Time for a little feedback on Art 110 in general and the art activities in particular. Here we go!
3 Favorite Activities: I really enjoyed the (spray) painting activity, the “Landscapes with a Corpse” activity, and the “student choice” activity. I liked the painting activity, particularly because I had never worked with spray paint from an art standpoint (only doing some touch up work on home projects with my Dad), and I felt like it broke down some of the stigma associated with graffiti art by having the students dig deeper into the creative side of it. I enjoyed the “Landscapes with a Corpse” activity partially because of the creative license it allowed, but mostly because it was just so off-the-wall and unique. I don’t consider myself morbid, but looking at our own (potential) deaths from a safe and creative way was pretty stimulating. I also liked the “student choice” activity because (you guessed it!) of the creativity it allowed. I took it as an opportunity to return to my childhood roots of sketching, though it felt much more like my first time as it had been so long.
3 Least-favorite Activities: While I didn’t have a huge problem with any of the activities, I didn’t love the results of the drawing activity, the kickstarter activity, or the plaster-casting activity. To be clear, I liked the concept of the drawing activity using the “French Girls” app (or something similar), it’s just that my abilities lie elsewhere and my attempts to draw others were feeble at best. The kickstarter activity was worthwhile in the sense that I didn’t really know what Kickstarter was all about prior to this activity, and now I am much more familiar, but I felt like I needed much more than a week or so to plan ahead for a potential video/project and to arrange the necessary equipment, rather than just making a pretend pitch video and getting to know the site. While I enjoyed the beach aspect of the plaster casting activity, and I guess its hard to fault the act of creating something purely for the sake of creation, I just felt like the process was somewhat boring or tedious. I’m really just nitpicking here, as I didn’t have a big problem with any of the activities.
Overall: I think this class has been incredibly enjoyable, particularly in comparison to the structure of typical college classes, even art classes at that. I like the casual nature of it, though the three posts a week can be difficult to accomplish if you are used to a more traditional lecture and reading style format. As much as it can be awkward or uncomfortable, the interview process with other students, and to a lesser extent the SOA artists, helped break the ice and really got easier and more enjoyable as the semester wore on. I don’t think I would change much about the course, other than maybe doing an extra “student choice” activity week to further allow creativity to flourish, though the set activities offer plenty of options and leeway for the artistically inclined. Well done!
Dodger Musings 