Wow...been a while

Hey guys. Sorry for the serious lag in updates in the past few days/weeks. To say I've had a lot of work is a gross understatement. I have had so much work to do in the last couple of days that I've barely slept. It's been crazy. But I need to not complain. There are a lot of freshmen who have it a lot worse than I do, so I suppose I should be thankful for that.

Not a lot to update on. The trees are sort of starting to turn colors here. (as in, I saw three leaves that were yellow. It's a slow process) It has been cool, but today it was hot again, which was a little bit frustrating, but oh well. I hear it's crazy hot back home, which is odd to me.

You know, I have come to realize that I may be a little bit too cut off from the outside world. You would think that living in New York City would make one constantly stay informed on things, but actually the exact opposite is the case. It turns out that when you don't have TV or a newspaper subscription, the world outside the immediate Manhattan island is actually quite a mystery. Case in point: a tornado happened in Queens. I had no idea. It's sketchy.

So yeah....I suppose I'll have to start reading the New York Times online so I can have the semblance of a balanced and well-informed adult.

I went to the metropolitan museum of art again today for class. I really love it there...it's so peaceful and when one is surrounded by art, it becomes the best therapy for a very stressed day. It's nice.

I also got the chance to hang out with Derek and Greg down in the financial district last night, which is awesome. We ended up going over to Brooklyn with Greg's girlfriend Tracey and went to this tiny little restaurant on Front Street that was very good. It was their Harry Potter book club night, so I basically just sat there and didn't really contribute, but it was really nice to get away from people not from the school for at least one night. I get kind of claustrophobic in my dorm sometimes.

Tomorrow I'm going to the beach for the afternoon while it's still partially nice outside. It's supposed to be warm and sunny, so let's hope.

It has also come to my attention that I should probably start being better about taking pictures. But here's the thing peeps....when I take my camera out into the city, you know what I end up looking like? A tourist. Yes, that's right. That's when people start to think that I don't live here, and believe it or not, you actually do get treated very differently. It's strange. However, I feel that I have put in my time and been initiated enough to call myself a New Yorker. Why, I've even gained a solid understanding of the subway and use it often. You'd all be so proud. But at any rate, I will do my best to take more pictures for you guys.

So yeah...I suppose I should go try to find something to eat. Thanks for reading!

SUCCESS!!!!

So, you know how I suck at drawing? And you know how I have no formal art training? Well...I've had a really hard time in drawing class because I've never done the human figure before, and we've been doing a LOT of human figure drawing. Plus, the class is six hours long every time it meets, so it takes a lot out of me. HOWEVER, today I had the pleasure of receiving positive feedback from my teacher in Drawing Studio! She actually used the words "excellent eye" and "incredible improvement" and "beautiful line". It was so cool...very encouraging.

So anyway, we've been using a live model for the past few weeks and today was no exception. Below are some of my new and improved gesture drawings! So proud...

Worst. Day.

This all actually happened yesterday, but the video just posted. Sorry...

Untitled from Shawn Martin on Vimeo.

Monday Madness...

Untitled from Shawn Martin on Vimeo.

Video Update 2 from Shawn Martin on Vimeo.

FOUND!

Okay. You guys, this morning I was so incredibly sad because I LOST my Melanzana sweatshirt. I thought I'd never see it again. BUT, I went to my very favorite go to restaurant this evening for dinner, and the minute I walked in, the owner holds up a finger, goes behind the counter, and pulls out my beloved Melanzana. Words CANNOT express my joy. Plus, the fact that I'm in there enough for him to recognize me instantly made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Anyway, I was so happy, I had to share it with all of you.

Paddle faster...I hear banjos

Okay. You guys. This took SO many tries to get it to work. I personally love the video post idea, but let me know your thoughts. Here's the test vid so you can kind of see what it's gonna be like. I'll also do text posts still as well, obviously.

So. Peeps...

