After the Test

This week I wrote an entry about my future exam, now I will write about my past exam. 

The exam went well, but I didn't have the mark I hoped I would. I made stupid mistakes as not writing Florence twice. I also have problem explaining things. Well, I know I wouldn't be good as a teacher. 

I said I had links to remember words or important information. We did a group study just before the exam and we mixed our links to create new ones. It was very funny and it made absolutely no sense. 

Mary Anne came up with Ambassadors: Ass adore, adoring ass 

We had different ideas with Vellum. I said Vallorum (Star Wars again) Mary Anne saif Venom (closer to the real word) and I can't remember what Linsday said.

I finally made a sentence with some of these: ''We are adoring Jar Jar Bink's ass while smoking tomatoes''. This cannot be translated I think! 

Before the Test

I just finished studying for tomorrow's exam and I actually think it's funny. This post will not be directly on a subkect we learned in class, but in a method of study. 

I was never someone who liked to study. Actually, the first time I really studied is when I was 15 after I failed a biology class. Even though I loved this course, I was allergic to opening my books. This was until I failed more than one test and got a really bad mark for my whole semester. I forced myself in doing so, having no other choice. I drew the parts of the body and wrote and wrote and wrote until I knew the subject really well. It worked, I had a very good result on my tests later. Still, other than biology, I never felt the need to study.

University is then a big change in the way I approach things. I study, maybe sometimes a little last minute, but it is never as worst as in Cegep. I also write good essays, which is surprising coming from me. I'm not a bad writer, but I was lazy before. Now, I spend more time for school than anything else. But let's say that I dont work and its the first time it happens. I'm work sick and I have good reasons to be. I promised myself I wouldn't work while at university. I have all my life to work after. 

Now I have to find tips and tricks for studying. I wrote down over and over what I remember from my study sheet. I do that until I memorize everything. The funny part is how I memorize the words or names I don't know. I made links between things to be able to remember easily. Sometimes it makes no sense at all, but I still think it's very funny and I hope I will remember all of this tomorrow. 

So here are a few examples. I also notice it is useful to speak more than one language for that. 

• Georg GISZE makes me think of Gisele, my mother's name.
• Hans Holbein didn't have panels
• Rogier van der Weyden = Jar Jar Binks. Yes! Jar Jar Binks! Weyden = Dayden. Den = day in slovakian so then Dayday = jour jour in french, then ... Jar Jar! Easy! 
• All places are Santa Maria
• Dürer love himself, and ugly doctors
• Sfumato: Fumer des tomates. I'm laughing at this one and my cat is staring at me with eyes that says: ''Ok, time to leave NOW!''
• Brancacci = brankar which means goaler in slovakian. 

I hope I will be alright for my exam and I hope I wont make stupid mistakes or mixing words I learned from what words really are! 

Perspective

Written 2011/10/30


At the beginning of the year, I was given my first assignment for all my classes. So, excited to start university. I was seeing big. I always liked challenges and I started my very first project with one big. It may sound bad, but I'm in Fine Arts and I can't draw. Ok, I can draw, but I have absolutely no practice. How shameful! Saying this, you may understand more how much of a challenge it was. 

The assigment was for my printmaking class. It was the only course in which the project was free. I could do my personal work. I started with an idea I had for a conceptual photo that was really complicated to do in real size. Here is the project. 

You can already see where I would have struggled. First, you can't find the eggs at the local grocery store. I had to build it. Second, I wanted here to play with perspective, so I decided to do it an ''esay'' way: drawing a tilled floor with 2 perspective points. Yes, this is coming from the girl who can't draw. I had to calculate and take mesurements in order to complete the floor. I must also add that I had some help from my engineer boyfriend. I must say I sweared, frustated, blamed myself for liking complicated  things and promised I wouldn't do this again. I actually spend a week trying to find a solution and draw it. I finally managed to finish it and I may admit that I am proud of my achievement. I mean that I haven't burnt it down or teared it appart! Ok, seriously, I do like the outcome and I received a good mark for it. 

