Wk 16 – Finger Painting ‘n Feedback

Points on BeachBored

All course points are now up on BeachBored! Our final total was 1,000 points possible. As stated in the syllabus, here’s how many points for each grade level, and how many peeps in 1p / 2:30 finished at each grade level:

A = 900 points – 56 / 51
B = 800 points – 5 / 4
C = 700 points – 1 / 1
D = 600 points – 1 / 2
F = 599 points – 2 / 4

• 1p GPA = 3.88
• 2:30 GPA = 3.55

Leaderboard

Here’s our final leaderboard!

Top 10 @1pm:

1. Hannah Adams, 1255
2. Stephanie Arciva, 1100
3. Melissa Rios, 1082
4. Tina Nguyen, 1050
5. Maritess Anne Inieto, 1050
6. Brian Sath, 1041
7. Amanda Martinez, 1040
8. Linda-Linh Nguyen, 1034
9. Joy Uba, 1034
10. Alex Miramontes, 1032

Top 10 @2:30:

1. Nathan Davalos, 1183
2. Zack Ngov, 1122
3. Felix Huynh, 1107
4. Lydia Chang, 1085
5. Yesenia Hernandez, 1083
6. Jamie Van, 1076
7. Marissa Sar, 1065
8. Linney Sar, 1054
9. Emily Tomasello, 1051
10. Valeria Gonzalez, 1050

Your Feedback on the Class!

1pm
1pm only “liked” 4 of the 11 activities. You were neutral on Instagram, and disliked 6 activities, saving particular scorn for Vlogging.

• Plaster Casting: +16 -3 = +13
• Graffiti Writing: +15 -3 = +12
• Finger Painting: +10 -0 = +10
• Art Care Package: +6 -5 = +1

• Instagram: +5 -5 = 0

• Fiber Art Social Network: +2 -4 = -2
• Sketching in the Garden: +4 -6 = -2
• Landscapes w a Corpse: +7 -10 = -3
• Zines & FlipBooks: +3 -8 = -5
• Automatic Drawing: +4 -9 = -5
• Vlogging: +4 -16 = -12

2:30
2:30 flipped the totals, liking 6 activities, being neutral on Fiber Art Social Net, and disliking 4 activities. Like 1p you hated Vlogging the most, but unlike 1p you also had scorn for Instagram.

Plaster, Graffiti, and Finger Painting were liked by both sections. Finger Painting was the only Activity that didn’t get a single down vote in either class. Only Automatic Drawing & Vlogging were disliked by both classes.

• Graffiti Writing: +15 -4 = +11
• Sketching in the Garden: +14 -5 = +9
• Finger Painting: +8 -0 = +8
• Plaster Casting: +11 -4 = +7
• Landscapes w a Corpse: +10 -5 = +5
• Zines & FlipBooks: +6 -3 = +3

• Fiber Art Social Network: +4 -4 = 0

• Art Care Package: +6 -10 = -4
• Automatic Drawing: +5 -9 = -4
• Instagram: +2 -14 = -12
• Vlogging: +1 -14 = -13

1p + 2:30
Adding both sections together, Graffiti, Plaster & Finger Painting come out big winners. Instagram sinks. And nothing but scorn for Vlogging.

• Graffiti Writing: +30 -7 = +23
• Plaster Casting: +27 -7 = +20
• Finger Painting: +18 -0 = +18
• Sketching in the Garden: +18 -11 = +7
• Landscapes w a Corpse: +17 -15 = +2

• Fiber Art Social Network: +6 -8 = -2
• Zines & FlipBooks: +9 -11 = -2
• Art Care Package: +12 -15 = -3
• Automatic Drawing: +9 -18 = -9
• Instagram: +7 -19 = -12
• Vlogging: +5 -30 = -25

IG & vlogs

It took Facebook 6 years to sink from student favorite to nobody cares. Instagram has accomplished that in just 2 years. Traditionally, when I do these end-of-semester Rank the Activities, Graffiti Writing has almost always been #1. 4 semesters ago when I first introduced the IG activity it beat out Graffiti Writing as the class’ favorite activity. As we saw this semester, students have increasingly been making their Instagrams private, and a space that used to be open and public is not thought of that way any more. This is a huge change for student attitudes toward Instagram. Vlogs on the other hand, students have never liked doing! 😛

I’m tempted to say, trust me, vlogging is a very valuable skill. Then again, I’m the guy who complains that in business just in time inventory means you don’t stockpile materials you won’t be using very soon, yet in education we stockpile inventory (knowledge) for 22 years before we start “manufacturing.” So if I really advocate JIT Education, then I probably have to admit that vlogging is not relevant to you, at least not right now.