Hey guys. So, I know it's kind of early for an update already, but I had to tell you about this day. First, you should all know that I had a grand total of 3.5 hours of sleep last night due to the fact that I had to prepare for a drawing quiz this morning. Also, I fell asleep last night with my ipod on accident, so my alarm didn't go off this morning. I awoke an hour later than I normally do, and we all know how that goes. Drawing class is six hours long, by the way. We have class from 9 AM to 3 PM with an hour lunch break. LONG class you guys. All on our feet, drawing the entire time. It's nuts. Throw in minimal sleep and two blueberry muffins, and I was a mess. However, I made it through class and took a nap.

However, the real fun was this evening. Maddie and I met one of my good friends Kristie, whom I know through Noah's Ark, and Brett (also Noah's) down in the financial district at around six thirty. We then packed a picnic-esque dinner and took the subway over to this awesome park right next to the Brooklyn Bridge on the Brooklyn side of the harbour. The park is right next to the water and has incredible views of the bridge and downtown manhattan. We ate a nice leisurely dinner and played some frisbee (in a park with real, live, lawn-like grass. Couldn't believe it) before walking back to Manhattan over the bridge. It was such an incredible evening...

You guys, I think it finally hit me tonight how awesome it is to live in New York City. I've been so caught up in school that I've failed to see the incredible beauty that exists here. There is SO much to do and see and to experience and tonight gave me the push to finally go discover things. I'm so excited to share all of this with you as I progress...

On a somewhat somber note, a cool thing happens here in the city nearing September 11. Two massive beams of light shine straight up into the night in the space where the twin towers once stood, in order to commemorate the date. You can see them from everywhere on Manhattan and it really is a beautiful and humbling thing to see. It is evident that this city still bears a scar from 2001. I am interested to see the feel of the city on the day itself.

But anyway guys, I'm loving writing this blog. It is so nice to get my thoughts down and solidified. Thanks to all who follow it...

NOTE: I recently realized that I have a webcam in my laptop, so I may start recording video supplements for things in order to save some typing when I'm especially busy. Some posts will be in video form. Be excited.

Also, I'm going to begin posting some photos of the work we've been doing in class so you all can get a sense of what my school life is like.

Thanks for reading!

Weekend update...

Well everyone, I officially made it through the first week of classes. It was insane. I have some incredibly difficult and work intensive courses. I'm genuinely excited, however. I think it will be very good for me to be challenged and pushed during this semester. I have a lot of homework to be doing actually, but I needed to catch up on come correspondence lags, so here we are.

Speaking of homework, I feel the need to explain precisely what "homework" means at this school. I'm not referring to writing essays and reading and filling out sheets and such. No, that would be too simple. Instead, it's a combination of that plus such things as building 3d wire models of shoes and organic objects, doing still life drawings using only contour lines, making accurate plates of the front and side view of the female human figure, photographing man-made objects emphasizing positive and negative space to be transferred to a pattern, preparing a presentation on an artist or designer, and transferring designs into Adobe Illustrator. In week number one. In other words, it could get ugly later on in the semester. But oh well...I did sign up for this after all. It's actually quite a bit of fun, but it just takes some careful time management skills and willingness to do the work. I should be fine.

Oh, on a VERY positive note, the temperature finally dropped today. It is a very comfortable temperature and even could be called "crisp" outside. Much better than the 90 degrees and up that has been prevalent for the past couple of weeks. Fall is indeed on its way.

So, I thought I would share some fun facts about a typical day in the life of Shawn here. Here is my schedule on any given school day (times are approximate):

7:00 AM Arise and shower, in preparation for another fun filled day.

7:30 AM Prepare my breakfast of eggs and toast, with orange juice when I remember to buy it.

8:00-8:15 AM Out the door I go in order to walk the 5 or six blocks to class, depending on what day it is.

8:16 AM Descend 6 flights of stairs to avoid elevator waits.

8:18-8:44 AM Walk from 318 East 15th Street to 55 West 13th Street for my first class.

8:45 AM Climb 8 flights of stairs in order to avoid the elevator lines.

9:00 AM Class begins. (Oh, and another fun fact. If you're tardy for class even by one or two minutes, more than three times in a semester, you automatically fail the course. No questions asked. Yikes.)

11:40 AM Class dismisses.

11:50 AM Having rapidly acquired a sandwich and fruit from the cafe, climb 8 flights of stairs in another building to (you guessed it) avoid elevator lines.

