Contradictions - Part 4, Reflections

Despite how successful the show was, I found it difficult not to get caught up in all the things that didn't go right, the little flaws, and what could have gone better. Things like how we should have raised the ticket price or the whole CD mishap stayed on my mind. But those things are what keep you moving on to the next project, and overall Michelle and I were very satisfied with the results of our hard work over those past several months. It was the first time we had undertaken something of that scope while having pretty much complete control over the project. Whereas Michelle had handled more of the business/administrative aspects, I had handled more of the creative side of things, including the direction of the production. The show was exhausting but left me wanting to continue being involved in fashion projects. I became involved with designing for the spring Eleganza show.

I also started thinking about what I wanted to do the summer after my junior year. Harvard fashion shows were fun but I knew that if I wanted to work in fashion I would need to do build up my resume professionally. I didn't want to repeat my experience with my previous internship, and I knew that if anything, the other fashion houses based in New York would probably be less interesting. I wanted to go to Paris and witness the highest echelon of fashion -- where fashion truly intersected with craft and artistry. I wanted to see haute couture. I had never been to Paris and knew that I needed to go before I graduated from college. I had wanted to do study abroad (I had taken French starting in middle school) but couldn't go in the fall because of the show (and Harvard wasn't very supportive of study abroad programs) and I didn't want to go in the spring because a well-known painter, Sue Williams, was coming to teach an advanced painting course.

During the fall semester while we were preparing for our show, I had been continuing with my VES coursework. I had taken an intermediate painting course with the woman who would become my thesis advisor, Nancy Mitchnick. She was/is an excellent painting instructor and we developed a rapport. Despite the show, I did well in her painting course (logging in the hours necessary), and was luckily able to use one of the projects for that class for my contemporary art theory course as well. Nancy also attended the show with her huge dog, Olivia, and was impressed by the work we did. It was during that class with Nancy where my painting skills really began to solidify, although they still have a ways to go. She made us work hard and gave us exercises that weren't fun to do but taught us how to paint. Here is a painting, one of a series of three almost identical paintings, that I did for her class.

Michelle remembered it and wanted to borrow one, so this photo was taken of the one I've loaned her for her apartment. My mom wants me to get another one framed for her living room.