I’ve always liked painting and drawing, but it’s been long time since I’ve had the chance to paint anything. So, I was very excited to participate in this event!

I was debating between painting on a picture frame or a small canvass when I remembered my sculpture from the clay event at the Johnson Museum. I had wanted to paint it, and this was the perfect opportunity. I quickly returned with my whale-shaped mug and picked out a bunch of blue paint.

I painted the outside dark blue, and on the inside, I painted swirls in different shades of blue and purple. It was very fun and very relaxing! I didn’t want to finish, so I just kept painting a new design over each previous one.

After the mug dried, I filled it with seashells and put it on the windowsill.

At Sip & Paint, there was nothing to sip (except the water we used to clean our brushes) but plenty to snack on, and lots of paint. I was worried about spending time having fun instead of studying or working on assignments, but before I knew it, one hour turned into two and two hours turned in three. Overall, this semester has helped me really realize the importance of taking breaks and time for yourself, for the benefit of your own mental health. Using a system like the Pomodoro Method, where you work for set periods of time and take short breaks in between, have been proven to increase productivity and how well you retain information. In the past, I’ve always felt as if I was wasting time, or being inefficient by not working all the time. I’ve come to realize small reprieves, like checking up on friends, or painting with the rest of your dorm, can be the trick to helping you get out of that mental rut you’re stuck in. During this event, I painted the letters of my name, a little ornament to hang up on my wall, and part of the tree trunk I made in a previous activity. I can definitely say that I felt more refreshed afterwards and was able to work with a more clear, determined mindset.

I think that everyone at Cornell has been known to push themselves well over their limit to get a grade that they can think deems their worth. While grades are definitely important, making sure that we take care of ourselves is something that everyone should remember during prelim and final season. Taking breaks like walks, watching an episode of your favorite Netflix series, or even painting like this event can help lower stress levels and even benefit your studying as you will feel refreshed and relaxed when you have to return to studying. As many people have pointed out, Cornell has a very weak mental health focus amongst their wellness programs. People complain about not being able to see doctors during peak seasons like prelim and finals season and Cornell has done little in response. In my opinion, while taking care of oneself is key, Cornell should do more to make sure that people have all the resources they need in these situations. If they are aware that there are peak seasons or times when more people visit and seek out these resources, they should be aware and hire more individuals for these times. In order for students to be able to reach their highest potentials, they must be given all the resources that they need so that if necessary, they have the ability to reach out for help. Being able to take part in this event and remove myself from the stress of studying really helped ground myself in knowing that while grades are important, there are some situations that we cannot control. It helped me focus on the fact that not everyone can get an A in a class and that some people are naturally better at certain things than others. I know that finals season has officially ended, but I wish everyone here a happy spring semester. Take care of yourself because you matter the most!

Pools of paint on paper plates, and dirty lakes of water lays in a coffee cup.

Artists delicately dip their brushes, and commence their masterpieces

One girl uses cardboard letters to spell out her name.

Another paints a frame,

And her friends does the same.

Everyone seems half awake, and room bustles with soft spoken chit-chat.

A blank canvas stares at me.

It waits to be sketched, erased, and colored, impatiently.

I search through my phone for a potential muse

And I find, to my delight,

My favorite painting, Starry Night.

I pick up my brush

Ready to get my sleeves dirty

I would truly stay here all day

If I didn’t have a problem set due at five thirty.

I love the way that art allows you to relax and get of your head and let go of stress. When working 20 hours a week and having a full schedule, I definitely get overwhelmed. Having some time to sit back and do arts and crafts was great. I made a photo frame, a painting, and I painted the clay shark vase that I made at the clay event. I loved sitting with friends and just relaxing and letting the creative juices flow.

One of my favorite colors is orange. It combines the energy of the color red with the happiness of of the color orange. Orange is a warm color that often reminds me of the beauty of the fall season. The warm energetic and happy characteristics of orange are traits I associate with good times. For this reason when I was given the option of painting whatever I want I chose to paint fall trees. Fall trees full of fall leaves, a harbinger of good times and better energy.

At the Sip ‘n’ Paint (which unfortunately included no sipping), I painted for the first time in probably 5 years. I never learned painting techniques, so I was really confused when my painting blended into big blotches of ugly blue-green whereas my roommate’s painting eloquently portrayed a sunrise in the mountains. After taking some pointers from my roommate, I was able to salvage my painting and transform it into a stingray swimming in a green ocean.

