Extra Credit – Class Feedback

My three favorite activities from this last semester in Art 110 were:

1. Plaster Casting

Not only was this art activity extremely fun, but it was also interactive because we had the option to meet up with our other classmates and do the activity alongside each other. On top of that, we got to go to the beach.

2. Graffiti Writing

I loved this project because I got to work with spray paint for the first time and had a blast. Even though my work didn’t come out exactly as I’d hoped, I was still very proud of it and liked that it’s a physical product that I can keep forever.

3. Finger Painting

This was one of my favorites, partially because I never thought I would find myself finger-painting for a college class. Yet there I was, sticking my fingers in paint and rubbing it all over a piece of paper. It was very fun and very relaxing.

My three least favorite activities were:

1. UI/UX Design

This activity wasn’t one of my favorites. I didn’t really like that there was no physical product that I could keep. Also, to me, the instructions seemed slightly vague so maybe with a little more direction, it might’ve been better.

2. Design Thinking

I think this was a good activity because it’s a cool idea for us to think about our futures in this way. However, for me personally, it just wasn’t one of my favorites. I like the more interactive activities and ones that give us a physical product.

3. LA Flag

This activity wasn’t awful, but it just wasn’t one of my favorites. I think it might’ve been partly because I just feel connected with it for some reason. I did like the concept of redesigning something. I might’ve felt more connected if I got to pick something to redesign.

Course Format:

I really like our course format for this class. I figured I’d be doing art projects when I signed up for Art 110, but getting to do them every week outside the classroom and in various environments was really cool. The artist conversations at the galleries were good too. We got to walk around and look at various artists’ work and then speak to the people who created them. I don’t think that a regular lecture class would’ve been better. Lectures can be draining on students, and to me, art should not be draining. Art should be fun and expressive. I think the format we used is perfect for this Art 110 class.

WordPress:

At first, I wasn’t a huge fan of the WordPress website thing. However, once I worked with it for a while and figured out how to get things to look like I wanted them to, I came around. Once I got the hang of it, I actually thought this was a really cool way to turn in our assignments. We could all customize our websites to our liking and set it up however we wanted. I like this way better than using the same old Dropbox on BeachBoard.

Beacharts:

I loved this website and it was very helpful. It was nice to be able to have all the information for this class in one place and to be able to access it anywhere at any time. Also, it’s very easy to update a website as opposed to updating a document and then having to re-upload it to BeachBoard. I think using this site was much more efficient than the use of BeachBoard. Also, I think it’s way easier to post photo and video examples to the website than it would’ve been to post and access on BeachBoard. Beacharts is way more versatile than BeachBoard which is good for this class.

A-B-C Structure:

I loved the A-B-C structure of the class, and I don’t think it was unnecessarily complicated at all. I like the separate sections with different objectives. It splits up the semester and at times, almost makes it feel like it goes by faster. I like this set-up better than the normal 16-weeks straight set-up of most other classes.

Other:

Overall, I really liked this class. The set-up, the structure, the activities, the artist conversations, etc. The only thing I would maybe suggest would be to maybe do more meetup activities where we can all do the projects together and interact with our classmates while getting to do art activities. I thought the meetups were really fun.

WkC1 – Final Paper – Art & My Life

I’ve always had a strong interest in art, ever since I was a kid. I used to draw and paint whenever I got the chance to and even did my year-long high school senior project on the subject of art. I took a photo of a sunset and recreated it using five different mediums, and wrote a paper about contemporary art. In that paper, I discussed how art has evolved over time and how what is considered art now, would not have been considered art in the past. Over the course of this semester, after doing all of these projects and having discussions in class, my understanding of art has evolved slightly from what it was before. Before, I made a statement in my paper that nowadays anything can be considered art. Now, I feel that that’s not entirely true; art is viewed differently by everyone, so what is considered art by one person, may not be considered art by another, so it all depends on the individual’s perception of what art is.

