Chromatic Phases of Student Life

The Return of the Prodigal Blogger ( Part I)

2013-03-12T22:18:00.000-04:00

So here I am again. After several months of my long break, I decided to come back to my blogging. It’s my “leisure” time, thought I should put something together in writing. Many things happened, good and good, sometimes sad, but mostly good. Now let me thank my Universe first: Thank you, Universe! If you are interested in my NEWS then read on! You will find here some cool tips for sure! Have a question? ASK ME!

News #1
Feels like this is the last post I am writing on this blog, because after graduation from SUNY Ulster, I decided to start a new blog of my new adventures (check it out here). Though I might come back to write one more post in this blog, not sure yet, future will show.

News #2
Before graduation, I made a video project for my Videography & Editing class final about my lucky ventures in NY State or shall I say about “HOW IT ALL STARTED” which is approximately 30 min documentary. Hope you will like it! :D
Part I Part II Part III

News #3
I was a guest blogger for peerTransfer.com. Read about my post on their website/blog special for international students. Enjoy some useful tips that helped me tremendously!
5 College Survival Tips from Gulnar: Part 1
5 College Survival Tips from Gulnar: Part 2

News #4
I got a JOB right after GRADUATION! YAY!
And some freelancing opportunities!
Before graduation I applied for a work authorization and received approval to work in my chosen field. I got a job as an Image Editor in nearby travel and print (image) related company. Got a referral from by web design instructor! Luckily, images are one of my beloved subjects, and now my job requires editing them and bringing up to the printable quality. I was told, soon I can make video presentations as well as some layout projects! BRING IT ON! Of course I complain a lot in my head or to close friends.. The only reason is, I dislike sitting behind the computer hours and hours without moving around, but it’s a job, they pay for work not for taking breaks, and because of my transportation schedule, my “breaks” are limited to bathroom and getting coffee. The bright side is once I get my own calibrated MacBookPro I can work from home as well. So in that case I can take breaks every two hours and enjoy my work, otherwise after 4 hours I start hating my computer screen! Can’t wait getting my new computer! :D Saving for it! And for an iphone 5. I think, now I graduated and got a job, I should have one. It’s not an accessory anymore, it’s a necessity!

News #5
Pretending to be an adult! TAKE TWO!
This week I am moving to a new place! My new Studio Attic!
(Read MORE )

News #6
I got accepted to Montserrat College of Art to do my next 2 years for BFA. But I had to take a year off and work to try to save some money for my tuition. They offered me their highest Merit Scholarship (which is ONLY 10.000/year), but the school’s annual cost is around 36.000, housing included. I most probably won’t take their housing offer, which will lower the cost a bit. So, you, wish me good luck, I am going to try my best to see where I will arrive. In addition to HOPE, now I got MARKETABLE SKILLS too! :D

I also applied to Cooper Union again this year, but alas… they said NO..once again.. Well, seems like I am not creative enough for CU from their POV, but from my POV I shall get a chance to be there! Next year I might apply again! Who knows! Life is fast and short!
BTW Thank Goodness, there’s coffee, otherwise I would be walking around depressed all year long!

News #7

Meet Gulnar, a new Artist Assistant! Yes, that’s ME!
While I am working on my “real world” job as an image editor, I also got a chance to be an artist assistant! Guess who the artist is!? Well, not sure if you can guess it, but anyways.. Iain Machell, my college mentor/instructor/advisor who is in “real world” besides teaching at the college is an artist too! (Check out his website!) So here is my point, if you do your homework and be a good student you will have cool opportunities offered by people who are around you or who know you even after graduation! Remember the magic word: NETWORKING! I lost the count, but this is my another dream come true situation! His work and personality are one of my inspirations, and I am so now I am so lucky that I even get to assist him with a project!!Also, there is another project that I am working on for him, where I am exposed to millions of 3D-2D art!!! To sum up, some kind of distorted notion of heaven for me! :D :D Lucky me! :D Yes, indeed! Thank you, Universe!

News #8
Interviews and freelancing
I was recommended to apply for another job so I did and went to an interview! Because the goal is to find that perfect JOB! It all started so good, and in my head I was like “wow sounds good, I can do it, I can try, WHY NOT ?” etc and when it came to payment part! Do you know what they told me? Hahaha, because I don’t have any experience, a la just grad, they are gonna pay me less than what I am earning from my current job, plus they can pay me that amount that I earn right now only after 3 month! So I though wait a minute, you want me to be a little white collar office slave and run around do every single job, and you are telling me I have no experience and you gonna pay me this little! Well, I thanked them and told them to call me if they need a freelancer, and my rates are obvious! I can’t believe it. As if every person with 10 years of experience knows the job without any training! That is said, it’s good to have those kinds of weird interview opportunities, I think! We learn, and learn from every single experience!

Currently, I am open to freelancing, because my profession allows me to make a living on freelancing, luckily, but with no benefits in that case. Therefore, it’s suggested to have a real job and do freelancing on the side if there is extra time left.

That was some life events within 3 months! Turns out writing a blog helped me to see what I really experienced from a distance. So I am back! Here's an advice of a day: write down good things that happened to you or bad things. (yea yea.. free therapy) Turns out good things are miracles, and bad ones are just random circumstances that are not that tragic at all! Good to know.. live and learn, or write and learn :D

Bye Bye. Hope to see you in my new blog!
Peace,
Gulnar

Want to read more about my adventures ? or so called Read PART II ?

Follow my blog @ ChroMatic Dreamer!CHRONICLES OF A DOER by Gulnar or click iBlogMORE on the top bar.

THANK YOU!

MASTERING ADVENTUROUS STUDENT LIFE

2012-11-18T18:10:00.002-05:00

Hello! It’s been a very long time I haven't posted anything! Honestly, I did not have neither much to write, you know same old thing [study & work], nor the time to write. Well, I have collected some last weeks events in one post! Enjoy reading!

Last week we had a day trip to Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC! Woohaa! I am just dreaming about the day when I can spend a week there and see everything that is exhibited. So huge, that I got lost there… Worse thing I needed to use the restroom right when we got to MET, so while in search of a restroom, I lost my group thus I was wandering at MET on my own, randomly found two of my friends and then we lost each other hahaha.. It was very cold outside, so we had to cancel the trip to Frick collections, and we ended up spending the day at MET. It was alright trip, could be better… Anyways, the Warhol show Regarding Warhol 60 artists 50 years was pretty challenging and fun! The silver balloons of Andy were in the exhibit; of course I am like a freak standing there for 20 minutes and staring at moving silver balloons. I saw them in the pictures and documentaries about Andy Warhol, and all of a sudden there are real in front of me! Of course, I would spend that time just enjoying the fact that I can physically touch the balloons ahahaha ! It was fascinating! Faking IT was good, honestly I expected something more, yet I still like it. Especially the part where photographers just got to experiment with splitting human parts apart and playing with scale a la manipulating the images! Photomontage was impressive! Imagine there is no Photoshop, and those artist actually were working with dark room and films, some “ancient” forms of photo printing and creating all that! It’s a huge advancement for that time in photography! Got to see Bernini, Sculpting in Clay exhibit! Seeing Master sculptor’s work is another kind of learning process, I think. I remember year ago I was so against sketching in the museums and galleries, but I guess I have grown, I did sketch a lot this time :D Yea, the inner artist is waking up, or I am becoming more open minded. I got to come to things on my own, or only certain people that somehow my consciousness considers as “the teacher” can make me change my mind, otherwise, I will be like “yes sure” and do my own way. Can’t help it! Thank goodness, there are still limited amount of people who can guide me when I am really stuck within the walls of my own skull. By the way, I helped with the organization of this trip to ArtDepartment! I designed the poster that you see in this post :D Oh Yea! and small ads for our college banner. We actually sold around 47 sits out of 55, so I felt like I was helpful!

I have mentioned in my previous posts that my art work was chosen to represent my college at SUNY wide student show in Albany, NY! We went to the reception, but unfortunately this time we got lost with my friends, and when we got there only my instructor was waiting for us.. so we missed chancellor's speech and taking pictures with her. Though it still was fun, we saw the show it was interesting mixture of skill levels and subjects. Oh well.. and I forgot to take picture with my mentor! That sucked, otherwise it was fun and we got some pics taken, but the quality in some of them are bad. Well here's me with my peace beaming at the camera. Better something than nothing, yet Bukowski said " I wanted everything or nothing" hehehe Now I feel confused, which side to take. I definitely love Bukowski's perspective!

Half-mere person
Sculpted by Gulnar a la me at WSA :D

I am loving my Woodstock School of Art Sculpture class! I think my instructor is one of the bests! Such a fun class, I have been sculpting for a while and I think finally I am close to understanding that I love sculpting! I don’t even notice how time passes! Yay… thank goodness, these days I feel like now I see in which areas I find myself happier.. it’s sculpture and layout design and photomontage a la photoshoping images to death :D So my scholarships are almost over, so I wonder if I can apply to a new one. Well I emailed WSA, and now fingers (& toes) crossed waiting for an answer! Update:while writing this post I got an answer that I can apply for a scholarship again!

I have looked up for some transfer colleges for future BFA. Found two completely new ones Montserrat College of Art and Boston University School of Visual Arts , and the same-old dream Cooper Union. I've been researching them for some time. Montserrat had a presentation at my college, so I got a portfolio review, my adviser actually suggested that college as one of the small and strong art colleges. I was told that I can get a merit based scholarship, which is great!!! Arts schools are the next place that I want to be for my BFA, but the circumstances sometimes gets so confusing! I have applied for Optional Practical Training. I think this will be a great opportunity to work in my field! I have been looking for graphic design jobs in the city, looks legit. I even checked internships at the MET! If I can get a good paid internship that will be cool! Please, Universe, please read these words! Oh good, I am waiting! :D

Oh, by the way if you have trouble reading like me, I come up with a new technique! Read a chapter for a day or a book or two per month! It does not have to be text book!!! I found it really helpful, because my brain is so hyper all the time, it just slows me down and helps to concentrate at reading. Just beware that first days it will be really hard, and seems very hard to concentrate, but then it’s just goes very smoothly. I start enjoying reading books! I real online mostly, but it’s so different to hold a book. I got a strange habit counting pages hehehe so it’s very cool and helpful!

So turns out my blogging online got noticed by two international student websites, and they have invited me to be a guest blogger for them. So I have wrote a post for one, and currently working on the second one. So let see if they don’t post it on their website I will post it here. I actually I think I wrote a really cool ”survival tips” for students studying abroad :D It’s as it is, if they post it I will give you the link, if not here comes my own blog! I think I love blogging, it’s something that helps me to survive. My English definitely got better, because I spend time on writing! Wait and see my survival tips! :D

Oh, meanwhile, I bought a new phone, this time fancy one. OK, being a student makes you live on a budget, so at some point some luxuries such as smart phones can’t be afforded.At least in my case. I bought one after years of thinking and saving, but turns out they have sent me 4GB memory, and I paid for 8GB. So sent the phone back, now waiting to get my new one and figure out the payment for that new one, which is more expensive, but I thought it worth it. It’s not iPhone however, but practically does everything that iPhone does… hehe I used Sony before, so I bought Xperia U, now changing to Xperia P. Let see what will happen this time… Oh well.. again no phone…

Btw I just started watching Avatar: the Last Airbender series… yea.. I am the one who watches everything the last. So don’t even laugh at me! I watched the movie , and then decided to follow up with the serees. It’s only 3 seasons, so I guess it will be fine. And My Grey’s Anatomy marathon is over, so now I am just waiting for new episodes every week which is such a drag.. anyways. Nothing can beat HOUSE MD, but that one is over.. OH well my all time love Gregory House! :D Anyways, I gotta go and do some homework. I have a documentary to prepare and shoot, a small essay to write and a proposal to make for my Videography and Editing class; a branding project which is my Advertising class assignment, we are rebranding our clients service, and reading for that class.. which I doubt.. I think I will not get to it today. I want to draw a little!

OK Bye! See you soon. Turkey/Thanksgiving Holiday is next week, I guess I will have something to write about that :D

Be inspired, Gulnar

Fall 2012!

2012-09-23T07:43:00.000-04:00

feels good!

Wow. Being back feels good! Summer was restless and tiring for me, as usually! I had to work at the college as I did all my summers in the States, and I was living in my friend’s apartment while he was away, and watching his cat and fish with another good friend of mine. However, I had a situation with my own new place that I rented before I went to my friend’s apartment. The situation was very disturbing and disgusting, so I could not stay there one more second. I ended up going back to my host parents place, but this time as a tenant! They were so nice to accept me back and allow me to rent my new old room :) I was thrilled! Well, you can’t amputate generosity from kind people. So they are as nice as they were the first day I met them! Thank goodness, I got a place to stay again, meanwhile I am looking for my own place, because soon I am applying for OPT before I go back for my BFA, and I really hope it will work out for me! I can’t wait to start working outside of college as a professional graphic designer or artist! We will see! Good luck to me!! I am very excited! I dream about NYC!!! The heart of Art and Design!

