I Survived The Week! HOORAYYyyeezzzZZZzzzZZzzz...

Phew, you know, I wasn't sure I was going to make it through this week. However, after spending a horrendous 36 hours conscious, I managed to pull through and get everything caught up.

My body isn't what it used to be and the lack of sleep plus three Rockstar energy drinks in a 24 hour period probably knocked at least 6 months off of my life span. I'm being serious. It was actually mildly painful when I finally laid down to sleep after my Art History exam. My poor little heart, I really should be nicer to it.

What made me fall behind? Well, I underestimated the time needed to complete a project and due to general laziness over the weekend I put off studying for my first exam in, as mentioned before, Art History. The test ended up not being too terrible, but I wouldn't have felt that way had I not skipped Drawing II to cram for three hours before the test began.

The problem arose with my 3D project. The assignment was to build two walls constructed of 100 pieces of cardboard. Each wall had to use the same shape (although the size and proportions of the shape could vary), one had to be constructed of regular cardboard, the other had to have at least one side with the corrugation exposed, the walls had to either intersect or create tension and the whole thing had to be free standing. Here's what I turned in:

"Conflict in Cardboard"

I had half of the curving wall done when I started work on this Wednesday afternoon. Most of my triangles were cut out and I thought it might take me 4 to 6 hours to get to a point where I could finish the rest in class. What a gross underestimation. I worked on that things for 8 to 10 hours and then ended up using the entire 2 hours in class to finish it. I hadn't factored in cutting out all the squares and while the super glue I used was quick, it didn't cause some issues.

When I found a stopping point Wednesday night, it was actually Thursday morning at 3:45am. Anyone who knows me knows that I will generally choose to pull an all-nighter rather than risk sleeping through my alarm if I'm going to get 3 hours of sleep or less. I knew this would be the case and chose not to risk it. I didn't get much done between 4:00 and 7:00am (I got my back pack ready and watched a whole bunch of Home Movies episodes), but I did leave early to get some extra time in the studio to finish those damned walls.

The whole thing did actually have some meaning for me, so I'll do my best to put it into words. The two walls represent the duality of thought. I am always interested in the conflict between the right and left brain. The curvy triangular wall represents the creative right brain while the uniform square wall represents the rigid left brain. Originally, the triangular wall was the only one that was going to break apart. Very right brain people have a difficult time fitting into the rigid left brain world that society has created. It wasn't until later that I wanted the squared wall to be effected as well. Left brained individuals are very much about logic and step by step process and can sometimes become frustrated when dealing with a right brain who is fluttering in the wind. However, when they both smash together and play their parts well, they can make a beautiful piece of art.

It's not my favorite piece from that class so far, but the first with any meaning. I'll leave you with an image of the last assignment. It was an exercise in movement and repetition. We constructed 12 shapes with the same proportions made of packaging material (cereal boxes, 6 pack carboard, etc). I used boxes of tea and a glued card stock on the other die for color (something everyone got to do because of my ingenuity). I broke the rule for this assignment stating there should be 10% or less area of color. I don't mind the 2 point hit on my grade, though, because I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

"Ice Wrath"

That's all for now. Until next time!