being cut, the end product of the design being fully cut on the linoleum and then the final print in color and in black and white.

 

Good morning! Welcome to Genna's morning routine!

1. Sleep and cry when the alarm clock goes off. 

2. Don't look outside the window because you will cry more once you realize how beautiful it is and you cannot enjoy it. 

3. Sit up in bed

4. Grab computer that is placed on the edge of bed. 

5. Still sitting on the bed, turn on the computer

6. Write. 

I seriously do not have a life and until the end of April will I have one. The first day of spring has passed and every day since has been B.E.A.UUUUUUUtiful! But not one day have I enjoyed.. Last week I finished an 8 page paper and almost immediately I had to start writing a 5 page paper. And, LITERALLY IMMEDIATELY I have to begin a 10 page paper after this 5 page one.... 

Icanteven. 

Art is Life

Browsing through pieces of art from some of my favorite artists while I take a break from studying and I ran into this piece with a quote from Basquiat. To say he hit the nail on the head is an understatement. But I CAN say he took the words right out of my mouth. Studying Art is an opportunity I am beyond grateful for but sometimes while I am in class it's a struggle for me. And this piece completely captures the reason why. When you study art, they teach you the technical side, the proportion, scale, space, contour line, 2D, 3D, etc. All of these things are beneficial to learn and can expand your skills with practice, but at the end of the day I just DO art. I don't think of the things I learned because it's not how I learned to do art in the first place. I just picked up a pencil and drew what I saw and practiced. When I do art, I don't think about the technical side, I think of life and before I know it I have a piece of art. I have theories, I have ideas and have my own opinion on what objects and people and everything in between mean to ME and what they represent to ME.  I don't believe there's a a way to learn art. Everyone has their own style, if they want to learn they need to practice. No one can tell you your art is good or bad because it's yours. When I get my pieces graded in class, I'm not graded on what my art is, I'm graded on the technical side of it. Again, learning the technical side to art is something I am grateful for and may enhance my skills, but at the end of the day it's not how I make art. Life is how I make art. 

Back to the Grind....

Thinking 5 days of spring break would satisfy my need for a "break" was not enough. I had spent my spring break in Tampa/Clearwater and although I didn't get to do everything on my list of things to do, I still managed to do a lot and see a lot of friends.When I arrived on Sunday, my boyfriend Corey and I painted a collaboration (still unfinished). Monday I was blessed with the worst sunburn of my life and it literally lasted until Thursday! Tuesday I went to Mardi Gras in a little town near my hometown called Dunedin with Corey and my friend Franceska and it was my first Mardi Gras being legal --- Needless to say, it was a great time. From the tricks we learned on how to get free beer, running into millions of old friends, to when we left to go to a bar called Eddies and we met a guy named Freddy who generously and I'm thinking drunkenly paid for every drink we drank. Wednesday was spent eating delicious sushi and catching up with my good friend Carly. Thursday strolled around way too quickly as it was my last full day home and ended with a wonderful dinner out with my family and Corey.

I wish I could re-do the entire week but it's back to the grind and I am now currently staring at my calendar with how many weeks are left of this semester and the end is approaching quickly! These coming weeks will consist of me being a hermit, knocking out papers on top of papers and assignments on top of assignments. Ready to get it doneeeee!

 

Home at last: Spring Break!

No better way to start it off than getting possibly the worst sunburn of my life! Weeee!

UCF Library Struggles: A list of 3 downfalls when trying to find a place to study.

 Recently (and suddenly), I find myself in the middle of midterms week. Totally passed me by until I realized, "WHY ARE THERE SO MANY TESTS AND ASSIGNMENTS DUE THIS WEEK?!" --- As a result of beautiful, non-stressful, non-exhausting, non-brain frying midterms week (HAH!) I find myself in the library on campus a lot. Practically living there even, which I'm sure everyone else is too because it's strange seeing familiar faces on the same floor that I've been studying on for the past week. Now, studying at the library has its perks and several downfalls I think we all encounter.

Or maybe I'm the only one...

So here's a list of 3 downfalls when trying to find a place to study in the UCF library:

1. Finding a place to study
- Depending on the time you go, this is LITERALLY as much of a hard task as finding a parking spot in any garage on campus during the times of 10AM-1PM. Several times I have spent a good 20 minutes walking around the library on every floor, searching every corner for a table to study at.  Meanwhile, I'm being watched by groups of people that are already sitting at tables and I can hear them in their heads like, "Sucks to suuuuuuck".

2. Once you've found a place to study
- Now, I've learned two things about the type of table you end up with or choose to study at and I learned them the hard way. There's a variation of places to study in the library from couches, large tables and "cubbies". Cubbies are great, and even a little private, but beware of the cubbies that are NO WHERE near an outlet and then you're on the hunt for a new table all over again. As for the large tables, bring a group. If you're alone at a large table, you WILL be asked by another person if they can share it with you and POTENTIALLY BRING THEIR ENTIRE GROUP TO TAKE OVER THE TABLE. As for a couch, I would never sit at a couch. I need a table, not my lap.

3. "Do not leave your items unattended"
- My favorite sign in the library, reminding me that once I have finally settled down at a table, I'm trapped there. I can't leave. And that coffee I just ordered a couple hours ago is empty and now my bladder is crying to be relieved and I'm looking around the library like, "Who can I ask to watch my things as I go to the bathroom?". In the end, I'm still sitting at the table, still thinking about how badly I have to pee but not bad enough to leave my things because of that damn sign.

Trial and Error

Last week in my Printmaking class, I created this bad boy out of a mental zinc plate! Definitely a piece I'm proud of as I've never worked with a mental zinc plate before and probably wont ever get the chance to again as the process is definitely tedious and requires tools that I will most likely never own or get my hands on.

The next printmaking project due is to incorporate color into our prints. We had the choice to either make an entire new print or use a print we had already made. I had gotten a lot of good feedback from my classmates about my octopus piece so I decided I'd add color to him... Unfortunately, the process was 4 hours of trial and error and I ended up with not ONE good piece! (Definitely upset as a classmate came up to me and offered to buy a print after it was colored...) Guess I'll have to work with color on my other print and hope it comes out better than my poor octopus.