Final Week

The morning of, the sewing teacher got a flat. So Nicole and I had to improvise and act as sewing teachers for the children's' sewing class. Each student decided what they wanted to make. We had projects such as capes, kittens, pillows, and embroidered polo shirts. 

I helped to cut, pin, hand sew, rip seams, and learned a bit about using a sewing machine.

Here are two of the students with their finished projects, a cape and a pillow.

In the afternoon, Nicole showed me how to use Mail Chimp in order to send out weekly newsletters to her clients. I made it through a huge stack of paperwork, and even got to head home a bit early. All in all, it was a nice and productive yet relaxing last day. 

Gentrified West Philly

I submitted poetry to Veronica’s MSM Zine, and luckily, not only to did one get accepted, but she even requested that I read another that didn’t get published into the zine because of space limitations, but that she felt should still be heard! I couldn’t be more honored. Two out of three of the poems that I submitted were accepted, and the one that she wanted me to read was a poem that I wrote that was inspired by the themes of the exhibition. I may go back and add and omit from it, but the untitled poem reads as followed:

Summer 2005

in the hottest part of West Philly

the sidewalk’s so hot

it melted the skin off our knees when we

fell on them

we were younger

making everyone cousins or lovers,

wearing floral socks and denim skorts

spreading crooked, missing toothed smiles,

imperfect and transparent,

a happiness that lets you see inside of it.

the air,

warm and embracing

and belonging to us,

we’d roam the entire neighborhood

looking for an adventure.

the cracks and dents in the sidewalk would take

us to the rec center on Christian St.,

Play Cousin Jay would give us free Hugs and Lil Romeo Chips,

And most times,

the park smelled like weed, grass, and sugar that’s

been burnt by the sun,

drips of blueberry water ice stained

onto the bottom of a slide or a puddle of it beneath a swing set.

Now we’re taller and clumsier,

and we’ve learned to smile purposefully.

The air smells like paint and rose pedals,

that’s if it’s not spring and if all the new gardens and

Cherry Blossoms hasn’t stopped us from

breathing through our noses.

It’s as if the air feels different.

Maybe wants to kill us now.

Vaguely, this seems to be a sort of heaven.

We’re dead and invisible,

like ghosts who didn’t make it into paradise.

There’s new restaurants and boutiques

with items the price of gold,

and the gates here are green and watermarked

with gods faces that look down at us from the tips of

the spikes at the top of it.

The pavement is smooth and almost white like clouds,

It’s cold and hits us for falling on it.

There aren’t anymore cracks in it,

so sometimes,

we walk the whole city

looking for home.

(Side Note: I say this on almost every platform that I post my creative writing on: All of my work is protected.I love my work so much that I am willing to fight for it legally. Please do not steal my poem, ideas, words, or phrases. I say this humbly. Thank you.)

We Went to Norf Philly

Last month, Veronica introduced Emily and I to one of her new interns, Angela. Angela, my roommate, and I headed north of Philadelphia to leave flyers at art and community centers whose owners agreed with Veronica to allow us to promote the MSM Exhibition and the events that compliment it at their locations. I’m from West Philadelphia, not necessarily a safe haven in Philly, the alleged sanctuary city. Growing up, people in my neighborhood had special nicknames and tales of North Philly. Some of us called in North Filthy, claiming that it was significantly more unkempt than other parts of Philly. Others, including myself, called it Norf Philly, eliminating the formality of its name, a play on how improper, wild the neighborhood was portrayed to be.  

In most cases, we drove to a location either absent of windows or with windows absent of light. Almost at every corner, there were entrances to El stops, the police, and groups of wandering with carts, selling socks and other goods or with carts filled, presumably, their own items. Thronging the space between the transportation stations were beer delis and failed stores. Beneath us were untreated streets, and was very much the stereotypical depiction of North Philly that everyone keeps running from, leaving the weeping and gnashing of teeth to be heard in the very black distance. My roommate and I are from other, more or less similar, sides of Philly, so we were wanders in a lost town. We rerouted, maybe four times, using my phones GPS, and often had to travel the outskirts of the neighborhood to get back on track to where we were going. Many of the places were under Frankford’s El line, so when we ended up in Northern Liberties and Fishtown, it was as if the sun only shined in gentrified neighborhoods. Graffiti beautified cemented walls, too expensive for the people whose culture it comes from. Thrift stores propped, usually, next to co-opts, galleries, and cafes, with price-tags nearly identical to regular, high-end clothing stores, and in the residential area, there were homes designed by masterful architects, and manifested by realtors, more concerned with securing their own safety, comfort, and living, at the expense of others’ comfort, safety, and living.

