July.20.14

Today, we continued to work on our posters. I find using photoshop extremely difficult. There are so many features that I find it overwhelming. Taking notes helps in class, but even with the notes, I still get lost at times. 

July.16.14

This Wednesday's field trip took place in the Brooklyn Museum. And to be honest, I did not enjoy the trip very much. Although the paper cutout exhibit was beautiful.

The first exhibit we viewed was about feminism. I had a hard trouble understanding it and was unable to appreciate the art or emotionally connect with it. 

July.14.14

Last Thursday, the lecture during lunch was about fashion. It is my favorite lecture so far. The first woman who presented worked for Phillip Lim. I was extremely excited when her presentation was actually about the geode collection which I obsessed over. When I first saw the printed ad of the collection in a magazine, I fell in love with it at first sight. Her presentation showed me how important having a key concept was and how even good ideas have to be thrown out sometimes in order to make a collection even stronger.

I was very surprised to see the second speaker, Tai. When I had come to Parsons two years ago for a summer program (not SIS), he was the TA! Tai is truly an inspiration and it's incredible to see how far he has gotten within two years. 

July.10.14

In Frank's class, we continued on making our garments. I am surprised at how quickly my group and I were able to create the entire outfit in such a short period of time. We are already 90% done and we are now thinking of accessories we could add to it. 

July.9.14

Today, we went to the Museum of Modern Art and The Museum of Arts and Design. The Sigmar Polke exhibit was quite interesting because of the various styles that he had. 

I enjoyed these two pieces in particular. The first one because there was a rugged plastic surface on top of it which reminded me of those 3D postcards and bookmarks. The one on the bottom was very neat and organized but still painted in a "free" way. 

July.8.14

In Frank's class today, we worked on our garments which could not be made out of fabric. My partners and I had stopped by Utrecht to buy some supplies. We came across a beautiful navy green sheet of paper. There were touches of gold and shades of blue on it. The paper was soft enough to give a flow-y feeling. Unfortunately, it is also very delicate. We are currently brainstorming ideas to reinforce the paper. 

We had also completed the pattern for the skirt in our outfit. Amanda wove a structured top made of artist tape. In the end, it resulted in a leather like "fabric" and was very sturdy. 

In Paul's class, we did critiques which I enjoy. Critiques allow me to notice things that I had not noticed before and be able to see from a classmate's perspective. 

July.5.14

Painting Negative Space

Paul's class was a combination of enjoyment and frustration. I was excited that we were using gauche, since it is comparable to watercolor; which I use a lot back at home. That excitement soon started to transition into frustration when the heat sped up the drying time of the gauche. The large size of the paper and the awful heat made the assignment a difficult task. Eventually, I was able to push aside the fact that it was hot, humid, sticky, and sweaty in the classroom and focus on my work. 

Strands Bookstore

828 Broadway, New York, NY 10003

I need to order this book and have it shipped to my home!

There was a shelf of books published by Taschen which I really enjoyed.

I discovered a shelf of art auction catalogues for around $4 each. I wish I could buy a lot of them, but my luggage would become too heavy.

July.3.14

Life

Unexpected weather hit New York City last night. In just a few hours, the scorching sun transformed into a dark cloud that was illuminated by light every few seconds. It was such a beautiful sight to see the light shine through the space between the branches and leaves. I just had to take a photo of it, and it came out in such a strange but beautiful way. The lightning had created a purple flash and the light had bounced back in a way that made it possible to see the sky when it was not lit up by the lighting.

Unedited photos of the lightning

As I was about to walk to Trader Joe's for groceries today, I discovered Strand Bookstore. I lost track of time there as I flipped through art auction catalogues, thick books on artists and designers, and magazines that I had not heard of. I did not get to spend as much time there as I would have liked today because I craved for dinner. Since I have the day off tomorrow because of 4th of July, I want to continue browsing through Strand Bookstore and the streets of New York.

Creating Color Swatches

In Frank's class, I used photos that I had taken at Washington Square to create a color palette. I did not have previous experience using Photoshop or Illustrator so it was somewhat difficult to find all the buttons of all the features. Fortunately, I took note on all the steps and drew pictures guiding me through every step.

July.2.14

Life

I now don't need Google Maps to guide me to my dorm and the cafeteria! My sense of direction is so horrible, it's embarrassing. I have never been on my own in New York and it is another world compared to the small town in California that i'm from. Although New York city is so chaotic, I somewhat like the chaos. I wonder if I will still think the same way at the end of this month.

Finding Inspiration in Washington Square

The delicate leaves against the hard concrete

A splotch found on the ground that I found intriguing because of the possibilities of what could have formed that circular shape. The small water droplets reminds me of when salt is applied on wet watercolor.

At first, I thought this was ice cream. But as I looked closer, I realized that it was a paint that took a plastic-like form. It wasn't flat like I thought it was. And it had so many different patterns stuck to it.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Once I walked into the Charles James: Beyond Fashion exhibit, I immediately recognized that beautiful image that was once featured in Vogue.

The setup of the exhibit was incredible. As if the dresses weren't spectacular enough, the laser which "dissected" the dress gave so much more information to the viewer. It connected to Frank's lesson on how any shape could take form on a garment. The construction of the dresses would have been near impossible to comprehend without the informational video that they paired with every dress.