I'm back in the U.K now, back at Chelsea and I thought it was about time to finally finish off telling the story of my journey...
Week 15
The finish line was in sight and week 15 was spent finishing up work, here's some advertising work, the first image is of a poster for National Portfolio day, a poster encouraging high school student across North America to visit art schools.
This next image is a mock up of an invitation for the final showcase of FIT Graduates, entitled "Meet the Glitterati"
I finished off Screen Printing, by far my most favourable subject in New York,
this project was a brief set by myself, the only restraints being I had to come up with a product at the end of it. i developed a code named "Circabet" 26 identical circles each one to represent a letter of the alphabet. The below image spells out New York.
I then developed my idea into products, t shirts and tote bags, with a key to Circabet and labels all screen printed. Screen Printing was incredibly hard, I must of got through about 10 T shirts to get one perfect. Overall Circabet is one my most successful projects to date, they also really like it back at Chelsea in London and I am now developing and expanding the idea.
Week 15 got me really into the Christmas spirit and another wild tale happened, with s managing to get almost to the front of the Rockafeller tree lighting ceremony which is broadcast on American TV. We got to see lots of acts play like Aretha Franklin and Barry Manilow, but the highlight of the night was definitely seeing Alicia Keys play her version of "Empire State of Mind" such a major good song and I know everyone loves it, but it will forever remind me of when I visited New York.
There was an obligatory trip to Chito's that week too, again in theme with Christmas Spirit, we bribed the Christmas tree man outside the liquor store to give us some free trees. Nigel actually bought one though, a 6 footer, and watching him trying to get into his dorm room past security is possibly one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Here's mine and Holly's mini Tree...
Friday me and Katie went to Webster Hall again to see Ladytron and the guy from New Order perform a DJ set. Another incredible night, wild some might say! We had a wicked night and they played so much British music it was awesome, they even played Le Tigre - decaptacon!
Sunday I helped Katie with a Photo shoot for her FIT invite, and Americanised version of the Abbey Road cover, the photos came out brilliant however the irony was totally wasted on our American classmates!
Week 16
This week was mainly spent in my room, working and trying to figure out how I ended up with so much stuff in New York and how the hell I was going to get it home!
I also finished off Color Workshop, by far the most pointless and annoying subject I have ever taken. I ended up with piles and piles of geometric patterns painted in gouache that I had no use for what so ever, however I can now tell you all you need to know about the colour wheel. It was probably the most frustrating subject as well because it got me into the terrible habit of spelling it "color" "NO IT'S COLOUR", is what I wrote on my final piece of work!
Another trip to Chito's and another astronomical bill, but another hilarious night none the less, we ended up playing surades of funny events that had happened in the semester. So fun yet so sad at the same time, I really didn't want to leave :(
Week 17
Was possibly one of the most stressful weeks I've ever had, British Airways were planning a strike and snow was on its way both in the US and the UK so flight plans were a mess! My flight ended up being pushed forward for Thursday, so the week was a rush of lists, last minute trips I wanted to do and many many teary goodbyes! Also a ridiculous amount of packing and sorting, Look what I found in my closet, "FIT is a dry campus"...yeah right...
The famous 1007, the Nags 10 Head quarters ( my room)
Wednesday was my last official night on American soil so obviously I was going to go out in style. We began in
Chito's (obviously) and things spiralled quickly....
We ended up hailing a cab downtown to a bar that appeared to be closed, however that didn't stop us, we managed to get in there and some members of the group played bar tender! After very quick exit we ended up in a bar across the street, which by complete coincidence is the very bar I had my first American drink in! Me an Katie sat in the exact seats we had sat 4 months previous and ordered the same cosmopolitan and took the exact same picture! It was an incredible night after that including models, greygoose vodka and not much memory the next morning! It was the perfect last night, it felt like the trip was complete going back to that bar, I had completed the cycle.
The next day, I ran a few errands and ended up being able to see the Rockafeller tree for one last time, so beautiful...
My last day was so sad it was unreal, a surprise gift from Holly and Chloe left me in absolute tears, they gave me a small necklace with pieces of vintage watches inside a little pendant, the note attached read "no matter how far away you are, no matter what time, you'll always be in our hearts" sounds incredibly over emotional and smushy but it meant so much to me. They aredefinitely friends for life and I could not thank them enough.
I visited every ones dorms on campus, including my BFF Ian who almost cried, which made me cry but he manned it up "Come off it, you're the Brit, you'll be back" and I knew I would be!
Everyone walked me out and helped me with my bags to hail a cab from the sidewalk, I got handed lots of letters, which I read in the cab, and I can honestly say I have never cried so much in a public place, the cab driver didn't know what to do!
This is the last look I had of the skyline from the cab...
I flew to Heathrow from Newark, with Gordon Ramsay on flight, (who I might add gave me a cheeky wink in the line for the plane.) We flew right over and circled Manhattan and I got to see it in all its glory for one last time, all the lights and sights, truly beautiful.
