out of the ground

End of week four. We are finally getting it out of the ground. Our team is really getting it done! We have a team of  four people working in the metal shop fabricating the steel for the  front columns and base plates. The rest of us are on site, finishing up some of the site work, including our interactive rainwater feature and dry wells. Hopefully, the back breaking ground work will be done! The front steel columns should go up on Monday, and the rear steel support structure will be fabricated on site, begining Tuesday.  Moving along!

Three weeks into it…

Finally getting out of the holes we have been digging for what feels like weeks. Our footing pour was last Friday. Today we worked on removing the forms and getting our columns set for the next pour this Wednesday. Getting it off the ground! Lumber orders being placed, steel fabrication begining  this week as well.

The Inaugural MassArt Design-Build Blog

The site as blank canvas

Pre-Arnold (Part 2)

Before interviewing at Arnold I had to make sure my portfolio was immaculate. I prepared a “leave-behind” version of all of my work to give to my interviewer after I left and a 14×19 portfolio book. I picked my strongest pieces from my classwork and a few of the pieces I had done as freelance work.

I went in for my interview and met Mia Greenblatt, Senior Art Director in Brand Promotions. I had gotten into contact with her through a friend, MassArt alum and Arnold employee, Joe. We talked about my work doing promotions as a Brand Ambassador for a few different agencies and my part-time job doing Marketing and Promotions for WBCN. This experience was of great interest to her as her department designs promotional materials for events much like the ones I had been working at. We reviewed my portfolio together and I was able to talk more about the pieces as she looked at them. We wrapped up our conversation and she offered to show me around the agency and my future place of employment! She offered me the position that day and I accepted exictedly. I was able to see the Studio, offices, “Barnold,” ping-pong tables and common areas for the first time. It truly embodies a comfortable, cool and creative work environment and nearly everyone I met seemed to really enjoy themselves at work.

The next coming weeks dragged by while I awaited my first day at Arnold. I received a packet in the mail from them with all of their policies and procedures. I finally received my Arnold e-mail address! (How official).

At the end of January they had an orientation for all Arnold interns working in the spring semester. I was excited to see another MassArt graphic designer in the room and the others there were really friendly. I sat next to a BU advertising student who I hit it off with right away. We did Arnold trivia as a get to know you game and I didn’t do as well as I would have liked! A lot of Arnold’s best known work is in television advertisements and, although this is crazy to many people- I have lived the past three years without television (for the most part.) I would have been an ace if the questions were about print campaigns, though, I swear! They had a copy writer come talk to us at the orientation, too, who worked on the Tag bodyspray account. He helped Tag develop a campaign to reach out to “urban” teans that included having a legitimate emcee battle in NYC and an emcee battle via Myspace that is still ongoing. They also developed Tag records in support of the brand: http://www.tagrecords.com.

I left the orientation feeling like I had just spun around and around. I was nervous, disoriented, excited and lost all at the same time. I recieved my pass to let me in to the 19th floor of the 101 Huntington Prudential building though and that, combined with my @arn.com e-mail address made me feel like I was on top of the world.

The next week I started my whirlwind internship at Boston’s leading advertising agency…

Pre- Arnold (Part 1)

Welcome to my life at Arnold. (PART 1)

My name is Kaitlin. I am a 22-year old senior at MassArt in an Open Major.

After completing my foundation year at MassArt I declared a major in Graphic Design. I spent 3 semesters in the program and learned and grew a lot both as a person and as an artist/designer.

At this point in time I decided I wanted to expand my body of work as a graphic designer and take on projects in other media. I proposed my own curriculum as a Communication Designer and got it approved by Academic Advising. With this new beginning I began to envision how my work would transfer into the work place. I completed two internships: one at an event decor company where I worked as a copywriter, layout artist, and custom decor fabricator; one at a record label where I did graphic design for Boston-based bands Guster and State Radio.

This past fall semester at MassArt I enrolled in the advertising class offered in Communication Design in addition to my silkscreen and web design classes. Toni Lansbury (a copywriter) and Stephanie Zelman (U-Turn Design) taught the class and inspired a passion for advertising in me. I worked hard in the class and had the motivation to produce some advertising portfolio pieces on my own time. With their support I decided to apply for an internship at Boston’s leading advertising agency: Arnold Worldwide in the Prudential Center….

Home again!

