#CPSA250

[odnawn]

Process Binder #4

The past few weeks, I have made a lot of progress in regards to my Capstone Project for CPSA250/CPSA201. Not only did I fully complete my first portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat, but I also completed my journal entry in connection to my visits to the Freedom School in DC with Do Better. In fact, I also have gotten well into working on my presentation through Prezi for ArtsFest and will post a link to it. Below is a portion of my journal for my Do Better visit:

During my visits to the DC Freedom School with Do Better, a community service-centered student organization that has chapters at the University of Maryland, College Park, Morehouse College, Bowie State University, and Howard University; I have had the opportunity to truly see the importance of representation manifest with my own two eyes. I have been blessed enough to have had countless opportunities to interact with and develop mentor-mentee bonds with children who look like younger versions of myself, and take me back to a time where I once did not love myself, people, history, or culture; and had no idea how to.

After volunteering with organizations and initiatives including the Blue Drop Initiative, the Slam the Gap Initiative, America Counts; and even my actual paid junior and senior counselor positions with Forcey Day Camp, one would think that I had reached my maximum potential and hit the quota on knowledge of the importance of representation. This presumption is false.

At my last visit to the Freedom School, I saw things beginning to come full circle in regards to the kids. Although I have not been able to visit too often due to scheduling conflicts with my internship at the Office of Community Engagement last semester or my job as a Marketing and Technology Assistant with the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Education this semester, many of the kids recognized me immediately - even with yet another different hairstyle than what they had seen during my previous visits. Not only did they recognize myself and my two peers that I went with, Liz and Maimouna, but their faces literally lit up as the light bulb went off in their heads. With the Black Panther soundtrack blasting in the background and its bass making the gravel quake, we moved on to play “Red Light, Green Light” with our scholars and, dance to other current hits that they were familiar with. hen the sun eventually set, we read books with them inside to place an emphasis on and plant seeds of literacy and scholarship in young, impressionable framers of our future.

[evanwilliamson-blog]

CPSA250 Learning Agreement

[umdartscholarsjkim-blog]

Process Journal Check-In #5

Above is a screenshot of the final product of my capstone: a website with all my infographics displayed.

The infographics were displayed underneath one another in the order of 

1. The basics about depression

2. Types of depression

3. Stigmas about depression.

I made a simple format so that the website was able to display the infographics in the way that I wanted it to.

[bhebner-blog]

FINAL PROCESS BINDER!!!

Here are my final sketches that inspired my four pieces to present at Academic Showcase. I completed the poster to represent the survey that I created, showing the responses that people had about the UMD community. I thought it was important to represent the answers visually as a way to show my inspiration for the artwork that I made. 

[mirandamcpsarts]

This is an updated sketch of the final portrait. I feel like it only needs a few more tweaks before I start tracing the “puzzle pieces.” I plan on painting her hair and clothes onto the page itself in a more expressionist, delicate style. I want these aspects to have more muted colors in contrast to the blocky, vibrant shadow shapes on her face. The next step after polishing the sketch is to start tracing the shadow shapes onto the thick, cardboard plates.

[serenajcpsarts-blog]

Process Binder Check-In 4: This depicts my final research stages, and recent info I have found regarding the popular music types in America in order to predict the next fashion trend.  I have found various images and music styles, as well as songs for the final version of the video, which show the transformation of music and fashion over time.  

[natalieccpsarts-blog]

This is my makeshift pallet. Its colors and strokes are a result of frenzied mixing of colors. The messy shapes and textures inspire me to be true to style of painting and to stop scrutinizing minuscule details. 

[sophiescapstone]

Process binder 3

This week I did work on my first 2 piktocharts which I presented in class. The first one is just an overview and layout of the entire project, which I thought would be nice to use to explain the purposes for the project and how it works in general. On that piktochart, I’m eventually going to link the other 3, which are the 3 lessons I’m creating. Included is the piktochart I’ve started for the first lesson.

https://create.piktochart.com/output/28525336-capstone https://create.piktochart.com/output/28646070-lesson-1 

I did my critical response with Briley (I’m attaching it as a photo because I didn't originally type my notes onto Tumblr and now it won't copy correctly).

In regards to what I thought about the process: I think it was very helpful. I knew that Briley would be honest with me. I really appreciate her statements of meaning and the ideas she came up with for my questions/her opinions. It made me realize then I might be a bit in over my head in terms of what I envision my final product being. I want to do all three projects, so instead of cutting down on those, I might make a more brief lesson plan for each, so that I can focus more time on what’s important/so it is easier for the viewer to take in.