You probably won’t be surprised by my honest opinion on the push for privacy over publicness: I think you guys are making a big mistake. Even so, I’m just the employee here. You guys are the customers. Sometimes you want the Coffee Bean barista to give you advice on your drink, sometimes you want the barista to shut up and just give you what you want. So, I’ll be retiring both the Instagram and Vlog Activities.

ePortfolios vs LinkedIn

Of course I don’t think it’s “vs”, I think you should have both. Many of you did say that ePortfolios were valuable. Some of you felt that ePortfolios were more for artists and not so relevant for scientists, that you really just wanted a fast LinkedIn summary. Clearly different platforms have become dominant for different fields. For photographers, fashion designers, and hair designers, Instagram is the place to be. Peeps have dramatically advanced their careers with a strong presence there. For tech peeps, marketers, and policy types, Twitter can be incredibly powerful.

Despite all this, I still believe that Engineers, Fashion Merchandisers, Nurses, Marine Biologists, Hospitality Managers, Psychologists, Business people, and many others can really shine in front of HR Directors or potential clients with a strong ePortfolio.

The majority of you are lower division. Perhaps when you’re a senior the idea of an ePortfolio will make more sense. One suggestion if this does make any sense to you: it’s really easy to post essays, ideas, sketches, images, charts, graphics when you are working with them. You just take an extra minute and drop it on your website. You can curate it and shape it and make it pretty later. If you wait till you’re a graduating senior, you can still do it, but it’s a lot more digging through stuff, trying to find things to post, and just plain trying to remember what you did.

Blogging

An ePortfolio can feature work that you’ve done, papers that you’ve written, and so on. You can also blog. A number of students have been interested in Health & Lifestyle blogging or vlogging. You can also blog about Physical Therapy experiences, Business Marketing experiences, Marine Biology experiences, or any other aspect of your work experiences or classroom or book learning.

Whether you want to get hired by a company, start your own consulting, start your own business, or develop an online audience, blogging is powerful. The more current content you have the more Google love you will get. If I’m the HR Director at Kaiser Permanente, looking to hire a new Physical Therapist, and I have 2 resumes with roughly equal skills and experience, but one has a number of blog posts giving smart and reasonable advice on physical therapy, who do you think I’m going to call? Same thing if I’m an individual with a sports injury or other need, when I read great blog posts that give me advice and also show me what an expert professional you are, I become convinced that you are the Physical Therapist for me.

Art Talk OTW

A lot of you liked the Art Talks & Discussions. Some of you said that replying to a classmate was tedious because it was just their opinion of the video. I think next semester I’ll try to focus the discussions a bit more so they can really be discussions. Also I think I’ll move the discussion from Website Comments to a platform called Slack, which I think students will enjoy using and find more engaging and interactive.

Teamwork

Some complained that activities like Landscapes with a Corpse or Automatic Drawing were unfair because you needed another person to help you and they felt that you should be able to complete all work in this course without ever asking anyone for help. Others felt that there should be a lot more emphasis on working in groups.

Your Comfort Zone

Many of the activities this semester pushed your comfort zone a little. Or perhaps a lot. I think it varied from one person to another. Some hated Landscapes with a Corpse because they felt it was inappropriate to have to think about death or that it was too personal. Others loved it because it was a chance to think about, and maybe even “play” with, a fundamental aspect of life that we’re often afraid to talk about. The Conversations, Artist and Classmate, were loved by some of you and felt awkward for others. Some of you loved Automatic Drawing, others thought it was creepy and weird. And, of course, almost everyone hated Vlogging.

I’ve always felt that it’s important to push your comfort zone a little. But not a lot.

If you don’t push, you don’t grow.

But if you push too much, it’s too uncomfortable and it can become frustrating or even deer in the headlights. In the syllabus I stated that no one was forced to do any activity in this class. If you were uncomfortable with an activity or if it was problematic for any reason, you could always ask for an alternative activity. Seeing how many of you felt uncomfortable or even privacy violated by so many of the activities, perhaps I should state that option more loudly and more often.

My only fear is that if I overemphasize asking for alternative activities then the most introverted students will wind up doing none of the boundary stretching activities. We might evolve into a class where the minority of extroverts gain ever stronger social skills and the introvert majority plays it ever safer. I never asked you guys who considered themselves an introvert or an extrovert. But I do ask most semesters. While I’ve never recorded exact numbers, I feel like the proportion of introverts is growing over time. Maybe 6 years ago it was something like 66% self-described as introvert, and about a year ago it had edged closer to something like 70% introvert.

Of course there are lots of theories about things like Video Games, The Internet, and Helicopter Parents pushing kids toward more introversion and weaker social skills. I’m definitely not an expert on this. I should probably study up!