Well as it’s my last semester I am allowed to be a part time student by law, otherwise we all have to be full time. I have three classes + some extra things!

I love my Principles of Advertising class. It’s one of those best classes offered at my college. My instructor is amazing! I just love when instructors are so engaged in what they are teaching, and she is so much motivating that one can’t just sit there and not be involved in class! This class is very much helpful for me, because I am a practical learner, so the project is designed in a way that it involves real clients, and we students as a group must come up with a marketing and advertising solution for the clients problems! I enjoy this class a lot!

I have and Independent Study Web Design class. This class is very tough class; it’s very broad, and as a crazy student I want to know all at once.. well practically it’s very hard to implement! I am studying online by watching Lynda.com tutorials about web fundamentals, web development, what is behind the web design, and most importantly the software! Anyways, this class requires a lot of effort, time and focus. I meet with my instructor regularly to report my improvement and get advice, and then we schedule some projects due to bring in. So I am on it! I am gonna design my best web portfolio website! I think that’s what I aim for! I will definitely share when it will be done! You know what is inspiring? We humans all have the potential to learn anything we want, the only thing thought for me if I have zero interest in matter, I will learn nothing even if I spent hours and hours studying it. Well luckily I am so interested in this field so I will do my very best! I will! I promised myself! I like keeping my promises..

Videography and Editing class is one of those classes that I decided to take because as a graphic designer I believe I have to have basic understanding of video-making. You never know when somebody will hand you a camera and send you to shoot something! Heheheh as a matter of fact it happened to me just today! So I think I am on a right track. However, I think this kind of classes can’t be thought, or my instructor doing it wrong. Well, I know I will end up learning everything on my own, because from class demos I practically get nothing. I don’t find them helpful at all, but this applies only to software learning. I learn software on my own better than when teacher explains. So as usually 95% percent of class load on me :D Good luck to me once again!!!

My Woodstock School of Art SUNY Ulster Merit Scholarship allows me to take a Sculpture class in WSA studios. Once a week I make a long trip to that art school and then I just enjoy my Sculpture class. It’s one of the best things that happened to me! I love my class, my instructors there and my classmates! Very fun company and cool studios! I might even restart myPrintmaking class starting from November, because that is a Saturday class, so I am considering it. The only hardship though is the transportation. I take two buses to get to town where the school is and then I walk around 1.5 miles from the bus station to school. Of course my classmates, offered to pick me up from the bus stop, but I think it’s still nice outside for walk, but when winter comes I told them I will definitely be happy if anybody picks me up from the bus stop.

Visual Arts Club I am still running it for my last semester. I really hope that my friend or somebody else will take over it and it will continue to be an active club on campus. We had our first meeting, and we currently have 11 members, but we are expecting more students to join because some of us are members of another clubs as well, so we kind of juggle our club activities!

Btw as a Student Ambassador who is specialized on art and design I was asked to help Admissions office to design a booth for the Local Business Expo on campus, and we won an award! :P I feel helpful and cool heheheh. Sometimes I do photography as well when I am asked!

Indeed!

Art School AGAIN! Have you ever felt like one particular school is where you must be, but you got rejected first time you applied? If yes, so I feel ya! My mystery school is Cooper Union. I could not get in last year, but I am still attracted to that art school. So I decided to reapply for my BFA after my OPT is over. However, the worst part is they have seen all my stuff, so now I gotta prepare a better and new portfolio… hahah how ironic! I can’t give up in the middle of my dream! I think it would be very inappropriate ending for everything that I have accomplished! I learned that life is a series of experiments and my reactions to those results. So I am learning to let go the failures and try again! Why NOT ? I am alive, I am healthy, and I love learning! I thank Universe for everything I am given, and I will use it! I love my life! You should too :P

Volunteering.. You know what happens when you say YES to everyone who asks for help ? You end up with a bunch of promises that needs to be fulfilled.. yes, the story of my life! I love volunteering because I feel that’s how I can say my Thank You! for Universe’s gifts to me, but I think I am doing a little bit in an exaggerated mode or something! I end up spending more time on volunteering around than dealing with my own life, work, and study. Not If I am complaining, but I think I shall learn prioritizing things, so I don’t end up studying late nights when I am supposed to recharge my life batteries.

Please!

For today I think It’s enough said. I got lots of studying for Web Design to do, 3 chapters for Advertising class to study, and art blog revision to do, 2 cover letters to write, Sketches to make and life to live :D Thank you for reading my blog, I hope it was enjoyable and helpful somewhat. Till next time!

Keep smiling,
Gulnar

MY STORY & MORE

2012-06-08T15:04:00.000-04:00

Hello there! Long time no writing. I missed it. What do you do when you are not feeling good enough to attend the class that you were waiting for like 3 months to start? Yes, true, you rest and then start writing a blog post! Sadly, I missed the start date of my printmaking class today! I hope my start day will be next week; also, I missed my mentor! Turns out he was at the WSA (Woodstock School of Art) as well, very sad indeed! :| Anyways, I am gonna get better and attend my classes consistently, I HOPE! I think I mentioned before, that I got a scholarship from that school :D Lucky me, ha! So I will be taking printmaking & sculpture classes, 12 consecutive classes per subject, and for free! That art school is amazing! The studios are one of a kind! When I went there last summer it was so good that I kind of wanted to be there for good!

my friends & I at the commencemet

Well , while I am recovering I decided to write a little bit about the events of past few weeks. So far there been a lot of things as usually :D Guess, what happened! Yes, finally got to walk on my graduation for my AA in Fine Arts degree !! Wohoo! Such an event! The commencement ceremony wasn’t that inspiring honestly, but it was fun to wear the gown and walk around! Gowns are some kind of robes, if you get what I mean! Yes, I felt like I am ate Hogwarts :D Yay! It was very cool, especially faculty usually has fancy gowns with really cool hoods! Because it’s associate degree we, students, don’t get a hood, but I had a golden tassel for distinction and golden sash for PTK membership! :P Honestly, all in all everything I wore cost me around $60! Pretty pricey! Yet I think I loved it! I never had commencement ceremony from my Azerbaijani college, so I was excited about it and I tried to enjoy as much as I can! I had my host father to attend the ceremony. The even happened in the gym, because of the rain (which actually did not happen, except the morning). It was so hot inside, and the speeches were really boring, especially one of them was so long and so boring that we all were ready to pass out right there. The sad part is that my host father did not see me walking I think, because he said he left out for a while and when he came back they did not let him in! Such a bummer! Shortly, those people that I really wanted to see me at my commencement were absent, including my mentor! Anyways, he was away in UK! My host mother have to be at work, my host father could get in to the building second time… but I think others from my SUNY Ulster family were there! Next time I hope they will be all there :D

The pictures that were taken at the commencement were AWFUL! So the photo studio called GradImages did such a bad work with photography! I was really upset when I saw the ugliest pics ever! And they are so expensive! I did not buy any, but I might get at least one “professional” photo! I have all rights to say that their photographer did the worst photo shoot ever! I even wrote to them if they can get rid of some glare on my diploma, they said oh we don’t do anything like that! Yea, sure! GradImages SUCKS! REALLY BAD PHOTOGRAPHY! I even wrote that on their fb page. It’s a rip off I swear! I was excited about the images that were taken by professionals, but alas they are worse than the ones we took at college with our point and shoot cameras! The moral of the story don’t trust anybody with huge telephoto lenses, some of them most probably don’t know how to use the camera itself!

Ok. Now it’s time to cool down and go to next news :D the good ones! So at the local paper there was an article published about my story :D yay! I was interviewed last semester, and then we did back and force emailing with the writer, so I fixed the details and stuff, so finally my college sent that story to BlueStone press :D My host father got a copy of newspaper for me too! So now I have it :D It’s very sweet to have your story published in the paper! And then my adviser/mentor send me a link to SUNY blogs, and here is the another article which is based on the first one :D pretty good! I liked it too :D Here’s my story in short at SUNY blog

Some awards!
Also, I mentioned that I am gonna attend an luncheon, so actually there before I got my President’s Award for Student Leadership , President read that story in short :D I got certificate of appreciation for being an Admissions Student Ambassador at that day as well! I got some pics from that event as well. It was very cool! It’s so strange when you do things in life, you don’t quite realize that all that accumulates and makes your story. When I start reading the written article or listen I was like Wooah! Is that really me? It’s like looking at your resume and wondering is that really you..hahahah! :D Then I got a certificate for participation at the SUNY Ulster Student Success program [SUMS]. Now I have a bunch of certificates, and diplomas on my possession :D hahah I need a big closet to keep them there says my mentor [instructor/advisor] :D , who actually himself got Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching for 2012! How sweet! The cool think, I knew it before he got the news, and I have to promise to keep it as a secret, which I did.. I have to take his picture with his medal! Hahaha I think that will look fun! :D OK. So all in all I “wonder” why he did not get that before, because he’s one of the best instructors I ever had! It’s good to advocate for good causes, says ME! :P

About the classes! So I finished my semester not that happy honestly, because I got an A- from my graphic design III class. Shame on me :[ I was so distracted with the magazine that I was designing, so I could not put all my 100 percent to my final project… which sucks! I was upset and stuff.. you know.. but then I also think that it’s stupid to think about the grade, because it’s just a simple letter that actually does not really reflects my real knowledge .. Because I did a fine work with the magazine though, and am I a little proud with it. Printer of course messed up some stuff in print, but still I enjoyed having the book in my hands and knowing that it’s what I put my time and effort in, and this is the result!

SOME FUN STUFF
Tomorrow I am going to join 3000 people to do the Hokey Pokey dance over the Hudson river and try to get to the Guinness Records book :D Here’s the info about it. I am going with my host family :D Yay!

CREATE YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE

2012-05-05T20:26:00.000-04:00

I promised to write an article about my college's Visual Arts Club for so long that finally I got a chance to finish it. and the reason IS.... I had to finish it asap because it had to be published in a local paper The Hudson Valley Voice :D How exciting! So the paper most probably is out , I just got a pdf version of the layout, with which I am not happy at all, but I thought I am grateful that it's PUBLISHED! YAY!!! So here's my "blog" version of the article :)

Have you ever heard about SUNY Ulster’s Visual Arts Club? No? Yes, but not much? Not sure? Not yet? Then keep reading! VAC is an approved student-run club on campus, the main purpose of which is to give an opportunity to students who are interested in visual arts to create their own art related activities independently.

As any other club at SUNY Ulster, we have four officers (president, vice-president, treasurer, and secretary) and of course, many members! Luckily, VAC recruits new members continuously and students can join anytime they want. The majority of our members are Fine Art and Graphic Design majors; however, we always welcome students who simply love art! In order to keep membership status, students are expected to attend weekly meetings at least twice a month, which take place in one of the inspiring spots of Stone Ridge campus at the Muroff Kotler Visual Arts Gallery, VAN265, or at the Studio in ALG 102 on Wednesdays at 1 PM.

The Club also has an assigned faculty advisor and a budget. Members can earn funds volunteering on campus events and spend that on on-campus or off-campus activities. The budget is mainly funded through the fee that we, students, pay for student activities every semester. So if you are a student take an advantage of the club that you paid for!

Now, most of you are probably curious what kind of activities we are involved in, right? Below is the list of activities that members enthusiastically participate in.

Organizing VAC Member Art Exhibition

Me trying to stick my photographs on the wall :D

Yes, we had organized our very own show called “Life & Motion,” opening reception of which was on May 4th, 2012 at The Lounge at BSP, Kingston, NY. These kinds of activities help students to experience new skills such as putting together an art show (being a curator), working as a team, making decisions regarding art work, advertising and more. Emerging artists of SUNY Ulster are always happy to see community members in their receptions. So you are invited to VAC’s next opening! Do not miss it, just keep an eye on flyers or cards on VAC announcements board on campus!

Taking field trips to galleries, museums, or studios

VAC crew at NYC :D

Every semester we plan an art trip, so this semester’s trip was to NYC to see BODIES The Exhibition during the first weekend of May! It was an adventurous trip that most of us will remember for good. Trips are funded by the club budget; practically, members got to have a free round trip to NYC! This is one of the feasible advantages of being a VAC member! Another interesting idea that we practice as a club is that we always need extra help during our special events; art students who help us at those days earn a chance to travel with us. Regarding our trip funding, Visual Arts Club members would like to thank SUNY Ulster’s Student Events Planning Council, particularly Kathy Meyer for her continued support and generosity!

Publishing student art & literature magazine

Every year we publish a magazine that features student art and writing. The exciting part about it, if you have graphic design skills and some extra time you will get to have an opportunity to work as an art director or/and designer. You will earn useful skills, a solid portfolio piece, and even a line to add in your resume! That’s exactly how some of our members, including myself, benefit from this particular activity.

