Creating with Love, Loving to Create
A Love Letter to Shift
My first Shift retreat took place my sophomore year. There, I found myself in a random house in Indiana, sitting in a room of mostly unfamiliar faces as we all journaled silently for 8 minutes.
“Write about yourself from the perspective of 10 years in the future.” Now, that’s an ice breaker.
As we spent the next 10 minutes sharing and reflecting on what we wrote in our own little Shift journals, I knew that Shift was a community I’d hope to be a part of for years to come.
I’m now a graduated senior and writing my first (and last) article reflecting on my time in Shift and what I’ve created this past year.
My overarching goal was to make for the sake of making — making things I was proud of, making things with friends, making things I wasn’t proud of …making things!!
At the start of the semester, I set four smaller principles in my Notion page:
Finishing (or Not Finishing) Projects
While brainstorming projects, I quickly realized that it’s been years since I last finished an art piece that felt complete. This sparked my drive to finish a process cycle — to bring a piece from ideation to completion.
Bartending: if you can’t beat em, join em
We floated the idea of a Shift pop-up bar/cafe while chatting after Shiftsgiving and set the date: December 2. I had just about 2 weeks to design and make a menu and go from alcoholic to (alcoholic) bartender.
I tried my hand at making some simple cocktails over winter break at home:
I brainstormed menu ideas…
(Yakult Lychee was my personal favorite drink)
Illustrated the menu (finished the night before the pop-up)…
And despite what felt like chaos to me at the time, things have a funny way of falling into place.
Status: drunk!
Valentine’s Website: touch grass pls
I wanted to practice coding and web development outside of classes. With Valentine’s day around the corner, I tried my hand at building the next multi-billion dollar unicorn startup.
Rejection-proof idea: confess to your Valentine without fear!
The site asks “Will you be my valentine? Yes or No” and the “No” button “runs” away from the user’s mouse making it difficult to be selected.
Try it in action here and use it for your Valentine next year :p
Status: bae secured!
Lightbox: rip shift house
In past years, I wanted to collaborate with other creators but wasn’t sure how. This year, Jonah and I began brainstorming a simple, achievable project to make together. We decided on creating a lightbox of the Shift house as an ode to it before it gets torn down :’(
We anticipated this project to take us one week. Like most projects, our timeline did not go according to plan. But, despite the lightbox remaining dormant for several months, we both saw it to the end.
Status: papercuts acquired!
Jewelry: sanding my fingerprints away
Taking a light final semester, I took up a metalworking and jewelry making class (ARTDES 177). I loved it, despite spiraling into insanity each time I spent more than 12 hours locked up in that studio. It was a lot more manual labor than I expected (who would’ve thought) but it was almost meditative.
I focused on two primary pieces: a ring for my dad (he’s a picky client. Thanks, dad) and a ring for myself. The ring for my dad took around 60 hours total and several late nights on north campus.
And, despite telling myself I would be done rotting in the studio after I finished those two pieces, I also decided to make earrings for my sister and matching band rings for my mom and dad.
Sketches
Process — Octopus Ring
Process — Howl’s Moving Castle Ring
My Howl’s Moving Castle inspired ring broke on me TWICE.
The first time it broke, I decided to just redo all of the cutting and soldering because I didn’t want the seam of the break to be there (and it was too fragile).
Naturally, after redoing everything, it broke again.
Do you see why I was literally going insane? Anyways, take this class if you can, highly recommend :D
Finished products
Jewelry making was extremely gratifying. It made me grow a greater appreciation for jewelry and it felt like my world expanded with this new skill. I found myself exploring jewelry shops, looking at pieces and thinking about how it could have been made, or how I might go about making something like it. It’s exciting thinking of all that I had learned and the skills I hope to continue to practice and refine.
Status: dripped tf out!
Animation: Crazy, Stupid, Love
I came across this animation on my recommendation page.
The artist, Webb Montgomery, beautifully captured intimate moments, memories, and so many emotions in just 30 seconds. I loved it so much I only wished I had come up with it first.
