Tag: reflections

Research paper drafts, thoughts and tutorial with Gareth

Research paper drafts, thoughts and tutorial with Gareth

The blog seems to have been neglected of late, but that’s actually not true. In an earlier lecture Jonathan mentioned that this reflective practice could happen in several ways. Since my time is currently taken up completely by my job, working on the Iridescent Alloys and my research paper, I haven’t been able to type out coherent thoughts into blogposts as often as I like. But I have been creating a reflective record in other ways, I have been noting things down in notebooks, scribbling and doodling ideas, and of course keeping my visual journal, all of which I will …

The Untold Edition — Phases of planning part 1

I’ve always known that community work is important to me. I think growing up with a dad like mine cultivated that in me. He’s an eye surgeon and his hobby is to host eye camps in the rural areas of Pakistan where people suffer from curable diseases like cataract and spend their whole lives blind. I watched him perform 200 cataract operations a day for nothing and then spend the weekend sleeping on the roofs of clay houses. He enjoyed every moment of it. I saw the looks on those faces when their bandages were unwrapped and they blinked in …

The Poetry Foundation

Like alot of other blogs, this one is verrryy much overdue. One cold snowy February morning in Chicago, when Manahil and Rayyan were off to the zoo with their dad, Ayla and I decided to go to The Poetry Foundation. The Uber dropped us off in front of a giant glass building with no door in sight and we stood there; me shivering, her nicely wrapped in her snowsuit, wondering where exactly to go. Then I saw a small golden plate on the glass building which led me into a glass corridor that emerged into a garden. Yes, it was …

Post-MPR reflections

Post-MPR reflections

Wow, this is long overdue. The MPR was… overwhelming to say the least; the days preceding it, the actual day and the days that came after. Sharing my art and the thought processes behind it, succinctly I might add, was simply nerve-wrecking, and after the MPR was over I felt spent. There was a bout of demotivation that was very unsettling. Previously we had only ever assessed our actions and thoughts out loud during one-on-one tutorials and that hadn’t been scary because we were talking to our advisor. And Jonathan has this way of making you feel like everything you’re …

Just a thought — WIP

So here’s the thing. Creating art is a multi-step process. First, you have to stop imagining and start doing. You have to scale that wall of fear that exists between the perfect piece in your mind, versus the piece (often beyond control) that will appear on the canvas. Then, when you’ve gotten your material and your fear in hand, you need to demonstrate some patience. Yes, you have this urge to see how the final piece will look, but you know that the look you want can not be achieved until you wait for certain layers to dry. Finally, you …