My Summer - Kimberly Septien

This year I spent my summer doing something I loved. Which is something I rarely do, it’s no like I’m a kid who is forced to work all summer long, every summer. It’s more that I’m lazy and I prefer to hibernate. However, lately I’ve realized that I’m running out of time and although hibernating is something I will probably not have a chance to do until I retire from a life of boring work, doing things for myself and learning from things I love is something I probably won’t have time for later in life either. That’s why I spent my summer riding Bart back and forth to San Francisco.

I’m not in love with San Francisco. Up until last summer I completely disliked the whole urban scene. However, that was something I had to get over. My real reason for taking a twenty minute train ride to a place I found less than likable was because I had the amazing opportunity to attend a six week art program at the Academy of Arts University. Art is what I love.

The whole reason why I decided to attend the program, besides the shortage of time, was because there was a section on Ceramics. Ceramics is my … I guess you could call it my medium. Other people draw, I sculpt ☺ Within the program I was able to attend four three-hour classes, two on Mondays and Thursdays and two on Tuesdays and Fridays. Unfortunately I was too hasty when choosing the classes I would take and overlooked the fact that there was not only a
Ceramic Puppetry class but also a Sculpture class. I only took the Ceramic Puppetry class which is okay because I really enjoyed it, it actually happened to be my favorite class. The rest of my classes, although fun, were only to test the waters on what other types of art I would enjoy.

Over the six week period I made three major sculptures. The first piece I made was the most detailed and the biggest in size. It was my version of some sort of Aztec eagle. My second piece was smaller and less detailed. It was the head of an elephant painted in different shades of green and blue. My this piece is probably my favorite. It’s not an animal, its more of a… thing. I’m not sure what to call it exactly. It’s a flower pot with a wide open mouth and from it a tree is growing.

Spending my summer at this program, in this class was the most fun part of my summer. Sure it was a classroom setting, but it wasn’t like school at all. Not only was there no real agenda or syllabus, there were also no limits to what you could make.