In my last post, I professed that great things were ahead in the summer. Though I wish I had updated throughout the summer, there is a certain narrative poetry in framing the summer with two sentiments: looking forward and looking back. 
This summer I interned at XVIVO, a medical animation company in Rocky Hill, CT. I got the position because Michael Astrachan, the founder of the company, had seen my work at a local exhibition. Because his roots are as a classically trained painter, there was a sort of kinship in both our interests for the realist painting tradition. The internship was very interesting. Although I was not able to actually have a hand in any of the projects (which is guess is ideally the objective), I spent a good amount of time learning a lot about 3D modeling, texturing, and lighting. I also met some great people, and started Hackey-Sacking, which is really good if you like to be outside but aren't really athletic. I am excited to keep working in 3D, because it's a tool that has so many possibilities, and I'm glad I was able to see the studio-environment, even if it was from my relatively isolated position.
Although the internship took up a lot of my creative time and energy, I did start a few personal projects. One of them was a short comic story. Right now, it's in the coloring process, and though it will take a while to finish, I'm sure it'll be a good portfolio piece.
Another project I started was with Mr. Astrachan himself. He's been working on writing a children's story for a very long time, and asked me if I wanted to illustrate it. For now I've been making a lot of sketches for the story.
This summer I interned at XVIVO, a medical animation company in Rocky Hill, CT. I got the position because Michael Astrachan, the founder of the company, had seen my work at a local exhibition. Because his roots are as a classically trained painter, there was a sort of kinship in both our interests for the realist painting tradition. The internship was very interesting. Although I was not able to actually have a hand in any of the projects (which is guess is ideally the objective), I spent a good amount of time learning a lot about 3D modeling, texturing, and lighting. I also met some great people, and started Hackey-Sacking, which is really good if you like to be outside but aren't really athletic. I am excited to keep working in 3D, because it's a tool that has so many possibilities, and I'm glad I was able to see the studio-environment, even if it was from my relatively isolated position.
Although the internship took up a lot of my creative time and energy, I did start a few personal projects. One of them was a short comic story. Right now, it's in the coloring process, and though it will take a while to finish, I'm sure it'll be a good portfolio piece.
Another project I started was with Mr. Astrachan himself. He's been working on writing a children's story for a very long time, and asked me if I wanted to illustrate it. For now I've been making a lot of sketches for the story.
I've been writing on my sketchbook a lot. Though it's very refreshing and spontaneous (and more importantly, cathartic, therapeutic, and self-indulgent), there is a certain impatience and lack of polish that comes with my stream of consciousness writing and drawing. I have not made a nice, polished oil painting in a long time. I have barely worked with color all summer. 
This year I have to start applying to colleges. I'm sure it'll be a very stressful process, and so I'm bracing myself for it. The schools I'm most likely going to apply to are RISD, MICA, Pratt, and possibly the Academy of Art University in San Franscisco, although I have yet to visit it. We also visited CalArts over the summer, for the second time this year. I might do a longer post about it later, but I'm not sure that CalArts is where I want to go.
This year I have to start applying to colleges. I'm sure it'll be a very stressful process, and so I'm bracing myself for it. The schools I'm most likely going to apply to are RISD, MICA, Pratt, and possibly the Academy of Art University in San Franscisco, although I have yet to visit it. We also visited CalArts over the summer, for the second time this year. I might do a longer post about it later, but I'm not sure that CalArts is where I want to go.I feel uncertainty. I feel uncertainty about everything, because that's the price of discovering new things. Some days I feel extremely secure about what I want to do, my future, my work, the person I want to be, but somedays it feels like I'm stepping onto nothing. Nobody can tell me where I have to go, and that's exciting but sometimes it also feels like I have a choice over things that have too heavy a consequence on my life, and that makes me afraid. I'm trying to be more relaxed about things, be more adventurous, be more open, and live in the moment. I'm trying to live by trying to make my life good now, and not waiting around for things to happen later. I'm trying to live like I try to improv: not looking into the future, but responding to my immediate surroundings
