User:Leah Smith

bio
I'm Leah Smith. I hate my last name, it feels like i don't really have one. I've been at AIS for 2 years now, currently studying for a degree in Industrial Design Technology. I'm really leaning towards a career in architectural model making or theatrical set & prop design. I like to build & for sure I've figured out that I am a model maker - to the core. I'm a gemini & that means it takes me awhile to land in the place I need to be - but no matter what I always get there one way or another. Last quarter a really important teacher & friend of mine died, Doug Paasch. His death has created somewhat of a vapid creative void for me. Push, pull & shove - but try as hard as I can & I have NO DESIRE to build, photograph or paint anything right now. So that leads me to where I am today - in a GE class. I avoided all my GE's like the plague in the past 2 years..... People said I was dumb to do that. But now I'm breathing a collective sigh of relief that I can stick my head in a book & do bookwork for a couple of quarters - or at least until I feel creative again. Like I said, it may always take me a bit to get there - but I ALWAYS land in the place I need to be just when I need to be there. Trust your gut. I live by that. I'm glad I listened to me & not other people about what I should do. I'd be screwed right now. Thankfully, I'm holding on just by my gumption - but I'll stick it out & find my creativity again. I'm a soldia'!!

RIP: Doug.... you are missed.

~L.

==assignments== The Art Walk..... 1. The least public part of the art walk for me, ironically, was right as we left the school on the waterfront the piece entittled "Welcoming Spirits". Despite the inviting name, I felt where it was placed was very exclusionary to the condo building behind it. Yes, of course it is considered "public" - but for me it kinda felt like the kinda thing I should just walk past because it was a part of these people's home. I don't know, maybe that's my own issue - but I just didn't feel "welcomed".

2. Technically, Tom Wesselman's "Seattle Tulip" is very obviously public & obviously art. The problem for me is that I've lived in Seattle for about 25 years now & that tulip drives me nuts. It's ugly & the colors date it to the 80's (not suprising to me that we got this piece in 1989). It's obvious a personal thing to me - but I'm just so damn tired of looking at that piece (especially sinced the Well's Fargo sign behind it clashes) that I just no longer see it as art. However, some ppl may like it - & I'd never take that away from them. Art should be there whether we like it or not - I just happen to not like it. After so many years I've likened it to more of a monstrostity than it is "art".

3. Right over by the jail when we were walking up the hill towards it I saw an iron grate the kind that they have at the bottom of the trees to stabilize them. Well, after all this weather, snow, ice, salt...etc... the grate had started oxidizing (it was midway up the hill) from everything running over it. The iron work itself is pretty - however, with the natural abuse from the elements hitting it the colors were all these different shades of orange & red. With the design of the iron work paired with the oxidation it reminded me of abstract-art deco. Is that even possible? lol....

===midterm=== http://www.spike.com/video/bravia-paint-behind/2801881

===final=== It won't let me upload or link or whatever the file. I'm pretty literate with the 'puter - but this problem stumps me. Any suggestions?

===in-class writing=== Actually, if I did anything in class it was doodling, but to me that is a super important exercise for my brain. But mostly, I just listened & that suited me just fine.

==reflective assessment== So i'm thinking... assessment? What does that mean? Then it occurs to me, how about my bio? How do i feel now compared to just a few months back? So I read & compare & this is what I've decided...

Honestly, I'd have to say better. I'm feeling much lighter (spring has arrived but its still wintery outside, as of yet, even so) I'm of clearer head. I dropped my studio classes & slid into 2 ge classes about 10 minutes before class started the first day of classes expecting only books, lectures, boredom & an easy way out of being creative - I'd found a way to cop out. ...or so I thought. Both of my ge classes (humanities & world civ) turned out to be vastly different than anything I ever imagined & both had creative projects that happen to have had very important & pivitol turning points for me in learning how to process bad energy coming in while still retaining my creative abilities in a healthy manner (balance). I'm very empathetic to other people & sometimes that cuts off my nose to spite my face & I'm not even trying.

I suprised myself & enjoyed the quarter immensly as it flew by. I was shocked to realize how quickly it was gonna be over (2 weeks), coincidently that was the day we were all walking down on the waterfront on the way to see you busk. I was wrong about being able to hide from my creativity - especially in art school (duh..). I guess even where you least expect it - you find the thing you most needed. Working creativity back into the productive side of the brain, when it so desperately wants to shun & hide itself into the back, can be a tricky process. I feel that this quarter both of my classes helped me make great strides towards feeling like my confident creative self again, able to produce... healthy. more & soon.

The video "Sugar Bomb!!!" is the most fun I've EVER had on a final. I tried to upload it here (link it or whatever) but wiki wouldn't let me. Any other suggestions on being able to send you a link?

I was very upset over Doug Paasch when this quarter started. I worked through a lot of things & I'm feeling better & I'm getting better at processing more loss/his loss. In the last few years there was a horrifyingly shocking amount of death in my life & it had been awhile since those emotions came up again. I miss him, but as with all of them that I've lost - I have learned how to hold them in my heart. It's also a process & a balance.

So there you go... assessment? Is that what you meant, because it seems like that's it to me... I guess in the end it comes down to me & how I feel. & I feel like a work in progress. Outloud & in technicolor.

Thank you so much your class rocked. Until later... ~L. :)