Present Joys

Well, here we are: my last week of college. Monday, all I had was motion graphics, as usual. Our teacher used my narwhal logo as a demonstration of puppet warp. Barely anyone showed up, but that was okay, because the people who did were lots of fun. We had critiques in jewelry all week. On tuesday, the crit focused solely on intermediate-level students, so it was very uninteresting—and it lasted the entire period. Thankfully, I had a lot of extra free time to spend on jewelry; the ad faculty were dealing with thesis stuff on tuesday afternoon and had instructed me not to come to class. I used all my free time to finish the jewelry stuff I also picked up stuff from Jason, who I told I’d help out with pillows.

I worked really late in the jewelry lab, taking a bit of time off to visit the Grass Skirt before rushing off to Circle Hall to take my final exam for History of 2-d Design. Since I am a graduating senior, I was taking the test a week earlier than everyone else, in an empty classroom. I got done very quickly. And that was the end of that!

I worked at home wednesday morning, only getting to campus around 3pm, in time for motion graphics. We did a comically simple in-class project, then a bunch of us headed over to the Grass Skirt with my teacher, where we had a fantastic time and generally caused a ruckus. After that, I parked my car in the alley next to Crane and unloaded all my thesis stuff. I spent about three hours setting up my exhibition and hanging out with my everybody else who was setting up on the third floor of Crane. It was a total blast—I just wish we’d planned ahead and had a pyjama party.

And then it was thursday! Oh my, what a big day. I had another jewelry crit. As usual, it took up the full three-hour class period. After jewelry, I drove off-campus for a top-secret job interview at noon, but came straight back in time for one more bit of thesis work with Mr. Mohr. I had lunch at home, but came back to campus for a bit more thesis setup. Theresa, Karl, and I had a drink at Wolf’s Ridge and raced back to school for the Senior Thesis exhibition, which lasted from 7–9pm. I stood around and talked to a bunch of people and had a lovely time sharing my work and taking email signups!. With the completion of the thesis show, this project has crossed a major milestone, but is by no means finished. Stay tuned for more updates on that.

And then it was friday! I had a string of job meetings in the morning, but was back on campus by 1pm. I had to make a few extra take-away things for thesis, so I did all that, then I headed back to Crane for the second day of the thesis exhibition. Thursday night was bustling and lively, but friday afternoon was mostly dead. There were a few interesting guests, but mostly I just hung out with all my classmates for a few hours. And we took some absolutely perfect group photos! After the thesis show officially ended at 7pm, we cleaned everything up and a bunch of us met to celebrate at Plank’s Bier Garten. We had drinks and pizza and scintillating conversation., and it was just right. I made it home just before midnight and fell asleep instantly.

So there it is—the end of my time at CCAD. Quite honestly, I was expecting more turmoil and frustration during this last week. It was smooth and pleasant. Next week, I’ll travel to New York City with my senior ad teacher and a handful of friends. Next saturday, I graduate. Then it’ll really all be over—then the sadness will really set in. For now, I’m content to rest in the afterglow of a fantastic final week.

This, my second-to-last week of school, started uneventfully with motion graphics—a class whose negligible workload has been absolutely perfect for this final semester. Tuesday, I spent way too much time on jewelry—a class with a significantly more burdensome workload. I cast some silver then spent the rest of the morning cleaning up my cast. I worked through lunch, including pouring an ingot from leftover silver. Mr. Mohr let us skip tuesday’s Senior Ad to prep for Directions, so after jewelry, I went directly to the library and worked on thesis stuff with Theresa, taking a short break with Ian before my art history class at 3:30pm.

I drove back down to school later tuesday evening to use the roll printer for thesis. Being the night before Directions, CCAD’s senior career fair, the print lab was a madhouse. Thankfully, though, I got most everything printed successfully. (Stay tuned for thesis updates!)

I spent wednesday morning readying myself for Directions. After loading my car full of fragile things, I drove to the Aladdin Shrine Center at Easton and set up. At 3pm, the school served us pizza, then from 4–7pm, we showed our portfolios and socialized with recruiters and employers. My table was in the corner of the room, which was a bummer. I was glad when everything was over—let’s just put it that way. After the event, Mr. Mohr and I met up with a few 2013 grads at Fadó, across the street from the Aladdin Shrine Center.

Thursday, although quite busy, was a nice respite after the haze of Directions. I sweated and fussed over aggravating jewelry work—but only until 11am, when Dana and I went and checked out this week’s fine arts thesis shows. In our final Senior Ad class of the year, at 12:30pm, we had a tabletop critique to pitch our final senior thesis projects. While discussing Theresa’s exhibition design, the entire class crammed itself into a little storage closet. A lovely photo op!

