Time to Display

Wow. What a week. First, my mother-in-law, Dee, is doing great. Her surgery went well and now only 4 days later, she's up walking around. Thanks to everyone for their kind thoughts and prayers.

The class crit was wonderful. It was great to give and get input on our project before we get to the final. It was also great to see people defend their ideas. Just because someone makes a comment or suggestion, we are the designers, and if our rationale is sound, it is our responsibility to share it. Especially later when working with clients, we need to be able to educate them, and not cave just because they may have their own ideas. Clients hire designers for our expertise, and it's our job to make our clients successful, not just satisfied. Our goal should always be to give them something better than they could imagine.

Okay, I'll get off my soap box and get back to my project. The class crit was a great relief for me because I was getting too obsessed with making a real product and forgetting that it is a model. I am having so much fun exploring tools and materials that I lost sight of the goal, which is to communicate my idea, and not create an art piece.

I started out just playing with shapes.

Next, I tried a couple actual study models.
Then something just a bit more refined to study the scale.
At a scale of 3" = 1', I think will communicate well. If it were actual size, the figure would be an imposing 6' tall.

Reflections

This week I'm supposed to reflect back on the first half of the semester since it's mid-term. I have to say, I am having a great time. My biggest problem is trying to maintain some balance in my life because it's so tempting to do and think only about my classes and projects. I feel like I'm on a fantastic, magical vacation. I'm not getting much sleep, but I don't seem to need as much.

Okay coming down from the clouds and back to the real world. I know I've been working hard. Harder than I should. Really, maintain some sort of balanced life has been a struggle. I was doing fine, until we had family come in from Seattle--which I loved and wanted to spend more time with, but was also trying to make the second action figure pen holder and the boxes for both. I managed to do both pretty well, at least family said they had fun and felt pampered. :-)

This past week I found out that my mother-in-law, Dee, the sweetest person I know and love needs quadruple bypass surgery. She went into the hospital on Wednesday and is in surgery right now. My husband flew out to Texas to be with her on Friday. I really wanted to go with him, but also needed this weekend to work on my mid-term projects for this and my other classes. I hope to go sometime next month to give my sister-in-law a break and help mom with her recovery. My dad had the same surgery 4 years ago and the recovery is slow and requires lots of care.

Maybe this is too much personal info, but it's had and is having an impact on my school work. This is the kind of thing that I want to do better. I'm fine when I'm in my routine, but life is rarely routine. Well, I really need to get back to my journal for another class. That's the priority for today.