After taking this class, I’ve realized that my perception of art is very broad. Some people may think that some of the art activities we did this semester were silly and not really “art.” For example, the finger-painting activity and the automatic drawing. These seem like simple little things that anyone could do at any age, and that maybe don’t qualify as art. I’m not one of those people. I think that all of the different activities we did showed us the different forms of art there are out there. They also showed us that sometimes it’s more about the experience than the outcome. Not every piece I made came out like I hoped, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t proud of the work I put in or thought it was any less worthy of being called art.

My experience of art both in this class and in my life up to this point has been very positive. I love it. I love the process of making the pieces, and I love the feeling of completing an activity or piece. In my experience in this class, it was really awesome and fun to go back to the basics with activities like finger-painting and automatic drawing; they are so simple, yet so satisfying and calming. I got to relax and not stress about anything and just focus on the art and enjoy myself, which is awesome because there isn’t much free time for art in my life anymore. Overall, I loved my experience with art and the discussion and lectures about art over the past semester.

From talking to all of the SOA artists, I learned that a lot of the art majors started out in another major and then transferred into the School of Art. This was interesting to me because I would’ve thought that the art majors were people who have always known that art was the path they would take. In reality, a lot of them had an interest in art their whole life but didn’t originally plan on pursuing a degree in it. That just goes to show all of us that you never know where life is going to take you and that things don’t always turn out like you planned. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll end up deciding to pursue art since I’ve always had a strong interest in it, and maybe I’ll get to directly apply a large amount of what I learned and did in this class.

When I think about my future, I know that art, creativity, and design thinking will definitely tie into it. One part of my future that art will easily tie into is my work as an employee for the City of Long Beach. I do a wide range of things for the city already as a day camp counselor and my work with the after-school programs, in which I have to find, set up, and do arts and crafts with the kids. I definitely think that I could try some of the activities we did for this class with the kids at my work. I’m always looking for new fun activities to try with them and this class gave me some great ideas.

I recently changed my major from management to accounting and I’m not sure how that will pan out. However, that’s the plan for now so that’s the future I’ll be using. When I look at my future in accounting, it’s a little tough to picture how art could tie into my day to day work. However, it’s possible that I may get put into a team to try to solve some sort of problem, and I may have to use creativity to try to solve the problem. I also may have to use observation and creativity to find new ways to save money for the company or clients that I’m working for. I’m not sure if I plan to do accounting for small businesses or large corporations, so that may make a difference in how the things I learned in this class can be applied to my job. If I do accounting for a large corporation and ever end up managing a large group of accountants, I could apply creativity, expression, and observation to finding successful ways to manage a team that gets results.

There are some activities we’ve done that I may get to directly apply to my job in the future. For example, I may use the things I learned from the UI/UX Design activity if we ever need to update any of our accounting software or operating systems. I may be asked for suggestions on how to improve our software and make it easier to use or more efficient/effective; this will require the use of the same thought process from the UI/UX Design activity. Another example is the Design Thinking Applied to Life activity. As an accountant, I may need to help my clients plan ahead for their financial futures. I may not be making them a personal five-year plan for their life, but I could use those thought processes from the activity to give them good financial advice.

Overall, the art, creativity, and design thinking that I learned in this class will definitely be applied later in my life. Since I’ve always had a personal interest in art, not only will it likely be applied in some aspect of my job, but in my personal life as well.

Wk10 – Art Experience – Design Thinking Applied to Life

My 3 Possible Futures:

#1. My current plan for my life is to continue to pursue a degree in accounting.

Description: Based on my interest in accounting, I think I would be satisfied and happy with this life. I would like to think that pursuing this career will give me a relatively financially stable life. I don’t need to be rich, but it would be nice to not have to constantly stress about money and live paycheck to paycheck. If I am successful in this path, I hope to be able to have the life I’ve envisioned.

5 Year Plan:

Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5
– Join Accounting Society and Beta Alpha Psi	– Apply for internship at Grant Thornton	– Graduate with 4 + 1 Program (get Bachelor’s & Master’s at the same time) – CPA exam	– Apply for full-time position at Grant Thornton	– Get married – work toward promotion

Evaluation: Confidence: 7; Resources: 7; Impact: 5; Satisfaction: 8

Rapid Prototyping: I talked to my uncle who is a partner at Grant Thornton. He also went to CSULB and told me that a great way to build your resume, get access to resources, and differentiate yourself is to join The Accounting Society and Beta Alpha Psi. He got two great job offers after he graduated and has worked hard ever since and has worked his way up to partner at his current firm. He’s very satisfied with his job and his life and often gets to travel for work.

