January 6-12:

I had my wintersession classes for 3 days this week. I am really enjoying having my contemplative class and women artists class back to back. There has been a nice connection between the two.

In Contemplative, we have been practicing various types of breath, eye, and thought meditations. It’s a refreshing way to start my days. Along with the meditations, we have had some interesting readings and artwork studies. Our main reading this week was about 20th-century artists using their artistic practice as a way to explore religion and personal spirituality.

In my Women Artists class, we looked at some iconic artists who have shaped how we experience art today like, Ana Mendieta, Cindy Sherman, Judy Chicago, Claude Cahun, and Frida Khalo. There is so much that I do in my practice and my beliefs are very aligned with the artists who are credited to the feminist movement. It's been really reassuring and comforting to hear about their practices, especially in conversation with performance art. Performance art is one of my first loves, and sometimes in jewelry, I feel that it comes second to my studio practice.

Tuesday night, I went over to Dash’s house for a chili night. It was nice to see all my jewelry friends and catch up. We had a little bonfire, bundled up and drank some tea around the fire. It was a lovely evening.

I also spent a lot of time this week applying to jobs, internships, and fellowships for the summer time. It’s stressful trying to make sure I meet all the deadlines, but I’m hoping I’ll find a job I love for the summer! So far, I’ve applied to some at the Haystack School up in Maine; it looks like such an incredible opportunity!

Friday, Livia’s cousin was visiting, so we took her out to one of our favorite bars and then met up with some other friends to go dancing. It was Dolly Parton night and there were so many Dollys in the room, so fun to see!

Saturday, my friend Sophia came down from Boston to hang out for the weekend. We always have random projects we are working on together. This time, we worked on trying to scan my room. Every year I try to find a way to document my college room because it’s temporary. Freshmen year I made a linoleum print, sophomore year a tapestry, and this year scanning! We messed around with a few different types of scanners. We just moved through my room holding an Epson scanner at stomach height and tried to see what would scan. It was a really fun process. We didn’t get to finish it, but I’m going to continue messing around with it.

Sunday, we grabbed brunch at the cafeteria and then headed to the jewelry studio to work for the day on another project. We worked on making a mold to use for sand casting. Sophia is trying to make a bronze plaque for an installation at MIT. It was lots of trial, error, and learning. We didn’t end up getting the result that we originally intended, but it was good experimentation and we plan on trying again soon!

In the evening we went to an art opening and performance being put on by a professor that I have been trying to take a class from for the past couple of years. It was so inspiring being able to go to a space and just be with a bunch of artists, watch the performance, and mingle with other local artists. I even was able to catch up with a professor I had my first semester at RISD. I love being in an area where communities like these are so active and available to be apart of!