After my roommate and I finished our first paintings, we worked on a painting of a skyline together. After outlining the skyline, we filled in the buildings with yellow and orange and covered the sky and ground with pink, blue, and lavender. I really enjoyed painting with someone who could help cover up my mistakes, as there was a little less pressure and it was really cool seeing someone transform my art.

I’m proud of the two paintings I created, and it was an amazingly therapeutic experience, especially for this time in the academic school year.

Though I was in the midst of prelims and stress, I really, really wanted to paint. And I’m so glad I did. I love the options that were provided to us to paint on: canvases, frames, little boxes, etc. Though I just stuck with a canvas and paper for this time, I also saw people making cute designs on their boxes and frames. I decided I just wanted to paint a landscape since I had been watching some Bob Ross videos earlier, and I decided to paint a sunset or sunrise over a river and the fall foliage. Since I had a lot of paint leftover, I made my second painting by using all the colors I had leftover. I really enjoyed doing this, since it didn’t require any precision or attention to detail and I felt more carefree making this painting. I didn’t try to blend out any streaks and just left it as it was. I decided I wanted to make this rainbow flow of colors some kind of water where something would swim in, and added in the little sting ray at the end. Now these two pictures are on my wall in my dorm!

Last Saturday, I attended the Sip and Paint event here at Rose House. I was so excited to take a moment to relax and be creative. I had no idea what to paint but I knew I wanted to use different shades of blue. I went with something simple – a flower. I realized after painting how relaxing it was to take my mind off of the hard course load here at Cornell University. I experienced the same relaxation I had during the Gourd Night Light Event. I then realized that I should start painting frequently as a stress reliever. Attending this school can cause some people to lose their creativeness. I hope to gain my back.

One of my favorite things to do in my spare time is paint. Although I don’t always have time to do so, when I do have the time, I typically paint alone/ with friends. We almost always paint on canvases. GVA hosts free painting sessions a lot, where you can explore painting on various sizes of canvases. This Sip-N-Paint session was unique because there was a vast variety of “canvases” we could paint on. There were your typical canvases, but there were also mini cardboard boxes, wooden letters, and picture frames. I painted an ombre of blues on wooden letters that spelled out my name. The abundance of materials encouraged people to be creative with their paintings. It was really amazing seeing how different each person’s master piece was.

This activity gave me the chance of realising one of my ideas. I had some arts idea in my mind before, and in this activity I started my project right away.

The most important lesson it taught me was just to keep moving and things might be better at the end. As I set forth a few brushes, I suddenly felt that all that I was doing was utterly disgusting. I felt the urge of discarding it right away. But my dear friends told me to have confidence and move on. I tried my best to mix the colors in my palette and add to the canvas what I thought might be good. I found something beautiful that I have done accidentally. So I went on with the new direction, magnifying the ‘accident’, and my total expectation of my work has changed.

Finally when I stopped painting, the work doesn’t look so ugly as I thought it would before. But it is a completely new outcome from my original imagination. Maybe it is the same with my current career, I thought. Right now I’ve been struggling with the self-perception that I am doing quite badly in the program I am attending. Although my grades are not that bad, I could not see beauty as I thought I would in what I am working on. I am feeling self-hatred sometimes. But maybe it’s just the beginning. Maybe later I would suddenly find something so beautiful that I never discovered in my life, and my direction to go as a career might change–but for good purposes. Maybe I’ll just carry on and try, and something unexpected might emerge.

Finally really thanks to the organisers of this activity. Music and snacks were prepared, and they took the responsibility to clean up the mess–the dirty brushes, the colourful tables, and the like, after we’re all done and gone. This is really not easy.

It is always during this time of year when I seem to get stuck in routines.

Wake up

Get ready for classes

Sit through lecture after lecture and discussion after discussion

Do homework

Find time to eat and exercise

Go to bed

Day in and day out, I’m just trying to fit within this box of acceptable submissions for assignments and acceptable conduct for society. Let’s face it, academic stress has a way of further stiffing creativity. What’s a better way to break out of that routine than with a weekend Rose House painting event?

Personally, I’ve never had much artistic talent. It takes a lot out of me to produce something that can pass remotely as artistic. I’m used to expressing myself through verbal means, but that was all the more reason to step out of my comfort zone and attempt something as bizarre (for me, anyway) as painting.

I can’t produce a replica of Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ like many of my fellow Rose Scholars evidently can, but I was able to paint a pretty decent canvas of a quote that means a lot to a friend of mine. Maybe I don’t have what it takes to make it as an artist, but it was nice to get my hands dirty with paint and markers, while listening to beautiful music that set the perfect ambiance. At least with art, you don’t have to stay within the box of guidelines.