This video lived in my mind rent free for months. Each time I thought about it, I wished I could make something like it but I always ruled it out as I felt like everything I made needed to be “new” (though art never is, ha).
One night, I just decided to make my own version, more as a test of whether I was capable of animating or not. Quickly, this animation grew to be a project I was determined to take on and an outlet for my feelings.
Here’s my progress so far:
Finishing other projects throughout the year gave me confidence that I was capable of bringing an idea to completion. This helped me appreciate and understand the value of finishing projects and also giving myself grace to leave things unfinished.
Sometimes, I feel pressured to have finished products — things that I can show or proof that I’m making.
But, there is value in the unfinished. My finished projects this year were a result of all of the unfinished works of my past.
My unfinished projects helped expose me to new skills or exercise old ones:
- I created stop motions and short animations for years, most of them I’d consider “unfinished” or doodles I wouldn’t consider a project. But, those little animations helped me quickly draft this bigger project and feel comfortable animating.
- I’ve been sketching and doodling for years but created no big pieces. Even little doodles helped me continue to exercise my art and assisted me in all of the projects I took on this year.
I think as long as you’re making — whether it’s finished or not, big or small — every piece counts. Each creation can be a stepping stone along the creative path, shaping your skills and fueling your creativity to lay the groundwork for what you’ll make next.
Status: in progress :)
Weekly Creativity
This year, I tried to incorporate little ways I could stay creative as often as I could. I dabbled in the following:
- Collaging — one of my favorite forms of making. Collaging is so relaxing to me because nothing is “wrong” and it’s so easy for me to get into it. There’s no planning, I just layer the shit out of things and keep refining as I go. 10/10
- Zine making — I’ve been making zines since I was in high school but made more in college because I began making collage zines! Another very relaxing way to create. Who doesn’t like mini things (especially mini books!)?
- Bookbinding — thank you Zoe for introducing me to bookbinding my sophomore year of college. I’m not sure why I didn’t do it more but I’m glad I was exposed to it. Bookbinding is just origami (folding the pages) and sewing (binding the signatures). So many different stitching techniques to try out, so many unique ways to make books. I love it.
- Letter Pressing — check out the Book Arts Studio in the Duderstadt on campus. I bookbound lots here and letter pressing is also available. Something about manually choosing a font, finding each letter and arranging them, choosing the ink color, the paper, is so magical. It’s a beautiful, old art and the people working the studio are so lovely ❤
- Mending — I came across this beautiful book (https://www.thefarwoods.com/mending-life) in a bookstore once and it’s lived in my mind ever since. I finally decided to take up mending this year because I have a rep of having my dogs out because of all the holes in my socks. Socks restored and dogs leashed!
- Art journaling — I love to journal. I love to draw. I love doing both! I started art journaling in high school and haven’t stopped. I find it really healing when I can capture how I’m feeling both visually and with words.
- Stamp making — I was inspired by fellow Shift-ie, Amy Deng who made linocut stamps in a previous year. Much love to Amy who kindly gave me some of her linocut pads for me to try my hand at stamp making myself.
Art is all around!
Being Reinspired by Shift
After spending the past 4 years focused on surviving my EECS classes, I felt more tech bro than wannabe art major. This year, I wanted to revisit old creative hobbies, learn new ones, and make cool shit. With the love and support from family, friends, and Shift members I felt like I was able to take time to really reconnect with the little girl in me that would draw scribbles on paper because I couldn’t read (or write) yet.
I have so much love for Shift and the community I was surrounded by during my time in it. To Shift members new and old, I’ve been so inspired by you and I’m so thankful to have been able to witness the magic everyone brought to the club. I owe so much of what I have made and will make to my lovely friends in this community who have taught me new skills, exposed me to new ideas, and reignited creativity in me and in others.
Being surrounded by such warm, silly, and absolutely brilliant individuals transformed my experience in college and shaped me for the better. I am so lucky to have met you all and can only hope to be lucky enough to cross paths again soon.
Onwards to making more cool shit! :)