We have arrived safely back in Massachusetts with lots of good memories and lots to experiences to process. It was a privilege to travel with the group and especially meaningful to travel with Juan, who is a MassArt professor and an Ecuadorian native. He organized a wide range of meaningful experiences that really made the trip more than tourist travel. Many thanks to Juan for his planning, jokes, stories and thoughtful conversation about life, art, culture and politics. We also appreciated the careful driving and good humor of our driver Fredy.

I wanted to attempt to list the fascinating places and experiences that we had while it is still fresh in my mind. Some of the meals and activities varied for group members but the general schedule was the same for us all. Each day was packed full.

Day 1: Traveled to Ecuador

Arrived at Villa Nancy (Quito) late in the evening

Light dinner at Hotel Quito up the street

Day 2: Quito

Santuario de Guápolo

Museo Fundacion Guayasamin

Lunch at El Pablo Duablo (The Poor Devil)

Museo del Banco Central

Dinner at Hunter’s

Watched the Ecuador (Liga) vs. Brazil football game- Ecuador won!

Day 3: Quito- Old City

Inglise La Compañia de Jesús

Plaza de la Independencia- Government Palace

Convent with catacombs

Lunch at Cucurucho de Santa Clara Restaurant

Convento de San Francisco- tour of restoration project

Shopping at Tianguez Museum shop on Plaza San Francisco- relaxed at the cafe in the plaza

Drove to the top of a nearby mountain to look at the view of Quito

Some of us- dinner and music at El Pablo Duablo

Day 4: Quito

Met with Ramiro Noriega, Minister of Culture and Carlos (an advisor and Yuchuak) at the in Ministerio de Cultura

Taught art lessons to 40 students at a local esculela for about two hours

TelefériQo up Pinchincha volcano for a walk in the clouds and a glorious view of Quito (about 14,000 feet altitude)

Lunch/ dinner at Fratelli Pizzeria Restaurante (owned by Juan’s cousin)

Visited studio of Juan’s cousins, Hugo (jewelry maker) and José Louis (painter)

Back to Villa Nancy

Day 5: Left Quito

Stopped by a road side stand to try fresh fruit- saw a parade and dancers

Parque Arqueológico de Investigación Cientifica Cochasqui- Pre- Inca ruins and flat-topped pyramids (built around 900 AD by the Cara people- 3100

meters elevation with lots of llamas)

Late lunch at Cabañas del Lago hosteria on Lago San Pablo

Some people went on lake cruise with Mariachi Band

Late dinner at hotel

Feel asleep to loud music from a local graduation fiesta

Day 6: Otavalo market

Peguche – textile shop- weaving demonstration and shopping

Chozón- Guinea pig for lunch

Cuicocha (means Guinea Pig lake) crater lake- hiked up ridge for a great view

Cotacachi- leather town for shopping and coffee

Dinner at Cabañas del Lago hosteria

Day 7: Left for Maquipucuna

Stopped for hot chocolate, cheese, and biscuit-like cookies (local specialty) along the way

Stopped in Quito

Arrived at Reserva Maquipucuna- orientation and dinner

Day 8: Maquipucuna

Hiked in the cloud forest (swimming in the river)

Lunch at Maquipucuna

Art making and relaxing

Dinner

Group discussion

Day 9: Archeological site- Museo de Sitio Tulipe- Yumbo ruins

Bag lunch at little restaurant

Tucanopy Zip line in the subtropical canopy

Dinner at Maquipucuna

Day 10: Quimbolitos (soft bread cooked in banana leaves) for breakfast

Mindo- hike to waterfall (swimming in the river, muddy hike in the rain)

Lunch at Mindo Gardens restaurant and hotel

Dinner at Maquipucuna

Chocolate massage

Day 11: Short hike to Maquipucuna waterfall before breakfast

Left for Cotopaxi region

Stopped at mall in Quito

Lunch at hotel- La Ciénega (300 year old colonial farm)

Dinner at La Ciénega

Group Discussion 2 in front of the fire place

Day 12: Long winding drive to Zumbahua – local outdoor market

Laguna Quilotoa- crater lake- hiked down, rode mules back up the steep path

Lunch at restaurant at top of crater

Tigua – painting studio/ shop

Dinner at La Ciénega

Day 13: leisurely morning- art making, napping, and relaxing by the fire

Lunch at hotel

Fujili- local town and outdoor market

El Rosario- Ceramic shop

Dinner at hotel

Group discussion/ trip reflections

Day 14: Left La Ciénega

Stopped at Villa Nancy in Quito- coffee and internet

Argentinean Barbeque at Juan’s sister’s house

Shopping at Libri Mundi bookstore

Dinner at Hunter’s

Day 15: Packing

Breakfast at Villa Nancy

Museo Etnohistórico de Artesanians del Ecuador

Lunch at nice restaurant known for ceviche

MegaMaxi store for gifts and souvenirs

Coffee and pastries at Cyrano

Airport at 7 pm

Day 16: Arrived in Boston at 11:15 am

I will leave you with a few more photos from the trip. If you click on the photo or hold the arrow over each photo it will give you the title.

