Elena Yeatts-Lonske
Arts Scholar
Semester 1
I read an article recently about how homemade gifts are expected to especially “thrive during the holiday season” this year on websites like Etsy. On the site "there’s been a 156% increase in searches for custom or personalized gifts in the past three months compared to the same time a year ago.” (CNBC) It makes sense that people would turn to thoughtfully-crafted goods because it feels so especially important this year to express your love for your family and friends, and the arts and crafts is one of the best ways to do this.
I greatly enjoyed taking several creative writing workshops at UMD over the last few semesters, all of which have had different methods of workshopping. We completed several workshops in Arts Scholars to give and receive feedback on our capstone projects, which I believe complemented my creative writing classes well and allowed me to improve my ability to give effective feedback.
Participating in the Empowerment through Collage workshop was a fruitful experience that expanded my perception of what collage can do. I loved seeing the work of my fellow Arts Scholars as we contributed to discussions about subjects such as music, gender, and sexuality, and shared our collage pieces inspired by these subjects.
When we were on campus, the practice room was an extremely helpful resource and space — I was able to make jewelry and cards, practice singing, playing piano, and acting, among other things. I think that that aspect of the living-learning community made it feel as though I was living in a space meant to cultivate the arts. Another thing I appreciated were the break-out rooms for Scholars and my lovely TA for leading discussions this semester. It was nice to have a bit of time to unwind and reflect with other Arts Scholars at the end of class.
Semester 2
Program Synthesis
An area of artistic communication that grew through working on the capstone was my ability to document the thought process behind my ideas. It is not often that I have to write such a thorough artist’s statement and documentation of my creative process, and making a website encouraged me to better understand how I create.
Attending events for pentathlons provided a fantastic opportunity to explore the arts, particularly the arts around campus during the first year when that was still possible. Watching my peers take part in improv and stand-up comedy influenced my perception of how to tell stories and effectively engage your audience. Then over quarantine consuming content such as Fleabag made me consider further how to tell stories on both the stage and screen experimentally.
The “Dead Poets Society" workshop that I attended this semester provided a space to explore poetry with my peers, including forms I had not yet tried such as the sonnet and methods of poetic storytelling such as abstract materialization and narrative poems. I drew upon that which I learned about poetry when writing the lyrics for my capstone. It was helpful to have written poems each week for this class because I felt more practiced and more confident going into the song-writing process for my capstone. In my final project for the class, I wrote three “vignettes” capturing small moments with loved ones throughout the years. As I sought to capture a friendship throughout time in my song, paying this attention to the small moments that make up a relationship was crucial to my writing process.
Inspired by the "Empowerment through Collage” workshop, I have kept a collage journal and a bowl of promising magazine cuttings on my desk. Inspired by the poetry workshop, I now have created a file in my Notes app to keep track of and hold onto poem ideas I have. From my capstone project, I now have a basic understanding of music production which I plan to continue using in the future. Following the recent field trip on stamp-making, I now have made stamps for several birthdays and plan to continue creating them in the future to give to others. Arts Scholars has deepened my talents and interests in a variety of artistic mediums.
Exchanging feedback and ideas during the poetry workshop and for the capstone project was a principal form of collaboration during Arts Scholars and useful in the artistic process. A specific form of artistic collaboration was the exhibition I made with a group of my peers, our theme being connection. I wrote two flash fiction pieces, conducted a few interviews asking the question "what is a meaningful connection you have made?” To other students on campus, and displayed these on a poster with watercolor. Conducting interviews was a great way to hear other’s perspectives as well as workshopping and constructing an exhibition with my fellow Scholars.
I am so excited to explore the many opportunities for artistic creation on campus and online introduced to me by Arts Scholars and continue to go as many artistic shows and venues as I can. I am most certainly going to be applying and continuing to grow skills I have developed in the program such as music production and collage. I am grateful for the space that the Arts Scholars community provided for artistic expression and collaboration in my first years at UMD.