Even during my 3rd year at Columbia, this place still seems new to me. Constantly changing with new events there is always something going on at Columbia College Chicago. It’s hard to believe I’m saying this in my 3rd year at the school, but it’s true. Before Columbia, I lived in Bolingbrook, IL and attended their high school and once the move over here, quite a bit has changed, not only the environment, but also myself as well. Bolingbrook High School was rough. Heck, my first year attending we had a reported over 100 fights go on that year alone. So that was pretty crazy, but it did tone down as the years went by since the school got a new principal my 2nd year, who was very, very strict. My sister is currently going through her final year at the high school and I never get tired listening to the stories of how it’s even stricter than before, it’s pretty ridiculous. Before Bolingbrook I lived in Chicago up until the end of my 7th grade year, so once I graduated from high school, I knew I wanted to come back to the city. Columbia College Chicago was a huge change for me. Not only because I had to go to downtown everyday, something I rarely did, but the people were different. Columbia is a college with tons of people from different ethnicities, cultures, states, and even countries; although my high school was diverse, Columbia College Chicago brings it to a whole new level. But the real question is, what is Columbia College Chicago?
Though a large part in the arts scene and its ability to keep everyone active and in the loop, we cannot forget that Columbia College Chicago is first and foremost a school with faculty, students, and of course it’s classes. Though many would dismiss the idea of an “art college” at first, Columbia College Chicago has a lot to offer. One thing that interested me to this school was how the faculty are out in the field now. I had many teachers who wrote their own books, illustrated and written graphic novels, and played large parts in the whole arts scene. What makes Columbia so great is just that, the fact that teachers are out there working and know what’s going on definitely lets me know what to expect when I am ready to graduate and pursue my career choice. The courses Columbia College Chicago offers add to this as well, helping you to build a large portfolio during the stay to get ready for the real world. Each course is current and relevant to what ever major that the student has chosen. They are built upon teaching you the fundamentals, then giving you opportunity to become creative and apply your talent to the project.
When talking about the students, all that I can say is that it was a huge 180 to what I was used to. It wasn’t only the fashion style of the students, but it was how they act too. My style has never went beyond the traditional t-shirt and jeans, but coming here I was impressed on what people can pull off, some ridiculous, some not so much, but overall it was a change. Another thing about the students here is that they are Columbia. They’re the trendsetters at the school, the people who start events and go to attend them, and more importantly the future artists. The surrounding area and neighborhood definitely play a large role with the creativity of the students here at Columbia. Founded in 1890, Columbia College Chicago is located in the South Loop, though it was a rough neighborhood, it has drastically changed over the years. Since Columbia is in the heart of Chicago’s loop, there is always something to do. Events, concerts, lectures, you name it creativity will spark at any moment when you are here at Columbia. So to understand Columbia College Chicago, you would also have to learn and understand about the students.
A great start on learning the students is first going and observing the 9th floor computer lab of the 623 S. Wabash building. You can most likely find me in there all the time working on projects and I believe that this single floor just about sums up Columbia for me. It’s always filled, especially during finals (it’s packed), with art and design students working on class projects and personal works. This is the essence of the school, it’s simply students working on what they love to do, art. There is a lot on this floor, classrooms, the advisor office, and the lockers. Most importantly the floor is filled computers running both mac and pc containing an assortment of programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, whatever the student needs to create their art piece. Once they are done, the lab also contains high quality printers to print their artwork and such. If students aren’t by their computers, they are right in front of the printers. Aside from the “digital art,” the floor has space for a more traditional touch, with light tables and area for cutting their art boards. I personally use the light tables a lot for my traditional and hard drawn art, and then once finished, I move toward the computers and scan them in. Not only is this place a great area to work, but also the 9th floor, is well, kind of a hang out and “meet up” spot for the art and design majors. When working on group projects it’s almost a given that our group meet-up will take place on the 9th floor by the lockers.