If any of the activities this semester felt too far outside your comfort zone or felt in any way invasive, I apologize. And if you are concerned about anything, please do email me and LMK:

glenn.zucman@csulb.edu

At the same time, I’d hate to see this become a class where we only do safe drawing and painting activities. Art is, and should be, about the fullness of the human experience. Art should include joy and laughter, and also sorrow and loss. Great art can reflect on who we are and where we’ve come. It can be a comfort in difficult times.

Art is controversial.

Some believe that artists deliberately try to make shocking art. I don’t. I believe that good artists take a sometimes brutally honest look at themselves and our culture. They can hold up a mirror to things we’d rather not see. Not all art should make you uncomfortable. But if at least some art doesn’t make you uncomfortable, then it isn’t doing its job. Art should ask questions. Art should challenge assumptions.

People don’t generally say that Math is controversial. But that’s because (forgive me) “Algebra 110” is a boring class. I don’t believe that’s what real Mathematicians do. People like Stephen Hawking say things like “I’m trying to read the mind of God.” If you took a math class where the professor said it was a class in “reading the mind of God,” I think 2 things would be true:

1. it wouldn’t be boring
2. it might be controversial

For you guys now leaving Art 110 I’d encourage you to always push your comfort zone. But not too much. Take medium sized steps. With small steps you are safe, but it takes forever to get anywhere. With huge steps you might make amazing progress, but there’s a big chance of failure. With medium sized steps you’ll succeed most of the time, and you’ll also have a good rate of progress.

For me teaching Art110 again next semester I should probably focus on small changes. As noted above, by popular demand I will retire the Instagram and Vlog activities. I’ll make the Alternative Activity Option even more visible. But I also think it can’t just be painting and drawing. That it is important for Art110 to push student comfort zones.

A little.

Thanks you guys! It’s been an awesome semester! 😀

Facebook Group

If you’d like to keep in touch there are many ways. You can subscribe to glenn.zucman.com/i2va. You can also drop me an email and say Hello! Or you know where I’ll be on most Wednesday afternoons. Don’t be afraid to come by and see what’s up! And probably the easiest way to share your own news or touch base with former classmates is our Art110 Facebook Alum group:

• facebook.com/groups/art110

Last Week: Finger Painting!

FAVORITE ACTIVITY! Took my Friday night off from my usual ice skating routine to stay at home and finger paint. My fiancé left me to go still, so sitting at home alone was actually quite relaxing (no offense to him)… put some tea in the pot and lit a candle and finger painted away.

I started with the pink and soon realized that I was painting in the shape of a heart. I don’t know if it was the color or what. Then I laid the blue on top. The paint started to deteriorate so it kind of splattered everywhere when I opened it – which I was completely okay with. I loved the effect it made. I got paired with white paint so I decided to lay that on top which only made everything opaque.

I loved the other two colors together and how they moved into one another to create a shade of violet. The only thing I wish were different….I WISH I HAD MORE PAINT! Other than that, it was great and fun to take me back to my childhood as a young Picasso.

— Allison Cruz

Hey! Welcome back. For this final art activity, we had finger painting to do. I thought it was really fun because it was sort of reminiscent of my childhood. Being this upcoming week is going to be finals week and most of us are going to have our heads buried in books and study guides, it felt nice to relax and just let your mind flow. The turquoise sort of color represented a sort of mellow and relaxing feeling. There aren’t many days where we can just sit and relax now because there is so much going on in our lives. I basically let my fingers paint the picture. No thoughts, no worries, just free flow. The mixture of paints gave a good mixture in my opinion. It was really enjoyable and has been one of the best activities to do because there were no restrictions and no worries whether it’d be right or wrong, pretty or ugly. This will be one of the last posts that will be going up, at least for a while. It was a fun ride, honestly. Whoever viewed, thank you. Until next time.

— Bryan Aparicio

This week we made abstract Finger Paintings. Our art buckets came with only 3 colors so I decided to go and grab some different colors. Finger Paintings was a pleasant experience, you weren’t trying to create anything you just painted whatever came to mind and moved your fingers whichever way you liked. Using our fingers to paint brings you more in contact with your painting so you can create what ever it is you are feeling. It was also pretty nice to take a break from finals preparations to do something fun and creative. Art is a nice break because all the these finals are just reiterations of someone else’s information when in art you are creating your own material.

Painting something without a subject was liberating. You were able to move your hands over your art in whichever way you wanted. I changed what ever I wanted and created what I wanted. Finger Painting was also nice because there was no way to mess up. I felt like I wasn’t trying to paint something but more create an experience because what you see in the painting is how I felt when I painted it.