We found our way back into the fire of Philly after stumbling upon the art and culture of its gold, gated paradise and slid those fliers into the creases of the doors of our locations despite whether the places were shaded or locked. The art community sometimes forgets that it is apart to many socioeconomic classes. More Stately Mansions, an exhibition about accessibility, wealth inequality, and removing materialism and enterprise culture from art, was displaying paintings, poetry, and installation pieces. The folks in Norf Philly needed to know that art, truth, and beauty still belonged to them. 

final thoughts

Looking back on my initial goals of the summer one thing I've been questioning thanks to Kay’s insight is my t-shirt busniess. The shirts I sell are all mostly related to bands or tvs shows. Kay made me realise that this takes away money from the original artist. And although Ii already knew that and felt bad about it, I realize now I should probably focus more on original content and building up my own brand identity. Although the shirts are all drawn in my style and I’m not stealing any imagery, I’m still stealing a name by writing it on the shirt. I definitely don’t sell as much original drawings as I do fan merchandise but  I see this as a good future goal, to grow my own brand identity.

Another one of my goals was incorporating more hand made traditional work with digital.

I’ve noticed growth in my sketchbook over the summer. I’ve been Working more with mixed media. I've been working in my sketchbook constantly but have failed to try more digital things. Although I failed to work more digitally, I think it’s very important to try new things and be happy while working. I’m very thankful for Kay’s influence on using more tangible things in my sketchbook.

Some of my Favorite things about this fellowship were the small things like trips to run errands and the drive to the senior center. Another part I really appreciated about this experience was the chance to meet new people like Kay’s other intern Ornella! I also loved meeting the other college interns working at the senior center and bumping into various other people. It seems like Kay knows everyone!

On another note, having Kay’s husband Greg working in the same studio was a great experience. Greg is a children's book illustrator and writer and although I wasn't working with him directly, it was great to get a small insight about what working in that world is like. I loved seeing the process behind what goes into making a book!

Kay took ornella and I out to lunch on our last week which I really appreciated, she honestly made this experience feel like so much more than just an internship.  

I felt really bad I was a bit late for a few of our last meetings because of health problems. :( I will definitely miss working with Kay so much but I’ll take what I’ve learned and continue incorporating it in my work! Kay truly did so much for me and i’m so thankful for the opportunity! I learned so much about her artistic process along with skills I  can use and I also grew as a person and was able to meet personal goals!

New ways of screen printing

Something I’ve really appreciated while working with kay was learning her processes of how she makes art. I really admire how she has her own way of doing certain things. Some of the things I’ve learned from her I could definitely see myself implementing in the future. A big thing that stuck out to me was her process of screen printing fabric.  I found her screen printing set up amazing for such a small space and I hope to someday soon build a similar space. In her studio space which is shared with her husband she has a little room where she prints. The table she prints on is very small. I’ve been so impressed by her ways of moving the fabric certain ways so that she can print many yards at a time. This small space is really inspiring to me and I can see now that it’s totally doable to set up at home. My current screen printing set up in my apartment is similar but I’ve been lacking a place to burn screens. Kay showed me how her and her husband built their own glass table to burn screens. I was so inspired by seeing this and I really want to try to make my own small table to burn screens as well. It’s good to see people printing large amounts of fabric in small spaces to see it really is something that anyone can do. At uarts the fabric printing class teaches another process that is a lot more difficult. They require special tables that you have to pin all your fabric into and then you have to do a hard math process to get the pattern right. The whole process they teach takes so much time and space that I learned through Kay isn’t really necessary! Her process is so much more simple and uses a lot less math. I appreciate  how she simply lined up the fabric instead of using a crazy system. Although I do prefer Kay’s way of printing, I still think it’s important and useful to have the knowledge of both process.

