The Embarassing Moment - Gallery Assistant Soojin Park

Entering my freshmen year in Rhode Island School of Design was an honor and a surprise for me. I was not only required to learn and create art but also to learn about the history of art and literature. RISD overwhelmed me with its endless workload and restless, sleepless nights. It was difficult and challenging having multiple tasks to manage all at once, yet it greatly improved my knowledge and artistic skills.

Freshmen at RISD start off with a foundation year where the students are trained in studio work such as drawing two-dimensional, and three-dimensional figures. Additionally, it was necessary to take liberal arts classes in literature and art history in order to give students a more well rounded approach to art. All students take a basic art history that overviews the general ideas of art history from African art to Contemporary/Modern art. But, for me, the studio classes were the most essential class for me because I learned unique techniques in each one of them. The professors have such powerful characters and styles that it is easy to learn a lot from them during the course.

My fall semester drawing class was taught by Professor Lieu. Just by looking at her and feeling the atmosphere in the classroom was frightening enough. She seemed tough and clearly told students what she wanted. All of her policies were extremely important because she had the power to kick people out or fail them. Everything was required to be almost flawless and exactly the way she wanted. She was detail oriented and authoritarian about how students hung their work on the wall, organization of the work, cleanness to the paper, clear explanations of the work, and required everyone to be involved in group critiques. She looked for good, standard techniques and drawing skills with creativity and deep meaning. When she told us our compositions were to be done in large scales up to four feet by four feet I knew this was not going to be an easy class.

My first assignment critique turned out to be an embarrassing experience. I did not follow her instructions carefully or seriously. While everyone else used the scale she wanted and used imagination and transformation in their work, I used an exact scale of the object. The critique started and my professor wasted no time in making my work a prime example of what never to do again. She even took out her measuring ruler to show that my paper size was wrong which made me feel stupid.

Professor Lieu humiliated me by criticizing my work in a disrespectful manner. I was embarrassed and angry the entire day. I wanted to give up on my first day of school. But this was just the start of RISD. I knew deep inside me that I did not come all the way here from Korea to allow myself to beaten and broken like this and resolved to do better with my talent. With regained confidence, I began to work for days without sleeping; only staying awake by consuming unhealthy amounts of Red Bull energy drinks.

From then on, Professor Lieu saw that I was improving and actually told me that she was impressed. I spent more time on my work, thinking and researching for days as well as making sure I used the correct paper size, had clear explanations, and creative and imaginative techniques I had developed. Before I knew it, I walked out of her class with one of the best relationship I had with teachers. Her class changed me in how I viewed and thought about creating art. Her strict rules gave me discipline. Even though I was enjoying drawing figures in charcoal, wet charcoal, crayons, and Indian ink, I most enjoyed thinking about the projects because it developed my mind to think further and create deep, bold meanings. I began to think about how I could intrigue the viewers and what I could say to bring difference to my work. If I had not experienced that unpleasant first day of drawing class, I would not have put all my effort and strength into my artwork.

It’s funny looking back at myself when I was so frustrated that I considered giving up on everything in the first semester. I slowly realized why this school had a great reputation and why I belonged in this school. I was challenged to work harder than ever and pushed to reach my dreams of becoming an inspiring graphic designer. Without RISD, I would not have grown that strong desire to become so passionate in art and design.

- Soojin park