[BTW Check out the SLATE! The entire layout design done by me :D SLATE 2012 ]

Putting together on campus art sales and fundraisers

Holiday Art Sale :D our humble set up

My friend Steve and I at the tote bags sale

We had Holiday Art Sale for the first time at the end of Fall 2011 semester, before Christmas, at the Student Life Center, AKA Cafeteria, at Stone Ridge Campus, and all profit from the sales went directly to artists/members. Special thanks goes to our Professor and Department Chair Iain Machell, who pushed the idea of on campus student art sale and helped with supplies, and our instructor and club advisor Suzy Jeffers who helped us with the set up and sale process, and of course all the members, especially ‎Yaara Ben-Dor, Steven Esposito, Deirdre Kenney (secretary), Sara Lewis (treasurer), Marissa Markle, Dave Anthony Mathews, Elizabeth McGovern, Lindsey O'Leary, Dina Peone (vise-president), Gabriel Rose, Sara Schiffhauer, Lauren Yaro and our volunteer Tim Helgers who took their time and made that event happen!

Also, every semester we design tote bags for sale as a club fundraiser, and members design each tote bag with creativity and care. Next time you see a VAC tote bag sale, get one and support our cause! We sold the majority of tote bags in several days!

Painting Murals

Currently we have a mural project that is in process for the Senate Gymnasium at the college.

Inviting guest artist to demonstrate techniques

Also, club budget allows us to invite artists to learn what interests us from them directly.

In other words, if you are a VAC member you can share your ideas for activities and shortly make them happen! These activities help art students to experience the life of an artist in real world settings with deadlines, themes for creativity, submissions, galleries, planning, pricing and more. If you want to be part of this exciting experience then JOIN US ASAP! Gain a valuable experience while having fun with your friends, and you can always add a line to your resume as extracurricular involvement. Don’t forget that transfer colleges always want to see out-of-the-classroom activities in your application essay!

Finally, we have SUNY Ulster’s Visual Arts Club’s Facebook group where many announcing and planning of events take place throughout the week. Please, JOIN US on Facebook for more detailed information about the activities, and just so you know we are always happy to see a new member among us! Welcome to Visual Arts Club!

By Gulnar Babayeva
Visual Arts Club President
Fine Arts & Graphic Design Major
SUNY Ulster

Here's the ARTICLE :D on print supposed to look like this! I am gonna pin this on VAC's announcement board and print out some pictures for the board about our projects.. it's been a really fun semester for the VAC!

Collecting Awards and More! ;D

2012-04-22T11:13:00.000-04:00

I need to sit back and enjoy my life at this moment. Yet, I have so much lemons [projects] these days, so I am making sherbet out of them :P my deadlines are really close, so if I don't do anything I will turn into the dead line..So, within these 4 weeks, of course, I had experienced various emotions full of lights and darks! So I am gonna refresh my memories!

Chancellor’s Award. Yay! So on April 4th, I went to Empire State Plaza Convention Center at Albany with my host father, advisor/mentor/ instructor, my internship supervisor and my dear friend :D I think it was one of those days, when I was super excited at the same time hyper anxious! I think that was one of my “once in a life time experiences” that I get regularly hahahah :D It was a bit intimidating, because I was in a completely new environment! I had to sign in at first; the SUNY was making a video where student’s supposed to continue the phrase “ I am the Power of SUNY because ….” and come up with our own. SO it took me a while to think of it. I really had several options that I come up in the shower XD i e the best place for my idea generation process heheh I guess many people do that. Water is so relaxing that I forget about worries and just start thinking about the GOOD, any kind of it, and GOOD is usually brings new ideas. Anyways, so this is what I wrote “I am the Power of SUNY because I am curious and willing to explore vast opportunities beyond my comfort zone” Well, I thought I should write something that really describes me: yea I am crazy and really curious and I take advantage of every opportunity, because I believe there is always a hidden stash of good waiting for me :D I want to believe so, so I do hahaha I love my life, even though sometimes it gets moody, but who does not have that? It’s just the thing: I dig in my head and create my own monsters, so when I choose not to do so, they just dissolve in the air :D My advisor took a picture of me holding that paper where I wrote my lines. That pic is just so funny! I love it :D

WYZIWYG

So well we were waiting in a huge room for a while when students got their lines recorded, but then we were told that we are running late and we have to get to the small orientation part about how we gonna walk on the stage to get our medal and recognition letter. Well, instructions were helpful, BUT a little misleading hehehe because we were told to shake Chancellor’s hand and then our college representatives and then go back to chancellor and get our medal and then our picture will be taken, and then we just walk back to our sits. What happened in reality though,, xD hahaha let me describe :D Because the college representative stands closer to the recipients naturally we had to shake his/her hand first and then Chancellor’s and then get to the medal. Well, many of us messed up because the instructions and the flow of the reality did not match exactly. Life Lesson #n: don’t be afraid of improvisation! So I ended up HUGGING my college representative xD I know very bizarre! Well anyways I had fun on the stage ( it’s like 2 minute thing) but to get there we almost waited for like hour or more, and because it was going in an alphabetical order my college’s name is SUNY Ulster ( so just imagine the placement of U in the alphabet :P) Yes, I was in the last group of students. Anyways, after the orientation we went to that huge auditorium where our guests were. SO the audience applauded all of us, and the fun part for me was when we started to walk towards the stage, I passed near my guests who took their time and joined me to celebrate this event. They waved me with such an enthusiasm and support that made me so happy! It worth to walk on the stage because I knew that I am not alone there, and that people who are really important to me are among the audience and supporting me with huge sincerity and smile. I just can’t thank them enough! Bottom line is I really enjoyed after the ceremony part! I got to talk to my guests and went to do the videotaping part, and guess what! My favorite part: WE TOOK TONS OF PICS! :D YES!!!! Now I have LOTS of good memories! Woohoo! So all that posing, ended up of course online :P hahaha

So here ‘s the official SUNY post of my photo with the Chancellor and my college representative :D You can see other recipients as well.. many of us in the pics, but we are the few statewide, just saying :P

Also, I made my college’s online announcements, here & here. Kind of very happy with that :P Who would not ? Me. xD I know I always have mixed feelings about this, but it’s a good thing I know :D

That round thing is a medal :D
mentor & mentee

Also, my Instructor, Advisor & Mentor [shortly IAM, my new abbreviation for it so I don’t have to write long words again! It’s America, everything is abbreviated! This is really one of my observations, when I start listening to conversations it’s like people speaking a language and words that I have never heard about… just because almost everything is abbreviated!!!] sent out email to college staff and faculty, I think, because of that now some of my instructors and staff congratulates me when they see me in the hallways! yay! :D It’s very sweet, how people happy for some other person’s good life experience. So I think my SUNY Ulster family is happy for me :) I am happy to make them feel a bit proud. They have been very helpful and supportive during these years!

Here's are the rest of the images from the ceremony itself, thanks to my host father & my mentor I have pictures :D

FYI Just to clarify, I have another mentor from the college's SUMS program who was really helpful with my application process. It's like he was assigned to me by the program as a graphic design mentor, but our experience went to a new direction such as English Language :D How sweet! I need that a lot!
One more thing: I was selected to be a recipient for President’s Awards for Excellence in Student Leadership in 2012 at my college .. the ceremony is on Apr 25th Wednesday, hope to post some pics soon :P

Colleges where I ‘ve applied
Cooper Union. SO it said “no”, unfortunately. It’s kind of broke my heart, because I know that’s the place for me, but I will apply next year perhaps, never giving up!
Still I am waiting from the RISD and SUNY New Paltz results. New Paltz accepted my portfolio, but I have to wait for admissions decision. I must mention something: my RISD admissions personnel who helped me with the submissions and paperwork, was the best. I swear I never seen such a helpful and relaxed admissions staff member, who does not SCARE the perspective student! I just enjoyed our email correspondence so much. Just wanted to say that what I hear about RISD usually students complain that they are not helpful and stuff, so my experience happens to be the opposite. Just saying!!! Let’s see what’s gonna happen!

SLATE.

OMG, speedy mode in designing the magazine! Slate turned into my nightmare that I can't live with and without! It must be done by the end of the week [ as say usually], so I had to take on the content, and redo some stuff, because the writing credits were messed up. Ugh. I hate doings things over, but I usually end up doing so. So the other designers are doing the covers. I really hope that we gonna have covers that are designed by the designers, but not the artwork itself. Let’s see what’s gonna happen! I am excited about it :D and I feel tired of course, it’s a lot of work, I had to ask my supervisor at the internship to let me work on that project for this week. He’s very nice, he said SURE! So I got hours from there, and from my gallery work, it’s pretty neat. I am not sleeping almost and designing, but my eyes hurt so much right now, I am gonna go and give them some rest now.

HMW. I have like a lot of sculptures to finish, and to make. A paper to write. Several presentations, and some cool drawings to make. My life is so much enjoyable that I could ever imagine!!

What else has happened ? A new Inspiration appeared and was gone shortly xD

What’s next ? I gotta get some rest and get back to my designs! I swear right now, there are 1 magazine, 1 newspaper, 1 booklet is waiting to be done for tomorrow :D Aren't I lucky ? Indeed!!!

PS HAPPY EARTH DAY!

ART trip to NYC!

2012-04-08T13:28:00.000-04:00

one of my fave pieces from the trip

Every semester we have a departmental scheduled field trip to NYC [ or in other close cities'] museums and galleries!!! This semester it happened on March 28th! I KNOW I AM SO LUCKY! Every time I am in MOMA or any other world famous art altar :P I just say THANK YOU UNIVERSE!!! I realize that not everybody gets a chance to be in those places, especially several times and sometimes for FREE :P Being a student is such a JOY and of course it has its own negative sides :P but I am gonna focus on POSITIVE ones ! hahahah SO we had 2 groups and we had to choose with which group to go with. I sighed up for my drawing class group, and then I felt a bit sad because my gut feeling told me to go with the other one. So whenever I go against it, It’s usually not that much fun!

Morgan Library

Well, at least I got to see the Morgan Libraries that I have never been, they let us see very rare drawings that are only in the museums private collection, so it’s kinda almost impossible to see them. YET my concern was that there was only 10 drawings, I would rather go and see a huge building full of drawings than just those ten… well what’s the point ? They are hidden anyways, only certain minority has seen it.. Then I went to see Rembrandt and his follower’s show. That was really GOOD! I liked that a lot! It made me think why I don’t do small scale works ? More precise and small. I like grandeur scale, but I guess sometimes I can try small scale as well!

Also, we got to wait a lot... and find the way to other galleries to visit. SO we went to Forum Gallery in the city, it’s a very fancy place. So the exhibition I saw belonged to the artist Odd Nerdrum. He’s compared to Rembrandt as one of the contemporary artist who produced humongous amount of self portraits! Anyways, I liked that show thought, it was quite interesting. Then I just left the group and went back to MoMA! Yes, I found my way hahaha. It’s not that easy to be lost in the city when you don’t know where you are going anyway! But my friend and I managed actually to get lost, thank goodness, one of my alert classmates noticed our sudden “evaporation” lol and all of a sudden he ‘s like where you guys are going, this way! We were like way more away from the group! That was fun story to remember! :D MoMa amazes me all the time, SO I just love being in that environment! So much to look at!

at MoMA

Exquisite Corpses: Drawing and Disfiguration and THIS! It was one of my favorites actually :D so bizarre and of course I like weird.

Eugène Atget: “Documents pour artistes”I saw this!

I had found a great Andy Warhol book! but I could not afford to buy it :/ well at least I have the picture of it :D someday I get that! No rush! Hahaha

I guess I had fun on the bus quite lot! Hugh Laurie aka House MD, my mentor, and myself :D Nothing can beat that! :D

What ? SPRING BREAK? Where ? When ?

2012-03-18T21:25:00.001-04:00

I did it again, right ?! I missed it…

The word combo “spring break” has nothing to do with my schedule , or I should say that anything with the word “break” cannot be related to me anymore. I think I always manage to find something that keeps me extremely busy and hyperactive, even during the well-deserved break times.

BLOG

So my “spring break” started with moving my blog from the SUNY Ulster’s Blogs page to BlogSpot, i.e. here. SUNY Ulster has renewed its website, which meant no more blogs on the website. Yet I am still blogging ( I have been blogging for like 2 years almost) so I could not let all that writing disappear! That’s why I was suggested to move my blog to Wordpress, but I decided not to, because when I went through it, first of all it’s not free, and secondly it seemed very limited if I use the free option. Just because I am familiar with the best features of the BlogSpot, I decided to stick to it. So I went back to my beloved BlogSpot, as I already created my blog-portfolio here in 2010. I kind of felt more adapted to it, because of the custom design possibilities that it’s offering. Now I have completely new look to my blog, and I am loving it :D Way more better and modern look, than it used to be. Now, I linked my portfolio-blog, Visual Arts Club’s Facebook group page, SUNY Ulster website, and my Linkedin resume to this one [ you can find it on the top in tabs/pages ] Oh, I forgot to mention, in order to keep the memories from my previous blog space I screen printed three pages as factual pictorial proof :P All this process took me the entire weekend to do ! 2 days! Now I am the only SUNY Ulster Blogger, as I was before and my blog is linked to the main website :D I am so happy with it!!!