What made me smile later, was to hear about this in my art history class. Yes, in the Renaissance, some people went into the same process as me. They ended up with a result that is quite close to mine. Back in their time, they might have sweared as much as I did. It seems that the problem is still the same today for those who start trying to understand it. Many years later, I come to the same process and thoughts as they did. Understanding perspective still is something that is very important today. Now, we are lucky, books have been on this subject. Its very easy to find the info we need. People have also pushed it further and everything is more detailed. 

This is one good thing about evolution. But still, the problems remains the same for everyone that is too lazy to do their own research and for those who really want to understand the process by themselves. 

Trip to Italy (Art History)

I'm posting this one a little late. My internet is down and I have to post this from my friends house! 

I also had to take pictures of pictures for this one as my original photos were taken on a film camera!!

This will be a very personal post. Its a thought I had while in my Art History class (renaissance to modern to be more specific)

Back in 2005, I went to Italy on an organized trip with the Cegep de Sept-Iles (oh yes, we have a cegep in there!!) I spent two whole weeks there, during the end of may, taking benefits from the very nice warm weather (in sept-iles, nice weather is maybe in July and August, never both during the same summer!), and visiting a very beautiful country. It actually was my first trip to Europe, my first trip ever.

I got there, thinking I would be jet laged, thinking things would look completely different and maybe I would be disoriented. Well, no! Milan just looked like … a normal city with red rooftops. That's what I thought at this time.

People were excited, realizing ''hey we're in Italy!! How great is this?''. I wasn't. To me, it was like anywhere else. People worked, slept, ate and breathed like anybody else in the world. So, I wasn't in awe, but I was still happy to be there. I always wanted to visit Italy, and I actually always wanted to travel.

During our 2 weeks, we visited museum, visited museums as well as visiting museums. We also visited other museums, talked about museums, visited more museums and visited these other museums as well. We also, visited cathedrals, more cathedrals and other cathedrals as well. We heard about Da Vinci and Michelangelo so much that the sounds of these name would just make our ears bleed at the end of the trip.

What I really wanted to experience is disorientation. I thought it was the main goal in traveling.

So I searched for things that were different from what I'm used to see. For example, the public toilets! How great these were for me! I really am posting a picture of a modern Turkish toilet, yes. I wasted a photo on my film camera to have a souvenir of that toilet!! I was that bored.

I'm thinking about that today and I smile at how much things have changed. I realize that Italy is a country you can't visit without having, at least, a small knowledge about what was going on there before. I didn't knew anything when I went there the first time and I wasn't interested. I wanted to see Italian culture while living with them, but I missed the fact that museums, cathedral et all the stuff I didn't like to see... WAS Italian culture.
I didn't care about these visits because I didn't know anything about it. Today, I would go back there, only to visit again everything I missed. To have that specific knowledge is somewhat amazing.

That trip made me grow up though. Yes I realized the world was the same everywhere. It actually is. Even though the culture is different, the world is the same. No matter where you are, if you are surrounded with people you love, you'll be happy.
I also grew some respect towards religion. I visited the Vatican, the place I thought I would hate. I was a strong atheist and visiting the Vatican wasn't in my favorites plans at all. I got there and saw some works by Michelangelo. It was 3D paintings and I was amazed. Even though the Vatican is the perfect place for suicidal agoraphobic, it made me feel different. I'm not more religious than I was before, but I learned some respect. The fact that so many people with strong faith go there everyday, it leaves some kind of energy that makes you feel different. The strongest moment was when we got into the Sistine Chapel. I actually had tears which did surprises me a lot. I remember the Pope had recently died and the feeling sticked to the room. I looked up the ceiling to have a look at the only thing I knew from Italian art. The difference between what I thought I would see, and what I saw was huge. There was much more up there that I thought I would see. I kept silent for the rest of our visit there.

Today, I would like to go back to Italy to have a different point of view on what I saw. Now that I gained more knowledge, I'm sure I will be way much interested in their culture. I didn't found what I was looking for the first time I traveled there, but now I feel stupid that I missed the most obvious.

Looking back at my pictures from this trip, I also realize how bad I was as a photographer! My album is full of huge mistakes. Fortunately, I improved!