Colleen's Art Design

An NMIT Blog

Comms

NMIT Riverside Gathering

by

Wednesday January 13th, 2020

Maitai Valley Road, Maitai 7010

2:30 PM

Meet in the park domain and bring your creative talents

I have this vision of curating an event for the creatives at NMIT. I have been inspired by the Bacon and Lox Society. I would like to invite the art and design students and teachers from NMIT to join together at the Maitai River for a shared meal. Please comment ideas, ways to help, changes to make this event better, or any other suggestions!

This creative event will be held in the summer. It will be a gathering filled with food, drinks, music, art, creativity, and all homemade items.

Summer

For my event, I want to hold this gathering in the Maiati River.

The theme of the event will be Sustainability and Growth.

Everyone who is invited MUST create something for the event.

In order for this event to happen, I will need to find people to create…

  • Food 
  • Drinks
  • Table 
  • Utensils
  • Table cloth 
  • Plates
  • Napkins 
  • Glasses  
  • Power (solar? generator? fire?)
  • Chairs
  • Servers/ Bussers
  • Art 
  • Music 
  • Filmer 
  • Photographer 
  • Decorator 
  • Coolers
  • Speakers

I am picturing this event somewhere on the river that is big enough to hold a large amount of people but at the same time be hidden; not a very popular spot that people tend to visit. Once each creative shows up, the event begins setting its self up. Every person must dress to the theme. Someone will document the process. Someone will make a film out of the process. Someone will take portraits of the process. The table and chairs will be placed in the river along with the entire event. There will be people to design the table and area. The music will be live. The artists will create their work in advance and set everything up in the river. The food will be homemade and prepared in the river, as well as, served and cleared in the river. There will be people who serve and clear the meals. People who make the drinks themselves. People who will create the plates, napkins, and utensils for the theme of the event. Everyone pitches in to set up and everyone pitches in taking down. Without everyone’s help/creativity/artwork this event couldn’t happen. Everyone has a purpose. This event is for the purpose of creativity. Get loose and find yourself in the process. 

Please contact (021) 668 9976 or email at NMITRiverside@live.nmit.ac.nz to RSVP or for any inquiries regarding the event.

Expanding the creative gathering is always exciting to meet new open-hearted, curious and creative people, so please introduce yourself.​

Signing up for our email list means being updated whenever there’s  exciting events in the works. When something new on the blog is published, I will send it your way! ​

GOALS

  • Be outside
  • Bring artists of all kinds together
  • Help local artists and spread more awareness of them
  • Create a space for NMIT students to connect with other artists

Objectives

  • Bring nature and artist together in the river will spark creativity
  • Targeting teachers, students, local artists of Nelson
  • Museums, art galleries, city council for help

This gathering is a way to take my favorite things come together. Promoting people’s artistic potential and being outside connecting with nature.

Comparative Research

by

Some of the different art from different featured local artists

Andre has multiple successful marketing ways he presents his business. He runs a Facebook page, Instagram, email list, a website, and word by mouth. On his social media for his restaurant, he promotes his food and the different events he holds. Some events Andre offers are cooking classes, intimate lakeside weddings, team building cooking class, in your home cooking classes, paint and sip, and cooking classes. The way he tries to engage as many people of all ages is done well.

With COVID19 putting a huge twist into businesses all over the world, Andre has started to think outside of the box. I interviewed him and he explained his amazing way of promoting local artists as well as his restaurant while in lockdown. Because he cannot have people come to him for business, he found a way to come to his people. Andre shared how afraid he was in the beginning with not having enough customers that would be interested in buying his dinners for delivery. He soon was turned around with an overwhelming amount of support and interest from more people than he realized new him. Andre decided in order to make the best out of his situation he needed to grab people’s interest in different ways. He reached out to his friends that are local artists and collaborated with them. His method is that each week a different artist will be featured. With the meal that he delivers there is a charge of $3 along with a piece of artwork. The money collected then goes to the local artists to help them through this tough time.