#2. If accounting were to disappear tomorrow, my plan would shift to working with kids.

Description: I’ve always enjoyed working with kids, I’ve just never been sure if it’s what I want to do for a living. I work every summer as a day camp counselor and do a lot of babysitting as well. I know for sure that if this were to be my job I would be good at it, and even though it’s not my first choice I know I would be satisfied. I would likely try to continue working with kids in recreation.

5 Year Plan:

Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5
– continue working in Parks and Rec for the City of Long Beach	– apply for a level 7 job with the city and do more coaching	– work as a level 7 (camp director & after-school program director)	– get married – complete portfolio to submit to become a park supervisor	– work as a park supervisor – have a kid

Evaluation: Confidence: 10; Resources: 9; Impact: 8; Satisfaction: 8

Rapid Prototyping: I already have years of experience working with kids and know about the process of working your way up the chain of command in the Parks and Recreation Department for the City of Long Beach. I also talked to my boss (a current park supervisor) about it to get a little more information. He told me that all the different jobs you at any level of recreation specialist can be included in your portfolio when you apply for a top-level position. So, it’s important to keep track of and log different responsibilities as you go along.

#3. If I were financially secure and could do absolutely anything, I would become a travel blogger.

Description: I think that this would be such an amazing job. To get to travel the world and share your experiences with people sounds so incredible. To me, this definitely doesn’t seem possible unless I were to somehow come into a lot of money and not have to worry about being able to pay for the costs of living when I wasn’t traveling. I would love to be able to say that my job is just to travel places and share my experiences. It would be awesome to be able to do this someday and if it’s not possible, I hope to at least be able to do a little bit of traveling on my off-time of whatever job I do have.

5 Year Plan:

Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5
– finish school – do other work on the side to save up money	– establish myself as a travel blogger – create a team for filming and editing	– start off with smaller destinations before reaching out to more popular places	– get married -continue travel blogging – bring husband along on adventures	– take a break from traveling to start a family

Evaluation: Confidence: 6; Resources: 4; Impact: 4; Satisfaction: 8

Rapid Prototyping: I did some research on travel blogging, both about the job in general and by looking at actual travel blogger sites like Kate McCulley’s blog. I learned that the funds part of the actual travel isn’t as hard once you’ve established yourself as a well-known travel blogger. Once you do that, some places might ask you to come stay at their hotels and such for free to get themselves some publicity. Also, my friend was home from school this weekend so three of us made a trip up to Santa Monica and went to a bunch of different places. Obviously, I’d hope to be able to travel to places much farther away and more exotic than Santa Monica, but it’s still a tourist type of destination and that’s the type of thing I would get to do all the time if I became a travel blogger. That would be awesome.

Overall:

There’s no way to what my future will turn out to be. It could be a variation of one the futures I described above, or something totally different. No matter what future I end up with, I don’t care what my job is as long as I’m happy with my life.

Wk10 – Artist Essay With A Twist (Short Story) – Rebecca Lau

Exhibition Information:

Artist: Rebecca Lau

Exhibition: Insomnia

Media: Drawing and Painting – Pencil and Paper

Gallery: CSULB School of Art, Max L. Gatov Gallery West

Instagram: @rebeccalau.artspace

Website: reblau.weebly.com

The Angry Bull

            There once was a bull named Barry. He wasn’t your average run-of-the-mill bull, mainly because he was never one to be particularly aggressive. However, he was, more often than not, very angry and tense. The pressures of life along with feeling like he had to live up to the image of what it means to be a bull, really got to him most days. Unfortunately, since he wasn’t very aggressive he couldn’t take his anger and rage out on messing around and fighting with other bulls. This caused him to be very tense all the time. He would try anything and everything to relieve the stress he was constantly feeling.

