Or should I say, "Dear Blog"?
It is recommended that creative individuals, like myself, should
keep a diary. They should write down ideas and accomplishments to reflect on
and learn from at a later date. In the book, Maximize
Your Potential: Grow Your Expertise, Take Bold Risks & Build An Incredible
Career by Jocelyn K. Glei, Glei discusses how a diary "can
make you more aware of your own progress, thus becoming a wellspring of joy in
your workday"(Glei, 117). I've never been much of a diary person, so I am
hoping a blog will work just as well. (Because that "wellspring of
joy" sounds pretty good!)
I am currently a senior Interactive Digital Design major at
Quinnipiac University. I am spending my last semester building my portfolio and
branding myself. It is going to be the hardest and most rewarding semester of
my college career. I plan to use this blog to track the progress of my
portfolio, documenting trials, tribulations and accomplishments along the
way.
First Trial: Who Am I?
I am an artist. I remember
the exact moment I realized that I was an artist. Before starting at
Quinnipiac, I was a Fine Art and Secondary Education double major at Monmouth
University for 4 ½ years. At the end of
my fourth year, my Painting 3 professor told me something I will never forget.
He said, “An artist isn’t
an artist because they like to create art. An artist is an artist because they
have to create art”. I did not fully
appreciate the profoundness of his words in that moment. It wasn’t until I awoke from a deep sleep one night because I
had an idea for a painting, that I knew. I grabbed for my sketchbook, half
asleep, because I had to get the idea down on paper. I had to see it. The next
day, I turned that sketch into a painting. Not because I wanted to, but because
I had to. I needed to see my idea as a painting. I needed it to be created. I
am an artist.
Although my first love is
painting, I work mostly digital now. My painting style tends to be more “design-y”
anyway, so it was a natural transition. It took me four years to figure out who
I was as an artist. This semester is going to involve a lot of reflection and
research to figure out who I am as a designer and let that show through in my
portfolio.