Thinking about the science of persuasion he uses reciprocity by giving little gifts to his customers. Even before COVID19, Andre would serve little “presents” of food at the beginning of each meal. The way he used scarcity in his persuasion is that there was only a certain amount of prints or pieces of artwork so I was a first come first serve kind of deal. This grabbed customers’ attention right away leading them to buy his prepared meals more. Andre’s authority is high up in the restaurant business. His restaurant is considered a five-star place to eat. All of his food is fresh and comes from local farms. He has won multiple food events, he has been interviewed by many high ranked people and food critics, he has been in magazines and newspapers. Another way he follows the science of persuasion is showing consensus through social media. Because people follow in the footsteps of others Andre makes a smart decision to post reviews of customers on Instagram and Facebook. Once others see how happy and delicious the food is they will want to see for themselves as well. Along with the artwork; people will want to collect and have different artwork. It makes people happy knowing that by them buying Andre’s to go food they are also helping support local artists wich, in the end, boosts their ego. Andre has been consistent with the artwork which is another way of persuasion. This helps reassure the customers that what they are supporting is legit.

A quote from Andre that I really enjoy is “Food has the ability to nourish the soul, but only if you pay attention”. This was his answer after the interview question “What is the importance of food in out everyday lives?” from Greg Watry. I think to support locally in a time full of unknowns is truly important. Knowing where your food comes from and that you are caring for your body goes a long way. Spending a little more money on quality food rather than supporting large industry chain restaurants is more important than most people realize.

“Tell me what you eat, and I’ll tell you what you are.” — Jean Anthelme Grillat-Savarin.

Instagram Marketing
Reviews on Instagram
Reviews on Facebook

Share an Idea

by

Support Local Artist and Businesses

With COIV19 the whole world has been put on pause. This has given people time to rethink how businesses will start back up again. You need to think outside the box in order to keep afloat. Believing that keeping how your business ran before the lock down will only lead to sinking. This is a time for recreation and supporting locals as much as possible.

With Nelson always being a supportive community I was thinking, why not keep the love alive? Bringing in restaurants all around Nelson asking if they would be interested in helping local artists. Starting with NMIT I was thinking to ask the creative students who would be interested in participating in this process. Each week would star a different local artist. The CBD restaurants would have a small co charge that would go to the artist. This would benefit not only the artists struggling at this uncertain period of time but also the food industries. Word will spread around how certain restaurants were including presents or gifts and more people will become interested. This helps the community support locally more.

As a student/ artists studying to make it in the art world, it can be a scary and overwhelming thought thinking about the future and how to support yourself. With the help of others and such a loving community, knowing that people care and want to help you with you passion helps reassure. Another plus is that you start to promote yourself more and spread work. More people will see what you make and pass your name or artwork along to others.

Interview With Emily Schneider

by

Emily Schneider is a lovely 20 year old courageous woman. She was born in a small village named Rengsdorf located in Germany. Emily has expressed how New Zealand had been calling her heart for quite some time. To test the waters, she took one year of work and travel exploring this beautiful country. Emily explained, “It made me fall in love with its nature, the people, the language and everything else. You could probably describe it as ‘love at first sight'”. After her year of work and traveling, she knew she belonged in New Zealand. Choosing to be far from home and family Emily convinced her family that she was ready to start a new chapter in her life, “Since my visa expired, I had to return back home, which was not easy at all. I was happy to see my family and my friends but I was also heartbroken… After a lot of research and planning, I presented my plan to my father, and although he knew that it means he can only see me once a year, he did everything to support me. And the rest is history”. Emily’s father raved about Nelson and Napier and actually took his wife to these places for their honeymoon! I was curious if either of her parents were artistic as well and found out that both are. “Both of my parents are architects. My father and also my mother have always been sketching and creativity is a big part of their lives. During their childhood, my mother has always been into photography and videography whereas my dad mainly spent his time sketching cars” Emily stated.

Some of Emily’s inspirations for her artwork is “music, sitting in nature and looking at peoples’ faces, analyzing their facial expressions. One artist I have been looking up to for several years is Diego Fazio, who creates hyper-realistic drawings. My goal is to get better at sketching and to be able to create drawings that get as close to the level of a photograph as possible”.  Her favorite practice is to draw and sketch. The detail and time put into her pieces are exquisite and precise. She shared, “I have been drawing faces since a very early age. When my brother and I were bored, our parents would give us paper and pencils, which means we grew up with drawing and painting… although of course, back in the day they looked very different. My first proper portrait drawing was created during my time in high school, probably class 7. And from this day on, I kept learning and learning and learning. It is a never ending process, I suppose”. Growing up with creative and expressive parents is such a special gift. I really agree with Emily when she said how art is a never ending process of learning.

