Helena Colborn
Arts Scholar
Semester 3
Let's talk about art and society...
Art provides us with a new perspective. The majority of history taught within society is very one sided and focuses on the stories of majority groups with little mention of minority groups. If it weren’t for Ivelisse Diaz’s appearance in one of our colloquiums, I would have never understood the roots of the drum and the culture behind rhythms. Especially with music, the history seems very white-washed, idolizing classical music and their “founders”. And although classical music isn’t mainstream today nor uses drums, it is important to bring light to the influences and roots of drums when it is used in so many mainstream genres. Even with a new perspective in mind, it's always fun to see art represent the beliefs and perspectives that you've already seen. Especially during October and November, I saw many comic-like pieces of political art poking fun at Trump and his behavior during the election. I wouldn’t say my engagement in the Arts program helped me understand the art better, but instead it reminded me that like anyone with the capability to make art, there is an opportunity to reflect upon your beliefs through art, no matter how controversial the message can come across. It can also serve as an outlet to let viewers relate if they share the same beliefs, and that said, the political art that I saw was being shared by thousands on Twitter. This being said, I will always appreciate how certain topics regarding art's role in society comes back again and again. When I took ARTH 260 during my Fall 2019 semester as a Freshman, I found many connections to the Arts program. The course was heavily based on discussions during lecture and focused on many socio-political movements that art was based on. 2020 was a complete rollercoaster of movements and events including BlackLivesMatter, the election, COVID-19, the deaths of many influential people, and many more. Everyone was affected by such events and turned to making art or even questioned art that challenged movements as ways to engage in a greater conversation. During the fourth week of the semester, Arts Scholars were able to reflect upon this in Facebook Live discussion. Abby McEwen was my professor for my ARTH 260 course and a lot of what she discussed during the presentation came from what I had learned last year. She spent some time talking about how Confederate statues can act as weapons of political propaganda and can counter the efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement, since the statues represent how the Confederacy benefited from slave economics. I remember being assigned a reading that discussed this very topic last November, so it is great to see this topic coming back to discussion and into a larger societal discussion where action was taken to remove some statues.
Let's talk about art when it's a project...
When initiating the creative process, I underwent ideation, then research to support my vision for my art, and finally format my ideas into explanations and a schedule that are supported by my research findings. All of this was wrapped up into an overview to show my ideas, my findings, my intentions, and a final schedule to show the process and what I would be doing. Then came the time to share my ideas with other Scholars. When my peers and I presented our Capstone ideas to each other, we followed Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process, which can be broken down into steps that allows both the artist and responders/peers to speak upon ideas. The artist presents his/her/their project and asks the responders for their feedback or even assistance in adding onto the ideas. When responders provide feedback, it should be done in a neutral tone; one shouldn’t be too harsh or crude to discourage the artist, but one shouldn’t be too praising either, especially if it is clear that there needs to be work done. The process is supposed to be constructive and enlightening, so the conversation between an artist and responders can possibly inspire the artist to enhance their ideas. It helped me think about other ways I could portray my project and finalized what I wanted to include.
Let's talk about this semester's experiences...
One of the highlights of this semester in Scholars was that I became a Scholars Ambassador. I was able to coordinate a visit with Moya Malcom, the Assistant Director of College Park Scholars, to my previous high school research program class. We spent our visit talking about the perks of Scholars and I got to explain what I’ve gained from the program, as well as my experiences and benefits. It made me appreciate what I’ve learned from my time within Scholars but also made me excited about being able to share this experience with high school seniors knowing that I was in their shoes years ago. I didn’t learn about the existence of the Program until I was accepted into UMD, and knowing that many seniors who are in that class will be invited into an LLP at UMD, I believe they deserve to know about their choices as early as possible.
