Welcome to Mauricio's Blog!
Blog #1: My Workplace: Tuesday Oct 11th
My work place is called Star Arts and the main focus of my internship is custom murals. It is a small business started and run by Suzanne Gayle and she has a business degree. My internship is located on Hesperian in Union City, it looks like a working art studio with an office and is combined with two other businesses. and she has a business degree in painting murals. My workplace is a self-run business and serves the city of Hayward, schools, and anyone else who hires her to paint a murals. Some of the strengths that the workplace obtains is that she shares her work with other businesses and she has her own art studio where she also teaches classes for children. Some of the weaknesses of the workplace is that my mentor is the only one who works and the city doesn't really have the money in the budget for her to paint murals around Hayward.
This is a part of my internships art studio.
Blog #2: My Mentor: Tuesday Oct 18th
My mentors name is Suzanna Gayle and she works at Star Arts. A typical day for my mentor is that she contacts the city for information regarding her current mural project and also works on small versions of what her mural is supposed to look like to get it approved by the city. My mentor became interested in this field because she has always liked art, she started out by giving art lessons to students and ended up painting murals for the city of Hayward. My mentor has 10+ years of experience in the Arts and runs a woman-owned business. Her original murals and paintings are displayed locally in doctors’ offices, schools and libraries. She creates custom pieces used for local schools including Stonebrae Elementary, Longwood Elementary and Bret Harte Middle School in Hayward; Marin Day Schools in Foster City and the Hayward Public Library.
Blog #3: My Role: Tuesday Oct 25th
My main responsibility during my internship is to report to my mentor and I do what she asks. I don't really have a main responsibility during my internship, my role is to learn the step by step procedures that it takes to paint a mural for the city and/or in general. Some tasks that I have completed was painting examples of some pieces of what the actual mural is going to look like. During this process my mentor showed me how to mix paint and get a good shade of color that i needed to paint these examples and how to measure and create large circles before my process in painting. I have learned how anyone can create a work of art out of recycling rather than just throwing it away, such as pealing paint from empty paint contains in order to create an art sculpture out of it. Also i had to call many different variety of work places that allow renting of portable storage containers, i had to ask about the details of the price per month of rental, damage costs, and setting up a date for a drop off of the container. I cant say that I have a regular day every time I walk in to my internship on Tuesdays because we are always doing something different.
An art piece we had to create for an example.
Blog #5: Progress on my WLE project: Tuesday Nov 8th
Today at my WLE, me and my mentor went to the location of the wall where the mural is supposed to go, to check up on the progress of the construction. The mural has been delayed on numerous occasions do to the construction they are doing on the street. My mentor needs to get an exact measurement of the wall in order to calculate the measurements of the mural, the only problem is that the city has not yet made the street as smooth and as straight as possible. My mentor has also shown my techniques with the brushes such as which brush goes good with what technique and how to clean them. She has also shown me how to mix paint to get the color you need, how to blend, create straight lines, and how to add value into your portrait while you paint. Today we talked about the different ways I can take of what I learned during this internship and apply it to an individual project. Some ideas were creating my own mural on a canvas that I might be interested in doing and creating a piece of art work out of recycling. I came to a conclusion that I wanted to make a mural on a canvas that represented the Latino culture. I wanted to use a recent art project that i used entirely of charcoal as a duplicate, but painting it with a variety of colors.
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Blog #6: Leadership Skills: Tuesday Nov 15th
During my WLE, I am using the leadership skills of Completing Projects Effectively and Communicating Powerfully the most to my advantage. I use Completing Projects Effectively because most of the time my mentor has me work on a project, and I try the best of my ability to see to it that the project gets done. So far I have used this skills numerous times on my individual project during the past couple of weeks. I set goals and dead lines for myself for a certain part of mural to get finished by and for the most part I reach these deadlines. I also use Communicating Powerfully to my advantage because any time I need help or have a certain question to ask my mentor, I talk to her to widen my understanding of that topic. I think overall even though Completing Projects Effectively is one of my strongest leadership skills, I also feel that i need to work on this skill because I know I will not finish my individual project by the the end of my WLE, a couple days of my internship wont help me completely finish my project. That is why I need to arrange a time to go in on my own to my internship in order to finish my individual project by the dead line. I believe that the leadership skill that my mentor mostly uses is also Completing Projects Effectively because she always gets her projects done, no matter how long it takes.