First, Barry tried discussing his feelings with his father, to see if it’s something that all bulls go through at some point. Unfortunately, his father didn’t really get what he was trying to say and just kept trying to wrestle with Barry the whole time. Barry then tried talking to his mom about it, her being slightly less aggressive than his father and more often willing to listen. That didn’t go over very well either. She did listen and tried to give words of advice, but this only frustrated Barry because her advice wasn’t really relevant to what he was talking about. It was obvious that she didn’t understand where he was coming from either.

Not being able to talk this out with his parents only further frustrated Barry. He left his parents’ house and went back to his place. This was the one place he could always find a way to calm down. It was in a quiet little spot and he had decorated it to his liking, with nice drapes and flowers along with his grandma’s old tea set. Most other bulls wouldn’t have like his home, but Barry did and it was a place he could escape his worries and stress and loosen up a bit. He wished he could stay there all the time, but he knew that wasn’t practical. He had work and friends and obligations.

Barry had tried multiple different jobs, trying to find one that suited his personality but everywhere he worked, the restaurants, the gym, and the car dealership, he was constantly surrounded by other bulls that are always so openly aggressive. This was just a constant reminder of his feelings of not fitting in. Fortunately for Barry, he recently found a job that suited him a little more and he doesn’t completely dread going there every day. It was a job at a fabric store. He doesn’t absolutely love it, but at least it’s sort of calming there because it’s quiet and there aren’t a lot of wildly aggressive bulls that shop at fabric stores.

He works with mostly calm, older women and a handful of teenagers that are just there for the cash. Some of the older women are in a knitting club that Barry just joined. Barry caught on fast and absolutely loves it because it’s such a calming activity for him. So now, after a long day at work and after stopping by his parents for dinner, Barry usually comes home a little worked up and tense. However, he is able to make some tea, sit down at his table, and knit away until he’s calm, happy, and ready for bed.

Things are starting to look up for Barry, and he thinks he’s on the right track to finding his way in the world.

Wk9 – Art Experience – ePortfolio

Before this week’s activity, the only thing I had set up was a single page for my blog posts, and I had titled the blog “Art Through My Eyes” since its sole purpose was for ART 110, but not anymore. I kept the same theme and header because it works for who I am and what I like. I kept the same header because it’s a photograph that I took of a sunset, which ties into my new “Photography” tab. I added multiple new tabs for different interests and experiences. The reason I did this is so that if any future employers look me up and find this website, not only will they see professional related things like my “Accounting” and “Work Experience” tabs, but also some other stuff that might make me stand out from other prospects, like my “Art 110” and “Photography” tabs.

In addition to those new tabs, I updated my contact page to make myself seem more approachable through the website. I also added an “About” page so that anyone else that might find me on here can get a basic idea of who I am. My goal of this website is to establish myself as a well-rounded individual and I think by utilizing a variety of experiences and interests, I am able to successfully do just that. As stated before my main audience would be potential future employers, but obviously, anyone could stumble on this page one day whether it be intentional or by accident. Either way, I want the website to be professional enough to make me credible and intriguing but to also show more of who I am than a resume could ever do.

I definitely struggled a little bit with adding new pages and trying to figure out how to work all the options they have for creating or editing a WordPress page. So my site may have some room for improvement, but as I keep adding to it over time, I’m sure it’ll get easier and better. I think having this ePortfolio will really help me down the line.

BEFORE:

This was the only functional page on my site before this activity.

AFTER:

I now have multiple functional, up-to-date tabs available.

My contact page now has a personal message to any potential contacts.

I have a “Work Experience” tab.

Another shot of my “Work Experience” tab.

My “Art 110” tab has all of my blog posts.

I added an “Accounting” tab for my major work.

I added a “Photography” tab to showcase some of my work.

