For those of you who don't know what L.I.N.K. Internships are we are (as a junior class) interning someone who works in a career field we are interested in. We are going to be interns for three weeks straight so we can prepare ourselves for the "real world" and get a feel for what we would be doing. This way we can also see if this career choice is the best for us, and if we actually want to go down that specific career path.
Fall blog post
We have just talked a lot about internships and I'm kind of stressing out a little bit. I know I have a lot of time before the internships actually start, but I have to think about who I want to intern and in what career field I want to do mine in. That's going to be kind challenging because I don't know what I want to do for the rest of my life, so I want to choose something that I am really interested in so I can be prepared and learn things I haven't learned before. I am really good friends with some seniors, so I kind of know what to expect from this experience (getting prepared) because I watched them go through all of it, so that is definitely helpful. To be prepared for this I am going to contact a few artists and some local businesses (I want to stay in town, but we also have the option to travel) and just keep my options open but not limited.
winter blog post
Update!! I have my internship set up and I am very excited about it1 I was stressing myself out for nothing, but it all paid off. I'm going to do my internship with a local artist Miki Harder who is a family friend. I used to do painting lessons with her when I was in 5th grade so it wasn't hard to get in contact with her which was helpful. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to get out of this experience. I'm hoping I will get some art lessons, but I also want to learn about how I can be an artist and still be able to survive, I guess. Most of the artists I know said they started off super poor but have built themselves up and made names for themselves, so I'm hoping to learn more about productive ways to do that. I also contacted Turtle Lake Refuge to see if I could do a possible internship with them. My friend interned with them last year and she had a great time and learned so many things about plants and gardening, but also about business and how to be successful, so I asked them if they could be my plan b. They happily agreed to let me be an intern, but Miki had already said she would love to be a part of this experience. I'm kind of sad I can't do two internships because both of these sound really, really fun, but I would rather do something revolved around art.
reflection
Although LINK Internships looked a little different this year, regarding COVID, this has been one of the most positive experiences in my life. Since I had to incorporate COVID regulations and restrictions, I did my internship completely over FaceTime. This was kind of a bummer since I was going to get to meet some other local artists and a few photographers, but Miki and I have talked about doing that in the future if everyone feels comfortable with it. Before doing this internship I'd considered being an artist. I'm still thinking about it, but I'm kind of lost now. I've grown a ton as an artist during this period of time and I know I would grow even more if I went down this path, but I'm not sure I want to do art for a living. I simply find art a fun activity, not something I'm doing to impress people or get attention from (of course that's not why all artists do art). I'm not going to push the option completely out of the picture, but it has been put o the back burner. Starting this internship during the beginning of COVID was definitely a struggle. Miki and I were quarantined when we first started talking and working on my internship, so we did everything over FaceTime. It was not easy, but I got used to it pretty fast and knew when to give her updates and all that jazz. A struggle brought to the surface by this was that I couldn't do any art with her in person. We were originally thinking about making frames and doing sculpting and some other new things (for me), but that was put on hold. Instead we decided I would explore some new things on my own and see what I enjoyed. At the beginning of this internship I pretty much only liked doing art with markers, and that's all I would ever do. I like the look of bold lines and blocky color, and I couldn't find other materials that gave me that same satisfaction. Through out LINK I experimented more and more with acrylic paint (which Miki encouraged me to do), and I've found a new love for it. I simply didn't have enough patience for it before, but I've found I can still get the bright, blocky color I love if I wait a little longer, and work a little harder. I also started embroidering! Although I've only done a few projects, I find it very satisfying and super fun. But! It definitely tests my patients skills, and I would not recommend it if you can't sit still for more than a few hours. Originally, Miki and I were planning on setting up a gallery in my house for the project part of my internship. Due to COVID we weren't able to make that possible, so I had to improvise. I've documented a few of the pieces I did over the course of the internship, and now I am allowing pieces to be sold on Instagram. I still have to figure out some logistics and learn a little more about pricing, but I'm really excited to get my art out there and seen. It's a big step in the artist world, and it's one of the most exciting things I've ever done.