[ryanscpsarts-blog]

This past week I’ve been analyzing the music of Wayne Shorter. Wayne Shorter was an innovative composer who experimented with a variety of non-functional harmonic techniques. Along with this, I have read through the first two chapters of Mark Levine’s “The Jazz Theory Book.” The theory book is slow to start, and most of the material I already know, but I think there is still much to be learned. Additionally I had a few ideas about a song that I have written down, and will continue to develop them in the coming week.

[amyhcpsarts-blog]

Update 2/17

On the night of 2/16, I showed the score of the first movement of my piece “Denial and Guilt” to my friend who is a computer science and music performance double major. I pointed out certain themes, motifs and other significant things as we went and listened to the first movement of my piece. We had a discussion that centered on the music theory as we interacted with the score.

His reaction to my piece was mostly positive, as he enjoyed the stories I told through the music and the way I composed it but felt like the transitions were a bit sudden.

He replied: "I really liked it, I don't know if it's the software, but some of the transitions between some of the ideas seemed a little bit sudden"

Specifically, he pointed out that “some of the ritardandos sounded a bit abrupt or a little bit out of place at least.”

He really liked “the sections themselves” and the interplay between them, referring to each as a “vignette” or “story” as “each one of those things told a story to me or a part of a story” 

His one comment that provoked the most though in me was 

“by all accounts technically on how you made this it should be a theme and variations but it doesnt sound like a theme and variations at all because of the way you changed each part so that i really liked”

~~

On the morning on 2/17 I messaged him to elaborate what he meant by his thought provoking comment. His response was quite logical and is as follows:

But I guess what I'm trying to say is - the theme and variations method of composing usually pulls in a bunch of different melodies that are connected by a similar theme which can easily lead to the "variations" sounding like repeats of the theme itself and also causing the music to sound boring.

However, through the way you composed, in addition to reusing and changing the theme in terms of rhythm, and perhaps added new accompaniment, I think the most important part was that you changed the CONTEXT of the melody

Sure, you used the same melody again, but often when you did, the meaning of that melody would change instead of just repeating the statement - for example you replay a main statement near the end, but in (eventually false?) major whereas we've heard it in minor before. Hearing it major changes what it means and also makes it so it's harder to realize it's a repeat as well, leaving the listen a chance to discover this "secret" in the piece which I like.

Frankly, I am quite glad that someone noticed the strategies I had incorporated.

[odnawn]

On Friday, March 30th, I had the pleasure to showcase my art work in an event held at Towson University that was spearheaded by a social/community organization called Sisterhood and co-sponsored by Towson’s chapter of the National Council of Negro Women. At “Black Girl Magic”, I was able to join a plethora of young, black women who specialize in various fields and are actively trying to make a name for themselves with their business, practice, or organization. I really enjoyed my chance to showcase some of my older and new art work,,market my creative abilities, and network with pro-black students, creatives, and entrepreneurs on another campus. 

[evanwilliamson-blog]

This is the website I left on display at Arts Fest and the Academic Showcase. It’s amazing how easy it is to set up a free site nowadays.

[umdartscholarsjkim-blog]

Process Binder Check-in #1

This is a screenshot of my brainstorming of my first infographic: I have the information that I want to put on the infographic, and what I should be aware of when making the infographic to make the readability of it great.

[bhebner-blog]

Advising Meeting #2

CPSA250:                       Conference Report

Fill this form out in its entirety & submit it via email to all three of the Arts Scholars faculty (Jess, Harold, and Bimbola) within 48 hours of your conference. Copy this information over to your Scholars Tumblr site as well (tagged as CPSA Capstone Advising). Failure to submit this form on time will result in losing half the points for the meeting process!

NAME: Briley Hebner

ADVISOR: Bimbola

MEETING DATE & TIME: Wednesday April 11th, 2018 @ 3pm

In 3-4 sentences, please describe what was discussed during your meeting.

We talked about my place in the project and how much I have accumulated through the interviews/google survey and what I needed to do before Arts Fest.  Because I have been so busy the project is not what I originally intended, but I am beginning the process of painting and executing the visual themes. Bimbola told me that the most important thing now is to just work hard and paint until I have a product that I am proud of, and to not be constrained to a specific number of paintings in my head.

In 3-4 sentences, please explain what the next steps you will take with your project will be. 

Looking ahead, I only have about a week before ArtsFest and I need to continue painting and forming a series of visual pieces that represent the themes from the google survey. Then I need to form and edit my artist statement and labels and submit those online by the 25th. Because I am not doing a poster I need to practice an outline of information that I want to talk about when I show my work so that people can see the research that I did beyond the paintings.

[mirandamcpsarts]

Over President’s Day weekend, I collected the bulk of my materials that I will use to complete my portrait. I’m excited to work with acrylic paints again after two years. I’m a little nervous that the Bristol paper will be too thin for the paper plate material I’m going to use for the shadow shapes. My plan is to mount the finished portrait on a larger canvas panel, on which I will add the Instagram features.