Hey everyone!

This school year is getting pretty crazy. It’s getting to be pretty tough to do all my homework and still get all the paperwork for my Australia trip together. But somehow, with the little time we have left, I’m managing to put in a decent amount of work for my finals.

Anyway, since we’ve moved onto our final project, I’m happy to say the Art and Design poster project is OVER. Not to say I didn’t really enjoy it. I did! I think poster design might be one of my favorite facets of design. I look forward to doing another one. But I probably got to see what a big budget project in a professional design company might be like. We were all essentially working on our very final design for the poster like 3 weeks out of the due date. We had some serious time to nit-pick and question teeny-tiny details. Felt like we were working on it forever!

Well, I happy to say, after it’s all done, I tied for third place in the contest. I tied with my classmate Kurt, who’s an amazing designer and does some really knock-out work, so I’m really pleased to be considered on par with him. Our classmate Patty finished second, and I really loved her design idea. Like, I’d hang that in my room. It was pretty awesome.

The winner wasn’t from our class, but she had an awesome type-based design. I’m actually happy to see someone design only with type and make a splash, because I love type!

Anyway, finals are marching right up, so I better get back to it! See you all soon!

Hi everyone! The weather is beautiful, but I won't state the obvious. My weeks are getting busier and busier thanks to the end of my sophomore year approaching quickly. It seems that after spring break, professors bombarded us with work to do. Of course I am going to blame the professors in this case, no doubt. I'm just an innocent college student, afterall. One that would NEVER procrastinate.....

Either way, last week was quite eventful. I had a chance to attend the opening for the Senior Thesis (what is the plural of thesis?) projects in the San Guiseppe art gallery on Friday night. For those of you who aren't familiar with MSJ, that's the art gallery located in the art building on campus. The seniors had hung their thesis' (plural...again?) and were proudly showing them off to family, friends, faculty, and anybody else who wanted to attend. It really was wonderful. My favorite professor, Kathy Salchow,  thus far at the college was also giving her "last lecture" (i must put this in quotes to avoid any reference to Randy Pausch, for I hope Kathy Salchow lives a long and healthy life following this weeks event).It was amazing to see how many students showed up! Kathy was my 2D and 3D design professor last year when I was a freshman. I HATED HER CLASS! But little did i know, during the dreaded morning studio classes, I was learning so much and being graced with the presence of a true design genius. Kathy (or "Salchow" as we lovingly referred to her in the studio) was an adjunct professor who also taught at the University of Cincinnati. Her husband, Gordon Salchow, helped found the DAAP program at the University of Cincinnati (a well esteemed art program, one of the best in the nation!) as well as recieved a masters degree in fine arts from Yale. WHEW! That's impressive . Kathy taught me so much, and has inspired me in many ways. It was awesome to suck the knowlege out of her for the few hours I managed to get each week. I often thought to myself, "I'm getting a DAAP education right here in Delhi!". 

I thought I'd include some pictures from the art opening, as well as a few of my favorite photos of the thesis exhibits. I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to stop by and take a look at the graphic design senior thesis projects that are up right now, because they truly are amazing and inspiring! It's only going to be up for another 3 days...so hurry!

Well guys, I’ve finished my sophomore review! This past Saturday, I brought in my portfolio and I got to have it looked over by all the folks at the Graphic Design department. I do have to say, it was much shorter than I would have liked (they didn’t even get to look at my glass stuff!) and one of our oldest and most experienced professors didn’t make it, but I still think it went well! I haven’t gotten my comments back yet, but I hope I will!

Aaaaand, I HAD planned to write most of this blog telling you guys how excited I was that I finally completed and mailed off my application for my Australia trip! I got my form signed and got an official transcript from the registrar’s office and I mailed them in! So for now, I just have to wait and see if I’m accepted into the program! I can’t do anything else to work for my trip until then.