MORE OPTIONS

What else I have done? While surfing the internet, I got REALLY inspired looking at the art colleges, and decided to give it a shot and apply to several of them.I think it worth to try and see what will happen. I am still waiting from CU for my final decision [ please, universe send YES]

Well, it’s been a while from the last time I attended a portfolio review day; last year in October, I think. So I met the admissions counselors from several art colleges, also at the college we had some of them visiting and giving presentations & conducting portfolio reviews. Thus, I decided to apply for at least to 3 more schools and guess what? It’s Murphy’s Law; the deadlines for all of my choices were MARCH 15th! Almost! So I think now you can imagine my panic mode :D Oh, yea! That’s exactly what you think! Running around like a headless chicken Mike, gathering paperwork like a lawyer, mailing them out like an admissions office, and redoing my portfolio over and over online like an obsessive art student! Three schools to apply in a very short time period. Well, I think that was such an adrenalin rush : D I loved it hehehe No need for rollercoaster rides at all! All in all, I got a confirmation from RISD that everything is on file! SUNY New Paltz said that they haven’t received my app yet, because it’s a SUNY app, but luckily their art department is open to submissions till April 1st. So I still got time to submit my portfolio, because I have to do it through them, meaning online on their website, and I have no access to their Banner as they did not enter my info into their system yet. There was back and force emailing in one day with their helpdesk, and the next day their admissions office said that don’t panic, there is still time. Such a relief! SVA said they haven’t received my paperwork :-/. This was the most discouraging reply, because strangely I mailed everything to SVA like on Monday first thing, and they haven’t received it by Friday L ! Snail mail YOU ARE ANNOYING! It should not take 5 days to deliver a small package, especially when I am in the same state! Anyway, I really hope that they got it last minute on Friday, then they can consider my app for the scholarship, which was one of the reasons I applied there.

All that process was SO EXPENSIVE!!! I spent all together more than $160 , and I still have to request two WES transcripts which is gonna cost me $60 more. Sweet deal, isn’t it ? and I am not talking about the tuition fees yet… he he he Universe, send me million dollars. I bought a ticketm and I am waiting for that to happen! :P HAHAHA! Also, I was told that PTK members can get a discount or waiver for apps, and of course none of those schools participates in that. duh..

WHAT ELSE ?
Well I still had to work despite that craziness all week, except Tuesday. [Trying to save money, because I am gonna move to a new place soon, hopefully] I took a day off on Tuesday to finish up my RISD portfolio drawings, because they required 2 assignments to be sent them in original. And I wrote for the first time in my entire life a short story dialogue (one of my writing sample assignments) in ENGLIHS! :D I really enjoyed it, now I am considering writing as a SERIOUS hobby that I love!

HMW

So now I have homework for the next week to do. The big ones… I promised to my Independent Studies to bring at least 2-3 finished projects. But it’s just the supplies that I need either so expensive or I can’t find them on sale :/ oh well, I am gonna do more research and find them out, because I really want to have a piece in a Student Show 2012 at the college, so I got to have some finished work to submit for consideration! Oh, being an art student ain’t an easy business, even though some might think so. I have another self-portrait assignment for the figure drawing class, and a book project (dummy must be done shortly) for the graphic design class. GOOD LUCK TO ME!

VAC

So our Visual Arts Club got a new project. I am waiting for the details. I haven’t written that promised post about the club’s activities for this semester! I will! Very soon!!!!

SLATE

The magazine is going OK. We got many submissions, now I am gonna rate the image submissions in A B C categories , and editor will send the rated writing samples and then we can start the layouts. We supposed to meet this week twice, but we ended up meeting only once on Monday. It was only us, two people, because one of our designers is sick - I really hope she gets better very soon- and the other one can’t make Monday appointments. I had to cancel the Thursday appointment. Well, hopeful soon we will get together in more organized way and finish the work properly. I took photos of artwork for students who can’t /don’t have skills/camera to take images for their art submissions. So now I have to edit those images, crop them properly for the magazine, and I just realized the images must be converted to CYMK. Well, here comes another assignment. And there are still the page numbers to be decided on ASAP. I guess we have to plan accordingly, because everyone is busy, but the magazine must be published by April 25th. So cross your fingers and wish us the BEST of luck!!! :D
Thank you for reading my blog. Today's inspiration: one step at a time. be patient.
Gulnar

A little bit of an award, and some hopeful news!

2012-03-07T16:31:00.000-05:00

Well, hello there!!! Found some “extra time” so decided to blog a bit. In about 3 weeks period a lot of things has happened!I have something BIG to announce. So I just got a letter from the SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher that I was selected to be the recipient of the 2012 Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence! Here is a part of that letter, GOTTA SHARE! Not if I am bragging, it’s just for myself when I turn 100 I will come back and read it!

Dear Gulnar,

On behalf of the State University of New York, I am delighted to inform you that you have been selected as a recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence.

Sincerely,Nancy L. Zimpher Chancellor

Also, I am invited to the ceremony to celebrate it with the other recipients and family, friends/faculty/staff. So I am allowed to bring with me up to 4 people! Yay! This is very nice! Well, three spots are already taken in my mind, so gotta find number 4 and ask them all… Heh, the ceremony time is like Wednesday in April, so I hope people whom I am gonna invite can make it! Another strange feeling when I opened the letter: I read it and then I am like “OK” … I spend that much time applying and all that paperwork process and excitement, but then waiting process somehow reduced my excitement. (Even though Andy Warhol says “The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting” ) So I read the news, and reacted like after a while lol when it sunk in..LOL I guess I just can’t believe at first and then I accept the “reality” Oh, well strangely every day I discover something new about myself ! We are in a constant change! Thank goodness!

I guess I have some “hope” news from Cooper Union. Well I got the answer from the Cooper Union.. it’s so strange, because I was expecting either YES or NO, but apparently Cooper has one more option such as MAYBE meaning a second chance I would think.. Well I read about this option, but did not think that it can happen to me. So I was rejected acceptance for the Early Decision admissions, yet my application and portfolio is going to be reevaluated during the Regular Admissions process. The feeling was really strange when I received the decision. So just because I have been waiting for it for so long, and checking mails almost several days in a row starting from the February 2nd, and because I did not know if the letters were out or not , thus at some point I stopped waiting, strange I know.. and I told my host family if they see the mail just to open it for me. Well, they suggested to bring it to school when they receive in the mail, but I think there was no point doing so. I got my answer via text heheh.. not bad, it was strange because I got rejected but at the same time was given a second chance. Well now it’s time to wait a bit longer and hope to be accepted. At least I felt a little better that my application was noticed! It’s pretty sweet to know it after all that intense work on those projects. I know it’s strange, but getting a second chance from CU is worst to mention. Well I really hope and believe that I still have a chance!

So the next news is YES YES YES! I got in to the SPRING 2012 ALBANY Show!! Woohoo! I was so happy, Though I thought somehow we missed the opening, because I got the email that my piece was selected and the show was like open already for a week or so…but my instructor said that there probably will be some public reception.. I hope to repeat the fun from last semester’s reception, But anyways I might go to see and take some pics for myself if we won’t get there officially :D ..who knows when.. God knows how.. UNIVERSE I need to get to ALBANY please help me out! Sending positive thoughts and energy with my request, and now time to wait!

So because I don’t know the second chance results from CU, now I am gonna try to apply to some other schools to see how much scholarships I can get. I wish education was FREE, why it’s not I wonder…

I am going to apply for the WSA (Woodstock School of Art) Merit scholarship for the summer! They have incredible studios and local artist teach there! I have been there last summer and had a great time learning printmaking and watercolours, and I really want to continue it this summer as well! I am applying for the sculpture and printmaking classes to see which one I can get in. I really love both, but they let students take only those classes that are offered currently.

Finally I am back to myself, I was like so scattered last weeks, so much to do but now I am getting better in organizing my schedule. Trying to stick to the schedule that I write daily and weekly. I shall say it’s very tough, because I always miss doing something ;S makes me sad! So many thing to concentrate on.. literally A LOT! Not if I am complaining, it’s just strange that I am trying all that at once.

We are getting close to the Slate Magazine submissions deadline, which means that production period is approaching shortly! I am so excited this semester about the Slate, because I am gonna make it look a bit more like a book. I suggested to the Slate’s faculty advisor, and he said it’s strange that I said it because he was thinking about that too ! So I said great minds think alike xD hahaha I am very much inspired and pumped about this magazine project!!! I invited those students to the production that I think are good and have some experience with graphic design! I tried to arrange a meeting today, so we can all get together and discuss the deadline, As usually the meetings looks productive, BUT WE GOTTA WORK ON THE PROJECT! The Deadlines are so close!!! I shall say this semester we MUST publish it before the official graduation.. So the distribution process will be easier.

About my second graduation, I am gonna stay one more semester to do some more studies, With WebDesign and more other classes! (but it all depends on my letter from CU) There are so much to learn!!!! I will most probably study to the last day of my life, at least I know that my goal so far is Master’s Degree. I just love studying!! Of course, it gets tough after a while, especially with the age … brain starts dying, hard to memorize and stuff, but I am not 25 yet, so I am still growing heheh:P Plus I have hope that soon scientists will discover the gene of aging, and we can easily get rid of it and live young and stay smart forever at least I want to hit 100 years old, and have all those 100 candles on my bday cake!

OK, enough goofing, I am right now racing with my friend to see how many homework and activities we can accomplish this evening! We report every done homework/ activity to each other and get points! This is how I am trying to solve our Facebook distractions, so now we have a goal to reach, and everyone wants to win of course ( I do at least ). So this is my second activity to be done, then I have two presentations, some sculpture projects to finish, and still get something in between done!!!

I will be back with new postings soon! I know I promised to write about VAC, I will .. I will I just need to organize things and write about them!! It’s going to be in a chronological order hehehe I guess… maybe not! Who knows!

Thanks for reading my blog if your rich to this point, here’s something inspirational for you: today my chocolate inspiration was “ Dare to Dream” I AM! DO YOU ?

C U soon!

Spring 2012!

2012-02-06T04:19:00.000-05:00

The third week of classes is over. I just can’t keep up with the time; it’s so fast! This semester seems easier so far with my classes, which scares me a little bit. [Silence before the storm?!] But for the first time I am taking ONLY 5 CLASSES! Only 5!!!! I have more reading however in comparison to my other semesters, or maybe it’s the same amount :D I just pay more attention to my readings currently, I shall say that. Well, I am glad because I have million other extracurricular activities that are time consuming, so I will be able to spend some time working on them.

Now, a little about my new classes:

Figure Drawing II class as usually nerve-wracking, because I am being impatient. I finally got a book where I just decided to do the steps that book shows and try to enjoy first of all what I am studying, instead of being angry that I can’t get the line correctly. It’s art, it does not have to be ‘perfect,’ but I want it to be as best as possible which at the end drives me crazy. My assignments are copying master drawings and redoing our in class drawings. Somehow, I do not really like the idea of redoing them, but it’s an assignment so it must be done. Yet, I can make my own assignments too and show to instructor! It’s is great, and I get some feedback too. Done it! Plus, I like it more than doing homework ..he he he..

Graphic Design III class is alright, but I feel like I am floating in that class. We got to redo our Diversity Poster Assignment again! Client did not like what we had before, so we spent the beginning of the semester either starting from scratches or redoing previous project. Well, I think my previous project was done, so I started over a new one, and I like this. Trying to use humor, which I enjoy the most! Humor is the best way of saying “hey, listen.” Yet, the main project for the semester is books, we are going to study them, and go to the Barnes & Nobel to make some discoveries :D I like that bookstore anyway, when I go there, I will look through the books, write down the names, and order them online for half-price or less xD Smart ha!

I have Independent Studies! I was like begging my advisor to let me take that class for 3 semesters! Finally, he let me do it! So I decided to study Conceptual Art in the frame of Modern Art! So far I got like several books to read, and sketchbook where I am jotting down my ideas. Interesting detail: in order to take this class I have to make a contract with my instructor, and then it goes to the dean to be approved… paperwork in other words. So I am gonna start producing some work for the transfer portfolio hopefully soon! It’s what the contract says! It includes once a week meetings with the instructor, to show the ideas or projects and talk about the reading and problems that I face during the process. I like the idea of this class because it’s one-on-one, but the annoying part is being interrupted. I dislike that because I lose my focus…

Modern Art History class is fun I shall say! I really like it. Thought the book is humongous with like 9 pt font size and waiting for me to be read. Oh! It’s thought and heavy! Yet I like it because it’s connected to my Independent Studies class, so I am cool with it :D btw it’s once a week class, or they call it hybrid class, partially online and partially in class.

