Sophomore Inspire Week
Summary
For Sophomore inspire week I was assigned to design and paint a mural for southwest Conservation Corps with a group of 5 other students. We were asked to incorporate both the local mountains as well as the desert plateaus in our region. We started by designing it in photoshop and came up with a geometric idea that uses tape to separate each block of color. After designing the mural we put the tape on the wall and then started to decide where each block of color was going. Once we had decided the colors we started painting. While painting many people in the building came by and complemented our work and said it looked like a new logo. It was nice to hear these things from profesionalis it gave the group confidence that we were painting the right thing and that it looked good.
Connections Between School and Work
One of the main connections between school and work that I was able to make while painting a mural for the Southwest Conservation Corps was that I had to creatively collaborate with others as well as voice my ideas to further better the art piece. I think that when we work alone on an art piece we often overlook some small things like what color things should be but having several sets of eyes on one piece really helped make this project better. This idea of people looking at and giving their input and advice not only applies to art pieces but also to projects at school weather that be writing or designing a physical project. Seeing this connection between school and work will hopefully help me to improve my work in both worlds.
Skills Developed
Big Takeaway/Time Management
One of the most influential moments while painting the mural was that it is important to take a step back and take in your work as well as give yourself a break to recover and regroup. There were often times that i felt like i had been sitting at the wall painting for hours, although i was enjoying my time painting i did feel like i needed a break from what i was doing. Taking a break allowed me to step back and see imperfections that could be improved and I think that this idea of taking a break every once in awhile is important and can be applied to many places in life. We can often become overwhelmed with our work and it slowly loses quality but if we stay inspired and take our time our final product is often better than if we were to rush it.
An important skill I developed while on inspire week was learning how to professionally interact with other educated professionals. While painting the mural for the southwest conservation corps I was offered a summer job to do conservation work in the local area. Learning how to interact professionally is extremely important. Communication is one of the biggest skills that I need to work on. There are many times when I feel like my perspective is not being said as clearly as possible but while painting the mural I was given the opportunity to practice my communication skills. If I was not able to professionally interact while at southwest conservation corps I would not have the opportunity to work this summer.
Connections to YouScience
My biggest skill in youscience is brainstorming. You can see this skill reflected in the mural that I helped paint. I worked well along with my team to brianstorm and come up with simple yet creative ideas for the mural. There were many times that I had to creatively collaborate with my group to further develop the mural to make it better. Another skill that I have in youscience is spatial visualization. Both of these skills are extremely important while designing and painting a large scale mural. I not only see myself using this skill while working on the mural but also in my day to day life in digital arts and photography.
Advice for Future Students
If I could give advice for any future students on sophomore inspire week I would say to pick one that you want to do and not go off of what your friends are doing. I know it's what all the teachers tell you to do and it might not be the most fun at first but if you take a step back from all that and look at what sophmore inspire week is meant to do then you will get more out of it if you pick something you are interested in. sophomore inspire week is supposed to help you explore possible careers. If you were to pick one that you had no personal interest in and just followed your friends into this will not benefit your future in any way. Although being away from your friends might not be fun it will benefit your future more.