Fun in Art Class

Dan Stelly

I’ve always liked art, but I’ve never taken a real art class in high school or college. My mom has always bugged me to take a fine arts class so that I’d be able to compare a Matisse to a Cezanne at a fancy party and sound “educated.” I don’t really think knowing the subtleties of some paintings of flowers translates to how cultural or smart you are, and memorizing hundreds of watercolors was the last thing I wanted to do here at GW.

Yet this semester, I took a real art class, and it’s blown my mind. Granted, it’s not painting or sculpture or anything traditional; the title of the class is new media and we primarily work with digital platforms like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Still, our discussions about art have changed how I perceive cultural items and self-expression. Our professor was pretty upfront about the course, telling us that new media is weird and that we weren’t going to like everything we saw nor think it deserved to be called art. He also told us a very poignant line that’s stuck with me: if something seems like it was made just for you, then it’s art. It’s that simple, he said.

Since then, I’ve been grappling with our final projects. New media is great in the sense that you can make just about anything and call it new media. Our group chose to stick with Photoshop and re-design modern products for different time periods, using that time period’s style elements.

Here’s a laptop I re-designed for the Victorian/Industrial Revolution era:

And here’s a train I re-designed for the same time period:

It’s fun commentary about how today’s products and devices all follow a modern style: sleek, minimalist, metallic, etc. I really enjoyed turning that style on its head and using totally different aesthetics to re-think these products.

Overall, I’d recommend an art class to everyone here if you have the time or credit hours left. Or just take one at some point down the road; it’s a really rewarding experience. It’s also nice that I can use these digital art skills for journalistic purposes too!