the three R's

The first thing that I did for [the three R’s] project was take my one mile trip on the Greensboro Public Transportation Bus, which by the why I was terrified about doing. It is difficult when you are from the small town of Boone and you are not use to riding public transportation throughout a large city. After all was said and done I realized that it wasn’t as bad as I had dreamed it would be. Things that stuck out to me along the way to my destination were several bridges, whether they were for trains or cars, lots of tall city buildings, and old signs or fancy street adornments. By this I don’t mean any harm to anybody, but I feel that through the participant observation that I concluded a large majority of the people riding the bus were not Caucasian and most appeared to be in the working middle or lower class.

I don’t know if riding the bus first had any influence on my reading but I do know that I would have done things differently if I had of known more about the project. I would like to admit that after completing the reading assignment I wished I had read first and then gone on my bus ride along. I was actually somewhat disappointed in the decision I had made. I felt that if I had completed the reading first I would have been looking for completely different things throughout Greensboro. Since I did the riding assignment first I found myself looking more at bridges, roads, and signs. If I had of completed the reading first then I feel that people, and historical buildings would have caught my attention. In an overall sense I was quite disappointed in my decision and thought process.

Before reading this article I had heard of the sit-in at the Woolworth’s Drug Store, but I had no earthly idea how big of deal it had become. In a sense this has made Greensboro quite famous for fathering the beginnings of a long journey to equal rights for all people no matter their skin color. Several aspects that caught my attention in the reading were the instances were blacks were having trouble transferring to different schools because they were in closer proximity to their homes. The local school board was not allowing them to change to an all white school solely because of the color of their skin. This was the beginning of many things to come. Something that also caught my attention was the way the African American teachers of these students never let them give up. They were always trying to teach them their rights and the issues at hand. I found this to be brave and admiring. I feel that these very teachings had something to do with the incentive to conduct the well-known sit-ins.

I have learned from these experiences that Greensboro, the Gate City, has a most important past that still relates to those of us today. One must truly know about the history of a place to learn about its people and their thoughts. The idea of having public transportation today is almost astonishing because during the 1960’s this most likely did not exist. Public Transportation would have only referred to the local white people. Today is a completely different world in the fact that things are no longer segregated and something just as simple as the city wide public transportation is free to the use of all people, all colors.

Reflection of Week one/Second Year

Week one of the first semester, second year has actually not been too bad. I figured I would be more stressed at this point but in fact the first studio project was quite an enjoyment. Starting with the ten to twenty-five drawings was fun and relaxing. I was actually quite pleased with the outcome of my drawings. I felt more comfortable rendering these drawings with markers than some of the ones that I rendered last year.

I do have to admit that working in a group of about fifteen was harder than I thought it would be. Wednesday of this week our group met for so long trying to come up with an idea of cohesion to combine our nodes, paths, etc. in a certain way. We could have spent the entire night just trying to come up with an idea. I think if we had been more organized during our meeting and not have just tried to blurt out ideas we might have all communicated better with each other. With a large group it is hard to please everybody. I felt that the entire group reviewed our group’s display honestly and with great suggestions in mind. Some of the things that stuck out to me that were mentioned was the display of our squares and how some of the connections between several people’s squares were hard to decipher. I believe that some of these issues could have been addressed if our time frame was larger and the group had schedules somewhat in common. I do have to admit that I really like my group and I think we will work better together in the future. At first I was concerned that since our group contained several new people, which is not a bad thing at all, that we might struggle slightly just because some of us were not use to working with these people. It is easier sometimes to work with people you know already and especially knowing their work ethic. After this project I have realized that I am not going to have any problems working with the group that I was placed in. I think that we as a group will all become good friends as a result of group work.

Friday’s class was quite an experience. I have come to the conclusion along with many other people, I am sure, that working in a group with over fifty people is almost impossible. I found myself getting frustrated with some of my fellow classmates because they had no desire to be included in the class assignment. I think that the worst problem that we as a class encountered was that nobody could seem to be quiet long enough for an idea to be expressed. I found this to be quite rude. With the exception of this small percent most of the class worked pretty well together. We realized as a class that in order to come up with an idea we would need to meet in smaller groups and come up with several ideas. Once we did this we met back together and a representative from each group presented the ideas to the rest of the class. After hearing all of the ideas we as a class voted on a final decision. Like mentioned earlier it is impossible to please everybody. Everybody has his or her own idea on how something should look. Now having worked in a group with fifteen people and a group with fifty people I have concluded that a smaller size group even if it is fifteen people is much better.

