Dani Feng
Arts Scholar
Semester 2
My memory is so bad now that it’s finals season so I only remember small parts of everything. I enjoyed many of the artist talks and they let me re-evaluate how I could shape my art to reflect current events. For example, I remember there was a guest artist panel where many of them discussed how art consistently reflects the history at that time. It made me wonder how much my own art was affected by it. After some consideration, honestly I don’t think most of my art is tied to heavy themes like that. There is some consideration as to what kind of characters and struggles I want to represent in my art but a lot of the time I make something because it’s cool. I find a lot of joy in the process of making something or being productive, more than seeing how “deep” its “meaning” is. I felt very validated when one of the guest speakers mentioned art doesn’t need to have intrinsic meaning; it could simply exist.
The process of the Capstone project proposal provided a lot of great ways to help get an artist started. Usually when it comes to art, I just jump straight into it without asking questions. With the Capstone proposal, I had to make a clear cut outline of my schedule, budget, and everything I have yet to learn in the process. It greatly pissed me off but it might be worth it. Personally, I felt like worrying about pre-production details for very long stressed me out more and stalled time for making actual art. I do think a solid plan is necessary for huge projects, but I just wasn’t used to it. I suppose every artist may have a different way of approaching making work depending on what they’re doing.
How helpful any feedback is greatly varies because our skill sets and mindsets are just so different. Part of me is skeptical because of some students’ feedback because they might not be aware of all the intricate factors that go into making this kind of art. At the same time, it might be helpful to learn from a different perspective since many creative processes share similar patterns no matter what the end result is meant to be. Therefore when providing feedback, I personally like learning how two different creative processes are similar, and what can be learned from each. I don’t know how to word this at all. The closest example I have is how acting and animating are different mediums of art but they often bounce on the same cinematography principles.
One example of a “news-related” piece of art that fascinated me was when the ‘Serve and Protect’ sculpture at Salt Lake City was vandalised with red paint amid the BLM protests. This is the exact kind of thing you would see on an AP test in the future! This is a perfect example of how art - or the change of art - continues to reflect strong beliefs and frustrations amid current events.
The two creative-related art classes I have are ARTT200 (3-dimensional art) and IMDM100 (immersive media). In ART200, I literally make the art pieces as I go, with little to no prior thought. IMDM had one project that shared similarities to the Capstone proposal since it was about making a proposal for a community art installation. We had to consider all financial restraints, proper location, a scaled-down visual of what it could look like, and its significance to the community. I learned there is quite a difference between making something small and fun for your own enjoyment vs. conceiving something that will need to get funding before being made.
This semester’s art scholars colloquium was not nearly as enjoyable as the ones during freshman year. Partly because I wasn’t able to stick by and stay close with any of the same friends I made from last year. I hope next time, I am able to privately chat with a friend within the Zoom call chat. One of my fondest memories from freshman year was Service Day. I felt like that particular day cemented a lot of lasting friendships as well as creating a sense of community in our TA group. I can only imagine what we could've had if the NYC field trip still happened.
Most of the contact I had with people has not been deep enough for us to clash on a specific subject. I do think there is value in learning other perspectives to get an understanding of the world but I am just too lazy and too emotionally unstable to go there. I will actively avoid people if I can sense discourse from a mile away.
Semester 4
Man this has been quite the journey! It has been a long two years. Even after all we’ve accomplished,
I still can’t shake off the bitter feeling that this is only a shell of what we could’ve had if it weren’t for COVID. I don’t like being bitter, but honestly, I found a lot of the ArtsFest and end-of-semester activities to be rather anticlimactic due to the experience feeling so isolated. It simply felt like just another online assignment I have to finish rather than something that’s been in the making for months. Perhaps I am just too bitter about all this; I saw that a lot of other students in the same year as me felt extremely accomplished. Maybe I just didn’t make the most of it like they had.
Either way, when I attended the final workshop colloquium on 5/11, the realization crept up on me. Like, wow, this really is the last time I will see Art Scholars get together like this. I don’t know how to feel. I guess I will miss this for what it offered but I feel like it could’ve offered more if we simply weren’t unlucky.
The most prominent example of an assignment demonstrating my growth would be none other than the big boy capstone project that we just finished. I wrote a whole section about my conflicting feelings towards my process of finishing it. Basically, during the whole sophomore year, I had overestimated my ability to handle this project in a reasonable time frame, which led me to grind in the last two weeks leading up to ArtsFest. What I had learned was that I could not count on myself to finish ideas that I was passionate about before. I discovered there was a lot of nuance and spontaneity to my artistic process than I thought, and I will use my knowledge to have better over my future endeavors.
My perception of art has mostly felt the same, honestly. I can’t tell if I just have a sloppy memory if I genuinely didn’t feel like anything I encountered was noteworthy. Overall, I still wish I got more chances to view it in person. I will say that the process of outlining every detail of my capstone project, from its budget to its schedule, allowed me to rethink my artistic process. In the past, I did not make myself go through this many steps whenever I made art. I just went with the flow with only a rough plan and no specific deadlines. The capstone project allowed me to reevaluate how I could better prepare my personal projects so I feel more in control of when things are done. I also surprisingly enjoyed the recent Pyramid Atlantic field trip where we were taught how to make foam stamps. I did not know I could use budget materials to something like stamps. This made me realize there was a lot of DIY art potential just from small household items and I didn’t need to go out of my way to get something pricey. I’m really glad I attended this field trip because this stamp-making technique is definitely something I will be using in the future.
Honestly, a lot of aspects associated with my capstone project were things I learned before Art Scholars, because I chose to play it safe. I can't say I used the time management skills to its fullest because I ended up procrastinating anyways. Some of the things I talked about with Gabi were very eye-opening, though. We talked about ways I could “revert” back to the passionate mindset I had. This included writing down ideas to come back to later, write down how I’m feeling, and setting up a space designated just to make art. These are all valid ways to practice holding my inspiration and tricking my mind into holding that state of creativity.
One memorable experience of collaboration was one of the earliest Art Scholars activities where we decorated a foam poster and we went around campus, taking pictures with it. This was the poster I made.
Granted, I do not remember much from early September 2019 and quite a lot has happened then. What I do remember was Vicki helped me a LOT with the poster, and it essentially was a collaborative effort. She helped me paint the background and cut out the galaxy-shaped section, while I drew in the Cosmicals. It was because of Vicki that I was able to finish the poster in time. I also have to thank her for holding onto the poster when I had to leave early and go to work. That was one of my fondest memories.
What compelled me to join Scholars was the collaboration aspect of it. I learned that there was so much stuff I enjoyed doing with the right people that I would not normally enjoy by myself. I felt quite connected with the community during the first days of Art Scholars, but not so much later on (I was a commuter). That community aspect did kind of disappear for me as the COVID situation grew, and I couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. This became especially apparent as I encountered trouble trying to answer each part of the reflection. For many of them, I simply could not immediately recall anything from my two years that I could answer here. This made me reevaluate how much effort I should put into remaining close with communities and new people, in an academic setting or not. This is definitely something in my experience that I will think about from time to time, especially in my future career with other people.