Grad Journal: Fall 2017, Week 6

[Enclosed] (a photography show I am working on). Attended my first Kappa Pi meeting — I really enjoyed it. Attended the JSU Art Faculty Show which was filled with gorgeous work. Met with Kacie and Alan from Alumni Relations to discuss how we can work together to reinvigorate the Art Alumni Chapter. And many many other errands and little things. It probably would have been a great week if it hadn’t been for me being plagued with a 3-day migraine, and then feeling overwhelmed because there is never enough time to recover from the hustle and bustle of the week and get my homework done to a point I am satisfied with. I strive to always go above and beyond and it kills me when I feel like I am barely hanging on.

Also, I had a few conversations with different people about my work and goals that left me feeling unhappy. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if someone is trying to be helpful in a critical way or if they’re just criticizing you. This week I felt it was the latter but it was probably the first. Topics ranged from questions about why I’m pursuing an MFA in Visual Communication vs Photography, why I want to teach, and essentially ‘what are you doing here?’ To a conversation about grad school experiences, and what I should expect vs what I was expecting. It was really frustrating. I think I gleaned a few useful nuggets out of the conversations but I felt stupid at the end of each conversation for not being able to articulate myself better. Come on lumbar puncture! 

Design Studio

I decided on the name Golden Thorn for my fine art & gifts business. My work over the weekend consisted of hours and hours of evaluating type choices and then tweaking several until I narrowed my selection down to one: Lucy Rose. The other fonts I closely considered were Raleway, Trajan, and Jupiter. I went with Lucy Rose because it has a similar feel to Trajan but is more organic, plus it had a better selection of alternate characters. Now I’m working to refine it to perfection and design other branding elements to go with it. Class time was spent sharing our progress, explaining the rationale for name and design choices, and work time for further research and sketching. I had also spent a good bit of the weekend researching art fairs, typical setups, and considerations, and after much research settled on some products I will probably end up purchasing for my booth. But first I need to finish my branding. Also need to wait till I have some mullah. Grad school is draining me dry.

Darkroom Photography

I went into the darkroom over the weekend and practiced dodging and burning nine prints but I forgot that the prints would dry darker than they first appeared so all of them ended up turning out very grey. What a waste of paper. Karl went with me — he’s been worried about me since I’ve been getting dizzy and have almost fallen several times (health stuff). It’s really sweet and it makes me happy. Lately it has felt like the only quality time I have with Karl is when he keeps me company in the darkroom. At home my brain is a strung out mess from school and house renovations. The darkroom is the only place where I feel remotely relaxed. Grad school is super stressful on relationships. I keep thinking it will get easier but it hasn’t yet and I am very aware of the strain this semester.

In class this week we continued to work on printing from negatives in the darkroom. We made lots and lots of test strips in order to find the perfect exposure time and contrast level. We also worked with dodging and burning which is a bit tricky. I imagine it’s going to take a lot of practice to get good at it. I had a horrible migraine attack me this week so on Thursday I was a bit late to class and couldn’t bring myself to go into the dark room. Just the thought of smelling the chemicals, which don’t normally bother me, made me feel like I would throw up. Instead, I wore sunglasses inside and did some research on alternate silver gelatin techniques, talked to Sarah about black and white photography considerations, got her to give me a spot toning demonstration, and hung fliers for the upcoming photo club meeting, and a call for entry/show reception for [Enclosed].

 

 

Sound Design & Production

I managed to get caught up on my readings over the weekend. I’m still a bit confused by the play analysis and cue sheet but what I worked on was acceptable. I keep thinking to think about and visualize my sound projects like I do my visual ones. It’s a challenge. I am such a visual person that it is hard for me to make the translation but I often feel like I can almost see it. I don’t know. This probably isn’t making sense to anyone but me. Anyways, Jennifer gave us a brief introduction to Audacity and we talked about the way each of us intends to approach our aural solution. All this sound talk is still very foreign to me, but I’m hoping to figure it out soon. I do wish I understood it already. I like my teacher and my classmates and wish I could better speak their language so we could communicate better.

GAA Stuff & Other Work

I enjoyed another week of work at Faculty Commons. So far I’ve just been doing basic web updates, but I was challenged with some more interesting tasks that I’ll begin working on next week: working with Google forms, figuring out how to sync them to google calendar and gmail so that people can register for workshops online, and a few other things. I’ve also talked with Gena a little about working on a Lynda.com workshop for faculty to help them figure out how to best utilize it for themselves and with their students. Gena bragged on me a good bit which made me feel nice though I haven’t done enough work to deserve it. She’s just really sweet. It’s nice to work with such an upbeat personality. I am still incredibly grateful for my private office space. Sometimes it feels like it’s the only place on campus I can focus and get work done.

Other Stuff

• Kappa Pi meeting
• Group Theory: Faculty Show
• Alumni Relations Meeting