Art School Semester 3 Reflection

As semester 1 comes to an end, I would describe it as growth and exploratory to a certain extent. At the start of the semester, my aim was to create a reflective, evaluative, and investigative analysis between art from cultures, artists, and other techniques that fascinate me. To accomplish this, I was to explore, experiment, and deepen my knowledge acquisition within the fields of printmaking, painting, photography, offcourse (Drop In), creative writing (theory), and other workshops. However, there were certain elements of this process that had made me learn how to grow and approach my study plan differently.

At first, I started off with doing research based work where I started to analyze and investigate artists and historical backgrounds that I would find interesting. Additionally, my themes in which I incorporate that knowledge acquisition into, were mostly fixed on expressing my journey as a deaf person as well as dance and Indian art. This eventually led me to an artist block where I felt that I was not accomplishing further progress and artwork development to the standards I hoped for. Furthermore, with the help of conversations with my mentors and a reflective thinking process, I learned that I needed to take a break from always planning my own work and having a controlling methodology when it comes to creating work. With this thought in mind, I focused on the present moment and observed my surroundings, my daily experiences, creative writing from theory, poetry, and creating new thoughts and imagery. Examples of these moments would include my love for autumn, nature, impact of water on my experience as a deaf person, quotes derived from daily walks, and much more. As a result, I created work influenced by these moments and memories with the aim of trusting the process and discovering the beauty behind the freestyle approach of making art. This was accomplished through applying my artistic knowledge to things around me and learning various technical ideas in printmaking. An example of printmaking would include how my prints went from expressing my quotes literally to creating new ideas just from experimenting with different mediums like modeling paste and new subject matters. This experience provided me insight by challenging myself to think creatively and critically observe the world around me at the present moment. Additionally it helped me to incorporate those thoughts into my own work by experimenting freely with materials or techniques I had never used before such as modeling paste or monoprint. Additionally, through this process, I was able to acquire new interesting techniques and analyze what they could represent. For instance, my installation of leaves and the leaves that were cut out were created with focus on observation and symbolism.

On the other hand, it may have led myself to more confusion and struggles to enjoy some part of my art making to a certain extent. In other words, I wanted to learn more and create a stability by having a balance between a planned research-based work vs just making art out of curiosity. Even though this step is still in its starting stages, I could feel its benefit in my own art making practice where making art freely can easily influence my planned work in a unique way. Additionally, it has helped me to explore, experiment, acquire knowledge, avoid being too controlled constantly, and just making art simply out of curiosity to develop new discoveries.

In addition to my new discoveries in my studio work, my experience in Drop In was eventful and encouraging. Initially, I was able to empathize with them due to my own experience of being deaf. This experience has allowed me to confirm that patience, trust, communication, inclusion, and acceptance is important to the child whether they have or not a disability. With my experiences, doing these things as well as interaction makes them feel appreciated and accept who they are as a person rather than for their disability.

As I approach the second semester, I want to continue to focus on trying to create a balance between an analytical research based art vs just making art out of observation and curiosity. With this I hope that it would help me explore more materials, expand ideas, and build new discoveries that could potentially influence my planned artworks. With my previous experiences, I will continue to keep an open-mind to learn what else could occur by doing this study approach and for any challenges or changes that come my way. Additionally, I want to continue to practice learning to create by critically and creatively observing the world around me during the present moment and memories. It has helped me create more ideas and keep building new discoveries simply by asking questions to my process and spark my creativity.