Stanford students possess an intellectual vitality. Reflect on an idea or experience that has been important to your intellectual development.
I was required to create four projects for my GCSE art course during the year. The first project I had made was being stored in the basement of the design and technology workshop. A few weeks before I had to submit my projects for evaluation, I came back from vacation to be told, "Your work has been contaminated by asbestos and needed to be incinerated." It was rather ironic because the artwork had been a large sculpture of a toaster created to look like burnt toast. It was frustrating to have all of that hard work go up in smoke. Literally.
It was five weeks worth of work gone. I had to submit the artwork for assessment in two weeks and was forced to start from scratch. I decided the situation was an opportunity for me to improve my work. I was also working on a sculpture of the Greek mythological character Icarus, made out of plaster moulds of my body and feathers melted with wax. Multi-tasking and working on two different projects was a challenge. I hobbled around the workshop with a plaster cast around one leg, trying to make a mould, whilst constructing a giant plug out of wire for the toaster. The clean slate gave me the opportunity to be innovative and creative. Instead of making a new toaster sculpture, I used a massively enlarged photo of the old one, brightened up the colors and attached the giant plug I had made. It was better than the original.
I worked endlessly for those two weeks because I wanted the satisfaction of having a complete project and being able to present an art exhibition that I was proud of. I learned how to manage projects to reach a deadline but also enjoy the work along the way. I learned how to look on the bright side in a stressful situation. For two weeks my life consisted of paint, glue and feathers. I had never had so much fun with work before. The challenge and pressure of my GCSE art course showed me the importance of thinking outside the box and looking at things from a different perspective in order to solve a problem.
I was required to create four projects for my GCSE art course during the year. The first project I had made was being stored in the basement of the design and technology workshop. A few weeks before I had to submit my projects for evaluation, I came back from vacation to be told, "Your work has been contaminated by asbestos and needed to be incinerated." It was rather ironic because the artwork had been a large sculpture of a toaster created to look like burnt toast. It was frustrating to have all of that hard work go up in smoke. Literally.
It was five weeks worth of work gone. I had to submit the artwork for assessment in two weeks and was forced to start from scratch. I decided the situation was an opportunity for me to improve my work. I was also working on a sculpture of the Greek mythological character Icarus, made out of plaster moulds of my body and feathers melted with wax. Multi-tasking and working on two different projects was a challenge. I hobbled around the workshop with a plaster cast around one leg, trying to make a mould, whilst constructing a giant plug out of wire for the toaster. The clean slate gave me the opportunity to be innovative and creative. Instead of making a new toaster sculpture, I used a massively enlarged photo of the old one, brightened up the colors and attached the giant plug I had made. It was better than the original.
I worked endlessly for those two weeks because I wanted the satisfaction of having a complete project and being able to present an art exhibition that I was proud of. I learned how to manage projects to reach a deadline but also enjoy the work along the way. I learned how to look on the bright side in a stressful situation. For two weeks my life consisted of paint, glue and feathers. I had never had so much fun with work before. The challenge and pressure of my GCSE art course showed me the importance of thinking outside the box and looking at things from a different perspective in order to solve a problem.
