My name is Linda Esparza. I am majoring in Electrical Engineering. I went into engineering after attending a heavily engineering focused school. Upon entering high school, I got placed to the engineering track due to a math placement test. At first, I did not want to continue because I wanted to be in ASB. During middle school, I was in the performance dance track. High school was a rough transition from creative expression to a binary structure. However, I grew to like it and fell in love when doing a birthday logic circuit. My life has been all engineering since then. It is my 4th year of college with a plan of graduation for next year May 2019.
It wasn’t until last summer May 2017 when I got more in touch with art. I had not taken an art class for the longest time. The last time I remember doing arts and crafts was for Mother’s or Father’s Day back in elementary school. Hobbies back then included buying drawing books and trying to replicate cartoons. Last summer, I had my first internship at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). I worked in the Solar Power Engineering where I helped design solar photovoltaic systems on LADWP properties. That summer I met a friend who was very in tune with art.
He showed me how to play the ukulele and took me around multiple museums in LA. He also had free-lance art friends whom invited us to art galleries. Going to the different museums and seeing all the LA street art made me want to take Art 110 as my C1 – Arts GE class. Art 110 is the Intro to Visual Arts. According to the CSULB Catalog, the class description is the exploration of meanings, purposes, styles, materials and forms of art and architecture.
This semester wasn’t so much to develop art technique but rather to develop an appreciation for art. We had to do little projects every week and see CSULB artist display their work in galleries. Most of their work was to fulfill their thesis or senior project. One thing that was shocking/fascinating for me was seeing how specialized these artists were. When speaking to them and getting their websites, I saw that mainly stood to 1 theme and 1 type of art form. For example, there was an artist who dedicated all her work to printmaking in the style of a little girl with a Pooh Bear. She used this art as an expression of a “comfort object”. I really liked her type of drawing and painting and would’ve liked to see her work applied to different themes. The weekly projects were very fun and challenging. They were challenging in the way that I often over thought, “if someone saw this, how would they interpret it? What would think about me.” In general, I used these projects as a stress reliever and a way to express my feelings. I often got extra supplies and had my brother work with me. This was to help our sister-brother relationship. One particular project, I had everyone play a part: mom, dad, brother and my two dogs.
This class helped me have a glimpse as to what pressure an artist may have but also the tremendous joy of seeing the outcome. In engineering, I do not see an obvious way how art can be applied. The most applicable project was the redesign of the wedge. It reminded me of work when I draw out buildings in isometric paper or 2-point perspective. I have art in the workplace by the way I organize and color code my work. My office itself has lots of art work like madalas I have created or poems. Even though art is not directly correlated with my work, it can be integrated as my hobby. I will continue to play instruments and develop my poem and drawing skills during breaks or outside of work. There exists a solar panel array in Asia that is in the shape of a panda. If I could recreate a shape of an animal or object in one of the rooftop locations, then I will have succeeded at making a solar panel design very artsy and not a typical box design.
linda 