Noah Goes To RISD

It’s a little hard to believe that it’s been less than a week since I got here. Sunday feels like ages ago—but maybe that’s a good thing. My time here has already been unforgettable and influential.

My weeks during this semester consist of three classes, each a day and a half long. Thus, I’m in class 4.5 days a week, getting out about noon on Friday. It is, to put things lightly, exhausting. There’s always work to do, places to go, and never enough time to just sit around.

The beginning: 2D Design

Directly following a rambling and highly theoretical convocation, I had my first class of the week, which is 2D Design. Our classroom, thankfully, was right down the hall, thus removing any possibility of getting lost. The morning session was a relaxed, “here’s what we’re going to do, and now go get supplies” time. Our professor, Professor M (I’m going to try not to use full names—no sense in making people hate me), is a fantastic old guy who seems to really know what he’s talking about and is enthused to teach us. When we came back to class I began my very first RISD project… a color chart! Exciting!

I have since finished it (as I only got about half way through in class), and done a couple other things hardly worth mentioning. The next day we critiqued two pieces: a piece with three colored blocks intended to evoke some emotion—which, for the most part, were successful. And secondly, a weird, dull abstract painting with no imagery allowed that we were required to complete in under 30 minutes. It goes without saying that this painting was, in all honesty, a utter piece of trash. Which is probably good seeing as how he made us all take these hideous abstract paintings to the sink and wash the paint off. It almost felt good.

And then, Drawing

Our instructor for drawing, Professor D, is a really nice, short, intense lady who is, at seemingly all times, very, very excited. She is so intense that she will almost continuously move around the room commenting on our work. It’s great.

Drawing was drawing: just figure drawing on a very large scale (both in terms of model and paper). So large, actually, that she made us tie our charcoal to 3-foot sticks and use it to draw. Clumsy, but a good exercise all the same.

Our homework, though, is a subject of much interest. Where everyone else here is getting “normal” drawing class assignments—for instance, drawing—we’re getting writing and sculpture assignments. Really. That said, our sculpture assignment is very cool: translating the famous painting, “The Raft of the Medusa” into a clay sculpture. Can’t complain about that, but I do wish there was more drawing.

Lastly, 3D Design

I guess it’s important to have at least one sorta-hippie professor during one’s art school experience. Professor L, for lack of a better description, is like the art version of Mr. Rogers. Almost a Bob “happy trees” Ross personality. Our assignment is to solve the following: “volume, volume.” And yes, we’re all about as confused as you are about that. I don’t think it’s supposed to make sense.

…So, there we have it. I’ve survived a week of RISD with relative ease. I’m tired, I have work to do, and I frequently don’t know what I’m doing—but I love it here. The people, the atmosphere, everything is certain to foster an environment for improvement in arts.

Here’s to another week, and a restful weekend.