Bad news is I got an email back from IES saying they received my transcript, and the email also said they’d send an email like that for every piece of my application they receive. Well, my Authorization form from the school was in that same envelope, and they haven’t sent me an email saying they have it! I’m worried it got misplaced somewhere, so I have to get a hold of them tomorrow, and see if they can find my piece of paper! I sent them an email and I’m probably also going to call tomorrow and find out what’s up.

It’s getting kinda scary and down to the wire, so I hope I can get everything sorted out soon!

I’ll leave you guys with a picture I took when I was over in Australia! This picture is from Taronga Zoo, which is Sydney’s zoo, and it’s right across the harbor from downtown Sydney. They have an open air amphitheater where they gave a terrific bird show, and just behind the amphitheater, this is what you can see!

See you guys soon!

This could be one of busiest weeks of my life!

I’ve been working on a Art and Design poster for quite a few weeks now, and the project is finally looking like it’s about to finish up. Our final poster and all our files are due in two days! I got that much time to clean up my files and finish my process book.

Another huge thing that’s been taking up a lot of my time is Sophomore Review. In the Graphic Design department, before you’re allowed official admittance to the program you have to pass an official portfolio review during your sophomore year. Because of scheduling and credit-hour conflicts, I’m up for review this year even though I’m a Junior.

I have a different perspective on the review now that I’m a junior and not a sophomore. The department has recommended we bring two pieces of finished work for each studio class we have finished. For a sophomore, that’s probably around 5 or 6 classes. I’m a Junior, and I’ve taken something like 14 studio classes!

2-d Design, 3-d Design, Drawing 1, Drawing 2, Visual Semantics, Digital Design, Information Graphics, Identity Design, Photography 1, Photography 2, Introduction to Hot Glass, Fused and Formed Glass, Intermediate Glassblowing! I mean, that’s a ton of art!

I remember when all my classmates were doing their review, they were very concerned with making sure everything was matted and printed correctly. Now that I’ve a year more experience… I know how to present my work well, my problem is finding all of it!

If you’re an art major of any kind, MAKE SURE! If you finish any piece of art, even if you HATE it, it gets filed someplace safe so that if anyone professional or academic wants to see it, you can say you still have it. In the process of moving my art studio last year, I lost all of my 3-d work. Some of it was damaged or destroyed and a lot of it just got lost, all because I didn’t store my work very well. I’ve learned my lesson and I’m in the process of making a more permanent storage solution for my artwork!

Anyway, I think I’ve put together an impressive display of my work for my review on Saturday.  Wish me luck!

I gotta get back to this poster! Have a great week!

Hey everyone!

Just sitting watching the Olympics! I remember when the summer Olympics were on in Beijing, and I definitely love them! You get a lot more homework to work on on your own in College classes…especially in Graphics classes!

I’ve noticed as I get further into college, I’m expected to do a lot of improvement on my own. We’re working on a big project right now: the art and design poster for the college. It’s a class project that we have to turn in for a grade, but it’s also a contest among the Graphics students to create the poster that will be given to high school art classes to let students know about the Art program at the Mount. Let me tell you, I’ve been working on it like crazy!

But that class (Graphic Design 4: Identity Design), we only meet once a week. And between those classes I’m supposed have a huge amount of work done. It’s really been a design sprint, trying to get everything done in time!

I’ve been having a ton of fun designing, but tonight I’m working on some other stuff, taking a much-needed break, and I’ll have to get back to working on it later this weekend. I’ll have to show you guys what it looks like after it’s all done!

Anyway, it’s super late… I should think about bed! See you guys all soon!

within the last three or four years there has been a great deal of progression in my art work. my freshman year, in a non-prerequisite basic design class, i felt out of the loop; not having much skill in applying my creative abillities to my assignments. i've always been interested in the aspect of design and have utilized my creative abiliites. however, whenever i am working on an assignment and am given specific guidelines, i tend to hit a road block on my creative side. i've made a great sense of progression since then. not only in a matter of basic design but in a means of my photography as well!

i took a picture of my friend peggy for my first photography class:

one of my more recent photos:

i'm taking a photoshop class right now and i'm still learning the basics so i'm really excited to increase my ability in photography!!!!