The last project I worked on for kay was a television. I worked on adding stuffing to the inside and then sewed it shut again. I think one thing I didn't really improve on during the summer was stuffing. This step is really hard for me and take a long time because I try to get the stuffing in every little area! It’s crazy to see how fast Kay can stuff compared to me! I hope one day I can reach that level of stuffing!

Development in sewing speed and accuracy

While working with Kay these past few weeks she’s had the luxury of getting a new amazing sewing machine! The machine seemed so scary to me at first because it looks incredibly intimidating and complicated! It’s a lot bigger than the average little sewing machine I was using before and has a lot more parts to figure out. One thing I really admire about working with Kay is her guidance and motivation for me to do things on my own. She gives me the confidence to figure out how to use things without her help, which I feel like is a great skill to develop. I’ve loved working on my independence and confidence of trying new things. She constantly encourages me to fix my mistakes myself and fix the machine when it jams up, this is something I would have had trouble doing alone before but now can figure out alone! I know it seems like a small task but it is very important in the long run of life I think. I don’t want to be constantly asking for help for everything. Kay has made it easier for me to do things independently. Another thing I’ve noticed with my sewing abilities has been the speed at which I sew now. I’ve noticed and Kay has been telling me that I’ve been sewing a lot faster than when I initially started working with her. I think a lot of the bost in my speed has to do with the new found confidence she has instilled in me about my sewing abilities. I’m really going to miss sewing on this new machine! It cuts the thread for you and you can move the foot with your knee! So high tech! It’s funny to look back at when I was scared to use the machine at all.

Another thing I’ve realized while working with kay is that my fear of dogs has become a bit less. I’ve loved getting to know her amazing dog Eleanor and will miss her a lot! I think shes shown me that not all dogs are scary, some are very sweet and nice! I’m definitely not 100 percent over my fear of dogs but it’s been great being able to be around one and feel good about it!

Another thing I’ve really been appreciating about my time with Kay is our trips for errands. We go to places like home depot and fleisher art center, the library and philly aids thrift store. I love these trips so much and I’m so drawn to everyday objects like the refrigerators at home depot. I think going out to these seemingly boring places really helps me find inspiration for my sketchbook. I’ve been having a great time translating these trips into my doodles and art pieces. I think gathering outside inspiration from seemingly ordinary things is important but often forgotten. it helps you see new and old things in a different way.

working with the elderly continued

As Kay's class with the elderly at New Coutland contributes, I've been learning more ways of  communication. Kay told me an interesting story that stuck with me about how you should go along with what elderly people with memory loss issues are saying. She explained that going along with them makes them feel more comfortable in their constantly confusing surroundings. I think this is part of the reason why I get along with one of the women at New Courtland so well. The women I usually help is named Pat and she is known to be very ‘grumpy’ and has a bad attitude most of the time. Although most people think of her as negative and rude, I see her as being real about her situation. She has high standards for art because she’s an artist herself and was an art teacher! She constantly complains that the project we are working on isn't real art. I know I would be angry too if I had to spend my days confused and locked up in a senior center. I think her remarks aren't meant to be mean sometimes but are meant to be funny! I can tell that through our project she’s been happy being able to use her hands to create things again. Its great seeing her smile and make funny comments! She loves taking control and making little figurines with clay. 

The project we’ve been working on with the seniors has been a little challenging though because they have to use their hands and memory a lot. A lot of them don’t have great hand control anymore and also have a lot of memory loss so it has been a bit difficult at times. Although it’s hard for them to use their hands sometimes I try my best to encourage them to be hands on so their mold of their hand will end up being more their own. I don’t want to take the control of the project from them, I feel like their expression is the most important part. We just wrapped up the last class I could be a part of and Kay will finish the rest on her own. I feel sad that I won’t be able to see Pat anymore and I really hope she gets the chance to continue making things. I could tell that working with clay brought out a joy in her. For the last class I got to work with another women who had never done art before but seemed to be enjoying herself. I think it’s great that this class seems to be therapeutic for the seniors in a way, I really hope they all enjoyed themselves.

Thank You!

I've learned a great deal this summer about being a business owner. There are many of ways to continue making art and run a successful work place. Working at Eiland Arts Center is just another learning step in my career. I appreciate Nicole for welcoming me into her business home and for sharing her business knowledge. As an artist I hope to create a business that will be a part of the community that supports young kids to make art work.

