Through out my externship experience I was finally able to get an accurate grasp on how life outside of high school can be. Simple things like how you go about planning your day to day and even finding times to feed yourself are things I actually had to put quite a bit of thought into. Aside from these blog posts I have been able to completely immerse myself into my work. I chose to share this picture for my last blog post because it's a picture with a lot of layers. Bright white and pink flowers in full bloom and a densely wooded background. Below is a picture from Central Park in New York City. This park is in one of the most populated metropolitan cities and from certain angles it can look like you're in a forest. This inspires me to never let your spacial limitations stop you from creating the means of a happy life. Parks like these are wonderful examples of that.
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Here is a photo of my friend Sam Talner (Below) who I started my trip with in New York. Sam goes to High Tech High and we all have our externship at the same time so we planned this trip together. Although Sam created a an entirely different project for his externship we were both able to collaborate and help eachother. Since we didn't spend anytime in a traditional work place we had a lot of free room to create as we pleased. Sam ended up creating a video of our traveling through New York and the east coast. The time and work I put into my trip and over all project directly reflect my work ethic in and outside of the classroom. Over the last month I created my own project guided by myself and it's something that makes me really happy. I believe I have contributed greatly to my education by taking initiative, allocating resources and applying both to make a final product. Creating this whole project around the idea of equity was what was very important to me. All of the work I'm creating is being donated and all copies of my booklet are free I believe I have achieved my goal. My externship was always a final product I had to work backwards and figure out how I was going to accomplish it. My work ethic definitely played a huge roll into this; my first self-guided project that I was traveling across the country to work on. At first I thought that I bit off way more than I could chew but as I took small amounts of time each day dedicated to my work the load became much more manageable. Sam Talner (Above) Here is my work in progress project! All that's left to do is make the final draft and print the booklet! (Top Left) Building the planter box. (Top Middle) some seeds (Meyers Lemon) 1 day into germination. (Top Right) Finished planter box (Rosemary, Mint, Lemon sprout, Aloe Vera and various native succulents). (Bottom Right) Lemon Rosemary Mint Tea brewing! (Bottom Middle) crushed nectarine pit for face and body scrub. (Bottom Right) Draft of booklet.
My externship so far has really got me thinking about my academic future after high school. I am still interested in design and working with plants. The only thing that has really changed is that I now have a passion for incorporating all of these things into self fulfillment; how plants and aesthetically pleasing things can bring joy into your life. This is why I changed the original idea of the booklet to be about gardening and self care. Now it includes instructions on how to make and organic tea and a natural face scrub. This is along side a water re claimer and a planter box full of the items used to make the tea! I am more than excited about how all of these products are intertwined. My hope is that someone really has a field day with the booklet or get some sort of small inspiration to create and/or take time for themselves.
I completed the planter box yesterday at school. I was able to gather all of the materials for my box at The Home Depot's discounted wood section which makes me super happy. For $9 I got all the supplies I needed to build this box exactly how I wanted it. I am excited to get started on finalizing the equity portion of my project. It is something that is very important to me.
Today is my 4th day back in San Diego I have already started steps towards creating some of the final products of my zine. The planter box is all finished except for some little footies that need to get put on. I am eager to get started on the master copy of the zine.
Today I visited the Whitney in the Chelsea. I was amazed with the amount pieces they had on display. Unlike most exhibitions in museums the Whitney had a large variety of different eras including Warhol (a personal favorite!). My favorite piece I got to see was a Koonings sculpture of a man made of bronze. I later researched that Koonings suffered from dementia and as his got older his pieces became more and more of a reflection of the deterioration of his mental health. The bronze man was very grotesque; no body parts reflected the traditional human figure. After taking a step back all the small imperfections in the bronze were no longer visible; they combined to make these very unique indents all over the body. Up close the face looked tormented. As I looked around at other exhibits on that floor I circled back to the bronze man but now at a distance. It almost looked like he was smiling. Once I get Wi-fi connection I will share pictures. I also got to see an indoor tree exhibit and the planter boxes they used happened to fit a size and shape I was considering to make mine!
The start of week #2 has gone smoothly. Today I got to work on the layout and artistic direction I want to take my project. I have contacted local artists/good friends Gracie Moceri and Angel Muneton for submissions. I plan on creating art myself but I believe their work will captivate the audience I'm trying to reach. I am currently in Tribeca which is a neighborhood of
Today was spent around Central Park. I got a lot of time to go around and just take in the beautiful sights. Originally I thought I was going to get a lot of the research I needed here but it turns out that I found more inspiration just observing how businesses and residence of the city had their small gardens set up. Below is my outline for my zine along with a working title, A rubric that I'm holding myself to and a photo of myself just outside of the Strawberry Fields Memorial Park for John Lennon. I have gone back to Reading, PA (pronounced red-ing(also where Reading Railroad in Monopoly got it's name(Yes, I've been pronouncing it wrong this whole time too))). I am so eager to explore Philadelphia (and spell it without spellcheck) in the next few days! In regards to the outline below, I am going to physically create all of these items listed and present them at my POL along with an actual time of completion for each item. Apologies for the handwriting! I wrote it on a bus!
Today was my first day in Philly! I have already seen many inspirations for my project. I got to have an authentic Philly cheese steak as well! The big city feel hit me immediately as we were flying over. As we drove around South Philly I peered out the window and saw tons of examples of what I need. (Above) The view from a cheese steak restaurant in South Philly accompanied by some large ants
For my senior externship I will be spending 10 days in New York and Philadelphia researching the urban garden infrastructure they have in place in their cities. The rest of my time will be spent creating a zine dedicated to educating people in under served housing how to sustain a garden as well as creating new spaces in or around your home. I am excited to get into a big city and see how things are different. I am worried that my zine will not convey the message I am trying to get across specifically the portion of how equitable all the supplies and costs of materials. My mentor's name is Tricia she lives in Reading, PA. I am yet to receive feedback from her on my ideas.
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