More pictures

These are a few more photographs from Dan. The first one is of a woman working on the restoration project that I mentioned in my Quito entry. The second is of Pete and John teaching at a school outside of Quito. We had the opportunity to work with a group of forty students for two hours one of the days last week. It was a wonderful opportunity to share our passion for art with the students and to use art to bridge the language gap.  I depended heavily on little pictures and acting out what I wanted to say which the kids found amusing.  By the end, I was frustrated with the language difference and surprised by how much French vocabulary came back to me when I was trying to think in Spanish! It was great to see the kids excited about creating. The photography group was the biggest hit. This photo was taken by one of the kids. The third photo is of Cuicocha which is a crater lake North of Quito. The name means Guinea Pig Lake and we hiked up on a ridge which gave a great view of the lake and the valley.

Tomorrow we leave for Quito for the last night here in Ecuador.  The time has flown by.

Cloud Forest

Once again, there is so much to say and little time.  We are now south of Quito in the Cotopaxi region after spending four days in the cloud forest. It was beautiful and the vegetation was spectacular. We have been spending a lot of time outside hiking and seeing the sights. It is amazing how quickly the landscape changes with the changes in elevation. We have had some adventures that involve mud, getting caught in the rain, swimming in several rivers, riding a zip line through the canopy and riding a mule up a steep slope to return from a crater lake. This morning we are spending some time relaxing and making artwork. There has been so much visual inspiration that it is hard to know where to start creating. For now, I am intaking information that I will continue to process in my work when we return in a few days.

Here is one photo of Dan hiking on an old Yumbo (Pre Inca tribe) trail in the cloud forest, another of a beautiful leaf unfolding, and the third of Julie and me at the an archeological site of step pyramids from the Pre-Inca people of the Cochasqui region.  From here we could see the actual equator.

Quito

Here we are in Ecuador! There is so much about which I could write! We have adjusted to the altitude after a few days of feeling light headed and tired.  Our days have been very full with little time for finding Internet.  I have to keep this short so I will give a few highlights of the trip so far. Our first night in Ecuador we celebrated the victory of the Ecuadorian soccer team in a big match against Brazil. It was lots of fun to watch the game at a local bar and experience all the excitement.  On the second day here, we visited a convent in Quito that is restoring many of the relief sculptures as part of a big project. It was fascinating to see the restoration process with its many steps.  The whole day touring around the old city of Quito made me think about identity and objects, why we restore objects, and how the objects become part of our identity.  The architecture and artwork are part of the historical identity of this place with all of its complexities.  The art and architecture reflect the pre Inca indigenous cultures, the Inca culture, the Spanish culture and the contemporary blending of all of these.

Another highlight was meeting with the Minister of Culture in Quito and hearing about his approach toward creating culture in Ecuador. It was truly a privilege to have this kind of experience.  We were all inspired by his passion for culture and the creation process.

After a day at the Otavalo market and hiking around a crater lake high in the mountains, we are heading to Maquipucuna Reserve in the cloud forest tomorrow where we are looking forward to some time to rest and process as well as create some artwork.

There is so much more to write but I must finish using the Internet.  I will try to post some photos next time I have internet access.

artwork link

Here is the link to my MassArt website that has images of some of my work.

http://www.massarted.org/portal/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=127&g2_itemId=2586

You’ll notice that my pieces are largely inspired by natural, organic forms. I’m looking forward to the biodiversity of the cloud forest (the rain forest at high elevation) in the Andes Mountains.  I have read that lots of orchids grow in the Maquipucuna reservation where we will be going in the middle of our trip.

I also wanted to include a map of Ecuador to show where we will be traveling. We will be staying in the Sierra region in the highlands, all within a few hours of Quito. More details on geography in the future.

I found this map at http://www.geo.mtu.edu/~jaherric/Documents/map_ecuador_political.gif.