— Daniel Puentes

This week’s activity seemed a tad bit childish I admit, but honestly it was really relaxing. It was supposed to be abstract and we were to “feel” the paint. So I sat there popped some headphones in and began to feel the paint. I had a bit of a hard time because one of my colors was white which really sucked but I made it work. As I began feeling the paint and frankly making a mess I felt like what I was painting was a representation of what I felt inside. Or like it was what the inside of my head looked like. Either way it was a really cool activity and I loved it!

— Esmeray Lopez

I really enjoyed the art activity this week! It is possibly one of my favorite activities too. I’m not sure if its because of finals being so close or that this activity is so fun in its own right but it was very relaxing and enjoyable. I put on some music and let my hands lead the way. I’m happy with the results. Having no real subject to draw is what really makes this activity so great. Compared to the graffiti writing we did earlier on in the semester, I prefer this one because you literally get to feel the paint and your creation come to life.

— Marcelo Ceballos

I usually don’t like to paint mostly because of the pressure of having to make it look like something — I’ve never been very good at that. I’ve been wanting to get into watercolor, but haven’t gotten around to it. Doing this activity made me want to get up and start. It was fun to do because I simply did whatever I wanted to do in response to my setting: midnight in my bedroom with R&B music playing. I enjoyed every minute of it despite not knowing exactly what I was doing.

Making a painting with no subject is no doubt an inspiring and satisfying experience. I tried it out using a glove at first, but as soon as I tried it without, I realized I liked it better. I just felt the texture of the paint and went with the flow.

— Patricia Arienne Avendano

Finger painting was very fun. I was especially pleased with the colors I was given. I received one of my favorite analogous color schemes: yellow, green, and blue. They blended to form a nice play between warmer and cooler areas. The project was quicker than I expected. I wanted to fill the whole page, but ran out of paint. This was very different than the graffiti writing, in that the paint could be shaped and manipulated. It was similar, however, to the automatic drawing project in that the image seems to just appear without over-analysis. The process was calming.

— Shalane Holm

This week’s art activity involved Finger Painting! I really enjoyed this process, it has to be one of my favorite activities to do this whole semester, because I was able to create the painting I set out to make and the process was super fun! In this painting activity I created a galaxy sky with various dark colors in contrast with the white and shimmering blue to attract attention to the eyes. I used some of the paint provided in the Art Kit and some other that I got from my house. The process itself was very fun and messy, paint was splattered all the over the wall but luckily it was water-based. For the darker colors, I used my whole hand to scatter the paint all over the canvas, but with the white and green-colored splashes, I just simply splashed the paint all over the canvas in random places to create a less-structured piece. The whole painting came out really nice and I really liked the finished product!

— Tina Tran

My first instinct was to think of something to paint on the paper just as I had to think of how I wanted to graffiti my name on the wall. Having to get out of that mind set was a bit of a transition. I used artist Alvaro Alvarez’s concept of using music to put himself in a sort of trance as he used his body to paint. It wasn’t until the third song in where I noticed my stress from finals and work had significantly dropped. This allowed me to freely go with the motions of the melodies. All in all, it was a simple and nice break from all that surrounds me at the moment.

— Erika Perez

I’m glad what we had to paint was abstract because everything just flowed together. I put on some music and just started painting. I started with the orange, and used one finger. I decided I wanted to move on to blue and switched to a different finger. I used my other hand and used a couple fingers for the black paint. Then, I just looked at the overall piece and decided which color I needed more of and just kept switching off. I just did whatever I felt like doing and it was relaxing. It started off as me just wiping off the paint on my fingers but then as it progressed, I knew what I wanted to add in.

— Jillian Ayala

It was actually a lot of fun to just sit down and get my hands dirty with paint on an empty canvas. The colors of paint that I was supplied with in my art bag were purple, green and white. The purple and green looked really nice on the paper and the white didn’t really do much to my piece. The white paint kinda just smeared the other colors together.

As crazy as it sounds, I don’t think I finger painted as a child. So it was actually a lot of fun to sit and finger paint while listening to some of my favorite songs.

I think having no subject in this activity is what made it that much more fun. I feel like if there would have been a subject, frustration would have overcome me and I would have been over this activity real quick. But since we were able to just let our fingers run wild and do what they wanted, I enjoyed this a lot more.

— Megan Salinas

I thought this was a very interesting and fun project. I felt like a little kid again refusing to use a brush and painting with your fingers instead, and making a mess everywhere. At first I had no idea how to start. But when I placed my finger on the paper everything just went with the flow.

Painting with no subject felt liberating. It was like a stress reliever during finals week because I didn’t have to think of what to do. My fingers just went with the flow and it was fun.

— Pamela Ajoste

I Started painting at 10:35 pm in my backyard illuminated by just stringed globe lights and in the background “Achievement” by G-Easy was playing. The mood of the song made me reach for the purple since it was a very calm, cool color that resembled the mood of the lighting and the song.

