Due to a much needed fall break, this weekend is the first time in the last 2 months where I have gotten a chance to slow down. So much has happened since I moved to Baltimore to start art school. The move from India to the States on August 15, feels both recent and like a lifetime ago.
Starting school as a design grad threw me right into the deep end. The first week was a blur of new faces, unfamiliar surroundings, and a hefty dose of homesickness. I ignored my mom's wisdom and packed shoes insted of a blanket. Needless to say I was cruely humbled the day I reached. The change in living situation has been significant. I've gone from a nice apartment with my dog to sleeping on the floor in a 300 sq ft dorm. I was anxious about this at first, having lived alone for so long. But my flatmates - Mark, Todd, and Yeoung - have turned out to be great company. They are extremely talented and very wholesome. We all cook and hence have a stacked fridge always.
Learning to cook has been another unexpected challenge and a metaphor for my entire experience here. I've gone from relying on sandwiches to making home like chicken curry. It's a small victory, but it felt significant. Each attempt in the kitchen is like an experiment, hoping for a concotion of ingredients to come together into something edible.
After a year of remote work, the constant interaction with classmates and teachers is a welcome addition. The other day somebody I was talking to at an exhibition said, "Its nice to be around people around with who you can just walk upto and start talking about a painting and they get it. " I think about that quite a lot and love running into delightful interactions like these. I've made some good friends already. Our yap sessions often runs quite long but its time well spent and I have grown quite fond of them in the short period I have been here. Thinking back to the long, uncomfortable flight here - 16 hours with three energetic kids nearby - I remember the mix of excitement,scared and annoyed I felt. Tired of feeling creatively stagnant and stuck in a rut, I desperately needed a change in life. Moving also has given me a lot of perspective in how I want to go about my work and design practice. I know I wanted more but this change has helped me articulate the "more" to myself, better. I'm trying to absorb as much as I can, knowing that this period of growth and exploration has an expiration date.
Although I have more questions than answers at this point of time but I am looking forward to tackling them one by one. I am catching up. Slowly. But I am. As a paranoid over thinker I had tried to visualise all things that could go wrong in this move but I am glad to have been outnumbered by the good.
Some highlights : I WENT TO NEW YORK. It was amazing. Sambit my dear friend, hosted me and showed me around the city. Perks of having great friends.
Game design is a fun new field i have discovered. I made a really cool detective-noir text based game that was really well recieved and I got good feedback on. More on this later because I have too many thoughts on this.
Quite enjoying reading in the campus park and am 80% done with Wonderbook and around 60% done with Read Write Own. My reading time has gone quite up and I have no complaints.
I had no clue how fun printing and scanning can be in design. My next goal is to have a studio full of every kind of printer I can find.
Winter is coming. Quite literally. I am looking forward to the snow but a part of me also knows how bitchy I am gonna get with no sun.
STAY
IN
THE
LOOP
NO SPAM. OCCASIONAL CERTIFIED GOOD STUFF.
PLS
COME
SAY
HI :)