Intro to Web Design class, it’s fun , but still I don’t understand some stuff, I feel like I really need a book, and the screen where instructor demos the lessons is tiny! I see usually nothing, so I have to imagine everything lol. I think Mac Lab needs BIGGER screen for the projector! So far I am ok but I want to do better! OK isn’t enough for me honestly.. I have to spend more time on my own to explore the Dreamweaver.

I am still waiting for the answer from CU.. Annoyed pretty much. It’s already Feb 5th! And this is early decision, I guess Early February can mean any day between 1st and 10th. Anyways, I just stopped worrying about that, no point. Sooner or later the letter will arrive. Meanwhile I just started researching OPT options, because that school is very competitive, so I have to have several other choices what to do after graduation. OPT sounds good to me, and now I have to find a JOB on my field! SOMEBODY HIRE ME PLEASE!

Some good stuff:

I got nominated this week for the 2012 Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence. Yay! I am one of two SUNY Ulster students who’s application was send to Albany. Now we shall wait. This is one of the best things that happened during my college life in the USA! I really hope to be the recipient :D Send some positive vibes and good luck to me!

And I received my first US Diploma with Associates in Fine Arts! I am proud of myself :D hehe… the feeling that comes to me occasionally lol But the funny part was I was expecting a framed diploma, and at the registrar’s office they gave me an envelope and I am like “ this is it ?” she is like “what else do you want? “ LOL It’s funny because all those years of study and we get a piece of paper that confirms that… Well, if that paper will help me to get a job, sure why not?! Oh, after this semester I will receive my second two-year diploma, hopefully! 2.5 year and getting two qualifications! Very good indeed! But I desperately want to earn a BFA! Universe send me the acceptance letter from CU, pleaseee!! I worked hard and will continue, I promise!

Another SUNY-wide Student show is approaching. I have submitted two works, and really hope to get in. That was fantastic last semester! I enjoyed it so much hahaha and now ready to live it again, hopefully. Now I shall wait for the results…again. Waiting is part of the every single process, if you notice! Please, please, please Universe I want to be in the Albany show! Also, please send me more patience!

This is it for now. I think I am gonna write a post about Visual Arts Club separately, because that’s a BIG deal :P ! This is the best student club! Yes, I am being biased lol I love it! JOIN US ( SUNY Ulster students), and you will love it too!!!! So much fun activities are coming soon! Yay!

Thank you for reading my blog btw :D

PS here’s today’s quote “Life is short; live your dreams!"

“Winter break,” home test and back to college!

2012-01-22T00:22:00.000-05:00

I confess I love writing(!), especially about my college experience. It is easy first of all because I am the primary source :P [ yet I still do some research if needed] and I really enjoy doing so!

I am back to studies again! This is going to be my last semester at SUNY Ulster. I love this place a lot! Someday I will be back to work here!!! I like this supportive environment!

Now about my winter break which was somehow full of events that I did not notice how it passed so quickly. So I applied to CU last year (sounds like year ago, but it was November 2011), and got home test which were 6 creative problems to be solved and a questionnaire with 12 interview questions to be answered. It looks not that much, but in reality that was a lot of work! I could not start neither test nor writing earlier, because I had to finish my semester properly, so that week I spent working on my final projects. The next week I started sketching and brainstorming process, but still did not get to assignments because it was holiday time! Yet, I think I started my writing gradually, because I knew that it might take longer than I expected. Anyway, I was stressed out; it’s still a big pressure and responsibility! I had asked several instructors to write recommendation letters and so on. I took a break from my work, so I could spend time on my projects. Actually, it worked out pretty well, because the time that I took off I spent on non-stop creative problem solving day and night! Goodness, that was very taught times! I enjoyed the projects however. I tried to look at them from different angles, sketched out various solutions, and then I tried to give to my solutions conceptual twist, and create some awareness. I hope it will work. Finding the precise box to mail the projects was another story! FedEx was very helpful with that. I did not know that the box for the shipping is free, but that particular size is only for the overnight shipping. In a nutshell I mailed everything 2 days before the deadline, and the box arrived on time. Now, I am waiting for the early decision to arrive on February 1st, or 2nd. Waiting is painful, I never liked it. These days I am so busy again that I didn’t even notice how the first week of classes passed already! So much projects to do, whoa! I am excited!

Anyway, after the home test, I still had one week of ‘winter break’ but I had to go back to work, especially during the registration time it’s really busy, so presence of everyone in the office is valuable and much appreciated! Despite the work, I rested in that week so well! It’s because after those intense days of hard thinking process, my work seemed like a vacation! I can’t believe I am saying this, but everything is relative! I am actually happy that I looked at my work from that perspective, thus I felt mentally rested and ready to do MORE at my last semester at SUNY Ulster!! Grand Finale that’s what I want! :D and then hopefully move to NYC and work on my BFA!

Summarizing Fall 2011

2012-01-21T15:28:00.000-05:00

Well, finally I have some free time before classes start so I am gonna summarize a little about FALL 2011. I shall say it was the most intense semester I have ever had at SUNY Ulster. If to visualize in mathematical terms then this semester will look like this: FALL 2011 = GULNAR + CUPS OF COFFEE – SLEEP ! I usually prefer sleeping less, but this semester went beyond my sleep limitations. Well the good news : I SURVIVED :D as you see, even after a long tough brainwork I am here, and updating my blog. Goodness, I really missed writing on my blogs a lot! I had like tons of papers, statements, essays to write so I did not get time to sit and type something to post!

So what I have done last semester ? Hm… I worked hard first of all :D the outcome was pretty good indeed! Got my 4.0 for the semester, and of course I have learned a lot and gained new experience.

My Internship at the Graphics & Printings went very well. I am happy with it and ready to continue one more semester!! Yay! Good part, I get to do non-credit internship which means no extra paperwork, just excellent graphic design practice on campus! And its valuable resume builder!

I felt bombarded with projects by the end of the semester! It was really mind-blowing! Literally! My brain got to change the topic, and jumped from one project to another shortly! Wow, I am impressed how it manages all that non-stop work! I <3 MY BRAIN! I am going to stencil that on a helmet :D ©2012 Gulnar Babayeva

Graphic Design Class was another busy class. The final Poster Project was my favorite for the semester! I have spent some time designing various ideas; I really enjoyed working on that project in comparison to the Sheriff car’s wrap design project. I shall say the latter wasn’t quite what I expected. I had fun when I made artsy designs, the ones that I knew they were not going to be chosen. The rest of the project I just wanted to finish my design and let it go. The only feasible outcome is the new technique in Photoshop that I learned.

Commercial Photography project was really FUN, despite the fact that because of the computers I had to present my work like 20 minutes later from the original deadline, and I have learned my lesson from that. Never trust any equipment; they can let you down before you notice it.

ENG102 went well! For the exam I requested to use my laptop, but received a rejection due to the fact that having English as a foreign language isn’t a disability so I can’t use my laptop. I just figured that I have easily conveyed my thoughts in typing rather in handwriting. Oh, well it all done now. I passed my exam, thank goodness.

Hunger Series: "Ice-Cream"

Life Drawing I… I hope I improved a little, as I don’t see it. This is the only class where my misery is never-ending. I love figure drawing, but I get easily frustrated when I can’t draw what I want. I say I think too much with left brain, instead of letting my right brain do what it wants.. OK right brain I am gonna listen to you more, because I love you. Yet, I really loved the project that I was working on. It was about the hunger, again tried to use irony a little in some of my final drawings.

My 20th Century Design History Online class final was a little time consuming, but fun. I got to go with two of my classmates to Hudson, NY to collect some materials for the final , and write about it. I made a photo essay. I think I am gonna go back to Hudson, those store/galleries were really great places for the inspiration, and it felt like I was walking through the history. Seeing objects from like 1960 ,70 was really a strange trip. But the funny part of it, I grew up in a settings where some of those objects actually excised in my surroundings. Overall, I had fun, even though I complained time to time :D!

LIB111 or Information Literacy that I finished at first 5 weeks of the semester was really painful class. My suggestion take it at first semester!! Timeconsuming, yet very userful class.

Trip to Mass MoCA and THE CLARK

2011-12-26T20:09:00.000-05:00

I promised to write about this trip, but never got a chance due to the end of semester business. Well, now I got time I can share some images from the trip. First of all the trip date was postponed, due some circumstances, so we traveled to MA on Dec 2nd, 2011. I have been in Massachusetts several times with my host family, but this time it was a college filed trip to see art! I must say I expected more, but it was still OK.

The only thing is THE CLARK was under the construction so we get to see really small amount of artwork, but our life drawing class went to see the ORIGINAL DRAWINGS from the masters. That was pretty intense I must say, seeing all those precious drawings, studies, gosh... so breathtaking! We had to sketch from them, which was a class assignment. I must say I felt really uncomfortable doing so... I shall overcome this feeling ASAP, but I have weird feelings when I try to sketch when people are around me.. I know, but the STUDIO classes are different.. Anyway, the only way to overcome it is just to sketch more in public places.

stripes/walls

I really enjoyed Mass MoCA. I have found an interesting connection with the contemporary art. I don't know why, I just like most of them, especially I enjoyed the Sol Le Witt: A wall drawing retrospective exhibition! It was spread in three levels!

The Process

All in all, that was fun exhibition and trip where I took a lot of photographs for myself and to share at our fine art page on facebook. Well enjoy! :D

Albany Show Exclusive! CU Open House & Portfolio Review

2011-11-13T09:38:00.000-05:00

I am with my Psycho

Last week I went to the couple of different destinations. Albany, NY. First of all, on Monday I went to the Fall 2011 SUNY Student show at SUNY Plaza Gallery in Albany, NY (NOV 7, 2011). Got a piece in the show, could not miss the reception!! I was a bit anxious before the trip. It’s awkward, but I kept checking my email like for several days what if the ride will be canceled! Before I planned to go with my host parent at the beginning, but then plans changed. So, I really did not want to lose my second chance getting to the Albany. Oh, I know… So my friend and I got a ride from our instructor who was going to the show as well. The ride was, I think, the best part of the trip :D We brainstormed some ideas for the Visual Arts Club’s activities before the holidays with my adviser, and some more artsy-shmartsy conversation all the way there and back. So in a nutshell, it was FUN.

Lindsey & I

The show was really nice, except some little ‘flaw’. My friend’s piece was placed on the floor, which I thought is slightly changes the perception of the piece. I still think that it must be on the stand; however, what I have learned from the instructor is that the show is up for like month already, so I just have to accept the situation, and live with it… I really don’t like that idea, but it wasn’t my piece so I did not go beyond the “expectations” and I said “OKeeeeeey”
I did not spend too much time looking for my artwork because it was at the beginning of the show. I was happy with the placement too! And the piece was FRAMED :D [thanks to my instructor!] I guess everything in a frame looks better than it is! *Imagining myself in a frame, hahah how cool I look!* That evening was one of the most gratifying moments that I’ve experienced

in a while.

My useless point&shoot one more time betrayed me. I did not have my DSLR camera with me, luckily the instructor had one! He was taking our photos with the Chancellor Nancy Zimpher. So guess what?! Later, I was like an obsessed photo-maniac kept asking him to take photos from different angles and to frame differently…Going back to the camera looking at the image quality.. oh well I guess I was really annoying, and he was too nice to say NO MORE PHOTOS! Well, my urge of making memories ended up having our images at the college’s Online News and Facebook pages. I have mixed feelings about it, but mostly positive :D So all in all, I am going to apply for the Spring 2012 SUNY Student Show, because my adviser said we should do it again! This is such a wonderful experience for me as a student! Plus, these kind of shows builds my exhibition resume! :D The show is up until Feb 3, 2012. If you are at Albany, go and check it out!

My friend & I at Port Authority

New York, NY. The next stop was NYC on Friday. OMG, NYC is too cool and polluted for me. Every street is a smoke cloud. [Smokers you should quit smoking, before I die from the secondhand smoke.] Oh it’s so hard to breath oxygen… felt like there is none.. almost… but anyway it’s where I really want to go currently because of the college. I ‘traveled’ with my friend. Mission was to find the CU Building and attend the Open House/portfolio review day. Funny part my American friend’s knowledge of the city was just like mine, meaning 0.01 out of 1-10 scale! So anyway, good thing we left for city early in the morning: took a bus trip there, then caught a cab, but because of the traffic, the cab was not moving at all! and guess what?! We were charged around $10 for not moving! How annoying was that! Personally, I don’t trust cabs, especially in the city, at all. Because they are the tricksters! They are there just to trick tourists and anybody who has no idea how the city is structured, they make intentional detours to charge more. I dislike that so much! Why we human beings are so cheap like this? I have no answer yet.. Need to grow to understand it, I guess…Anyway, another silly move was like we made a tour around the CU Building, before we found it :D That was ridicules when we came back to the point where we started and found the building right in front of us! Yes, I need a map next time I go to city, or an Iphone! [I feel like I have to somehow save and get one, because internet turned to be a necessity, just like food!]

