For my pentathlon, I decided to design and color some mandalas as an art therapy project.  While working on these drawings, I put on some relaxing music, and simply spent some time with my artistic side.  Recently, I based my final project for my art therapy workshop on designing mandalas, so I decided to create some additional ones for my pentathlon since I found my project to be so enjoyable.   It was very therapeutic to continue stimulating a creative outlet for my mind amidst all the stress in my life right now.  Overall, I found this project to be very beneficial and I hope to fill my sketchbook with more mandalas during this time of quarantine. 

I visited the Neuro Blooms: Mixed Media Art by Leslie Holt exhibit in Stamp Gallery on March 9th.  Being someone who deals with mental issues on a personal level, I was very excited to see this exhibit and explore how it combined my love of art with my passion for mental health representation.  One of my favorite things that I discovered about Holt’s work was that several of the canvases were positioned in a way that you could walk around it, and see the backside.  By doing this, I noticed that words were embroidered into the canvas to create the brain scan, which added a layer of dimension that only make me appreciate the art and its intricacy even more.  Near the back of the gallery, there was a “reflection space”, which included a wall of sticky notes written by visitors to the exhibit, all containing positive and uplifting messages.  I found this to be very wholesome, considering this exhibit portrayed a very sensitive and personal topic.  Overall, I throughly enjoyed visiting this exhibition and it was one of my favorite Stamp Gallery exhibits so far!

I saw UMD’s production of Noises Off on Saturday, February 29th at 2:00 in the Kay Theater.  This play was full of chaos and comedy, which caused many eruptions of laughter from the audience, making it very enjoyable to watch.  As an audience member, I could tell the cast was having fun up on stage, which elevated the performance and made it all the more enjoyable for the audience to partake in.  One of my favorite aspects of this production was definitely the set design!  Since the show featured a “play within a play”, the set had a turntable built in so that the set completely flipped for the second act, and gave the audience a backstage view.  

I attended Concert in Close Quarters featuring Leyla McCalla on January 29th at 7:00pm at the Cambridge Community Center.  One of the first things that stuck out to me was McCalla’s versatility as an artist.  She played a multitude of instruments from classical cello, to folksy banjo, to electric guitar.  McCalla also integrated her culture and history into her music, singing in Haitian Creole and performing several traditional folk tunes.  She mentioned using her music career as a form of therapy, allowing herself to discover her self-identity through studying her culture’s history and music.  This resonated with me since I also enjoy using music as therapy, and I appreciated the combination of her personal struggles and her professional career.

I attended a performance of Flyin’ West at The Clarice Performing Arts Center on Sunday, November 3, 2019, at 2:00 pm.  The first thing that stuck out to me about the show was the set.  It was so incredibly detailed to look like a Kansas pioneer home of the 1900s, and I loved how the opening facing the audience really let us feel involved in the home-life of the characters.  The use of sound also stuck out to me as crucial to the play’s atmosphere.  The combination of nature sounds and music of the era in between scene transitions really made the performance come alive.  There were even some auditorial comments from the audience as we reacted to the drama being unfolded, which made us feel a part of the action as well.

I went to the John Mulaney show at the Xfinity Center on October 30, 2019, at 8:00pm.  As a freshman, this was my first experience of homecoming week in college and this comedy show was, unfortunately, the only event that fit in my schedule that week.  I had heard John Mulaney’s comedy shows on YouTube before and I really liked his content, so I joined up with some friends and we went to the show together.  To my disappointment, I didn’t get to sit next to them because I didn’t realize there was a differentiation between the floor and stand seats.  In any case, the show was a much-needed break from the stress of the semester, where I could sit back, relax, and laugh it out.  There were a lot of students there, and us all laughing, cheering and changing together made me feel a part of the Terp family.  Even the continuation of inside jokes from the show among fellow students has brought the joy from the show from outside the arena!

I attended the Twenty One Pilots concert at Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, MD on October 15th.  Having been to one of their concerts before, I somewhat knew what to expect, but I was amazed at how each time I see them in concert, its a completely new and beautiful experience.  As I’ve witnessed previously, the clothing changes to represent each era of the band’s journey, and the projections/special effects were incredibly crafted.  Each song used its own color scheme and imagery to convey a different feeling so that you could experience the song, rather than just hear it.  At one point in the show, the opening act joined the main act for a song, showing collaboration and artists supporting smaller artists.  Being in a room of other fans with the same love for their music gave me a sense of community and a connection to strangers who felt like family.

I attended the opening night of Carlos Martiel’s exhibit “Líena de Tiempo” and saw Lia Halloran’s exhibit titled “The Same Sky Overarches Us All” at the Art-Sociology Building on September 11th.  Martiel, a native Cuban, is most known for his use of his nude body as performance art, typically illuminating racial, social and cultural issues of the age.  It was truly inspiring to see him laying on the ground, naked and covered in gravel, all for the sake of art and I admire the amount of stamina required for that sort of creative expression.  His use of his body helps illuminate the humanity in us all, evoking a strong emotional response in me when visiting his exhibit.  Halloran’s exhibit was very aesthetically pleasing to explore and helped me learn about the lesser-known history of women astronomers and their contribution to our understanding of the galaxies that surround us.

The three events I chose to attend were ARTECHOUSE: LUCID DREAMING, Emma Weisbaum: TURNED ON (Read Receipts), and Off Book: The Improvised Musical.  

1. Something that I saw that was completely new to me was an improv show.  To me, the show on its own was very funny and entertaining, but knowing that it was also being made up on the spot only added to the magic of the performance.  I have a newfound respect for improvisation artists; I imagine that must take a lot of courage to go in front of a crowd with nothing prepared.  To me, improv represents one of the purest forms of entertainment, coming straight from one’s creative mind to the stage, which is such an inspiring concept.

2. My favorite experience at NextNOW Fest was the ARTECHOUSE’s Lucid Dreaming exhibit.  I’ve always wanted to visit their location in DC, and I was overjoyed that I got a taste of it at UMD’s own Clarice.  The idea of interactive art is one that fascinates me since I enjoy when art is taken past just what the artist created and allows the viewer to take part in the art as well.  Interactive art lets each person’s experience become more personal, therefore having a deeper impact on what they take away from their own unique encounter with the artist’s work. 

3. To me, all three of these art forms demonstrated pushing the boundaries of what we think of as art.  Improv shows can be viewed as just low-bar comedy, but I believe it’s more than that, being a unique form of theater and requiring a lot of skill to perfect.  Emma Weisbaum’s exhibit discussed more of a taboo topic on the experience of hookup culture, invoking an emotional response, and pushing past a painting just being a self portrait or still life.  Its use of blacklights also added to its appeal and illuminated its topic of social media.  Lastly, the interactive exhibit by ARTECHOUSE allowed for a cross-collaboration between technology and art, allowing the art’s experience to become the viewer’s own.  These sorts of displays of interdisciplinary art allow for the term of art to become broadened so that more and more expressions of creativity can be normalized in our culture.

I attended Scholars Convocation at the Clarice Performing Arts Center on Thursday, August 29th from 7:00-8:00pm.  Having never heard of the term “convocation” before, I was unsure of what to expect, but many parts of this event have struck me as memorable.  One of my favorite moments was using our phone flashlights to learn more about the people around us.  Seeing the room light up proved to me that in many aspects of this new journey, I am not alone.  I even became friends with the person sitting next to me, giving me a spark of hope during a rough first week of struggling to survive in a foreign environment.  I decided to take this picture because the quote really stuck out to me as an inspirational message to carry with me throughout my education as a College Park Scholar.