Another area where I find Columbia to be Columbia is the outside of the 623 S. Wabash building. Basically it’s a gathering of students who share a common interest, smoking. I think of it like a small community or even a small “smoking outside in-between classes” culture that sometimes only meet during those breaks, which I find very interesting. This place is also a great place to show what Columbia is, not because of the smoking, but it’s the fact that people are just very great and outgoing here. It shows the personality of the students from what they talk about to what they wear. It kind of shows the style of the school in a way when looked at first glance or when walking by. The overall mood is pretty good, I walk past it all the time when I enter the building and I never see any conflict, just students having a good time talking and doing what they do. To be honest, I’m never out here, but after staying for about 30 minutes just observing the other students, I might just sit and hang out, despite the fact that I don’t smoke. But it’s getting colder out, so maybe next semester.
It’s impossible to talk about the students at Columbia College Chicago when you don’t mention their art. This was very different to for me to be in such an environment full of extremely talented, young people. Often time I find myself jealous saying, “Why couldn’t I think of that,” but it all in good light. Back in high school I only had 2 art classes, which I loved by the way, within the 4 years that I have attended that school. I did most of my work outside of class and just mainly doodles on the sides of papers during class. I’ve been drawing for years, the earliest I can remember of myself drawing anything that looked good was when I would sit in front of the TV drawing the cartoon characters from the shows going on at the time, such as Rocco’s Modern Life, Ren & Stimpy, Doug, and Rugrats, basically all the Nickelodeon shows; later on my love for video games grew after I got my NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) and I started to draw many video game characters like Mario and Samus from the Metroid series. Even from that age, I knew I wanted to become an artist drawing for many people and doing my own personal works. Growing up I never knew much about art or have seen other’s artwork (I was usually that artist of the class), so when I finally made it to Columbia College Chicago I was really surprised on how much people knew about art and to seeing their artwork. Columbia is a really great place to see many people’s art, by hosting many events and setting up galleries for students to show what they got. One exhibit I particularly enjoyed was one called “Dwelling.”
Upon going to the exhibit “Dwelling,” taking place in the C33 gallery of Columbia’s 33 E. Congress building during September 5th – October 19th, I did not know what to expect from our fellow artists at Columbia College Chicago, but after looking at their works I feel that I have gained a better understanding of each of the artists’ dwelling. Regarding the exhibit itself there were a few things I did like about, but also many pet peeves came into play.
Overall, the exhibit was fantastic; it was a personal look into the artists’ home life. What I now love about going through the exhibit, that I did not figure out when I first went in, was the fact that it appears that we are starting from the outside of the house working our way in based on the artwork of the students. This was a very clever idea well implemented. The “outside look” of the exhibit started with artist Austin P. Swearengin’s “The Importance of Finding a Way In,” which appears to look like a wooden roof. Just across from the roof we have Heather Boaz’s “Escape,” which shows a rope made out of bed sheets commonly seen in movies or television to escape one’s room. Upon going further in, we start to see furniture with works from Ericka Lechner and Heather Boaz once more.
All the work in the exhibit was great. You could tell that each piece was meaningful to each artist and they put a lot of thought into it. My favorite piece throughout the room was a very simple piece that involved only a doorknob and chair, Heather Boaz’s “Defense,” due to fact that it hit close to home with me personally. Another favorite had to be Brandy Watt’s “Untitled.” It is video of her home being viewed from the outside in; a different spin on the “dwelling” subject. There were also a few works that made me uncomfortable, in particular, a series of family videos by Carrie Schneider which felt very voyeur and incestuous. The video that stuck me was “Dad Washing My Hair.”
There are a few things about the exhibit that I did not particularly like. To start off, the lighting in the room wasn’t all that great. Some pieces were hard to see, especially their title cards. The text and the background color of the cards, together with the lighting, made it very difficult to read. I had to move my head up close to the small cards just to read them clearly. A small pet peeve I had was that not all of artwork featured about this exhibit was in the room itself. There is a photo featured on the website, Stephanie Del Monte’s “Untitled”, that was on the outside of the room, which made it a bit confusing if you wanted to see everything the exhibit had to offer. Overall this exhibit was great, it gave me some perspective on what others call home. Although it had a couple flaws, I suppose I can look into it thinking, not every home is perfect and there must be a sort of balance.
