Pentathalon Semester 1

As an experiential component of College Park Arts Scholars, I attended a selection of five art events during my first semester. These events ranged in art mediums and each sparked dialogue among my peers. 

On August 30, 2020, I decided to attempt to draw the most realistic and detailed version of a cupcake that I could after finding some of my old cupcake sketches that I completed as a middle school student. My goal was to try to create depth in the drawing by using contrast between shadows and highlights within my subject. My purpose in doing this was to gauge any improvements that I've made as an artist since middle school and since I became an Arts Scholar, which turned out to be a significant improvement after so many years of practice. By completing this work, it made me curious as to other ways that I might be able to improve and what other materials other than chalk pastels or oil pastels I might be able to experiment with using a similar project. #visualart

On October 2,  2020, I held a virtual event through Zoom as a Peer Mentor in which I guided fellow Arts Scholars through a virtual museum tour. of the Walters Art Museum. I thought that this museum was very unique in that I had not yet seen a museum with such variety in medium used as well as such a variety in content. We went through several exhibits in which we explored Japanese art and armor as well as 18th and 19th century art. The Japanese armor was particularly inspiring as it displayed aspects of Japanese culture through art carved into what looked to be objects that were actually used by the Japanese. This doesn't relate as much to my major as it does to my minor of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). In this minor we learn to accept and appreciate all cultures, as was made possible through these virtual exhibits. #visualarts #artsscholars

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On October 9, 2020, I viewed the film "The Princess Diaries". In this film, the main character, Mia develops from an awkward, stereotypically nerdy character into royalty after receiving the news that she is actually the princess of a country called Genovia. Through this film, I learned that it is important to try to be observant of peoples' intentions. This is because during the movie, many of Mia's classmates who had previously treated her poorly, pretended they had been friends with her all along to use her for her fame and power. One strong connection that I noticed between themes in this movie and my major in Education, is that it is important as a teacher to monitor student behavior and stop behaviors that could be detrimental to a student's well being, as was displayed in Mia's case in the movie. #film

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On October 24, 2020, fellow Arts Scholar, Jenna Deutch and I hosted a virtual pentathlon event through the Peer Mentor program in which we collaboratively watched a Ted Talk about an artist. In that particular video, the artist was discussing the power of a singular line while discussing her art form. She liked to use contour lines to form designs that tell a story and demonstrated several examples of her personal style of art throughout the video. This experience was unique because personally, as an artist, I have my own style of drawing and shading, but have yet to become very experimental with other styles. This particular artist inspired me to try to push myself to experiment with other styles of art, including hers. This video relates to what I've learned in Arts Scholars as the program has taught me to start to be more appreciative of the work of other artists and take inspiration from them. #presentation

On December 12, 2020, I had the opportunity to view a dance on the University of Maryland dance streaming website. The dance that I watched is called Rainwood (1975). This particular dance was choreographed by an Israeli artist named Ze'eva Cohen and the purpose was to describe the process of making it in the dance world. It is difficult to become a successful independent dancer, though this choreographer aims to describe the process. From what I saw, it looks like the formation of a circle that all of the dancers were originally a part of is an important part of the representation in this dance. At various points throughout the dance, individual dancers break away from this main formation and then return to the group and I took this to mean that it is difficult to become an independent dancer and it is common for them to return to the group. Watching this performance relates greatly to what I have learned in Arts Scholars as I have gained appreciation, yet again, for a form of art that was previously unfamiliar to me, as I have all throughout Arts Scholars. #dance