Way Finding

Where else? Elsewhere of Course

Elsewhere was quite an experience. When first being told about this place I imagined a room with some random toys. To my surprise I was completely wrong. This place is overflowing with anything that you can think of. If you can imagine it, they have it. But good luck finding it. Today this place is a museum but originally was a thrift store for Greensboro. The owner of the thrift store decided one day that she was going to stop selling the items and instead continue to collect and increase her collection. Today Elsewhere is a museum, ran by the grandson of the original owner, where artists come in and create exhibits by rearranging and organizing the objects that they find. The motto of Elsewhere is "nothing comes in and nothing leaves."

I still find myself wondering how in the world one person could collect so much junk. Every time I am there I find something that I had as a child. This can be really fun. Our first assignment of our class time at Elsewhere was to go around only the first level and find five objects that we would be interested in drawing. We were to write our name on a sticky note and place it on the object. By doing this we became part of the museum. Something that would never leave. The first five drawings are this assignment. In order they include a chandelier, high heel shoe, a floor cushion, a jack-o-lantern cone, and a Cinderella toy.

Our second assignment was to venture out on the first floor again and define a space which we wanted to claim. We marked this off on the floor with duck tape. This became our space for the next few class periods. After defining our space we were called into the other room and told we had three minutes to list as many things that we recalled seeing in our area. I found this tougher than it really seemed. As you can see above I was not too successful. Once we were finished with this we were told to draw one of the things that we listed. I chose to draw this pretty blue umbrella that had white flowers on it. After this we were given the rest of our class periods and any our free time to draw the space that we claimed. The remaining drawings above a of my chosen space. I chose to focus on the desk because it had so many interesting objects.

Something that I did not fully understand and still don't understand about Elsewhere is the division of the first floor. Certain areas are divided up to become different aspects that make up a functioning community. Although I cannot remember them all certain ones that stick out in my mind include, the general store, the restaurant, and a travel center. I believe the space that I chose was the travel center because certain items were brought to this desk that had a similar theme. Most of the items had something to do with certain tourist locations. These items were post cards, toys, etc. To tell you the truth I am still clueless on the reason why the area was organized the way it was. My favorite aspect about this space was the many umbrellas place over head to create a sense of shelter. Several items has something to do with E.T. and then there was a box of random toys which some were dogs. There were many books and one random T.V. that had a note on it that said "Buy n' Sell". Although there is small random categories of objects I still think the main category has something to do with travel.

I have to admit some days I hated going to Elsewhere and some days I truly enjoyed it. I think what frustrated me the most was the large abundance of randomness. Some days it was so overwhelming. Most days I really enjoyed going to my space and drawing the things I saw. Overall I was pleased with my space. I definitely was not an easy space to depict through drawing. I would recommend everyone to at least experience Elsewhere once because you never know what you will find in there. You most likely will find something from your childhood that will bring back good memories.

Nnenne Freelon: Habitable wall

The main objective of this project was to design a habitable wall (not a room) for an assigned client. My client was Nnenna Freelon, a local and famous jazz singer who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. When researching I came to the conclusion that she is free-spirited woman who loves life and children. My final model flows in a free-form motion just like her personality.









The above six images are of the first iterations that I did for the project. The last of the six, the one directly above is the form that I chose to stick with and built off of. I really enjoyed the continuous curve that was formed.


At this point I tried adding some sense of wall thickness but also bring in the aspect of lighting at the same time. I tried adding a layer of translucent trash paper to see what this would look like.


Once we were told to create a 1'': 1'-0" model this was what was developed as a result. I decided to add one more curve creating a total of four defined spaces. I also tried to create one continuous curve which by the way was quite difficult.




With this quick sketch model I was trying to see how I could add height and possibly a second level with one continuous form.


With this sketch model I experimented creating different forms with the walls themselves. I thought maybe one end of the wall could start at a designated height and then descend down towards the ground as it curved around.


Quite a change in this model from the plain white model. We were directed to add color into this model. We were required to have three main colors and an accent color. My three main colors were a light creme brown, a dark chocolate brown, and white. My accent color was the bright orange red color. The light brown represents public areas of the habitable wall and the dark brown defines the private areas designated for Nnenna Freelon. The orange red color was placed on top of the wall to show and clearly define the form of the wall. This scheme speaks of Nnenna Freelon's personality because while researching her I realized that most of her album covers and her website contain neutral colors with pops of bright colors.







This was my final presentation board I put together for my final critique of the project. The picture above it is of the entire group's boards that I presented with. One step of the project was deciding the location of the habitable wall. We were told that it would located somewhere on the third floor of the Gatewood Studio Arts Building. I chose for my habitable wall to be cornered in the south-west corner of the second year studio. My project can be seen in the rendered perspectives on my presentation board.

I really enjoyed this project especially after I decided on an idea. I liked having a client to work for and design for.