Sculpture
Ceramics
Printing
Fashion Design
Graphic Design
Painting
I came to the Art college with Chloe, a friend from school who was also really interested in art and was thinking about pursuing a career in it too. It helped having a friend there because I didn't know how people were going to react to us invading their space for 2 weeks.
On the first day our supervisor, Des MacMahon showed us around the college. We went to 2 lectures on that day. One was about Ceramics and the other was about Printing. Des had also showed us a studio that we would be working in for the two weeks. This room had other first years in it who were really welcoming. I think that being surrounded by people with a positive attitude towards us helped us feel more comfortable working in the same area as them.
During the first week we did a lot of printing as Des, our supervisor is a printing lecturer. He let us join in his classes so we could get to learn how to print too. We did 3 types of printing which were:
Mono printing- this is where you ink up a sheet of acetate (like very thin plastic) and wipe off the ink where you want your picture to be white.
Etching- this is where you have a sheet of acetate and you scratch a picture into it using a sharp tool or a compass. You then put ink over the whole sheet and wipe off the excess. The ink will stay in the scratches that you have made and this will be your print.
(We did the two of those prints with another lecturer called Pam.)
and finally
Relief printing- this is when you draw a picture in black marker onto a wooden block. you then cut out the parts of the wood that aren't coloured in black with special wood-cutting tools and then you ink over the whole thing. When you have finished where you cut out the wood will be white and the parts that were black will have the colour on it.
It was very interesting to be shown how to print because that is not an area of art that we cover in school. I liked the relief printing best as I was better at that that the other two because it is easier to draw a definite shape on the wood that the sheets of acetate.
We not only did printing but we were allowed to sit in lectures about ceramics, sculpture and textures and textiles. They were all very interesting and really gave me an idea of what I would like to do when if I came to college here.
On the Tuesday of the second week our Art teacher, Mr. Shortt, came to visit us to see how we were getting on with the work experience. His daughter is in her final in the art college doing Graphic design. Mr. Shortt called Eva and asked her would she be able to show us around the graphic design department of 4th year during the rest of the week.
We met up with Eva the next day after break as she said she'd show us what she'd have to do that day. During this time Eva and some of her classmates had to take a photograph for their upcoming exhibition "I Am". They took a lot of different pictures with the words "I Am" in it and they took them back to their class to decide which photograph they all liked best as it was to represent them as a class on the flyers and posters for the exhibition. The exhibition is going to take place in Bourkes Bar, Catherine Street, from November 2nd to November 5th. The photograph they chose to use for the posters and flyers can also be seen in the bar on the night.
The college is a very hard college to get into because of all the people applying for it so we were advised to do a Portfolio course by a lot of the students there to get better material for our portfolio. I think I will do this because I think it would be very hard to try get a good portfolio done while the studying for the Leaving Cert. Everyone was very welcoming and they all treated us as equals.
Some aspects of college (in first year anyway) are very different to secondary school because you are allowed use any medium of art that you wish for your first project and Art in college is more about what you want to do as an artist even though you are still going to be marked on your work a lot of the marks go for preparation on how you got to where you are and not the finished product but in school for Art exams people only really get to see what the finished product is and not all the work and effort it took to get there.
I really enjoyed my time in the Art college and really didn't want to leave but "All good things come to an end". I am really looking forward to being given to opportunity to come here on a more permanent basis because after this work experience I really don't think I would be happy in any other college after school. I am really thankful that I was given the chance to come here.
I took alot of photographs during the two weeks but here are a few that I thought would be good to show you:
St. John's Cathedral
This was a piture drawn on the side of one of the printing presses
A view that I took from a bridge
A printing press
Peoples' Park
This was on the ceiling in the printing room
An older printing press
Marvel Superhero Captain America, one of the picture I did while I was in the Art College.
Chloe jammin' with the beat-up remenants of a keyboard
Taits Clock and a lamp post. I used the lamp post image for my first relief print.
The robot sculpture that is out with the rusty keyboard.
A view of the cathedral spire
Prep for relief print.
Reference drawing for relief print.
Prep for relief print, just needed to be inked up.
Another view of the cathedral as I was walking to the college one day.
Arthurs Quay
A tree in Arthurs Quay park
A view from Arthurs Quay park of the Strand hotel
A doll just randomly hanging around the college
Judgement on a table of the printing room
A view of the Marquee over the Milk Market