At the Great Hall at CU

A little about CU. That school is astonishing! I have never seen studios and workshops like those in reality! The event took place in one building, a Foundation Building. I was in the Great Hall, where guess who gave a speech? Before being elected Abraham Lincoln!!!! [and many other American presidents! ] But, Lincoln is my favorite American President, from the day I read about him at my American History class!Abraham Lincoln: Self made-man! Is that a coincidence? Oh, no there is no such thing as coincidence! Anyway, it was another fact that makes me like that school more! One more detail which I respect a lot is founder Peter Cooper demanded “only a willingness to learn and a commitment to excellence” I really feel pleased, because it is too close to my credo on the Earth. :D What’s the point of doing something if you are not trying to give 100% of possible?! I guess here comes my obsessive mind… which is a new topic for another blog post.

The portfolio review though happened in other modern/new CU building across the road! I like the enigmatic appearance of the CU buildings, you see outside and never know what is going on inside. I love that mysterious tactic that I think is one of the CU’s distinguishable features! So I went to the portfolio review with the first group, we had cards with numbers, and of course my numbers sum up to 7.. as usually! Well, I kind of missed the Q&A part at the Great Hall, where the rest of the group were waiting for the review, but I emailed Admissions already with Qs because of my transcript situation.. Have too much or too less to submit.. I don’t know yet! So, I was in a line waiting for my turn. Interesting fact about CU portfolio review is that FACULTY actually does review student works! Not the admissions counselors, but the artists who are actually teaching the classes. I think that is way better, at least I know that it’s an experienced art instructor, not an admissions representatives who are, as far as I understood, usually art appreciators, not the real artists. Anyway, my portfolio reviewer was a sculpture instructor! What a ‘coincidence!’ So he ended up telling me to include my 3DD projects in my portfolio when I’ll be submitting my Home TEST. He said I should make more conceptual work, [ no wonder] and he looked at my drawings, and said “yes I see you can draw.” Well, it wasn’t craziest portfolio review at all… It was more like a conversation to see who I am , where I am coming from, and what I am interested in. Also, he said I should take off some of my pieces from the portfolio.. ANOHTER “COINSIDENCE?” well, anyway now I know what to do. When I asked what they want to see in the supplementary portfolio, he said more out of class work… Guess what?! I have no time for it :(( BUT, I WILL MAKE MORE AFTER THIS POINT! Moreover, he said they want to see what I am doing and who I am… It’s really philosophical.. Anyway, the selection is solely will be based on the HOME TEST, that I am hopefully going to receive in early December. I am excited, nervous, and want to do it! Currently working on my application, need to see transfer counselor very soon at SUNY Ulster. I wrote a little essay too, for the application.

I have to say this: I feel like I can get into any art school if I am going to pay huge amount of money, and do what they want to see in the portfolio. YET, CU is a big challenge, because it’s free and the selection is based on abilities, skills, talent whatever you want to call it. I think this is what makes that school very attractive to me! The CALL that I hear as “If you think you can do it, or you worth it, why don’t you try and see ?” It’s an invitation to challenge myself, and get out of my comfort zone! I really want to see what I can do & how far I can go. The competition is one of the highest I ever seen: 65 students per year are accepted, and only 15 transfers.. and I am a transfer! :D This is what I think is a real test!! I will have almost one month to solve creative problems that they are going to send [6 or more]. Evaluation will be done by the FACULTY, and they will be rating the works from 1 to 10 scale, if I am not mistaken! So all I have to do is just be creative, focus and get the work done on time, and then wait!

Education & Culture

GOOD LUCK TO ME! My advisor said “‘luck is a combination of opportunity & preparation’ – and it helps to cross your fingers and wear your lucky hat! “ :D I have to find a lucky hat now! Oh, wait…I might already have one.. that green thing..

Well, this week was fun and intensively busy, next week I am going to Massachusetts with ART DEPARTMENT! Trip to THE CLARK and MASS MoCA :D I’ll write about that soon!

PS click on the images to see them in a large size.

Visual Arts Club, Albany Show, Portfolio Review Day & More…

2011-11-06T21:27:00.000-05:00

Design by GulnarB :D

Visual Arts Club succeeded in their fundraiser! Yay! It took us about 4 workshop sessions, 1 hour each, to design the tote bags & some students designed them at home! :D 3 days of sale, andvoila... we made it! Not bad at all! The other part of the project was taking photos of people who dressed up, but unfortunately that project did not work well! Nobody is willing to pay for the printed image! It proves again that sooner or later print will disappear. Scary isn’t it? Anyway, we tried to make it work like offering free photos, then some people showed up and started posing, but it was like 2-3 Harry Potter fans and some Superheroes :D All in all, it was FUN!

We are also having another sale project coming soon! It was my instructor’s idea, but I think it’s very cool, if we can make it work! So we as VAC will make some art for sale, also we have to appeal other art students who are not in the club to make art for this event called “Affordable Art Sale.” The event is designed for every art student at SUNY Ulster, and the entire amount from each sale will go directly to students. I think this is really a great chance to show our work at the college beyond the classroom and make some cash! Unfortunately, student show is only once a year event, so I guess this winter sale might be some kind of imitation of that, but outside of the gallery space. It’s going to be * hopefully* in the cafeteria! I am still waiting for the confirmation email, so I can start the advertising part! Can’t wait to see what will happen!

Albany Show! Another good news is my art work ( and several other students’) was chosen to represent SUNY Ulster at a SUNY-wide Student Art Exhibition FALL 2011 SUNY Student Exhibition at Plaza Gallery, SUNY Albany, Albany NY, from 10/12/11 to 2/3/12. It’s very cool. On Monday Nov 7th, I am going to attend the opening reception with my friends & instructor/advisor. Very exciting! :D The show actually will continue almost 4 month! I guess this is MY FIRST long lasting show!

Portfolio Review Day. Art Department sponsored a trip to The Henry A. Wallace center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home in Hyde Pakr, NY for the portfolio review day. Several art and design majors signed up for this event. Oh well, it was the most tiring thing during these busy weeks. My body hurts so much, that I had to take pain releiver…The weight of my portfolio I guess is more than the half of my own weight! *OK I might be exaggerating, but it’s really heavy* Also, it felt longer than 4 hour trip. We were waiting in long lines, like an hour or so, to get our portfolio reviewed by the admissions counselors of different art schools. Honestly, some counselors were just random people from the assigned college, which wasn’t helpful at all! What I did though, at the beginning, I just went to some schools whose lines were smaller, and then I went to schools that I wanted to hear some comments on my work. I received good constructive criticism, but all in all they said what I have is OK! * But I want it to be better that OK…* Then every counselor told me what I need to improve and what they want to see in my portfolio if I consider applying to those colleges! That day I was thinking about applying to only one college, but right now I decided to try RISD, SCAD, SAIC, SVA besides CU. I feel like I can get to those if I try a little more, but my challenge is CU.. Bad news about CU though, there are some news about the tuition fee at CU, which really not good for me, especially considering that I am an international student; I guess the first population who will get hit by the tuition fee will be us. To sum up, portfolio days are events that are actually designed to be helpful for transfer students. Yet, most of the schools want to have freshmen, than transfers! I got some comments like “ well it’s hard to get into our school as a transfer, especially our design department prefers freshmen students” I think it's a bit discriminative! I am not wasting my two years before transferring, I am still learning. Also, if you are applying for graphic design program first thing they look your drawings, meaning they are interested in drawings skills more than your software skills. Observational drawing, figure drawing it’s all what they want to see at first place. Oh my.. I am having still big troubles with my figure drawing, human anatomy is so difficult! I learned to draw basics of the human face features, but the body… oh I am still having trouble with it. I wish I took Life Drawing class in my first semester!!! At least I would be having like a year of figure drawing practice, instead of the half semester! SO MY ADVISE: TAKE IT ASAP YOU REGISTER FOR ART CLASSES.. yet make sure to get departmental confirmation, because this class is supposed to be for sophomore students, but honestly I think it must be taught right away, when we start practicing observational drawings like lifeless still lives! I would rather do human body like day long, even thought it makes me very anxious, because so far I can’t put on paper what I see!!! I see more than that! Goodness, I need more time and practice!!!!! OK.. now time to calm dawn, meditate a bit and start drawing for tomorrow’s Life Drawing Class. Btw I might miss the second half of the class, because I am going to Albany to the opening reception.. Well, I guess I will get extra home work that is all.

Midterm! I got my midterm grades, I did well in almost every class, except Graphic Design.. I need to put more time and thought in it, and be more acceptable for the new ideas.. turn out I have set structures in my mind, and I am unconsciously rejecting “ the new”.. I’ ll do my best the second half of the semester and be more acceptable! Also, sometimes when I get suggestions, it’s like automatically I can visualize that and my rejection is based on that, because I don’t like what I see. Or If I cannot make any sensible connection between what I have and what is suggested to be done, I simply reject the idea, as it’s not upgrading my idea to the next level, but doing the opposite, IMHO.

Life! I am sure that life is better than I see it currently! :D So the goal is to clear up my eyes and look deeper! I am gonna STARE after at it and find the inspiration :D I know, it’s somewhere near me! I love being a student! I think, I will be spending probably most of my life studying! There are a lot to learn and study.. ok ok I got it! I need to concentrate at least on two things, and the rest can be compliment to my main focus…

Oh, yea! I woke up very early today, and skyped with my mom and sisters! Good morning, SUNDAY! Now, I am ready to do more homework! Hope to write my next post very soon. C U SOON!

Thank you :D

PS I feel like/KNOW I am the only writer and reader @SUNYUlster blogs who is updating her blog! I don’t see any other updates! Almost ENTIRE year! I gotta find new bloggers, I think! It’s not fun when you write and there’s nobody to give a feedback, or another blog to read!

FIELD TRIP TO PRINTING FACILITIES

2011-10-02T02:08:00.000-04:00

Gulnar, Jori, Bob, and Mr Y

Finally, we went to the REAL PRINTING FACILITIES! That was a real experience to see how the mass printing works. One of the best things for Graphic Design majors is to see that process! It makes easier to understand the layout measurements when we design. In a nutshell, we saw how the process starts. First, designed projects are sent to the main graphic designer of the printing facilities. She/he (in our case Vittoria) checks out the colours, spacing, text and sends the proof to us. After the approval from our side, the printing process starts. We had Visitor’s guide brochure to print. There was a huge colour control machine that uses four colour process CMYK ( cyan, magenta, yellow and black). That machine can control the percentage of the colour in the needed section. So they actually added more cyan to lower the magenta of the front image, meaning the image was too red, so they reduced the percentage of magenta, by adding cyan. Then, the man who was controlling the printing process made for us the prints with every single color. It was interesting to see how the process works. After printing, pages left for a while to let the ink to dry. Then comes the trimming process. There is a big automatic cutter, which looks so dangerous with a sharp blade, but for safety reasons it’s not possible to start it without using two hands to push the buttons that are placed in a distance like 30 inches from each other. After brochures go through the folding process, Yet, If they are booklets, they go thought some more process when the pages put together and stapled. Then they are piled like 25 piece per pile and go through the Shrink wrap machine and then they are put into the boxes. Now ready to be mailed to client. The garbage that appears after the trimming is collected in big boxes, and somebody gets rid of that later.

The inks of certain colors are ready to use, but some needs to be mixed. There are recipes on the special color charts and the person who controls the printing process does all that job. There is a special substance that prevents the ink from drying out and it covers the container where the ink is.

Last year when I was working in the SLATE magazine design, I was completely confused about the printing, so I had to stop by at Bob’s office so he helped me to redo the trim lines and all that technical parts that I had only abstract idea but never understood. So today, I understood mainly how things work in printing, how to control the 4 colour process etc.

GOOD NEWS FOR FINE ARTS MAJORS!

2011-09-25T09:27:00.000-04:00

Well, as a Fine Arts major, I was surprised with good news at the beginning of the semester! Never got the chance to share it! Guess what happened?! The best thing that ever could have happened to Fine Arts majors at SUNY Ulster! PORTFOLIO REVIEW by the ART DEPARTMENT at the end of the semester! Now it makes SUNY Ulster’s Art program reflect some qualities of the real art school curriculum. I wish we had graduation/final assignment before we leave the college... Anyway, I am going to quote that information from my syllabus (I know nobody reads the syllabus except me and the editor)

Portfolio submission: A portfolio of completed assignments will be presented for evaluation by the department at the end of the semester. Students will be expected to show a variety of work from their classes and to speak about the assignments. Students are responsible for keeping track of and storing all their assignments. Work should be presented neatly and professionally. Presentation is important and torn, smudged, dog-eared, or otherwise poorly presented work will not be acceptable.

