"Your senior show is in eighteen days!" my mom said
super excitingly on the phone Thursday.
Now just shy of two weeks away, I am spending my extended Fall Break
weekend tying together all the loose ends of my senior show.
Balancing the time I spend on each aspect of my senior show is
what I have learned is extremely important. The final big picture includes more
than just my body of work. Things that I have been working on besides my body
of work include the overall display, marketing strategies, professionalizing
my résumé, and preparing for my defense.
The Cochenour Gallery (and the Gallery 108 space) in the LRC is
where Shelby and I will be displaying our senior show. The two walls that
face each other are over 22 feet long. I personally have never installed
my own exhibit; I have had some experience installing work in Dr. Decker's
curatorial class, which installs the annual homecoming exhibit (which is
currently on display in the Cochenour). It is important to know the space you
are installing in. For instance: the Cochenour wall I am installing my work on
is 22 feet and 4 inches long, by 8 feet tall. However after analyzing the space
more in-depthly, I noticed that there is a baseboard that runs around the
gallery, and the light source casts a shadow around the top of the wall, also
the walls were not built to hold a lot of weight, so it is important to
research and talk with Jeanette Tesmer (gallery director) when hanging anything
in that space. Always double-check your installation space!
For any opening date of an exhibit, marketing is important to
get people to show up! Shelby and I have been working on a press release,
invitations, and social media will also play an important role.
Part of this whole experience is preparing you for the
professional world after you graduate. For many, graduate school is an
immediate option, to continue their education more in-depthly and intensely.
As for myself, I am one of the many that will be joining grown up world
an entering the workforce! The reason why I am having my senior show this
semester instead of next spring semester with the rest of the art majors, is
because I am graduating in December. (One of my friends asked me a few months
ago if I had started apartment searching yet! Ahhh!) I’m not going to think
about moving and apartment searching now, but I have already been thinking
about job searching. Updating my résumé and documenting my senior
show all play an important part in professionalizing my portfolio. As for my
post-grad plans, grad school isn’t on the top of my list, though the last thing
I want to be is closed-minded. Networking and keeping my options for job
openings is what I feel is most beneficial to me at this point.
As far as my installation, senior show (which is on October 20th
don’t forget!) and my defense, I know I can never be fully prepared for exactly
what is to come, part of the experience is knowing how to operate under
pressure. However, it is the moment I have been preparing for since I knew I
was going to be an art major. Through all the late nights I have spent in the
art building practicing printing techniques, saving Adobe files, and getting
paint on almost all my clothes, I have learned that I have to have undying
determination and patience to better myself, and that it is not just going to
happen over night. And another big obstacle that I had to get over is the fear
of failure or failure itself.
Sometimes things just aren’t going to work out, but you won’t get anywhere
staring at a blank piece of paper because you’re too afraid to leave a mark
that may not meet some sort of expectation. Perfection is for the ignorant,
because it really doesn’t exist; and even if you believe you have achieved it,
odds are there is someone out there eager to share their differing
opinion. In my experience in
senior thesis so far, this process has been more about bettering myself as an
artist and less about being someone else’s idea of a good artist. Finding out my
identity as an artist has been a rewarding experience and the best preparation
I can imagine to conclude my Georgetown learning experience.
Once again, the date of our Fall Senior Show is Sunday October
20th! Shelby and I would love to see you there!
-Maddy Fritz
1 comment:
I am super pumped to see your senior show, I only wish I knew more about Shelby's line of work.
And I admire your confidence as you venture into a scary yet defining point in your career. In my opinion, your senior thesis shouldn't be entirely about the art, but it should coincide with your personality and methods. From looking at your blogposts, you appear to have an uncanny attention to detail and design. Everything in your work seems to have a significant meaning that could easily be overlooked, but the design is so well crafted that it is great that it goes unnoticed.
Some advice for defense: be honest. In the academic world and the work force, honesty is a difficult thing to practice. Even when your shortcomings are pointed out, it is never a good idea to make up excuses. Just like you pointed out, striving for perfection isn't really possible, but being confident in your art and giving you best shot helps. And it never hurts to ask for some assistance, because people are only capable of so much.
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