Thank you University of The Arts for allowing me to learn so much this summer. Thank you for allowing me to follow along with the summer programs of other students like me. I am greatful to have a chance to have had such a successful and productive summer.

Even though this summer is coming to an end, I will continue to incorporate the things I've learned to my everyday practices.

If there is a chance to do another fellowship next year I would love to. There's so much to learn!

As I enter my senior year as a Photography major, I'll be practicing all of the ways to create a succussful business. I know with the skills that I have learned I will be able to find or create a good job and continue to make art. 

The End!

Summer Fellows is finally finished, and my internship with artist Michele Kishita has been absolutely incredible! It saddens me that my time with her is done, but it is great to know I can always contact her about any of my future endeavors. I am so grateful to her for not only this experience, but for giving me the opportunity to succeed in my career moving forward.

Since starting this journey I have made leaps and bounds in terms of learning about technique, professionalism, and dedication. Michele is an extremely driven artist making her passion her career. She has shown me that although this career path may not always be the easiest, if you put in the time, effort, and knowledge of what it takes to succeed, you will.

In the span of only a few months I have made business cards, had my first art exhibition, helped hang a professional group exhibition, and so much more. None of this would have even been possible without Michele, which I am eternally thankful for. Having spent so much time with Michele I got to know her as a painter, and as an individual. Watching her create her pieces whether it was prints, commissions, or paintings was truly amazing. She considers every detail in her process of making, and I intend to do the same when creating my own pieces. Michele took me to art shows, introduced me to her professional colleagues, and allowed me to assist her when hanging her upcoming show at James Oliver Gallery. She recommended important art books to me, showed me well known art magazines, and gave me advice about Instagram information that was especially helpful for me being a young artist. Learning all of this new information at times could be overwhelming, but I am so happy I know all of this now as I go into my senior year.

It was inspiring for me to watch Michele create her work, and seeing it produced from start to finish was even more exciting. After interning with her I have developed a deeper understanding of the materials she uses, and how she uses them within the pieces. By preparing her panels, organizing her paints, working on her installation piece, and just working in her studio I feel I understand her process even more. Her attention to detail and way of working are vital to the content of her artwork. The linear forms, color choices, line work, and overall compositions are taken into consideration every time she paints. She studies, observes, and problem solves which all contribute to the creative process. From these observations I plan to take in what I have learned and apply that same thoughtfulness to my own paintings.

Michele Kishita in my opinion is truly a remarkable artist, and I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to work with her this summer. I can’t wait to see what she will do next with her beautiful pieces, and in the art world!

Paper Work

Every summer day wasn't filled with fun times helping the children with camp. Some days we had to do the things that weren't much fun at all. Paper work has its place in every job setting. Whether it be important files for students or basic instructions for payments. Every company has them. On my last day at the Eiland Arts Center I helped Nicole type in a great deal of emails for the photography business in her company. The server that she uses allows her to send important information to hundreds of customers. Each customer will receive emails about events, their photos and camp openings for the next year. At first I didn't think that it would take me that long but I was wrong. Typing in each email and name took a few hours. Until that day I had never heard of the program Mail Chimp. It allows you to send everything to your mailing list all at once. It's more of the modern day phone book. Or a digital way to get in touch with people all at once.

The importance of having physical paper goes a long way. Sometimes computers don't work or something might not be backed up properly.

Filing paper work out and keeping it organized is crucial to making sure that business stays in order. The piles that I did help type were in a certain numerical order that Nicole arranged.

Making sure that things are kept in proper order are very important to running a business without chaos.

The Station Cafe

I've mentioned the art work and forgot to mention the cafe! Well this is a earth friendly, vegetarian cafe. And even though I am not a vegetarion I can say that I've enjoyed every drink of coffee or sandwich here. I've tried a variety of things; the roasted pepper and mozzarella cheese sandwich, the kidney bean brownie and peanut butter cookies. My favorite I must say has to be the chocolate covered coffee beans and the smoothies. Larisa shared the chocolate covered beans with me once and I was hooked from there. The smoothies were also a great way to start every morning with the children.

Even though the summer is coming to an end at Eiland Arts Center and The Station Cafe I'll be back for sure to get chocolate covered coffee beans and smoothies.

