What an exhausting week!!!  You know the feeling when your eyes are so heavy because you haven’t slept in two days; well that was pretty much all the interior design students this week.  You come to class with energy drinks and a lot of candy with sugar in it.  I am beginning to think that energy drink and sugar no longer affect me!!!  You know it’s the end of the semester in the art building when everyone is there until very early hours in the morning.  When we are in the art building all night there are always other students in there with you.  Usually we bring movies in and turn those on while we do our work (helps us stay awake!)  We also have a lot of fun, usually when we get slap happy we start singing or dancing around and that helps our energy levels.  But in the end we get the projects done and we also become closer friends in the process.  We always look out for each other!!  Also this week I received the Merit Scholarship Award for Project EXCEL, that was very exciting and I was very honored to receive that award.  I truly have worked so hard my past 3 years at the Mount and it can only get better!!!

You know when your mind is racing even when you’re going to bed.  That’s been me for the past two weeks.  As exams are approaching next week for most of MSJ’s students, the interior design students have some of their exams this week.  In our interior design classes, for our final projects we always have projects instead of tests.  To many that would sound very easy, but in reality I think it may be harder.  In interior design you are always modifying and finding better ways to space plan.  So you are always down to the wire because of constant modifications that you make.  The newest project that I am undertaking at the moment is my lamp.  For environmental technologies we have to build our own lamp.  On to less stressful news, the Department of Art and Design had their annual thesis opening this past Friday.  This is when students present their final projects to the public.  This is a big deal for all seniors because they get to show off all of their hard work and what they have learned over the past four years.  There are two thesis openings that are a week to two weeks apart from each other.  The first thesis opening has graphic design work mixed in with fine arts and art education.  And the second thesis has interior design work mixed in with fine arts and art education work.  Speaking of all the hard work these girls do I need to get back to my work.    

This weekend was very exciting!  It was the weekend of the College of Mount St.Joseph Spring Formal.  The theme of this years Spring Formal was City of Lights.  Each year Student Government Association sponsors this event.  And for the past 3 years SGA has asked ASID to make and purchase the decorations for Spring Formal.  This year interior design student and ASID member Jessie Kell was wonderful enough to be the committee chair of the Spring Formal decorations.  The dance was at Music Hall, so we had to be careful about what decorations we used because we are not allowed to use many adhesives in order to preserve Music Hall.  So on the tables Jessie decided to put a black table cloth, and in the center were clear fish bowls filled with a little water at the bottom and a lit candle in each.  A strand of pearls encompassed the outside of the blows with sliver stars scattered around the tables.  There was also Monte Carlo at the dance where we got to spend fake MSJ money.  It is always a fun time when your with good friends and you get to dance!!    

Well what a busy and exciting weekend!!

            This weekend I went up to Indianapolis and Chicago with my Modern Art class.  We loaded up the twelve passenger College of Mount St. Joseph vans and headed up to the windy city.  We first stopped at the Indianapolis Art Museum and stayed there from 11am-4pm.  And let me tell you that was not enough time to look at everything that they had.  It was also a gorgeous facility with 3 floors of nothing but wonderful artwork and tempting giftshops.  A really neat exhibit that was at the Indianapolis Museum was a fashion exhibit.  It was really interesting to see how the styles of clothing have progressed and how some styles mimic each other.  From Indianapolis we headed to Chicago.  We arrived at about 7:15pm and everyone got settled.  We then had free time for the rest of the evening.  My friends and I decided to get dressed up and go out to dinner.  After walking, walking and more walking we decided to go to Rosebuds, at least I think that is the name.  It was an expensive Italian restaurant, we sat outside and ate, and it was such a wonderful time.  The next morning we headed to the Chicago Institute of Art.  That was really an enjoyable time seeing such famous paintings by Monet and so many others.  The really awesome part about the trip is that when I was looking at the art I knew who a lot of the artists were before I even read their names.  Our Modern Art teacher Shawnee has taught us well.  If you ever get a chance to take an art history course at MSJ try to get Shawnee as your teacher, she really makes learning so enjoyable and understandable.  Well I should finish up my homework…talk to you later.     

It’s the word that is unavoidable and that no one on campus likes to hear, EXAMS.  Wow how the second semester has absolutely flown by.  There are about 4-5 more weeks of school left and its already feeling like crunch time for my interior design classes.  These next few weeks will be devoted completely interior design projects.  Luckily we get our studio class time to work on our projects.  It’s nice because Elizabeth can come around and help us with whatever questions we have regarding the project.  She is really great at giving us helpful advice and feedback.  These next couple of weekends will be spent in my dorm room working in Revit on my floor plans, perspectives, and renderings.  It is not the most fun way to spend my weekend, but it’s necessary in order to complete everything on time.  Well I should get back to my homework now, have an early morning!!!  Talk to you soon. 

So it’s SPRING BREAK!!!  This is a time when you are supposed to relax and kick your shoes off and sleep till noon, right?  Well not for me.  This week is being filled with full time work at my Co-Op and preparing for exams and final projects.  And I have worked in quite a bit of time for fun!!  I also have been planning for my final Environmental technologies project; we have to build our own light fixture from scratch.  Everything has to be handmade.  Well this is going to be a challenge for me, so I have recruited my dad to help me with the technical aspects of building my light fixture.  What a great dad!!  I have also been keeping up with my Boutique Hotel project, always sketching and continually revising my floor plans.  As I realize that next year I will be a senior I am starting to really think about thesis.  I know what I want to do and am very excited about the challenge ahead.  I never thought that I would have an interest in healthcare design; I always thought that I wanted to work in the hospitality end of design.  Well the summer going into my junior year my grandma passed away from cancer.  She lived at home until she went into hospice.  We were with her everyday sitting by her side, and slept in her room in a recliner.  This was one of the most amazing and hardest experiences of my life.  Hospice is an institution that sees the transition from our human life to our eternal life on a daily basis.  But there were many components that were missing on the design aspect.  As I talked to my professor Elizabeth about this, I told her the story and she was like “design this space as if it was for your grandmother.”  This of all the things that would ease the patient’s pain, down to the minuscule details.  So I think my thesis will be designing a hospice facility and I would also like to do a holistic care center.  I know this will be an immense amount of work, but as Alex Noble said it is our spirit that helps us continue on and do what we love. 

I thought I would catch you guys up on happenings in the art department.  The Interior Design department just hired on a new faculty member Elizabeth Bartley.  Now we have two full time professors and three part time.  Kim Burke and Elizabeth Bartley have taught me studio classes.  Nodas Papadimas has taught me one studio class, Construction Technologies, and is currently teaching me Environmental Technologies.  Leeann Thomas who works for DEI taught me Drafting 2 and Rendering.  And lastly Nauman Mysorweala taught me AutoCAD and Advanced AutoCAD. 

Adjusting to each persons teaching style has always in the beginning taken some adjustment on the students and teachers part.  But each semester I have come out with such a wonderful appreciation for each one of my professors.  Each one of them has taught me invaluable information that I will always carry with me.  I look up to many of them as sources of inspiration and try to emulate their own philosophies but also integrate them into my own. Currently Elizabeth is teaching my studio class, and we are working on creating a Boutique Hotel for baby boomers.  Elizabeth again brings such a different dynamic to our classroom, but it’s a really wonderful, refreshing approach to design.  She is really able to challenge you in a design perspective but also on an intellectual level that completely correlates to the design problem.  I think Elizabeth will fit in well and really become a great resource for us. Well I think I pretty much caught ya up!