Individual Art Review
A huge part of the art school
here at Northern Michigan University is AD 303 -- Individual Art Review
-- a pass-or-fail class that determines whether or not you can continue
being an art major. It's serious, scary business and you are required
not only to build a portfolio, but develop a statement of intent that
clearly explains the social purpose behind your artwork. Leading up to
the final review, you develop this statement of intent (presenting it to
your advisor several times), create a resume, and make digital
documentation of your portfolio. For the final review, you hand out
your statement of intent and present your portfolio to a panel of six
art professors, one of which is your advisor. You are then questioned
for twenty-five minutes, and you have no prior knowledge of the crazy
things these professors might ask you. And then -- you pass, or you
fail.
I went through this process yesterday, and I'm pleased to report that I passed with a satisfactory grade. It's a whole lot of stress off my shoulders, and now I can focus more on other classes that I've been neglecting. The scariest part of yesterday's review was when I was asked if I considered myself to be of the modern or post-modern thought process. I froze up and admitted I really didn't know what these two schools of thought were -- oops. Yeah, pretty embarrassing, and it didn't help that the review had just started and I was still really freaking out at this point.
Anyway, besides the photography aspect, how does this relate to this Michigan Architecture Blog? My portfolio consists of twelve photographs, all fragments of buildings from the northern portion of the state of Michigan. I don't want to get into my whole statement of intent (I'm incredibly sick of reading and retyping it at this point, believe me) -- but part of it was focusing on the gradual transformation that these buildings are going through, and how their current use and appearance is often far different than how they were originally imagined, five, seven, ten decades ago.
Negaunee
Cross Village
Negaunee
Hancock
Chassell
Houghton
Negaunee
Germfask
Negaunee
Hancock
Republic
Germfask
I went through this process yesterday, and I'm pleased to report that I passed with a satisfactory grade. It's a whole lot of stress off my shoulders, and now I can focus more on other classes that I've been neglecting. The scariest part of yesterday's review was when I was asked if I considered myself to be of the modern or post-modern thought process. I froze up and admitted I really didn't know what these two schools of thought were -- oops. Yeah, pretty embarrassing, and it didn't help that the review had just started and I was still really freaking out at this point.
Anyway, besides the photography aspect, how does this relate to this Michigan Architecture Blog? My portfolio consists of twelve photographs, all fragments of buildings from the northern portion of the state of Michigan. I don't want to get into my whole statement of intent (I'm incredibly sick of reading and retyping it at this point, believe me) -- but part of it was focusing on the gradual transformation that these buildings are going through, and how their current use and appearance is often far different than how they were originally imagined, five, seven, ten decades ago.
Negaunee
Cross Village
Negaunee
Hancock
Chassell
Houghton
Negaunee
Germfask
Negaunee
Hancock
Republic
Germfask
With
the exception of the photograph of the mural taken in Cross Village
(just south of the Mackinac Bridge), this portfolio was compiled
entirely in the Upper Peninsula, where the buildings on Main Street have
a very unique look and feel.