Be sure to visit The Station Cafe in Merchantville, NJ. You're sure to find something you'll love.

P.S. I've been looking at a couple of the hand made books in there and I'll be getting one of those too. This place has a never ending variety of things to love and its all made by local artists right here in our neighborhood!

Careers and Commissions

As the summer is coming to an end so is my internship with Michele. Looking back on my entire summer I have realized how much I have learned from her, and from myself in the process. She has taught me skills and techniques that will help me tremendously as I move forward in my career, and in life.

The other week Michele took me to see an exhibition at Urban Art Gallery here in Philadelphia. We talked about the current work displayed there, the solo exhibition she previously had at the gallery, and about the art world in general. We had lunch together and she gave me a lot of advice about what she has done in her career, and important information I need to know as a young artist. I was even given homework which was to write ten things I want in the next ten years, and how much time it takes to achieve each. This was very difficult for me because I am not used to deciding what I want in terms of the future, and it was stressful especially with graduation on the way. But it was also a really great exercise for me to document what I want in life, because it pushed me to list a set of goals and create a plan of how to achieve them. I explained to her that the future scares me in that I am not exactly sure what I want to do career wise with painting. She recommended certain classes I could take to work on technical skills in fine arts which I definitely need, and said that I could always come to her when I have opportunities in the art field. I am extremely grateful to her for this because she is incredibly knowledgeable about which opportunities are worth pursuing, and which ones are not.

I have continued to wrap the string for Michele’s installation piece as she finishes working on her paintings for her group exhibition. Having the opportunity to see a professional artist creating such large amount of work is amazing to me. During this studio time we have also discussed topics such as her commission work, art advisors, and others who purchase her work. I asked her how she determines prices for her pieces, especially commissions. She sent me the contracts she uses which includes her artwork commission agreement and exhibition agreement. She explained to me that she prices her work by the square foot above 12”x12” in size. We even created a price point for my work 70 cents/sq. ft. which I will be using for my first commission piece I was recently asked to do!

This coming week will sadly be my last, and I will be helping Michele hang her show. I’ll let you know how it goes and more!

The End

Working with ETD this summer has been absolutely eye opening, not only in terms of a dancer but of how a company works together realistically to create work and actively seek ways of improving themselves. Throughout these past 2 months, I’ve been able to work with many different aspects of the company and grow as an artist, mover, and person overall.

I think the most important thing I learned from Eryc was how to present yourself and talk to people. He is so sociable and driven when he talks about the company. His confidence and trust in himself allows for an incredible marketability for the company's success. He is constantly searching for new ways to grow and expand the ideas that will help build on this work, and does not give up or waiver when something doesn't work out or a plan gets sidetracked. His ability to adapt to situations and keep driving forward is something I will definitely take away from this as I move into making my own work for my final year of school. Advocating and believing in my own artistic decisions has always been a weak point of mine and watching Eryc at work has really inspired me to take action in my own agency.

Although I was never able to get a good quality camera for the media aspect of the job, I did learn a lot about how to work together to achieve someone’s artistic vision. Eryc has a very distinct aesthetic that is significantly different than my, more simplistic vision. Because of this fact, I had difficulty understanding and shaping the work I was producing to match the work that he liked to present for the company.  Eventually, I was able to create something that we both found satisfactory, but it wasn’t easy for me. Even just in the noticing of this, I learned a lot about how I deal with problems and how to work through them.

In terms of actually creating work, the dancers taught me how to collaborate and listen to one another in order to continue creating and evolving a dance. I was always impressed by how each person would feel comfortable sharing ideas or thoughts on how to improve, connect, and create functional movement. Their willingness to “workshop” ideas led to a collective understanding of the work and a deep connection to its outcome.

Being an artist is hard, being a company is even harder. I’m constantly amazed by how much work Eryc, Nicole, and Andrew put into keeping the company growing and running successfully. The work is never really done, there is no stopping point, even breaks in time tend to make you slide backwards. It really is a hill with no areas to rest, you’re either pushing forward or sliding backwards and it truly is exhausting. Luckily they all work together to get the job done, but i’m glad I had the opportunity to take a look inside the inner workings and lend a helping hand.