After using up the purple I stepped inside to use the restroom and my mom was in the living room watching a live car chase, I sat with her and watched it for a bit. It had intense moments including high speeds, hitting a bicyclist, and ending in a crash with a civilian pickup truck blocking his path, all while having one of tires blown out. After experience this intense news story I stepped back outside to continue the painting.

Having just watched the car chase my mood was altered and was a lot more aggressive so I reached for the red and went all over the sheet of paper leaving longer, darker streaks of paint including very concentrated “hot” areas using more of my hand to get more intense streaks of paint. after this and listening to the music more I calmed down and mixed the remaining red with the white to make a pink that I would use as a shadow to both the red and purple.

This [Activity] put many things into perspective, for example things that I would see or what I was listening to would affect my painting. I can imagine how artists that spend months on a piece can maintain one mood or theme for it. Painting with no subject allowed for it to be a reflection of what was around me, unlike doing things that involve complex thoughts or a level of skill, this requires none and just demonstrates your emotions in the form of color and shape.

— Raul Silva

This week’s art experience was extremely fun and stress relieving! The colors that I had to work with were brown, blue and green which are colors that I tend to utilize a lot whenever I paint anything found in nature. I started by laying the paper down and placing books on both sides to keep it a flat and firm surface. I then stuck my fingers into the paint tub and simply traced my fingers over the paper in a circular and oval like motion. I kept repeating similar patterns over and over again until I decided to grab some paint and flick my fingers onto the paper. This motion created a little patch of polka dots.

While I was painting, I did not care if my colors mixed together as I thought it looked better if the colors were to combine and flow with one another. As I was about to finish the paint I decided to try to use as much as possible and I tapped the whole container of paint in some places and then I used my fingers to spread the paint all over the paper. After I was done my hand were a mess, but I had a huge smile on my face. Overall, I really like my piece as it helped me relax and forget about finals for a couple of minutes.

— Valeria Gonzalez

Course Feedback

Let me start off with saying this class is amazinggg. We went through so many types of art activities, making me feel well rounded in ART. It went from Japanese garden sketch drawings all the way to spray painting, not going to lie, quite an adventure. We also met so many new people from class doing classmate conversations, constantly seeing them around campus and saying hello. We didn’t stop there, we also had conversation with artists that are about to graduate or already have from CSULB.

What I liked the most was the guest speaker, Carla Dauden. She showed us many pieces of her work, and even showed us a piece that wasn’t out yet. Not only that, she was very inspirational. ART 110 should definitely have more Art speakers.

— Adrian Munoz

Art 110 being a Hybrid class was the best part! It’s nice to meet just once a day and just turn things in online, to me it’s easier! I also liked visiting the SOA Galleries and seeing the different art displayed and the different types as well. Artist Conversations became quick to adapt to and it was interesting learning about artists and their drive to be where they are. Classmate conversations were my favorite because it allowed me to get to know other students who I’ve actually became close with. They got me out of my comfort zone and were very beneficial to me.

WordPress was a good tool to use because it consists of my work only and I find that important for others to see what I have done and who I am. ePortfolios remain important and useful because it helps put you out there and get connected.

Overall, this was an awesome class and I’m glad I was apart of it!!!

— Aleah Lomeli

I personally really loved this course. It really opened my eyes to new art, artists and ways to speak and ask questions about artist’s work. I felt like I learned a lot and really value this course in my education.

I think that the hybrid class is awesome! I think it allowed me to say things online that I wouldn’t normally say or do in class. Having people make a website is genius and I’m sure that many people learned a lot from doing so, as did I. I think that it will be a useful tool to keep and use in future endeavors.

I love the classmate interaction and love that I could say Hi to so many people every week. What I loved even more is the artists conversations. It really helped me personally learned to articulate what I wanted to know and ask in a professional manner to student artists. It helped with my writing as well because you not only are writing for you, but you are also writing about a fellow artist and want to do them proud. I honestly never knew that the galleries were there until this semester and never would’ve taken the time to talk to the artists.

— Allison Cruz

The artist conversations and meeting in the SOA Gallerias were okay, but there was a couple times that the artist were a bit reserved, or stand offish. Its understandable that they may feel annoyed because they may be getting the same questions over and over but its not our fault that we have to gather that information, so sometimes after they were not being friendly, it made me not want to ask them questions or even spend time writing about them. However, there were some artists were really nice and friendly, one even went through his gallery and went over each of his pieces, and was very engaging and excited about his work that it kind of made me excited about his work to. The classmate conversations were cool too because we got the chance to meet many of the students in class and create new friends which is pretty cool.