12:00 PM Class begins. *cheer* *cheer*

2:40 PM Class dismisses. Time to run to my next course...

3:00 PM Final class of the day begins. (almost there)

5:40 PM Blessed freedom ensues! Time to find dinner of some variety.

6:00 PM I begin my walk home and leisurely stroll through union square during rush hour. So relaxing. (gag)

6:15 PM-1:00 AM Homework, social time, computer catch-up, napping, musical therapy (we have pianos in the basement for the music students), and general relaxation.

Now then, this is actually only accurate for two days on my schedule. But the idea is still there. I do spend a lot of time in transit walking places and trying to find rooms and climbing stairs. ((which, by the way, mini rant: If this is a design school (which it is), and they should have their game together (which they do), and if there are 14 gazillion students all attempting to get to classes at the same times on 11 different floors (which there are), then should not the solution have been to create more elevators, to install faster elevators, or to widen the stairwells to more than two feet? I daresay it should. Fail, Parsons. Fail.))

ANYWHO, I don't mind the schedule at all. It's enjoyable to be busy, actually. I also have one day where classes don't even begin till 3 PM, so that provides some R&R.

Oh, I took some pics for a project that I thought I'd share with you all...

Here is part of the park across the street from my building:

Here's another view in the park, with the cathedral where my church meets in the background:

The view out my window at night. Notice the Empire State Building casually in the background:

And finally, a random shot of the construction on my street. Fun.

Okay, well I really ought to get back to work. It's been fun updating all of you! Missing you immensely. Until next time...

Wacked-out wednesday wordage

Okay peeps...here's the thing. CRAZY cool things happened today. Like, God is phenomenal. Not allowed to post about it here, but hit me up if you want to know. (and you do.)

ANYWHO...

Awesome day today you guys. I have the most amazing professors and classes...I think I'm going to gain a lot here.

It occurred to me recently that many of you don't know anything about where I'm going, so this post is going to address that issue.

First things first, I'm going to a university called The New School University, which is a collective of several schools or colleges (seven, I believe). The university has actually been very influential, both here in New York and around the world. It's music school is on a level with Juilliard and its design school is one of the leading design schools in the world.

Which brings us to my school. I attend Parsons the New School for Design which, as I said, is one of the leading design schools in the world. Some of the most famous alumni are people such as Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Normal Rockwell, Alexander Wang, and Tom Ford. (if you have no idea who those people are, not to worry...I didn't either). All of that to say, it's a pretty uppity up school, with uppity up students and uppity up teachers.

Now then, that leads us to the program itself. I am in Foundation year, which is the program that all freshmen who pursue design or art degrees must go through. This is school wide, which means that there are around 700 of us foundation kids. The courses we do are things like drawing, 3d and 2d design, art history and such.

Here is where it gets interesting. This foundation program is the most difficult and advanced program of its kind in the country. It has a serious reputation for being extraordinarily challenging. So much so that out of the 700 freshmen, if historical statistics hold true again, 30-40% of them will either drop out by the end of the first semester or by the end of the year. Stressful? Yes indeed. This is due to the fact that the work and intensity load is absolutely huge and very, very taxing. You have to be seriously dedicated to your field and driven to succeed in order to make it here. Will I do it? Excellent question...I'll get back to you.

So, I suppose that about covers it. If you have any other questions, feel free to holla at me.

Some fun facts:

• The New School has the highest percentage of international students of any university or college in the country. Crazy...
• Central park, here on Manhattan, is larger than the entire principality of Monaco.
• Only about 75% of the downtown area is built on natural land. The remaining 25% is built on landfills created for that purpose.
• Broadway is one of the longest continuous streets in the world. Its actual name is Highway 9. (boring right?)
• In New York City, around 26,000 people live in each square mile. Think about it for a second.
• New Yorkers have an average commute of 47 minutes to work/school each day.
• The Federal Reserve on Wall Street has vaults 80 feet beneath it that hold 25% of the world's gold bullion.
• On each weekday, 4.9 MILLION people ride the subway system in New York City.
• As of the most recent information 8, 363,710 people live in New York City. (!!!)

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little walk through some fun facts. Until next time...I love you all.