Growing up Emily thought she wanted to become a fashion designer. She later changed her mind and wanted to follow her parent’s footsteps in being an architect. At the moment she is focused on becoming a graphic designer. Emily has started to get into photography while in her studies, “although NMIT made me discover photography, which fascinates me as well… I do not think that I would ever choose my “hobby/passion” for hyper-realistic drawing as my job, because I am scared that it would take away the beauty and simplicity of it “only” being a hobby”. Psychology is her plan if her potential pathway in the art world does not line up.

Having the huge curveball of COVID19 thrown into Emily’s studies, her contemporary arts and design practice have been changing. Her time has been mainly focused on her wellbeing. “I have been using this time to mainly focus on myself, which takes up most of my day. I am not as creative as I normally am, but that is not a bad thing in my opinion. At the moment, it is more important to me to pay more attention to my well-being. Normally Art helps me to do so, however I feel like this whole lockdown situation stops me from being as creative”. The most drastic change for Emily has been that she feel her freedom has been taken away. Her sense of freedom was a huge importance to her creativity as well. She gently said “I miss going for hikes and visiting my friends or the beach. It also takes away my daily structure and my ability to go to the gym, which is a big issue for me. I try to work out at home but it is not the same”. This I really connected with. Although she has had more free time on her hands “I struggle to be as creative, I do not find time to sit down and start drawing. I have been going through some emotional problems that made me feel tired and uninspired”. She hopes for the last two weeks of the lockdown things will be different. “I would love to be able to focus more on drawing”. I send all my positive thoughts and support to Emily and hope she finds a spark in her creativity and creates more than she ever has.

Be The Change Care For Change

by

Never Let The Unknown Or Failure Stop You

Have you ever felt in dire need of something new? Choosing Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology New Zealand as the school to study at has been the key to satisfying my needs for change. Traveling to Nelson New Zealand has helped me break out of an echo chamber of familiarity. It has been teaching me not only a whole new culture but a whole new perspective in life. Being the first person from my school back in the states to attend NMIT has not been easy. Being on the opposite side of the planet from my family while the world is facing a pandemic has been such a weird, strange challenge I never thought I would face. I have been filled with so many mixed emotions throughout my journey here. NMIT has now been put on hold including online classes and the timing of things has been such a mess. However, the magnificent beautiful mountains and nature I have been exploring little by little has been helping calm my nerves, worries, and stress.

To sprinkle a handful of my life goals around; traveling outside the USA for studies was my first. Second, is to create artwork that will allow people to pause. Life moves at an extremely fast pace and sometimes we need a reminder to slow down. As a Creative Media major and environmental activist, the ability to study how humans around the globe are impacting the environment in helpful and different ways is important. I hope that in my travels, my eyes will open to new ways we can start to help save the Earth. The future is in our hands. The future is in my hands. Ignoring this major issue of our home heating up at a drastic rate would be unintelligent. Each and every person’s actions matter, no matter how small they might seem. Just because an idea might be more convenient and quick does not always mean it is the best option. I have learned New Zealand does not have a large number of production factories. Because of this choice, the country does not experience the negative effects of pollution compared to most other nations. Experiencing first hand New Zealand’s environment beats learning from a book or article any day.

Saving up has been a long process; working hard at multiple jobs to pay for my plane ticket and expenses on my own while abroad has not been easy.  Being able to have this semester at NMIT in New Zealand has been preparing me to grow tremendously as an individual. Being able to have this experience and bring it back home to build off of has been a dream of mine. Just these couple months here has been one step closer to figuring out the next steps to my life.

Having the Coronavirus hit while studying abroad has been a huge turn I was not ready for. Granted, no one was ready for this to happen. I cannot let this stop me from learning and creating each day though. I am not losing hope for my education. A huge obstacle I am about to face is obtaining art materials. I was blessed with NMIT lending the supplies to us during class but now I need to find my own in order to keep creating. I really hope this will not hold me back from learning new ways to make art.

×

This blog is part of the NMIT Blog Network. The articles and comments in this blog are the opinion of the authors and not necessarily those of NMIT.