Final Project- Theory of Me (10/12/17)

The final project was a prompt to understand you place in the world and to create a project about ourselves.

I decided to draw from my experience with the installation. I really enjoyed that project and experience. I took my own spin on it and created a playlist of songs I really enjoy. While listening to the playlist of 15 songs I made a picture for reach of them. I thought it would be interesting to see what I would create based on some of my favorite music.

Here is the playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/user/alyssafiumara/playlist/2AfaFn3rT5V19nnlWIeDWQ

The picture of my project:



I asked my classmates the questions:
1) Should I have changed my final project idea?
2) What do you like and dislike about my piece?
3) How does color effect my piece?
4) What piece speaks to you the most?
5) At first glance, what genre would you guess each painting is?


My classmates had to respond to my questions overnight. Here are some responses:

1) Should I have changed my final project idea?    No.
2) What do you like and dislike about my piece?   love the concept
3) How does color effect my piece?   sets the mood
4) What piece speaks to you the most?   second row far right
5) At first glance, what genre would you guess each painting is?   pop?

1) Should I have changed my final project idea? no
2) What do you like and dislike about my piece? I like that the art gets more detailed toward the bottom.
3) How does color effect my piece? color helps convey feeling 
4) What piece speaks to you the most? purple and blue zigzags makes me think of haziness
5) At first glance, what genre would you guess each painting is? a representation of a feeling

1) Should I have changed my final project idea? No, sometimes more pieces are better than 1
2) What do you like and dislike about my piece? I love the bottom flower, maybe the same amount of detail is needed in other parts 
3) How does color effect my piece? Each piece drags you through a set of emotions
4) What piece speaks to you the most? The flower piece
5) At first glance, what genre would you guess each painting is? Genre? They make more of an emotion that a genre. 

Neon Studio and Glass Demonstration (10/6/17)

The neon and glass studios were amazing. It really made me want to take some of those classes during my time at Alfred. I thought being able to do that as a freshman foundations student was very unique and will definitely make more of us interested in taking those classes. I loved the demonstrations.

Daily Practice (10/6/17)

Going Home:

Going home this weekend was very important for me. I hadn't been home in a month and a half which is the longest amount of time I've ever been away from home. I was so overjoyed to go home that when I walked in the door I immediately started to cry. I cried for a good 20 minutes before I stopped and just laid on my couch contently.

Being in surroundings that are super familiar is so comforting. I forgot how the material of my couch felt against my skin, and the way the sun feels pouring through the windows. I missed being kiss attacked by my puppy and hugged by my brother. I hadn't see my brother since move in day.

I kept thinking about the senses we learned about in class and applying them to my weekend. It was interesting to apply things we learned in class to my weekend.

Studio Research 9/30/17 // Glass Casting 10/5/17

Today in class we had an experience using food. We entered class and picked a place to sit. We were then prompted to chose a spot to sit. After we picked a place to sit we were allowed to pick one big plate, one small bowl or plate, a fork or spoon and a napkin. When we chose those items we then had to trace our objects onto the paper that covered the table. Next we were told to go get coffee or orange juice and mingle with out classmates. After some preparation our professors brought us back to spots in pairs. Our spots were not the ones of our original choosing. Instead we were placed in someone else place. This was interesting because it wasn't anything any of us were expecting. We thought we would all be put back in our spots. After that we ate out food which was really good. We got into some nice conversation. Our professors then told us we has to stand up and sit down for every 5 chews while we were eating. It made us more aware of the action of chewing. This also correlates with another thing we did during the class. We all had one orange slice and we had to chew it for 5 minutes. This caused all of us to have different outcomes. Some chewed it too earl, some were so slow that they didn't even chew the whole slice.  Next we were told to keep our trash and make sculptures out of it. Each time we were prompted to make them smaller and smaller and make sketches. Then we were told to start collaborating with my partner and were told that the materials left were going to be used to create a project we would cast in glass. I was really excited to see what we would create.

My partner Kayleah and I met up to create our project. We decided to take a bowl and create little utensils to put around the outside and put spirals on the top. We knew that the piece was gonna burn but we didn't care because we knew this whole experience was an experiment.

Glass Casting-

Glass casting was such a cool experience. I really appreciated the fact that our foundations class got to have this experience because I've been told many times that freshman don't get to do this. It was very anxiety inducing being around all of the hot materials but it was also very awesome. I loved taking our piece and putting glass on it. It went up in flames to start but it calmed down and we added some spirals on top.

We got the casts back today (10/12/17) and they turned out so cool! I really liked how the bubbles formed in it and the way the spirals fell. We talked about our pieces in class today as well and wrote about them in our sketchbooks.

Daily Practice 9/29/17

My daily practice for this week was about starting new friendships and maintaining old ones. Throughout the week I made a conscious effort to try and make friends. I also spent a lot of time communicating with my friends from home because I haven't had a lot of time to dedicate to contacting them.

I feel like keeping in contact with those close to you is very important even though at times it can be very difficult. I feel like I have been lacking the ability to contact my friends and family since coming to school. It makes me feel really distant which I don't like. I have group chat with my sister and mom which helps us quickly message each other little tidbits of information.

I have also started video chatting my friends more often too. I love talking to them when they are bursting with excitement to update me on a certain topic. I like when I have a chance to talk for hours with friends and family without interruption.

Another great part of me striving to gain new friendships is that its actually working. I  really appreciate being asked to go do things with people. I became close with Mia and Christine after I went to Mia's to have hot chocolate and play Cards Against Humanity. Just little things like that make me very happy and help me feel confident that AU was a good choice for me.

