Self-expression, lifelong learning, and sublimating your technical day job with online art classes.
A healthy byproduct of the pandemic is the plethora of classes and workshops available online. In the spirit of self-expression, lifelong learning, and sublimating frustrations from my technical day job, I took several art classes online that I would recommend. Taking these courses helped me develop skills, create new habits, feel more confident in my craft, and make friends.
Washington Studio School
I took Introduction to Painting A (Form & Value) and Introduction to Painting B (Color) with Martin Wall. I taught myself how to oil paint a few years before the pandemic, but I needed these formal courses to close the gaps in my understanding of when and how to use solvents, how to stretch a canvas, and how to critically assess my work. I also learned that I love bringing humor to a still life.
Check out all of WSS' online courses.
Brooklyn Poets
I took Strange Forms: Poetry and Technology with Maya Salameh where we gazed back at surveillance technologies. Writing from the perspective of AI or in the format of a Communication Preferences Form was challenging and thought-provoking. This course helped me think about my poetry and technology differently, exactly its point. The highlight for me in these poetry exercises was reworking a favorite Rilke poem with:
I circle around connection, around the existential question. I’ve been circling and recircling this whole time and still I don’t know: am I an algorithm, a bumble bee, or a question already answered?
Check out all of Brooklyn Poets' online workshops.
School for Poetic Computation
I took TO THE STREETS! with Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Sarah Al-Yahya, Paige Fulton. In this course on making work in public space and in collaboration with community, I focused on public transit as my site of exploration, reflecting on police violence and surveillance on the MTA and imagining what truly safe public transit could look like.
Apply to the School for Poetic Computation, which features ample scholarship opportunities.
Honorable Mentions
I also took and enjoyed a Writing Flash Nonfiction Workshop with Alysia Sawchyn at Catapult (RIP), and I've been eyeing Brooklyn Institute courses. If you have class recommendations for me, please share them.