Really?

It's the end of another week of school. I've made it through 3 weeks, only 12 more to go until summer break.

I still can't believe what people think constitutes a "discussion post" for my online classes. No one seems to care about punctuation or spelling (if they typed their responses in Word, they could at least use Spell Check). Most of what is being submitted is gibberish that is incoherent.  It is a rarity when people write a clear sentence.  These are my complaint just on syntax and grammar alone.

It seems that most people think that "I like it" or "That's good" or "I agree with you" should count as their participation in class.  Granted, with the amount of discussion postings we are expected to contribute, we are doing far more work than people in the classroom situation.  If everyone in the class were expected to speak as much as we are expected to type, class would be 10 hours long including lecture.  It can be hard to come up with substantial posts each and every time, but with some thought and effort you can keep contributing to the discussion.

We're on week 3 and I am still the only student actually critiquing the other students' work.  I was glad to see that the things I have been saying are being considered by my fellow students, but it is important that they develop the ability to look at artwork critically and thoughtfully.  "I like it" and "You did a great job" don't really imply that they are looking at the work critically.  The instructors usually have started cracking down on critiques by this point, but it seems as though they don't care this semester.  Weird.

I at least remembered to take photos at my figure sculpting class.  I'm really starting to enjoy this class, which is a first for any class I've taken at the Academy.  Here are a few pictures from class.

We have started working on typography in my graphic design class this week.  We had some fun with "making words move" and here are my results.

I also tried out the school's shuttle bus system this week (after last week's disaster of $32 parking AND almost 2 hours to drive 3.5 miles across town to go home).  Getting there was great.  I picked up the bus a few blocks from my house.  The buses are clean and comfortable AND there was a TV on the one I caught.  They were showing Iron Man 2.  I got to class on time and relaxed.  Let's just say getting home was NOT that easy.  I stayed behind to take pictures of my model, so I missed the bus by 1 minute.  Not so bad, I thought considering there was another bus in 1/2 an hour.  Well, that bus never showed up.  Finally an hour later the next bus showed up and I hopped on.  Well, the "next" bus was a different route and it was taking so long I hopped off by the dorms and walked the rest of the way home.  I probably could have walked across town faster than my trip home took, but once I caught the next shuttle, I wasn't entirely certain where I was.

Clay D'oh

I managed to bust through the reading and quizzes for 3 classes yesterday during my commute (I have to say taking the train, even with possible delays is great for that part of school work!)

Tonight I worked on my homework for my figure modeling class.  I had to sculpt a cube, tapered cylinder and an egg.  

I have to say that working with the clay itself is not causing quite as much pain as I had feared, though after class on Thursday I had experienced some pain (and got a massage that night).  I am really hopeful that orthopedic massage is going to help me through this class.  I'm really glad to have found a therapist that does ortho massage when I did. 

I did come to the realization that I am going to need to keep my nails pretty short this semester.  I'm not one that gets acrylics or anything like that, but my nails grow out fairly long and strong.  I ran into the first problem with that tonight when my nail sliced through one edge of my cube while I was working on the cylinder.  Sure, I could have placed the cube somewhere else, but that doesn't really do me much good when the next moment, my nail pokes the surface of the cylinder.  

I'm pretty optimistic that I will like this class at this point.  It seems interesting, it will be good to build on my human skills from last semester AND the students in this class are going to make me say "WTF?" on a regular basis (Really though, that is the students in all of my classes). 

On the agenda for this week: 

Redesign of CA license plate (CA Art in Cultural Context)

Balance and Movement using 10 Arrows (Graphic Design)

Using Letter Forms as Shape (Graphic Design)

Begin building form using geometric shapes (Figure Modeling)

Here are some photos of my homework assignment (due this Thursday)

It's so HAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD

The first week of school has been amusing to say the least.

Thursday was the first day of my figure modeling class.

I have never seen so many people not know how to swing a hammer, use a cordless drill, use a screwdriver or look like a deer in the headlights when handed a pair of pliers (or thingy as one dude called them). 

Granted I am the old lady of the class (at least the instructor is not younger than me), but by the age of 18 I knew how to wield some tools.  I mean who hasn't at least assembled some cheap piece of furniture in their life time?

I have to say the best part of class may have been roll call.  The instructor kept calling Cameron. Cameron. Cameron.

A guy speaks up and says "I'm sorry, did you say Cameron?" to which the instructor replies "yes".  The student continues on to say "oh, it's not Cameron.  It's Kamran.  Pronounced KOM-RON, like dot com and Ron. But you can call me KOMMIE."

Nothing fun to report as far as pictures from this class, but there were a lot of kids going on and on about how hard building an armature is.  Imagine the flat voices of terrible hipsters saying "it's soooooo haaaaaaaaaaaaaaard"

My California Art in Cultural Context class is killing me already.  Obviously the school has a lot of students in attendance from other states/countries because they have a fully online program.  Apparently California is the the real world magic kingdom from the things these people are saying.  I live in California and I can't stand when people say "Cali".  I am in a class full of people who can't wait to come to Cali for...... fill in the blank.  "It is the land of opportunity because it has room for all the people" as one person said.  "It is always nice there" stated by another person and so on.

We were discussing this photograph by Max Yavno

I just about fell over laughing when one student proclaimed that "People had less to worry about and finding jobs wasn't that hard" in relation to the observations that people look fit and healthy in this photo even though there are adverts for "junk food" in the background.  This discussion progressed into how Californians are obsessed with their bodies, but that's okay because the climate is good for working out and we have a lot of plastic surgeons.

Here's some work for my Graphic Design Principles class that I have done so far.

I have one additional assignment that is currently in the oven for this class, so you'll have to check back later :)