The Beginning

November is Native American Heritage Month, and due to that fact that I joined the Native American society I was lucky enough to volunteer during their celebration. They had Natives performing dances such as Jingle, Fancy Shaw and a Warrior dance. It was beautiful to see them celebrate their culture often left to be forgotten, and for me to experience seeing as their are not really any in the UK. The next week they held their first Native American Film Festival in CSUSM, which I also volunteered for, helping with tickets. I also got to watch one documentary, which was very moving, called 100 years. It was about Elousie Cobell, a Blackfeet native, who fought 13 years for the lawsuit against  the US government on the illegal leasing and usage of native land. She settled for $3.4 billion even though she felt the Natives where entitled to more, she broke down saying she know Natives who have worked and died in poverty that she will settle for the money so they get something. ...

An opportunity came up in the Black Student Union, which was to do an African inspired dance for a cultural exposition. I've always wanted to be apart of this type of dance more popular in the USA than England. I joined, however it was not easy because people were not turning up so it was just 2 of us. Also had someone choreographing the dance but due to family issues could not finish teaching us. So me and my friend made a decision that it will just be us too also we will finish making up the dance moves. To be honest I like our moves better, but it was fun teaching her different African styles of dance. We spent a month practicing, then we finally performed it more than once and people loved. I was so proud to be apart of the first African inspired dance performance at CSUSM. It was amazing sharing my culture that I am proud of with people. Installation  I was given another installation project which was to choose between  rapprochement or intervention and ...

While I have been in CSUSM I have been trying to go to as many events as possible, through this I have met a lot people and learnt more about the culture within California. I went to an event about the Afro Latino culture, that started with a brief history on the connection between South America and Africa being the slave trade. This section was educating people that Latinos have African ancestry; which is a fact people are unaware of. Then there was a panel 4 Afro Latinos talking about their experience on learning to love both cultures and the racism felt if they looked more black than latino. It was interesting to hear their experiences especially coming from the UK where there is not a big population of South Americans. Also I spoke to a member of staff after and she said she appreciated how I was taking a interest in their culture. Visual Arts I am really enjoying my Visual Arts class, because I am learning the theory of art and how it has been used a...

My jet lag is starting to wear off finally. It was so hard to stay a wake in my class that started at 3pm onwards because it would be 12pm in the UK, so I was always sleeping and not know what was happening in class. Then fall asleep really early when a get home. However the only good side of it was that I was sleeping earlier because I normally sleep really late.  During this time I was also meeting other international students from the UK, France and Australia. Mapping out things that we a wanted to do while in the States. Graphic Design  It is ironic because currently Graphic Design is my most challenging module in terms of the work load. Every week so far I have been given 4 - 6 pieces of illustrations to complete, which is very time consuming due to the detail needed to produce the illustrations. However at the same time I am enjoying it, seeing as I am improving my basic Illustrator skills to being more advanced, which is beneficial seeing as this is the m...

Enchantment Project My first project was a box installation piece to which we had to pick between the 2 styles Impersonation and Enchantment. I chose Enchantment because I wanted to challenge myself and take a risk. I wanted my piece to be inspired by nature, so I decided to do an enchanted forest. Another aspect is that I wanted my piece be made out of recyclable materials. I spray painted the outside of the box a rusty brown and sprayed the inside a black/blue colour. In wanting to make a miniature forest, I hot glued twigs attaching green diamond card cut outs, I also glued the card to the ceiling of the box. The glue gun started leaving residue which I was trying to remove before, however it started to look like spider webs which I liked because it added to the enchantment effect. Unlike the rest of my class that took the lid off so that the audience looks in, I decided to be different and seal the lid shut. I wanted there to be only one light source which would pass through the ...

One of my first classes was Installation, which is different to my current course in Coventry being Graphic Design, because we look at how art occupies space and a site. I loved how my teacher taught the class, showing designers from different countries and ethnicities not just limiting it to American designers. This has a big influence on you as a student because you are not limited to just a specific style, to which you can be more creative. Rapprochement  Rapprochement is my favourite Installation style; it focus on the physical and sensory experience, rather than other styles just focus on the visual aspect. What I like is the simplicity of the materials used such as light that can be used to create something complex such a spiritual experience. This taught me to look into how elements such as light and space give off a certain response from the audience. My favourite Rapprochement artist James Turrell, experimented with light playing tricks on your brain to process the...

Once I received my timetable initially I was happy because I was in love with the subjects that I picked being Visual Arts, Installation, Digital Photo Documentary and Graphic Design. However I later found out that on Tuesday my first class is at 10am and my third class is at 9pm, my last class being 5 hours. The work load was very intense because in Coventry we're given big projects that can last 3 months, however in csusm (Cal State University of San Marcos) they give a mixture of weekly work and big projects. On the other hand my timetable showed I was free Monday and Wednesday to which I made sure I utilised those days. I already had good time management skills but I had to enhance them to fit with my busy timetable, seeing as in Coventry my timetable was set 10 - 5pm everyday. This taught me however to alter and rearrange my daily schedule last minute, rather than having a set plan for 3 months. I remember one of my teachers in Coventry was telling us that we need to learn...