Protected: Wk9 – Artist Conversation – Lisa Ikerd-Carradine

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Wk8 – Art Experience – LA Flag

This art experience was a little more difficult. I loved the idea of getting to design a new flag, but I was really struggling with figuring out what to use for the symbolism aspect. I ended up deciding on using a skyline, palm trees, and the LA symbol. The skyline is a symbolic image of our city that represents our architectural diversity and how we are one of the world’s major cities. The palm trees represent the beachy part of LA, where it runs into the beachy areas along the coast. The palm trees show the diverse landscapes of the area; how we have a major city in a highly urban area that runs into the beach as you move outward from the center. Lastly, the “LA” symbol above the skyline, is a widely known symbol of LA that is circulated worldwide. I wanted my flag to represent the uniqueness of LA and what makes our city so great.

I chose to keep at least one of the colors from our current LA flag, the yellow, to use as my background. I also kept the design aspect of having a circle in the center, which is common in many flags. However, I decided not to use the tiny writing in a little ring on the edge of the circle. I’ve always felt like it was kind of pointless to have such tiny writing on a flag that you’re rarely close enough to even be able to read. That’s why I instead chose the “LA” symbol over the tiny writing that says “City of Los Angeles.” Since “LA” is such a widely known symbol, it would be easier for people to recognize this as the LA flag if they weren’t able to read the small writing on our current one. Lastly, I didn’t put the year founded on my flag, which contrasts our current flag that does have the year founded. However, that was more due to the fact that I didn’t think of it when I was creating my flag design. That’s an aspect that I like and would actually add to mine. Overall, my flag is simpler than our current LA flag, which is what I was going for.

Protected: Wk8 – Artist Conversation – Katarina Stiller

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Wk7 – Art Experience – Automatic Drawing

This week’s art experience was interesting but also really fun. It felt weird at first to be drawing like that, without any direction or plan. We definitely laughed at first when we had the crayon on the paper in between us and looked at each other. Then we refocused and closed our eyes and just let the crayon do its thing. We did have issues at first because we hadn’t used enough tape so the paper kept moving, but that was an easy fix. This was a very relaxing experience, and it was cool to see how the drawing had changed every time we stopped to do a new color. It was interesting to just feel the crayon move and glide across the paper. I wasn’t sure how our picture would turn out or if it would be good, but I actually really liked it. We started off with only cool colors including, blue, green, and purple; then we decided to add a little bit of yellow to add contrast and make it brighter. The way the swirls and colors interact with each other made the result very pleasing. I would definitely like to try this again at some point with different colors or different mediums like markers, chalk, or maybe even paint.

 

Protected: Wk7 – Artist Conversation – Lena Wolek

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Wk6 – Art Experience – Graffiti Writing

I absolutely LOVED this week’s art experience. My name may not have come out as nice as I would’ve liked it to, but it’s okay. Serious props to the people that can create such beautiful masterpieces with spray paint. Working with the spray paint was hard but that was expected, and even though it was difficult, it made me want to work with the paint even more and try out different things with it. The thing I had the most difficulty with was starting the lines and keeping them even. At first, it was a little easier, but then my finger got tired and weak so I couldn’t really keep the pressure even. Despite my struggles with even lines, I really liked the different lines I could make. Even without the special tips you can buy for your spray paint can, I was still able to make the paint look so different just by holding the can at different heights above the wood and by holding it at different angles.

I’m a little bummed that my weekend was too busy to go do this project at the Venice Art Walls because I think that would’ve been such a fun experience. However, it was obviously a little more convenient to do it and practice using the spray paint in my backyard. Over Spring Break, I hope to go up to Venice and use my leftover paint to leave my temporary mark on the Venice Art Walls. I hope that when I do it there, I can take what I learned from my first experience at home, and end up making my name look way cooler. Overall, I think this has been my favorite art experience, and I definitely expect to experiment more with spray paint and graffiti writing in the future.