I love going to see the artwork of my peers; I feel that looking at their work strengthens my pieces. I would often gain a new perspective or perhaps a new style after coming back from any gallery. Columbia has always been apart of the arts scene and have a reputation of being “in the know” and for always keeping the students active, so the fact that Columbia College Chicago hosts many of them is great, not only for the students, but for many other people as well. I think that’s what makes Columbia great, the fact that the school hosts events makes them great as an art scene. At my time at Columbia, I went to a few of the events the school has hosted or promoted, a personal favorite was when graphic artist Chip Kidd, probably best known for creating the “Jurassic Park” logo/symbol as well as his many book cover illustrations, came to speak on March 30, but there was one reading that I attended that involved a CCC alum. And to try something new, it was a poetry reading rather than my usual listen to an artist talk about his/her illustration.
I’ve never been much of a fan of poetry, but my opinions soon changed after a listening to a couple of poets read their material at Columbia College Chicago. The reading was located in the 623 S. Wabash Ave. building within the Hokin gallery, room 106. The featured poets for this event were Elaine Equi and Jerome Sala, a married couple both Chicago natives, but currently living in New York; I did not know what to expect. I knew very little of poetry and I didn’t have much of an interest for the art, so this was a whole new adventure for me.
I entered the lecture hall around 5:20pm on Wednesday October 26, not expecting a full house. As I walked in this dimly light room, to my surprise, there were many people, teachers and students alike eager to listen to the writings of Elaine and Jerome. Luckily I found a seat near the top of the room. After about 10 minutes, a man steps up to the podium and the whole room went into immediate silence. Jokingly, he said, “That was easy.” He went on to say thank you for being here, giving small info about how he knows both the pets, and how he is honored to be introducing them to read at Columbia College Chicago. But before the featured writers, the man introduced a 2nd year grad student named Ryan to read his poetry to us. His work was very dark, perhaps too dark for this event, looking back on it. Once finished, the man goes up to the podium once more to give us some more information about the first of the two poets to read to us that evening, Jerome Sala.
Calling him the “Instigator of the Punk Poetry Scene,” I was excited to see what was in store. He goes on to tell us his accomplishments and the books that he has written, such as Spaz Attack and the newly released Prom Night. After an introduction, Jerome Sala walks up to the stage. The majority of his poems were highly entertaining, he started off with a poem called Mother’s Day, a very incestuous piece, then went on with R-Rated Christmas, a dark and vulgar take on Christmas that was also very funny. As he went on with his other work, I really taken a liking to these types of poems, they were very different to what I thought was a poem. He also went on to saying that we worked in Ads, and even read a poem designed to look like a storyboard for a commercial. Once finished, we were introduced to our next poet, Elaine Equi.
A graduate from our own Columbia College Chicago, she was an acclaimed writer, with books such Voice-Over and Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems. Her poems I really enjoyed, they were also very entertaining, funny, and real. I connected to her work more because of the fact that they felt real. Her overall work was not as lengthy as Sala’s, they were mostly short and to the point and I really like that about her work. She read a whole series of poems based on dreams, such as one where she was sitting in a restaurant picturing others’ dreams while she looks at them. My favorite series that she read to us was the “reading books over someone’s shoulder on the bus/train.” In them, she only reads a small line of text that she could make out when she glanced at the book the person next to her was reading; these were very funny and I enjoyed them quite a bit.
Overall the whole experience was a blast. Both poets had very interesting and had surprisingly entertaining and funny work. I’m glad I went to this small reading, it was a change for me, a change that I needed. Now I can call myself a fan and go out and buy some of their books.
In answering the question, what is Columbia College Chicago? I believe that you just can’t give a simple answer, it’s more than that. It’s small pieces of a much larger picture: the teachers and students that build up the foundation, the creativity, imagination, and the passion that its built on top, and finally the work we produce whether that may be an illustration, a movie, or a album that finishes the structure that is Columbia.
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