— Araceli Lozano

I am going to be honest and say that this class was nothing like I had expected! I mean that in a good way! I enjoyed this class much more than I thought I would have. I was not looking forward to taking an art class due to my lack of artistic abilities but I actually enjoyed and learned a lot about art. I think the blogging, art talks and artist conversations are great ways to get people to learn something about art rather than piling readings from a textbook. The old school method would have definitely resulted in people missing out on really cool stuff about an interesting topic, Art, because it’s not always fun having to read just to pass a test. Also, making this a hybrid class was a great idea.

— Briana Garcia

Art 110 has become my favorite class that I have taken at Cal State Long Beach so far. I love this class because I was exposed to new forms of art every single week, I got to meet new people, and I had the opportunity to create art myself. Whenever I used to think of art I’d always think that art needed to be drawn or painted, but I was proven wrong this semester. I learned that art can be expressed through video, sculptures, ceramics, photographs, and jewelry. We are literally surround by all types and forms of art.

I think the format of the class is brilliant. I always looked forward to meeting at the Art Galleries because I knew we’d be doing artist conversations. I liked doing artist conversations because I had the opportunity to ask the artists questions pertaining to their art and where they got their inspiration from. The online aspect of the class was enjoyable and very knowledgeable. I got to learn the history of art and how it has changed drastically over the years. However, I personally enjoyed the documentaries a little bit more.

Overall, I loved Art 110. It’s honestly made me a more open minded person when it comes to art and my personality. It was the one class that allowed me to step out of my comfort zone. In addition, I got to visit some extraordinary places thanks to art. I got to visit to visit The Getty Center, which I didn’t even know existed. I wasn’t able to attend Venice Beach when the class attend, however I did attend about a month ago just to go see the art walls. I’ve gotten to learn so much about art, and I don’t think it could have been taught any better. Art 110 gave me a reason to enjoy art, a reason to surround myself in art, and a reason to make art myself. So thank you so much Glenn for making that possible and it was a pleasure being in your class.

— Melissa Rios

I would recommend incorporating more classmate projects/games during class to encourage interaction. I know we have ID cards, but many people don’t really take them seriously. I had one guy even tell me to just give him my number and he’ll text me stuff about him so we didn’t have to actually do the conversations in person. Classmate conversations should encourage talking between people, and they have! However, some ice breaker games at the beginning of class or every two weeks would be fun. There is plenty of time because many people leave in like the first 20 minutes of class anyway.

— Nhi Truong

This class is easily one of my favorite classes that I’ve taken in college. The activities, no matter the simplicity, challenged my inner creativity that I didn’t know I had.

The hybrid format of the class was definitely convenient since we only had to attend class once a week. However, I had a problem with remembering to check the website and e-mails to find out what’s going on in class.

The SOA Gallery visits were great! It’s awesome to be able to see people’s work and talk to them about it because we really get to know the purpose of their work. Artist Conversations, however, got a bit tedious over the course of the semester, but I figured it’s how we learn.

Classmate Conversations are definitely awkward since we’re forced to talk to people. Some people do better at others when you force them to make friends. BUT if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be as comfortable talking to other students.

Using WordPress helped me (slightly) get over the fear of having my work be seen by other people. Having an ePortfolio is absolutely valuable. We live in an age of urgency and in the future, when we start job hunting, employers want to know about you, and you want them to get that information as quickly as possible, and what’s quicker than the internet.

To be honest, the Art Talk OTW videos were hard to keep my attention to. However, I believe that the discussion is interactive enough since we are able to respond to each other’s viewpoints and comments.

In high school, I never thought I would take any interest in art, but taking this class increased my appreciation for it. This class made me want to pursue art a little more. I was able to try a lot of new things I never thought I would ever enjoy.

— Patricia Arienne Avendano

I want to start this post by saying I have learned a lot more than I expected at the beginning of the semester. I felt this class was more than just learning art, but learning how to “adult” in a professional aspect. When I say “adult” that means learning public speaking skills, learning how to put together professional media, and learning how to communicate your experiences. Oh, and I also learned about art! (haha) I came to discover I have a huge appreciation for abstract art, an art that I never understood, much less appreciated, prior to this class.

— Stephanie Arciva

My least favorite activities were because most people today are very private about themselves on our Instagram activity or Vlogs. Even though I was not comfortable doing the activity I was able to manage my way around it by creating a new Instagram profile for the class. After doing the activity I realized it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, you just have to be a little open about yourself.

— Alfredo Reyes

I felt like I got a lot more fresh air in this class.

