The Thrills of Being a Poor Art Student

BERKELEY!

2011-05-04T08:01:00.000-07:00

Not that there are a zillion people viewing this blog and wondering where I have been, but regardless, I do apologize for not updating anything in a year. That's not cool. Anyway, I'm into my last month at community college, and will be "graduating" May 28th with an AA in art. Those two lame years of going to school next door to my high school paid off though. In August I'm off to attend UC Berkeley!!! My major will be Practice of Art. I'm so excited. I was so very close to choosing Savannah College of Art and Design (in Georgia!), but a twist of fate changed my mind. The day after I was accepted to UCB (!) I went to a welcome event for SCAD, and it was ironically in Berkeley. As soon as I got there I knew Berkeley was the college for me. The city was awesome, there were students all over, and god, it's UC Berkeley, how could I pass that up?! Anyway, that's the plan and I'm so excited to start my last two years of college as an art major there. It's gonna be rough, but I'm determined to graduate and get a job in my field. As always, I simply can't imagine pursuing a career not related to art. Alright, that was my excited rant. I'll include a recent painting I completed for (hopefully) your viewing pleasure...

update

2010-05-25T22:42:00.001-07:00

In my latest post, which was from a while ago, I had been working on a loose portrait of a girl. Well, that was then. Most recently, I completely redid the portrait, and I think it's looking much more realistic. still needs to be tweaked, but I think it's on it's way to being successful...

weekend painting

2010-03-08T09:04:00.000-08:00

"Tomato Stains Revisited" 16x16", oil on canvas

2010-03-04T14:25:00.000-08:00

Latest piece I'm working on. Charcoal portrait of Ella Baker, one of the Civil Rights Movement's heroes...11x14 on toned paper.

Quick Plea For Followers

2010-02-27T23:24:00.000-08:00

"Marbles and Gabilan" 2009. oil on canvas.
20x30"

Come on people! I feel rather lame that I have no followers on here! Promise I'll be more interesting and start posting some good stuff :)

2010-02-27T23:18:00.000-08:00

My lastest piece--mixed media (acrylic, thread, graphite, conte). "Looking Ahead." 2010. portrait of my brother as a little boy...while deciding on a college to transfer to, I've found they like to see a more cohesive group of work, so this is my first attempt to make something relatively similar to past work I've done...(though it looks nothing like anything I've posted on here).

New Year

2010-02-20T11:32:00.000-08:00

Well once again, I completely forgot about this thing. It's well into the new year now and I've started my second semester at school. In terms of art classes, I'm taking an etching class and a figure drawing class, both of which are excellent...Took a couple classes to get used to drawing naked people for 3 hours at a time, but I've since gotten over that initial strangeness. Etching's pretty rad too--it's cool to see your work engraved into metal and then printed. Anywhoo, for anyone that reads this stuff, gracias!

Oh, and for now I have my sights set on the San Francisco Art Institute. I visited back in January and it's a really lovely school, right in downtown SF. Talked to a teacher there who seems rather awesome as well (and had a sweet accent)...so as for schools to transfer to, SFAI is looking pretty good--hopefully a scholarship will find its way into my hands as well.

Quick Update

2009-10-05T18:21:00.000-07:00

Wow, haven't written anything in a while...school's going well I suppose. I've most recently been frantically trying to finish several still lifes. I really would like to start selling my art, so I'm working to get stuff done so I can start submitting my portfolio to galleries, coffeehouses, etc. We'll see how it goes...

Drawing 7A

2009-08-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

So I just started full time at the Santa Rosa Junior College and I'm taking a begining drawing class. So far we've just covered some of the basics, like drawing our hands, learning about positive/negative space, and how to draw with just contour. So far, I'll admit it's pretty unexciting...and when you're sitting next to an aspiring video game designer with some serious BO for a few hours, I can't say I look forward to class.
I'm hoping things will improve. The teacher is this really sweet, bespectacled woman who seems to know a good amount about art (she's a painter herself), so that's pretty cool. I don't know, it's all good practice in preparation for transferring to a university to study art, so somehow I'll survive.

2009-08-24T19:45:00.000-07:00

Just a couple pieces I thought I'd put up that I did recently. The top piece "marbles" is a triptych done in oil on wood. The second piece is a self-portrait in graphite I decided to do at around 1:00 in the morning a couple days ago...so yeah, I don't always look that gnarly (:

What I'm Lookin' For

2009-08-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

What the hell am I thinking? I mean, I know I'm not the only person who is going to try to make it as an artist, but that's a question I ask myself quite often...The economy seems to be falling to pieces, I'm trying to scrape my way through the art program at my local Junior College (woohoo), technology seems to be overtaking the majority of creative outlets and often careers, and I now am supposedly wasting time writing a blog about nothing except complaints about my chosen path of study. Am I alone in thinking this pursuit is risky? I think not.
But, in reality, and as other fellow aspiring artists I'm sure know, a career in the arts is often not chosen, but it's something that can't be escaped. I've been drawing, coloring outside the lines, and painting since I could pick up a writing utensil, and I knew since around that time that I had to be an artist "when I grew up." Alternatives in terms of a career choice were nonexistent. I guess the creative pull art had on my brain and body were just far too overwhelming, and I fell instantly and permanently in love with creating.
So, I haven't decided yet, but presently, I think this blog is just gonna consist of my musings about careers in the fine arts, postings of my work, and just general struggles and triumphs and bits of news, etc. relating to ART. Wow I hope that doesn't sound too boring...