To me it’s always good to keep in mind while working that whatever I am drawing / creating at some point will be seen, reviewed not just by my instructors. As I understood, there are going to be bunch of art instructors evaluating our works from now, which will create some kind of “objective” review/evaluation derived from several subjective opinions. I think it’s only to the students benefit! Imagine not only instructor who in fact teaches the class, but the whole department, not to mention transfer counselors someday will be looking at student’s works! I think that is the best decision made so far for US, art students, at SUNY Ulster! Though it’s S A D that this is happening on my last semester of FA major, but still I say: THANK YOU!

Well, I think after 3 semesters at SUNY Ulster I’ve made a reputation of a student who suggests something, so here is my suggestion as an addition to this great change. If there will be a requirement to create and post our portfolio online… that would be fantastic! (None of Fine Arts students take Intro to Web Design class, unless they are interested, which most probably will be 1 out 20) I understand many of us are not webmasters, but there are billions free website templates or blogs where we can post portfolio pieces, write about the projects, even redesign the templates in any way we would like to have. Good part is that basic computer skills will do! Just like posting pictures on Facebook! The following websites are for free: http://www.tumblr.com, Blogger by Google, or http://www.wix.com/create/website that I found recently, and many more! It’s just a matter of 10-15 minutes to find something suitable. I think this requirement will make students attempted to do something good for themselves.

Agenda, agenda! Tell me who is the busiest..

2011-09-18T15:28:00.000-04:00

Now back to classes! Exactly ONE month passed from the August 24th! I have a load of homework from almost every single class non-stop. Oh, this semester is busier than I planned. Well, in order to graduate from my FA:VA this fall I need last two classes: ENG 102 and LIB 111, and plus 3 more GD classes, Internship, and LF I to develop my drawing skills, simply: another hectic semester. Honestly, I like it. It keeps me busy and I like working with the schedule, otherwise I become lazy and useless human being, which I dislike so much. Below I am sharing some thoughts about my classes.

Online class: Here is my first impression about the class + updates:OMG! it’s like constant blogging, which I don’t mind, but the reading part is a killer, very time consuming and unproductive in my case. I would rather listen to a lecture first, but with this class it’s impossible. It depresses me a bit, but no giving up. I will work on it, you never know, maybe I will start liking it? Well, I like the writing part for sure, but in this case it must be more academic writing, rather than informal, and that complicates the situation a little bit, but anyway I will survive :D

Update 1: Well, I have actually survived first assignment. It was very hard, but I did it. So I guess if I keep working on it I will be learning some useful info. The only thing, I have no background information about the functional design objects, that we see every day. I had to spend more hours on just background research, because the book is very difficult, and it just randomly jumps from one designer to another, while referring to some other designer that I have no idea of his/her work, style etc. The only good thing, I don’t have to attend the class! But I have to log in at least three times a week, and submit my research and discus the topic, comment class mates. Anyway, right now I feel positive about this class. I can make it.

Update 2: This class is a little bit odd, because it’s kind of difficult to guess what is the next assignment is going to be about. This week is a movie week, silent ones with subs and B&W… I can’t focus after 5 minutes. It’s complex. I plan to do some background research and read reviews, and then watch the movies. Otherwise, it’s boring because I hate subtitles, because I am a slow reader.

LIB 111 is very time consuming! For ONLY ONE credit I have spent more hours in the library, rather than on my Life Drawing I class in the studio. I took this class intentionally IN CLASS, so I would not need to go back to library for homework. This is a class that is taught for about 5 days during the summer/winter, so what is the point assigning homework, if we actually could do all assignments in class! Anyway, I learned how to find books in the library, which I could have figured out on my own as well… Well, goodbye my time, money and brain cells! The terrible part it's still not done yet.. oh well, patience!

ENG102 is going OK. I have got very fun instructor. I took his class actually on my first semester, so I knew before registration that the class is not going to be boring to death. It’s mostly about reading American Literature and writing about it; time consuming, yet it can be enjoyable time to time. For example, during the hurricane, I read homework stories with my host mother, and we enjoyed them and even had a little discussion! Well, when there is no electric power, all we had to do was read!

Commercial Photo is the most fun and tiring class. I love the idea of manipulation using images! We are learning so much in one class, and homework is very challenging, does not matter what it is about. I think the class is very enjoyable and difficult, register on your risk :D I might write more about the class in detail in other post.

Life Drawing I… Oh, this is the class that I most suffer. I just have trouble translating human proportions. I can’t understand the structure from inside. When I look at the body, I see shapes, and I want to draw it, but the class assignments are like we have to draw the first step, is like using curvy lines and overlapping them creating gesture drawings, in what I have big troubles. I hope to get better by time, yet I have to prepare a portfolio, but unfortunately I have nothing! I wish I took this class in my second semester, because I think I wasted my time on stuff that I kind of wasn’t having too much trouble drawing.. oh, well I am glad that I am still taking this class, the best I can do is just train my eye, hand, and BRAIN to understand what I am asked to do.. ………………………………………………………......................morbid

Graphic Design class is going well. It’s more like a working environment, than a classroom. That is why I guess it is called Real World classroom. I like it. It’s more like a training for the job, so I have to make sure every class I have the assignment ready ( and others too) , because otherwise there will be nothing to discuss. Yesterday, we had Business to Business showcase at the college, so as a class we went there. We tried to look around the display of tables, how they are designed. I think I missed the one that instructor actually was commenting. However, I met two people, one of them was actually running the design firm, so I got his contacts, and luckily my internship supervisor knew those people! I guess it’s a good sign.

Internship is so much fun, but sometimes I get frustrated too. The good part is I have really nice supervisor, who knows a lot about the graphic design which is a chance to learn MORE! The office has a “mini” library that has art and design books. So I can say, it is full of inspiration, and I am allowed to borrow books if I need to. The projects that I am working on mostly template work, so I kind of update the new info, and make minor changes. There is one project that is supposedly assigned for me, but I feel like it is not. The thing is I am having trouble in designing what I am asked to design, because of the lack of information. The part that really annoys me, when I don’t quite understand what are the criteria for the problem , so I come up with some relying on my own experience trying to find a solution, which is apparently not lining up with the one that I am “expected to come up.” I wish I could do better; I really spent time on those variations. None are approved yet, and the ones that were done before, I don’t see any difference from mines. Some of them are similarly elaborate, or too simple, or just not right. So anyway, complains must over here, because there are much more than just complaining about ONE project. So my supervisor promised to bring me to the real printing environment I am hoping to understand something there about the printing process, as right now it’s kind of an abstract cloud filled with information. Good part of internship is creating long term contacts! Yay!

RE-Start

2011-09-11T21:48:00.000-04:00

REstart

3 Days of classes, then extra ONE WEEK OFF to reboot after the hurricane = Very unusual way to start the semester! Circumstances were very demanding.
Classes resumed! It’s hard to believe that we’ve survived nature’s harsh behavior, and here we are again, back to studies. Now, I am going to rewind and share a little bit of horror that I guess we all experienced. Natural Disasters! Like two in one week is really scary. Before classes started, there was an earthquake, which I really did not feel, because I was on “mail delivery mission.” Then, at weekend the hurricane Irene! That morning I woke up at 6.15AM and it was like a nightmare because of the grayness! Humongous trees resembled dancers in the discotheque! They were in a non-stop dancing mode under the rhythm of wind. That was a view! When the next day I took a ride to Kingston, trees along the way seemed so tired and drained, felt like their heads are looking down and they are ready just to go to sleep. Kind of similar to human hangover… I guess.

The worst that I was afraid because of hurricane was power loss… and guess what! It happened! I felt so isolated without my internet! Like there is a world that a lot is happening, and I don’t have an access to it. Life without internet is a bit depressing, just the thoughts of it makes me uncomfortable. I know while I am attending classes and working I don’t use it, but I still know it’s available. When the opposite happens.. em.. a little bit creepy.. Creepier than hurricane itself ( I should not say that). By the way it was my first hurricane! Azerbaijan don’t have a natural access to ocean… and the Caspian Sea is actually the biggest LAKE, consequently, no ocean no hurricane that is. I guess appears in the ocean because of the drastic temperature difference.Finally, I will conclude this post with the 10th anniversary of 9/11 attacks. It’s been 10 years! I wasn’t in the States when it happened, apparently. However, I have my small story about it. It was evening , I remember watching TV and waiting for my favorite show to start, and all of a sudden all channels stopped showing their regular scheduled programs, but only news about 9/11 terror. The news continued for about 2-3 days or maybe more nonstop about what was happening. After 9/11 many rules have been rewritten. As a foreign student, I can say that receiving a student visa becomes more and more difficult every time I apply, as the attackers mainly were under student visa; therefore, we are controlled on a very high level. SEVIS numbers were created after 9/11, summer 2002, to keep track of every single student who is studying in here; the database that regulates foreign student information collects reports from the colleges where students are studying. Well, what I really do not like is during my travels; at the customs I am always isolated from regular check out. My paperwork is being rechecked again, I had to wait about 30-40 minutes extra…and I have a feeling that it is all because of my look. I feel sorry about the families who lost their loved ones, who got damaged but survived violent terrorist attack…All I can say we are here and those memories are carved in your minds forever.

My piece of adventure at the end of the semester

2011-05-28T08:46:00.000-04:00

to be continued...

It’s summer! Yes, IT IS SUMMER! I think I should wrap up with this post for the spring 2011 semester. (though it is very late xD) The last weeks of April and May were the most hectic, craziest, sleepless, rewarding, and surprising!

I will start with the rewarding and surprising part! :D I am very grateful for the scholarships that I received for the 2011-2012 college year; this contribution from donors lightens the financial side of my experience at SUNY Ulster! Believe or not that is the toughest part for me! So the ceremony went pretty well! We walked on the stage, got our congratulations from the President D. Katt and Chair of the Foundation Inc. Mr. R. Mantey, then there was food and photo session in the Student Life Center a la cafeteria xD.

My chronology is distorted a bit, so actually before that ceremony, I had another event to attend. I got a prize xD yes, PRIZE! Sounds mysterious, right?! It’s a nice plaque/frame with a recognition letter. All in all, I was nominated by my advisor /instructor for the President’s Award for Initiative. What an honour! I don’t know how to explain in writing how I felt when I got the phone call! I was nervous, because as usually the first reaction in my mind was like “ you kidding me, right ?” Then, email and mail confirmed that I am not in the middle of REM sleep. So the ceremony was a luncheon, and we supposed to bring a guest. My guests were my host family member, of course, and my nominator. And guess what? Something strange must happen, wherever I am. It is “ fate” LOL, thus it was unavoidable! Sometimes it is really bad to have a last name that starts from one of the first 5 letters of Latin alphabet, especially in a situation like this one! They call your name first and you don’t know what to do stand up or wait. I don’t like waiting, thus I decided ... :D in other words could not wait a minute for Dr. Katt to finish reading some background info about me, and I jumped to the “stage” right after he pronounced my name lol and I was standing like discombobulated lunatic in front of the audience. Though I made them laugh! :D Anyway, that was a life time experience, as usually! I am sure that the expectations from me now tripled! G O D, I love you!

VAC! It’s our Visual Art’s Club! I think for this year we accomplished fairly good amount of projects! Our members were volunteering in some events at the college, so we earned some amount per member that went to the club’s budget. We organized an event, where club members designed the tote bags with stencils, and then sold some of them. The most cool part is the SLATE PROMOTION EVENT and the final result THE SLATE, Art and Literature Magazine that was released while ago! We published the winners and their art on the last 2 pages. Selection was made by our club! It’s so much fun when you ask student’s to make art, despite their majors! So you should check it out . The magazine is currently being distributed at the college and in the community. We worked hard, so I think people must see what SUNY Ulster students can create :D!

A bit about the most hectic and craziest part! So apparently we had exams and final projects. I think I aced my final project from the D&C II class. I wish I could do better. I just spend more time on making the magazine, so it was hard to concentrate in both big projects at the same time. I did OK, I guess. Honestly, I could not spend all my energy/creativity on that project, but I really was very happy with the one out of 5 pieces that I made. :D That project I think is very funny, and I am liking it. The strange thing, those projects that I make and I really like viewers generally either don’t get or just don’t like it :D but this time they liked it too, lol Very impressive! Also, my ENG 101 class messed up my GPA. I got B+ from the class and.. this was my semestr’s “ohno” moment. I know ENGLISH is a foreign language to me, and I am not sure that I will master it someday. I think language is something you must grow with, it’s hard to adapt to the language, at least to me. So, all in all, my GPA dropped. But I will try next semester harder. English English English.. if you know how complicated your are...