— Claudia Sanchez

Another thing I liked about this class was the fact that it was half online and half in class. I feel that as a student, lots of pressure gets taken off of my shoulders knowing we can perform over half of this class on our own time. This is a really great method of teaching. The SOA Galleries were really fun also. Getting to see all the other artists’ exhibitions made it fun and exciting to go to class every Wednesday. Classmate conversations is a brilliant idea. I have been in so many classes that are cut half the size of this art class; yet, I only know about 5 people. Art 110 however, was a lot different. I can easily say I interacted with over half of the class, that is an approximate number of 30-40 people that I got to know because of classmate conversations.

— Daniel Martinez

The weekly blog posts are okay, I don’t mind them. Are the samples helpful? Not really, in my opinion. I do like how you show the grade for each week and it gives me an idea of what I need to pass with an A so I can work towards it.

I like using WordPress because it’s easy. I don’t really know how it [ePortfolios] will affect my future jobs and stuff though. I guess I just don’t see the importance of it as of yet.

— Felix Huynh

The weekly blog posts from you (Glenn) aren’t that necessary. To be completely honest, I don’t read them and I skip down to the instructions for this week. ePortfolios don’t really interest me and every time you talked about them it went in one ear and out the other. However I do enjoy using WordPress because it’s very easy to use.

I didn’t like Art Talks OTW. I thought they were boring, except for the one about Carla Dauden. The discussions about the videos went very well, students responded really well to each other. I think commenting under the video post was just fine.

— Jillian Ayala

Personally, I love hands-on and traditional art. So naturally I liked the drawing, sketching, and painting a lot in this course. I felt that I got something out of these activities because I focused on the art and tried to naturally have fun with the process. Finger painting was a fun, liberating experience while automatic drawing was a great way to create art with a close friend. I found both experiences to be pleasing. Sketching in the garden was also great! Practicing sketching and drawing in a peaceful garden was relaxing. The environment itself was very beautiful, and I am glad we had the opportunity to visit the Japanese Garden during our art class. The garden itself has a lot of “art” and it was a learning experience just by being present in its space. I felt that I experienced real art in these activities and that I improved on my perception of how to look at art.

I am so thankful for Professor Zucman’s introduction to WordPress and the value of an ePortfolio. This will be useful far beyond this class. I’m very interested in it because it forced me to start a blog and learn the features. As a Communication Studies major, and double minor in Journalism and Marketing, it will be helpful for my career and to get the ball rolling on my internet presence.

— Juli Yoshinaga

The hybrid format of Art 110 was definitely not what I was expecting. However, I did have some fun with this course! When I first enrolled in this hybrid class I had imagined sitting in a classroom for the traditional one-hour-and-fifteen-minute lecture, being given an assignment to do/read, and type up a one-page response. I’m really glad it was not exactly like that at all. In all honesty, this was probably the most exciting and most active art class I have ever taken. I got to explore different forms of art, get my hands dirty, and walk through galleries of exhibits from the most interesting artists I’ve ever met and talked to.

The Instagram activity was not all that easy. My life is not all that interesting so having to take four photos throughout my day was a real struggle. To be honest, this activity was also a little… I don’t want to say “invasive” because that’s a pretty heavy word, but rather a nuisance. It’s a lot of pressure having to post four photos, but if it were just one photo that the class had to take and post, I feel as though they would have been more open to posting it on their actual accounts rather than making a whole new one.

The weekly blog posts and emails are terrific! They really helped me stay on top of my assignments and keep track of the tasks I had to complete. The thing I found most useful out of the weekly posts was the point system! Also, I did enjoy seeing the samples of how those in my class have done the art activities each week because I get to see how creative everyone is and how it inspires me to incorporate some of the elements they used in another activity.

I might suggest using Tumblr next semester and see how the students like it because there are a lot of themes to choose from, videos can be uploaded straight from your computer rather than having it go through Vimeo, and it’s more modern.

The Art Talk OTW videos weren’t all that great. Yes, the videos provide information that we should know such as where certain techniques come from, what age certain types of art were born in, what artists were most influential in their time, etc., but we never put that information to use when we completed our art activities. Maybe next semester, have one video talking about The Renaissance and have the students create a piece incorporating elements from that age into their work, and just continue with that sort of thing.

— Malina Im

The classmate conversations definitely helped me get to know people in the class. By assigning it I met so many people and got myself to go out of my way to talk to new people.

The weekly blog posts were very helpful and it made it seem like an interactive hybrid class. With a lot of the online classes I’ve taken, it’s like here’s and assignment and do it. The posts that you have created make it fun for me.

By taking this class, I have been introduced to a new website [WordPress] that I can use for many different reasons. I probably wouldn’t have found this website myself. Besides this website, I do not have an organized portfolio of any works that I created besides social websites like Facebook.