I also think the NYC trip weeks prior helped the art students get closer to one another. I loved that trip and it still influences my thought on art and my classmates.

Artist Presentation Plenary (9/27/17)

In my opinion the Artist Plenary was sort of boring. I am not really into ceramics as much as most of my peers and I am not that good at it. I appreciated her coming in though because it takes a lot of time to come in and present. It must have taken al lot of time and energy to plan out the presentation and find all the visuals. It was the final plenary of A block that was required so I would have went even if our assignment wasn't to go see her. One interesting this she talked about was the willow pattern. She talked about how the pattern became seen as tacky because it was so widely used. It was also an affordable plate design unlike plates and china the rich used. 

NYC Trip (9/22/17 and 9/23/17)

I still can't believe how amazing the NYC trip was. It was my first time to the city so I didn't know what to expect. I knew it was a place full of great art and adventure. We left AU at 6:20am and made it to NYC six hours later.

We got dropped of at The Whitney Museum and from there we went to the Gallery District in Chelsea. Going into the galleries was an amazing experience. The differences between each gallery was insane. I felt enlightened about art because of the experience. I really likes seeing all of the different art on one strip of street. At first I was nervous to go from gallery to gallery because I wasn't familiar with how galleries worked but once I got into it I had fun.

After going to Chelsea we went to the Whitney Museum. I really liked how the staircase connecting all the floors was its own piece of artwork. It transitioned from light lights to purple light to red lights as you went down the building. I felt like that was symbolic of descending into hell possibly. It looked like there was an alien type being at the bottom of the stairwell. Another part of the stairwell that intrigued me was that one of the figures had the front of a plane as its face. I don't know what the significance of that is but I would be interested to see people's perspective. Another thing I noticed while in the Whitney Museum was that the large elevators were painted as baskets. I thought this was interesting because it's as if we are all in baskets being pulled up by strings to the next floor. I thought it was very creative. I also really appreciated how each floor has sets of balconies. It was a cool way to observe the city from the outside and it was cool to see the cityscape behind some of the pieces. I don't know why things about the museum in general interested me but they did. The artwork that was displayed in the museum was beautiful as well.

After the Whitney we went to our hostel. That was an adventure in itself because half the group had to wait to get on the subway and half the group made it on time. The group that went on the subway together got separated and half the group got off at one stop and one at another. Neither of the stops were the correct one so we had to walk to the hostel. We made it to the hostel before our teacher even did because we got off at a later stop that was closer to the hostel.

Once our teachers go there we got our keys and made our way up the stairs. When we made it to the room we came to the realization that each room did not have its own individual ceiling. The walls were low and if you stood on the top bunk you could peer over to your neighbor's room. This was interesting later in the night because you could hear people's beds moving and you could hear people snoring.

That night we were allowed to explore the city. One of my best friends from home, Gabi, attends Hofstra University so she decided to come meet me outside the hostel so we could see each other. We decided to go to an Italian restaurant called Fiore with a classmate of mine named Dani. It was so nice to have a conversation with someone from home and someone from school. I enjoyed it. We all got the same meal and it was one of the best things I've probably ever ate. It was a spinach gnocchi in a crème sauce. It was so rich and dense that I couldn't even finish my plate. While we were at Fiore we saw two more of our classmates named Lauren and Jackie who we decided to go get dessert with. I forgot the name of where we went but it was an adorable sit down bakery. We all got desserts and a drink and had some nice conversation about school and the trip thus far. The trip made me feel more comfortable with my classmates.

After we were done exploring my friend went back to Hofstra and I passed out in my bed until the alarm went off in the morning. In the morning Dani, Lauren, Jackie and I all went to a cute little coffee shop. It was so quaint and sweet. It had a world map on the wall, pillows on the benches and Lana del Rey playing on the radio. We enjoyed some more conversation over out bagels and coffee. We noticed a man hanging posters outside using wheat paste and Lauren and Dani were eager to go talk to him. When we left they went to talk to him and we learned that he hangs the posters illegally and is paid by his employer. It was very cool to talk to him. After that we walked back to the hostel to pack. On the way back we took pictures with street art.

After we got back to the hostel we packed up and left for MoMA. We took a subway there and then walked the rest of the way. MoMA was so amazing. My favorite part was seeing Starry Night. I couldn't believe that painting was right in front of me. Another piece I really enjoy was a piece by Jackson Pollock. It reminded me of a splatter paint piece I did for the musical in high school.

After MoMA, Dani and I went to The Met. We went through Central Park which was beautiful but also so exhausting. We were both sweating and carrying our giant backpacks. It definitely was an adventure.

The MET was so cool. We got in for a dollar which was cool because I was running low on funds. It was such a cool museum but by the time we go there we were just so worn out that we didn't even want to see a lot of the pieces. Especially with the museum being so huge, I wish we had more time to view the pieces.

We were really hungry so we decided to go find food. We were gonna go to a bagel place but we found a burger place instead. We got food there and went to Insomnia Cookie after we finished eating.

On our way back to MoMA we passed by the Scientology building. It was so weird and there was a sign on the outside that said "free personality test inside".

After we got back we got on the buses and left the city. Once we got out of the city the bus got quiet and many of us fell asleep. I didn't even notice it was 2.5 hours into our trip back to campus when stopped at McDonalds. I was so happy to be back to campus because I was so exhausted.