Settled in Glasgow

After a little over a month living in Glasgow I’ve gotten quite comfortable here. I feel I have good friends, and I absolutely LOVE living in a city. I’ve figured out where I need to go for all my necessities, and have discovered a goldmine, the pound shop. It’s now well into autumn, and it is absolutely gorgeous here! The leaves are turning amazing colors and falling poetically, spiraling to the ground in a fairytale fashion, and the bitter chill of winter is starting to sneak through the cool breeze. It’s really unreal how beautiful it is.

The aspect of my stay in Glasgow that I am enjoying the most… ok I can’t say that because I love so many aspects of it, but one is the art school. At Chapman, I study art in a low-budget art department of a liberal arts school obsessed with reputation and its world-renowned film school. Here, I study at the Glasgow School of Art, where the teachers are quirky, knowledgeable, and passionate. I am taking life drawing, and life sculpture, because I feel that the human form has always been my weakness. In the drawing class, we began so simply and broke it down step by step, and I was amazed at how well my first drawings turned out. The same goes for my sculpture class, where my first small representation of the human form in 3D actually looked like a human with proper proportions.

In the drawing class we have been using a male model, and in the sculpture class, a female one. I have found this very interesting to study both genders, and in very different ways. First of all, the awkwardness of having a nude person in front of you vanishes almost as soon as the robe drops. You begin to see the model as a subject that needs to be visually dissected and rebuilt, but you must keep their humanity intact at all times, giving them proper respect, and allowing yourself to convey a bit of their personality in your work.

Since doing this sort of work, I can actually say for the first time in my life that I feel like an artist. Being able to talk with brilliant professors on a personal level, being treated as an equal and an artist, and being proud of my work have allowed me to accept that title of “artist”. In sculpting the female form I have also become more aware and more proud of my own body, as I realize just how beautiful the curves and angles of the human form can be, and how boring Kate Moss would be to sculpt.

There is an opportunity through my school to stay abroad for another semester, and I am very tempted. However, I believe the combination of a lack of funds, too many amazing friends at Chapman, a love for sunshine, and the desire to graduate in 4 years, may be enough to get me back on that plane in January. Although it will be a difficult thing to do.