 

 

Protected: Wk6 – Artist Conversation – Asia Roberge

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Wk5 – Art Experience – UI/UX Design

UI Critique

For my UI Critique, I chose to take a look at the interface of the Apple Watch Series 1. I use this device all of the time and mostly like how it works, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for some major improvements. One thing the watch’s interface does well is that it gives you multiple options for the “watch face”. This allows you to customize what you want on the watch screen that you look at most often. You can customize it to allow one-touch access to things like weather, messages, stock info, music, ESPN, and a few other options as well depending on your preference. Or, if you don’t want one-touch access to any of your apps, you can choose a watch face that only shows the time; so, the watch pretty much has a customizable layout for everyone. Another thing the UI does well is make it easy to scroll up and down. You can do it with your finger on the screen or use the circular side button that doubles as a knob that turns. This design gives people the option to not have to put their fingers on the screen if they don’t want to when scrolling. This button/knob that allows you to scroll also makes it easier to adjust the volume of your music because the plus (+) and minus (-) volume buttons on the touchscreen are small and may be more difficult to use for people with larger fingers. One thing the UI does rather poorly, is making it easy to navigate through the many apps stored on it. The app buttons are so small that I often accidentally click the wrong one when trying to open an app on the home screen. A simple fix to this problem would be to add a zoom feature that allows you to zoom in on the app home screen and then scroll around; the zoom would make the app button larger and easier to click on. Another thing that the Apple Watch interface could improve on is access to your photos on the watch. I understand the watch is small and some features have to be limited but they could easily improve the ease of scrolling through the photos. They could improve it by allowing you to go back to the album once you click on the photo instead of having to scroll through every single photo to find the one you want to look at. Even with the aspects of the watch that need improvement, I still mostly like the watch and think it’s a pretty great product.

Watch face customized w/ one-touch access to favorite apps.

Watch face w/out one-touch access to any apps.

App home screen with small buttons.

UI Design

For my UI Design, I decided to design a photos app for the Apple Watch that has a better interface than the current one does. In my design of the new photos app, I implemented to main aspects that would make it much easier to use. The first was the ability to zoom in and out when looking at your camera roll. This makes it very easy to scroll past your photos and find the one you’re looking for without having to click on any of them. The second aspect was the addition of a “Back” button once you do click on a photo. The “Back” button allows you to go back to your camera roll once you click on a photo; this is a feature that the current Photos app for the Apple Watch lacks. Without this button, if you click on a photo, there’s no way to get back to your camera roll so you’re stuck having to scroll through all your photos to find the one you’re looking for. With the implementation of these two aspects on my new Photos app, Apple Watch owners will be able to have a better user experience with their photos. One possible problem with the “Back” button that I would look into if we did user testing, would be the size of the “Back” button. It would probably be small and hard to press for people with bigger fingers. However, if this was a problem during user testing then we could try to adjust the interface so that when you zoom the screen, the “Back” button gets larger too. Overall, I think these developments would greatly improve the experience with photos on the Apple Watch Series 1.

Existing Photos app screen w/ no “Back” button.

My UI Design for a new Photos app for Apple Watch. Implements a “Back” button and other improvements.

Protected: Wk5 – Artist Conversation – Christina Mott

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Wk4 – Art Experience – Architecture

This was a really interesting assignment that I really enjoyed. I chose to take a look at the FA4 wedge which is one the two main “traffic-jam” points on our campus. After examining this wedge and the surrounding area, I decided that the best way to change it would be to move the stairwell from the inside of the building to the outside. This means getting rid of the current door that takes you into an indoor stairwell and putting in an outdoor staircase. This outdoor staircase would wrap around the side of the building and lead to a door just above where the current door is located. This will be better than the previous architectural layout because now people won’t have to squeeze between the hedge, the tree, and the wall just to get to the second floor of the building. They will instead get to use an outdoor staircase that is wide enough for traffic going in both directions.

I had a couple of ideas for how to redesign the building but ended up choosing this one for a couple of reasons. It may be a kind of expensive renovation, but there are some major positive aspects of this plan. The main one being that we don’t have to move or cut down any plants; the hedge and the very large tree would not be affected and can go on living as they are, which would make some people very happy. Also, it would obviously significantly reduce the FA4 traffic-jam problem. A year from now, I think the students that were aware of the problem and had to deal with the traffic-jams here themselves, will talk about how much easier this made it for them to get to the second floor of the building. They will also talk about how they no longer have to deal with the frustration they used to endure trying to navigate through the old, and now non-existent, FA4 wedge.

 

View from back left corner of building

View from back of building

View from side of building