Well, see you soon :D

To be continued…

experience all over! & president's award!

2011-04-24T19:57:00.000-04:00

Cosmic irony by GulnarB

The last week was the most tiring and the toughest so far. I am running from one project to another, skipping some, doing so many unwanted changes just to get the things done. I hate compromising my projects but I have to, though it does not apply to every single one. Alongside this I can’t get enough sleep. Everyday 3.00 am mornings till the next day’s 9-10.00 pm. I could not believe but I can somehow handle it. I am still alive and able to walk and talk. Of course less sleep always affects my English skills. I can’t help it… But I believe once I started something it must be finished properly, I mean I did good so far with my classes, can’t let the last 3 weeks spoil everything. So I can do it! Just need to motivate myself, in which I am very good :D Unbelievable, lol G O D granted me with a gift of motivation :DAnybody wants to get motivated? Let me know and I will arrange an appointment LOL * just kidding*

So the question is why I am so busy:

Well, my friend and I are working on the Slate, Art and Literature Magazine, and we had early deadline. It is an extra project alongside with other class projects. I am enjoying this project so much. What I discovered: I really like making layouts and playing around with images and text. My “Visual OCD” kicks in and I want to make everything precise otherwise I feel so anxious, and the feeling of discomfort is not leaving me unless I find the “right” placement for the elements. This is something that I really have no control over. Anyway, we together are solving this problem. Magazine is almost done. There are minor editorial corrections needs to be done and we need to get approved. Then hopefully ready for the print. Can’t wait to see that day! It is very demanding and labor intense process, but we like it! :D

My drawing class project is still “on hold.” There is a deadline for it too, but unfortunately I just can’t get to start working on it. I feel so bad about it. I talked to my instructor he said he understands etc, but I know he is not liking it at all. * Yes, I have extra-sensorial antennas behind by ears, a third eye on the back of my head, extra invisible limbs and a 3rdhemisphere in my brain*

Art History paper L. Deadline is tomorrow, and guess what… I have only a draft! Too much work to do and haven’t started yet. I need to design the layout with text and pictures. I want mine to look like a small magazine article about my topic .I kind of have an idea, but my text is not ready yet. It makes me very anxious again! Just thinking about the projects is so stressful, and it’s so hard to start!

Student Show 2011. I am kind of sour about that, because I have only one piece in the show. D&C II was the only class where I could submit my work: only two of them, and ended up having just one piece… it is so sad! ;< Probably I am the only one who gets upset about that, but it means to me a lot! My classmates are taking many art classes where their works are being curated by instructors. Because I am done with all those classes, I am kind of left aside. I asked my 2D/3D instructor to submit for consideration my 2D works, he said no with a smile in his face and honestly his explanation was a bit ambiguous to me. Those works were done during this college year 2010-2011, so why not? The rest have other works, because they were taking those classes but I haven’t, so I felt like still I could have at least one more piece from my 2D class. So all those made me feel pretty sad! I should learn how to enjoy what I have, and stop planning such things and expecting more. Though I think If I don’t expect more, I won’t even get what I have right now. So anyway, set the bar high, and be happy with what you get. That is the lesson for me :D!

Once my public speaking instructor said “Try not to focus on the very minor problems and instead recognize your many substantial accomplishments, otherwise you will never be able to enjoy all your successes.” Well I think, he is right, but at the same time I am right too. It is like losing the battles, but winning the war. Em.. still not making sense, as to me losing the battle makes hard to win the war. I think small details are making the whole picture, so I can’t just omit them. My point is details are important! As an art student I start realizing it more and more, and I want to make the best of what I am involved in, so those small “battles” that I lose really upset me.

All in all, this week wasn’t all about the stressful situations. First good news! I received a letter back from the College Foundation and I won…. 3 scholarships!!! :D Unbelievable! The second one, I have received a phone call, email, and a letter that informed me that I was selected for ( or won) President’s Award for Initiative! How cool is that :D! Still I can’t believe! It is so right that we don’t notice but surveillance eye is always watching us :D

So today I am busy again, not with class/homework tho, we are having Passover+Easter celebration, i e EastOver :D Fun word ! Hopefully, I will get to my paper tonight. Good luck to me! THANK YOU SUNY Ulster. I am glad to be able to study here, taste and learn new things everyday/every semester!

MoMA trip = INSPIRATION + FUN

2011-04-10T19:57:00.000-04:00

Lines by GulnarB

The anticipated trip to MoMA had happened on Thursday, April 7th 2011. It was organized by SUNY Ulster’s best of the bests: Art Department! *Yes, I am biased!* Early in the morning (7.50 am) we students and three of our instructors were ready for the New York City adventure. At least, it seemed so. Trip to the city was fun; especially in the bus doing math homework was a very good time killing technique. I recommend.* I know it sounds boring, but makes my brain work, particularly at 8.30am*

We arrived to the museum I am guessing 10nish. Equipped with cameras and sketchbooks we entered to MoMA! By mistake, around 5 minutes we were standing in a loooooooooooong line, then we skipped it as being a SUNY student has its privileges like FREE ENTRY=NO QUEUE!

The plan was to see Picasso: Guitars 1912–1914, and then my 2D/3D instructor suggested to see Abstract Expressionist New York and German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse. All those were fun and interesting in person. Generally we study paintings and other artworks just seeing them on the pages of books or on the huge screen in Art History classroom. This time was different, because seeing famous works in person has different touch in perception. Texture in Picasso’s works was so dashing. He utilized so many found/random objects and media, that one can possible imagine :D! Wow! His guitars were pretty impressive. Ok I must say that Picasso was very sloppy artist. Some of his works are so messy, time to time made me feel dizzy and blowed my brain into the limbo of unevenness.I like him so much though; he was a revolt and went against the convections. I am glad he did so! Otherwise we most probably would not have any contemporary/modern art concept.

soup cans by Andy Warhol

Also, I saw in person works of my favorite “sick” Austrian Expressionist/Art Nouveau artist Egon Schiele in German Expressionists show. Jackson Pollock (AB EX NY), Andy Warhol -soup cans!- Roy Lichtenstein - Drowning Girl (I had made a wire project based on that girls head)a comic book style painting IN PERSON. I noticed every single dot lined up perfectly to create that comic book impression! SO NEAT!

I was so impressed with my surrounding that I felt like in Wonderland! It actually was my third time in MoMA, but every time I feel the same excitement! I never get a chance to see the permanent collections fully. Hopefully somehow I will manage to find time and money to travel to NYC just to live there for a week or so and spend full days in MoMA!

There were two other options after seeing planned MoMA collections; one of our drawing instructors led us to Chelsea Commercial Art Galleries, another to theFrick Museum to see the Rembrandt show. Unfortunately, I had to choose one of those places, and I had pragmatic approach and decided to see the Commercial Galleries just to have a sense how art markets look like. Well, I must say again there were very interesting and various artworks for every taste. It was the first time when I thought about BUYING an art; I mean some of them were THAT GOOD! :D Our instructor was a bit cautious about our behavior. We were like wild animals in the Versailles Palace LOL. We, meaning me, started taking pictures with paintings and drawings and sculptures. It was so inspiring that with photography I was trying to make something funny and artsy or I just needed to record something for memory and inspiration. I did lol, but our instructor wasn’t happy with our (my) behavior and made remarks… it was time when I really thought “ once in a while I am here with my friends, and not to take pictures… em.. I doubt it” The thing is all the time I am a "picturetaker" ala photographer, so I never appear in the pictures, but this time I wanted to be IN. So I ended up having nice shots anyway :D. Now I know how to behave in commercial galleries, because they are so quiet and “naked” that every single movement is noticeable. I am learning, so it was another good lesson!

injected with inspiration by GulnarB

By the end of the day I was tired and drained BUT HAPPY! I must mention that not every Azerbaijani gets a chance to see the world famous artworks in the world wide known museums :D! So I am extra happy for being special and having that chance!Then I took some more pictures before we get in to the bus! Afterwards, the bus trip back to Stone Ridge was another fun! Some exchange of images and talk with my instructor about the shows, and then injected with inspiration me and my friend continue shooting and come up with some fun ideas to work with later on. So this is briefly what happened that day… I will remember it for a long time!* My inspiration was so close, how could I forget that :D*

Snow, again!

2011-03-24T11:56:00.000-04:00

Today’s snow day cancellation was so unexpected. I was up late till 4am to finish up my Drawing & Composition project and class was canceled! That made me mad! I could not believe that I am so tired, hardly standing awake and trying to put together myself, and here my classmates are happily announcing that classes were cancelled! Anyway, I will look at the bright side! I got some more days to work on them, and maybe to move towards the excellence? I love this word ‘excellence’. It is so graceful and light and to the point. What I learned this semester is that “perfection is a theory, but excellence can be achieved.” I love it!

I said I am going to do my Public Speaking speech writing, but I can’t start working on it. Honestly, I hope tomorrow will be a snow day! I would not mind to have an ‘expected’ snow day :D. I am kind of a planner, I like to plan things, once I even got a label “control freak” which did not make me sad at all. LOL it’s who I am. “Spontaneity is good when I plan it.” I think tonight I feel so inspired after a cup of coffee, I start writing my own quotations! By the way, I feel special connection to the words, it is really fascinating! I see them as an art work, or they simply inspire me to see a picture or a scene or something related to art and humor! I love the way of association created by words! Words are so strong and picturesque!

OK, now I am really going to do some work!

Midterm ?

2011-03-24T10:38:00.000-04:00

Einstein

This semester is getting more and more loaded. It is very hard to keep up with homework. 6 classes and my todo list is so full already. Don’t know where to start actually. Maybe the urgent ones? Somehow, I procrastinate whatever is urgent and work on those that don’t need to be done asap.

Anyway, last week was crazy. We had illustration project for the Drawing and Composition II class. Grimm's Fairy Tales, particularly the story "Frog-King, or Iron Henry" for the one-book one college event. It was interesting project, thought I could not make myself to concentrate on it. I noticed the tendency to keep thinking about my homework, projects and essays and whatever is due and feel bad about procrastination. * How ironic is that? * The worst part is I can’t start. OMG it’s terrible. I think I am in midterm artistic blockage.

Plus, my graphic design class is so intense. I had tons of presentations to prepare. In one week 2 presentations + I needed to start ppt for my art history class. All those are done by now, but it was very tough. I am not complaining, yet the quality of work gets worse and worse. I need at least some time to think on projects. It makes for me easy to know what I am going to create, how to make it real, and whatever is that must match with my standards. Otherwise, I am consistently compromising with my projects. It is no good -_- .

Expectations are raising, my projects are so lack of emotions and me. I am like a machine working on them, no emotion, in other words nothing! It is terrifying.

Also, I needed to keep up with my art history class. Oh ! I need to make up all those projects. I took notes, but never get a chance to put them into the google docs. Finally last weekend, I have done it! Yet currently I have tons of paper writing, reading, etc.

So right know I am going to get ready for my Public Speaking class. I really enjoy that class,one of the most fun classes :D thanks to the instructor! Well, first I was thinking that he is using humor to grab our attention, now I think he is using allegories to help us know who we are, and his sarcasm is fantastic!

Will be back soon, to write more complains and maybe something more xD

PS I <3 Einstain

Last two days till the Foundation Scholarship deadline!

2011-02-10T22:18:00.000-05:00

Who is not a procrastinator, can you please give me some tips like ‘how NOT TO BE a procrastinator’?

I am working on my essay right now. *I know, you think that I cannot write this post and my essay at the same time, but you are wrong :P I am typing both in one word doc :P happy now ?* Strangely, I wrote the essay two weeks ago, but I was procrastinating with the proofreading part. I knew that even if I do proofread it, I would not be able to find all the mistakes, especially ESL ones. So LUCKY ME! I have the best people around me who inspire me, make me feel good and think positive, share with me some tips and little bit of wise advice, and help me out in an ‘extreme’ situation such as having no ride home ! THANK YOU, THOSE ‘WHO CANNOT BE NAMED’! (© J K ROWLING) I am sorry I cannot use any names except writers [they are already famous;]. I would love to thank you all personally addressing to you by your names. * I feel like I am not supposed to use any names and even if I am allowed … just don’t want to get into the trouble because of privacy violence or something similar*. I had my essay proofread and now making second draft, new corrections! Hopefully, I will be done tomorrow and submit everything on Friday! Can’t wait to be done! Getting tired, plus I have tons of English writing for tomorrow *ironic ha?* and for Public Speaking! Let’s hope I would be done on time before my tiredness conquers my body and soul for tonight.

Good luck to me and to all those who are applying for the Foundation Scholarship. :D