I am a heavy procrastinator, and I envy you if you’re able to sit down and do work easily. Alas, that is not me. One thing about me though is that I will procrastinate by doing an arguably more time consuming task. My friends and I all gravitate toward arts and crafts as our idle hobby and as a result have amassed a collection of handmade trinkets and art supplies from Hull’s (an art supply store by the school of art). Here are some of the creative endeavors pursued in my time at Yale that made for unique college memorabilia.
I know I started this by talking about how I procrastinate by making crafts, but I also do indulge in shows with the best of them. Among the actual good content I consume, my friends and I also watch reality TV including Love is Blind and throwbacks like America’s Next Top Model. All these shows fall into similar themes and tropes, so much so that they become obvious to the avid viewer. We thought it would be fun to try and make a game of identifying when these tropes happen. With some construction paper, we made individualized bingo cards listing things we expected production-wise or the contestants to do, say, or experience. Some of my favorites include “way too literal music” for Love is Blind and “early 2000s dance moves” for ANTM. The free spaces are also fun: “Love isn’t blind” and “someone cries.”
I’ve definitely mentioned in a previous blog how my suitemate is obsessed with holidays and holiday decor, including Christmas. Well, she had a bag of plain Christmas ornaments and a dream. She enlisted friend help to paint several of these wooden ornaments with winter scenes to decorate our mini Christmas tree in our common room. We played music as we painted reindeer and snowy landscapes. When she graduated, we let her keep the ornaments and I hope to see them displayed on her tree at home for at least the next decade, or else…
Nail art is something I thought was my life’s passion for like two months in the sixth grade. Therefore, naturally I have revisited nail art. Being in your 20s, am I right? My friend was kind enough to let me paint his nails with fun patterns while I painted my own with the only three nail polish colors I had in the suite. Although grey, yellow, and purple make for an unlikely combination, we thought it would be best to lean into the absurdness and make fun, chaotic patterns on each nail. Plaid print, half-and-half, swirl, dotted, etc. With some practice, I attempted a more cohesive design on my own nails as seen on the right. Let me know if you need your nails done by an amateur nail artist (no acrylics though)!
This may be the most “arts and crafts” activity on the list, but my bestie Caleb is a polymer clay professional (compared to me at least) and we thought it would be fun to dedicate a night to making a bunch of little clay figures. One night became several, but that’s besides the point. Now we have little turtles, plants, axolotls, balloon animals, and even a mini Kirby. Friends can expect a little clay figurine as a gift in the future.
At my core, I am an acrylic painter. Therefore, I’ve made friends partake in paint sessions with me from time to time. I love to paint, but I enjoy it even more with good company… still working on finding the good company haha (just kidding I love my friends). This was the latest paint session! Very Pinterest, very colorful.
I want to plug YVA (Yale Visual Artists) which whom I’ve also painted as they hold group sessions for people wanting to do art activities with other artists. I always found it hard to connect with artists on campus as someone who isn’t majoring in it and YVA was founded just as I was seeking this community. They do a lot of cool stuff around campus, including recently an art installation on the lower level of the Schwarzman Center! Fun fact, I was painting my cat (visible in blog cover photo) and that painting is currently on display in my dorm <3
Me and the YVA gang doing art stuff in 2022! Credit: @yalevisualartists on Instagram