Everything is briskly coming to an end. I submitted my 10-page term paper for History of 2-D Design and got a nice grade back; I’ll take a final test for that next tuesday.

Motion graphics was cancelled on monday, so I stayed home. I’ve got a lot of different things going on, so that was fine.

Tuesday, I frantically worked to carve some waxes. Literally nobody showed up to our customary friendship lunch at the Hills (busy times!) but I met up with Dana to look at a few fine arts thesis shows, so the time was redeemed. Mr. Mohr brought a bunch of MaKey MaKey devices into Senior Ad, ostensibly to encourage us to consider including interactive technology component into our thesis projects. We spent an hour or so playing around with the things, which was fun. He let us out of class a little early so we could enjoy the warm weather. It felt irresponsible to relax outside, even for just twenty minutes.

Wednesday, I worked all morning on sweater-making for thesis. I dropped by the CCAD Archives office to meet with Leah. We had a really great conversation about my progress. In motion graphics, we messed around with camera tracking in After Effects. I came home and kept working on thesis sweaters, then stayed up extra-late working on materials for Directions. It was a satisfying day.

Thursday was rainy and dreary. I discovered a pea-sized hole in the sole of my loafers about 5 minutes after I got to school—bad news. In jewelry I cast some doodads in bronze. After that, Jason and I had lunch at Hubert’s Polish Kitchen in belated honor of his birthday. All three hours of Senior Ad were spent watching presentations of some sort: Mr. Mohr talked for a while about job interviews; Julia shared about a business trip she’d taken; we spent the rest of class watching classmates brief us on their thesis projects and engaging in unusually rancorous discussion. Everybody’s about to explode, I think.

Monday afternoon, I recorded two oral history interviews for my thesis project, which is coming along albeit slowly. We had a work day in motion graphics. Our teacher spent most of the time talking about Taco Bell’s new breakfast menu, leading me to believe he is in fact a paid representative for Yum! Brands.

After a frazzling tuesday morning commute, I worked in silence in jewelry all morning. After friendship lunch at the Hills, I went to Senior Ad where we sat through a few hours of presentations and worked in class. I left early to record yet another thesis interview, which lasted a good long time.

By the time my interview meeting was finished, I was 40 minutes late for History of 2-d Design—and it was snowing hard! I ran across campus to make the rest of class. We had a study session for an upcoming test. By this point, it was practically time There was a reception beforehand, where odd hors d’oeuvres were served. Lots of friends. After Draplin’s very enjoyable and entertaining presentation, I checked into the afterparty at the MindMarket. I didn’t stay long; 14 hours on campus is long enough for one day.

The fun continued on wednesday. Back in the MindMarket, I had lunch with Aaron Draplin and about 20 other kids, where I served as official question-asker and conversation-starter. We enjoyed a very pleasant repartee! After lunch, I did homework in the school library for a few hours (a cozy place), turned in my motion graphics project in class, and headed home.

I had lunch with Marcia Tabler on thursday. We mostly talked about thesis, and she was tremendously reassuring. It’s nice to have lunch with people who can calm you down. Senior Ad was its usual dysfunctional, fun self—after some presentations, we played tunes and worked on projects and had good conversations and enjoyed each other’s company. After that, I took a test in History of 2d; then the week was over! Graduation will be here before I know it.

Monday was boring, but tuesday was great: absolutely bursting at the seams with exciting things. I started out the day with a crit in jewelry (I turned in a terrible project), though I left at 9am for a meeting in the MindMarket. I returned to jewelry an hour later to find the crit still dragging on. At 11am, I headed over to the Hills for friendship lunch. After we ate, Dana, Dorian, Don, and I wandered around looking at fine arts thesis shows. It was lovely—all the more so because temperatures were in the 60s! After lunch, we had a nice time in senior ad—somewhat of a return to our class’ pre-One Show levity. I even wrote a nice tweet about my History of 2-d Design teacher, so you can tell I was in a pleasant mood.

Wednesday was low-key. I was late to Motion Graphics because I had a meeting with Mr. Lutz, but nobody really cared. After class, I went home and kept working frantically on my thesis. While I wait for yarn to arrive, I’m focusing my energy on organizing old photos and setting up interview appointments with some “CCAD silverbacks”.

Thursday, I spent most of jewelry writing a plan for the rest of the semester. It didn’t make much sense to start any new, intensive projects with spring break looming so close. Dempsey drove downtown to join me for lunch, which was nice. After that, Senior Ad basically consisted of presentations that seemed to last forever. The weather was cold again and the weight of my unreasonable goals began distressing me. Not a nice way to begin spring break!

I drove back down to school on friday morning for an oral history interview with Danny Hinty, manager of CCAD’s Art Supply Store since 1974. It was a good start to this new phase of my thesis project. More news as all that develops.