With the end of my classes quickly approaching I thought it was about time I post a few updates. My first semester has certainly presented it's share of challenges, time management being the biggest, but all in all I've enjoyed myself and learned far more than I ever could have imagined. This semester I took two classes, Art which focused on general concepts of beginning drawing and Sculpture whose name is self explanatory. Both classes were filled with their share of ups and downs ~ a goofed drawing, a broken sculpture, but I soon found this to be part of the
learning process as well.My Art class presented concepts on values and planes, studying basic shapes in complicated objects, and human features including the torso and face. We're currently winding up with a photographic portrait which is shown here below.
For Sculpting we dove head first into clay by working on several sculptures, as well as working with wax to create a bronze casting and casting & carving a plaster sculpture. I've enjoyed this class immensely which came as a huge surprise since I'd never worked with clay before.
My professors have both been amazing, one is around my age with a background in graphic design/advertising (go figure) and the other, young enough to be my son and a truly gifted artist ~ here's a link to his website (shhhhh).
One of the surprises I encountered during this semester has been people's reaction to me attending online college. I never imagined I would feel a need to defend this choice as I just assumed others were as aware of the added challenges to online studying as I was but it appears there is still a common consensus that online colleges are subpar. I can 
comfortably dismiss those notions as the Academy of Art University offers an exceptional online learning experience.
Besides being impressed with the fact that they offer all of there campus classes in online format; through in-depth videos, discussion groups, and personal professors, they also work to ensure we're getting the most out of our experience by providing a Personal Learning Coach who calls regularly to be sure I'm managing ok with life and classes ~ who wouldn't benefit from that!? ;D
Reflecting back over this first semester I can't help but take pause and thank the stars for aligning in such a way that I've landed squarely at the doorstep of my future and I'm loving it. So, I hope you've enjoyed this little jaunt down the hallways of my first semester and if you're ever considering an art degree, definitely checkout AAU ~ it's worth the investment of time and money.
Enjoy~