Another highlight of Scholars was definitely the breakout sessions! Interactions in class really helped me connect with my fellow Art Scholars. Even when I was living on campus and we were all cooped up in Bel Air Hall, I never felt connected to my peers, only my roommate. Zoom discussions changed the dynamic though and brought me closer to them, especially because I always looked forward to Scholars. During our breakout sessions, my TA, Judy, ensured that discussions acted as a safe space and we could talk about whatever we wanted. Most of the time we would talk about fun prompts that Judy would give us and even play an online game to pass the time (keep in mind this was after we covered the material from class). I think overall, being a part of this living-learning community gave me an opportunity to network if anything, but I was never pressured by the program to make friends. It’s just nice knowing that the program has a lot of good people in it with many creative ideas and talents. The program has brought me into contact with people with the same beliefs and opinions as me, so I wasn’t exposed to any challenges of beliefs/opinions. I do believe it is important to explore perspectives because it provides an opportunity to find a middle ground and retain such perspectives to be empathetic towards situations that you may not experience. Considering what we've been through this year, it's time that people can freely share their stories and just listen to each other.
Semester 4
Let's talk about my Scholars experience...
Before becoming an Art Scholar, I always knew that I liked working with visual art. I love to draw and paint, but after witnessing the talents of my peers from the very beginning of my enrollment, I wanted to experiment with my drawing abilities. Prior to my decision to test the waters, I only worked with graphite pencils in a small sketchbook. Then, during my first year of Scholars, I used crayons to draw a la trois crayons method. Although I enjoyed the experience, I wanted something more, so I chose to work with charcoal for my capstone project. I had never used charcoal in my life and I didn’t know how long it would take me to become accustomed to the tool, but the program encouraged me to have fun with it, and I did. My participation in the program allowed me to discover that I am not proficient in one medium of drawing, but that I am proficient in multiple mediums. Part of my scholars experience also included participating in my peer’s workshop, and I had the pleasure to talk about story writing and poetry with my fellow Scholars. We all have different abilities when it comes to making art, such as drawing, painting, and singing, but when it came to engaging with poetry, we all shared similar approaches to how we wanted to write our poetry. We also collaborated within discussions about what certain poems were about and how the structure or punctuation conveyed the messages. I also want to think back to my earlier realizations and discuss some new perspectives I had about art. During my freshman year of college, we had a field trip where a dance instructor visited and taught us how to step. We learned about the origins of stepping and how integral it is to Black culture, and it made me realize that art is passed down through generations without being hung up on a wall within a home or a museum. I always knew art could have meaning but I was so used to the physical value of visual art and didn’t consider how performance could have the same value. Another Scholars experience I had was listening to another guest artist who performed spoken poetry to the rhythm of a bass. It showed me that poetry isn’t as intimidating as I thought, and I was able to carry this knowledge with me when I participated in the poetry workshop that was led by Amy Zhong. Regarding my capstone, many colloquiums covered techniques that were used in terms of planning the capstone and ensuring that we students take it step by step rather than lay ideas on the table and move on with opportunities to make many mistakes. There were many discussions about the creative process and creating a path for our ideas to come to life, which set a steady direction for what I envisioned my capstone to be. If I recall my experiences from the first year of the program, it was practically a “practice” round for me. Although our projects were on the smaller scale, we still practiced preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. Also, many of these experiences were collaborative and required discussions where my peers and I shared our ideas with each other. Participating in these conversations allowed neutral feedback to be exchanged with one another, which also helped me narrow down the direction I wanted to take my project to.
Let's talk about my growth...
Writing for my ePortfolio has taught me to be concise and clear with what I want to express. As much as I could go on and on about art, my thoughts are on display for people to read, and I can imagine that they wouldn’t want to read paragraph after paragraph of how I feel or what I think. My pentathlon responses, semester reflections, capstone, and bio/resume all have a certain word count, and it can be tricky to cut down words, but it’s taught me to tighten up on my word choice. I've learned to be a better writer and I appreciate this skill a lot. As for my future after my Scholars experience, I expect to use the lessons of metacognition and “killing my darlings” for my academic and professional careers. I expect many projects and bigger assignments for classes and internships, and planning my approach to tackling these assignments will take a lot of work. I know I’ll need to make a routine, as I did when planning out a schedule for my capstone, but I’ll also have to set time aside to create ideas, approve them, and bring them to life. For my personal growth, I know my Scholars experience has blessed me with the realization that I can draw with many types of pencils, so I’ll continue to draw for my own enjoyment. I also appreciate that the collaborative nature of the program has improved my communication skills, so networking will never be a challenge for my future. The Scholars experience is nothing but positivity and enlightenment for students, and I’m glad that two years of my life entailed those qualities.