— Megan Chung

I actually really enjoyed the hybrid format of this class. The once a week meeting and mostly online aspect of this class was one of the things I liked most actually. I was able to do the work for this class on my own time, and still get it in on time, while I could still focus on my other major requirement classes.

At the beginning of the semester, I was dreading the SOA gallery meet ups, but by the end I really looked forward to talking to the artists about their work. I was always excited to hear about their pieces and about their background, I think that this was one of the best aspects of this art class.

The weekly blog posts from you made this class a lot more smooth sailing. Having examples and directions laid out for us made this a lot easier. And I also enjoyed seeing my classmates work and activities from the week before.

For my senior year of high school, we used weebly.com to showcase our senior work, so I was sorta familiar with websites and how to do blog posts in general. I enjoyed using this and felt that this is a lot easier than if we were to have to physically turn it in or email it to you, which would have been a nightmare for you.

— Megan Salinas

This was such a cool class to take. A lot of the activities were huge stress relievers and some of them will definitely be on my list for redoing.

Taking both a hybrid and online class this semester really opened my eyes on how I really don’t like sitting on computer for hours completing homework assignments. I’d rather just sit in a class and have a professor lecture at me.

I really did like the Art talk OTW and classmate conversations but I feel like we visited the SOA a bit too much. I think maybe going to the University Art Museum is something the students can check out once in a while.

— Nkechi Okoroma

I really enjoyed how productive this class was for just meeting once a week. I have other hybrid classes but this class was the only one I would enjoy going to. I really appreciate how detailed and clear all the rules and instructions were.

I felt like going to the galleries and doing conversations with artists and classmate was fun because you can have a conversation with others while enjoying the art around the gallery. Also I really enjoyed how it was different artwork every week and it was interesting to learn about new ones that I would’ve never thought could be created in that certain way. With the Classmate conversations as well I find myself finding similarities with people and making new friends that I would’ve never thought I could!

— Tiffany Phan

I personally loved the hybrid format as it meant that we only met once a week which I personally found to be plenty of time to complete whatever activities needed to be completed on campus that week. I would then use my own time at home to complete the art experiences and blog posts which definitely took more than one hour. This is better than F2F/Online.

The SOA gallery visits were fun and interesting. They were also the perfect place to conduct our classmate conversations and artist conversations because there was plenty of room to move around. Also, being outside of a classroom is a nice break from all the other hours I spend in a classroom sitting at a desk. I mostly had positive encounters with all the artists, but it can definitely be difficult to write up an artist conversation when the artist is uncooperative or snooty.

— Valeria Gonzalez

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The hybrid format of the class is great. I like online classes a lot and am taking some, but I sometimes miss out on seeing classmates physically. Hybrid is better than face to face because it frees up some time in student’s schedules. Also, watching the art talk videos is more convenient than sitting in a classroom.

— Zack Ngov

Lydia goes 2 The Getty

Greek Myth is Good Inspo for Drawing but Not Like I’ve Drawn Anything Related

He asked me if I wanted to go to Getty Villa with him because he had his Greek myth extra credit here… “It can be a date, too.” Ok. >___> ((jkjk))

Also, my phone memory has been lacking so I couldn’t take as many photos as I’d have liked to.. FeelsBadMan.

Anyways, getting to this place was almost confusing, only because Malibu traffic sucks on a Saturday afternoon and the entrance to this place is near cryptic. It’s okay though. We found it on our first try. AKA me yelling telling him very sternly that the entrance is right there.

We park in a structure and we immediately had to make 3 trips back & forth to the car because the poop forgot some thing in the car.

It was a long way up to where we were supposed to go- 3 extended flights of stairs only to go down the theater steps to the second floor.

The area was very pretty. The exteriors had statues and busts and paintings and plants and !______! But that’s for later (kind of).

The inside was solely on Greek culture and mythology. From jewelry to utensils to busts and statues, they had near everything you could imagine. Well…. realistically speaking.

— Lydia Chang

Thank You!

Thanks to all 127 of you in 1p & 2:30 for sharing a part of your Fall semester with me and with each other in Art110. I hope it’s been fun, relevant, and useful. From most of your feedback posts it seems like it has been.

No matter how many hoops the university makes you jump through, never forget that you are the customer here. Remember too that it’s possible to spend a lot of time and money buying the wrong computer, the wrong car, or the wrong boyfriend/girlfriend. I believe that everyone at CSULB is here with the best motivations. We’re all here to help you discover yourself and reach toward your goals. But it is your life. They are, or should be, your goals. Take as much responsibility for your education as you possibly can. Focus on project work. Try to spend less time studying for tests and more time using applied knowledge to produce awesome projects (that you can post on your ePortfolio – haha – sorry – I had to say it! 😛

Drop me a line sometime. I’d love to hear how life is unfolding for you.