Blog: #7: What I Learned: Reflection: Tuesday Nov 22nd
During my days at my internship I have learned various things about what I am interested in and what I can achieve. I have learned the technique and that I need to clean the brushes after my use of them in order to keep them in good condition. Not doing so can cost an artist a lot of money because they have to throw the brushes away once they become damaged. I learned how to peel paint out of containers and that i can use those as a piece of art, this also deals with the fact that I can use ordinary objects and create art with it. I learned how to mix colors, blending, and all different painting techniques to use. I learned that I am a "natural born painter", but i just needed a quick lesson and technique of painting. I have never been a big fan of painting, drawing and using charcoal has always been a specialty for me. This is what i wanted to get out of my internship; to learn how to paint pieces of art, the step-by-step process that an artist has to go through in order to paint a mural. I had to face many challenges during my WLE, the fact that the mural was being postponed on numerous occasions, I was looking forward to at least start on the mural for the city. I can say that I will achieve my goal in painting this mural with my mentor from start to finish after WLE is over this year. I had to also deal with the challenge of painting, on many occasions while I was painting I became irritated because it would not come out the way I wanted it to, but after I finish with that certain part of my mural, I gain a sense of relief. A lesson that I have learned during my WLE was that the process in painting the mural is a difficult process and I have also learned the professional side of the business. My creativity and passion for art has been put to use in my individual project because it shows how I can gain now knowledge and techniques and put them to good use. If someone were to ask me why what I did at my WLE was important, I would say that the fact that I gained new knowledge in painting and I learned the process it takes was the most important during my WLE. Everything that I learned during my WLE can help me with the choices I make in the future because I have considered custom murals as a profession i want to study in college and as a career.
Blog #8: Professionalism: Tuesday Nov 29th
In order to find my WLE and get hired I had to first choose some topics that I was interested in interning at that I would be able to experience the work placement. I was mainly interested in an internship that has to do with grapic designs, murals, or taking care of animals; mainly dogs and cats. I was in my last week to find an internship before the due date, and I called many places that were not interested in having an intern this year. I ended up finding an internship through a close friend that did an internship with her a year ago. I ended up deciding to have my internship at Star Arts. The most effective way to getting a job and getting hired is a strong resume, professional speaker, confidence, dressing professionally, and mainly connections in the feilds that you want to apply for. As a result of my WLE, I think being a professional or a responsible adult in the work world means that you always have to listen to your mentor/boss, be respectful to everyone involved, and also have confidence in what you are trying to accomplish; complete the task to the best of your ability.
Blog #9: Life at my WLE: Tuesday Dec 6th
My mentor and I went to the well where the mural project is supposed to be located at and we went to see the progress of the construction they are doing. We also tried to even out the dirt with pavement as much as possible so we can at least get started o painting. What I did today on my individual project was that I started to paint the face portion of the Aztec women of my mural. This process took very long because i tried to get a even color of the face to blend in and contrast with the rest of my mural; this was a difficult process because I could not find the right color for the face to contrast. After I finally found the right color for the face I felt a sense of relive. The way that I have improved on is that I gained the knowledge of the techniques in painting in general and I also improved on how to be a professional in this workplace. What makes my workplace a great place to work at is because my mentor supplies every object you can think of to apply in an art project and she has her own studio where she can conduct her work.
Blog #10: The End: Tuesday Dec 13th
The way that I have improved on is that I gained the knowledge of the techniques in painting in general and I also improved on how to be a professional in this workplace. I really enjoyed it, I learned a lot, it really helped me think about what jobs to look for in the future, and how hard I need to work. This experience will help me find another WLE next year that is similar to this since I enjoyed it, or perhaps maybe something different for a whole new experience. I can honestly say that during my time at my internship; although we did not get to paint the mural on mission do to so many delays because of construction, I feel that I have gained Knowledge that can I can use throughout my life. I have considered custom murals as a profession to study throughout college and maybe take as a career.
