Self Directed Learning - My Own Experience

When I got my first job out of college, I bought myself a Fossil watch to celebrate. Fast forward about two years and on the last day at that job, the watch died at exactly 5:00pm. I took the watch to a small jewelery store in Winchester hoping to purchase a new battery and struck up a conversation with the owners. I told them the strange story of coincidence surrounding my watch and they asked what I did for a living. I told them i was a graphic designer and they asked me if i designed web sites. I replied no, but that it was something I was interested in learning. They then asked me if I would design a site for them. This would become my first web site.

Here is where my self directed learning experience begins. I knew NOTHING about web design at the time - so I went to the book store and purchased a book on HTML and two of Lynda Weinman's web design books. I then set out to learn how to design a web site.

Through trial and error, I worked my way through the books and typed the code into notepad. When the code didn't work I kept making adjustments and testing until it did. I also joined the HTML Writer's Guild and turned to their message boards many a time looking for advice from other members.

Within three months I had completed my first site. I was thrilled with the results and the jeweler's business also showed a drastic increase and orders started pouring in from all over the US! The experience was truly transformative and launched me on a whole new (and lucrative) career path - a path which I am still walking to this very day.

Transformative Learning Question

When i read the wikipage, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about - for I had one VERY transformative moment a few years ago and it stuck in my mind - for I knew something very special had occured.

My ex husband and I had separated in February 2009. It was supposed to be a trial separation and I had hopes of continuing to work on our issues during that time. In the fall of that year, my best friend's husband called me on his cell to inform me he had bumped into my ex and he "wasn't alone". I was in denial, of course, at first - but as it turned out, he had been dating this woman for several months behind my back, all the while telling me to my face he was still going to "work on" repairing our broken marriage.

Many emotions went through my head - anger, sadness, denial, etc... (I'm sure you're all familiar with the stages of grief). I carried this anger around for many months. If my children came home from a visit with their father with ANYTHING this woman had given them - it went straight into the trash. I WAS SO HURT. SO MAD!!!

One day, my ex pulled into my driveway to drop off my kids and his girlfriend was in the car. I decided I was going to be an adult about the situation and go and introduce myself. I marched straight out to the car and the poor girl looked terrified! She turned her face away from me as I approached the passenger side of the car - but I knocked on the window and she lowered it. I reached out my hand and said "Hello - I'm Julia".

Something amazing happened to me at that moment we shook hands. All my anger, pain, hurt, fear... it all washed away and was replaced with an overwhelming peace. I realized at that moment that it was a blessing this woman was with my ex. She was clearly very nurturing (she had a young child of her own). She was constantly sending crafts and things home with my kids... pressed flowers, homemade playdoh, etc. I forced my brain to flip the situation upside down. I forced myself to push out the negitive energy and thoughts and replace them with all of the good in the situation. Not only did she do a better job watching my kids than my ex did, but she also helped get me past the hope that my marriage could be saved. Everyone around me seemed to know it was hopeless except me and I seemed to have gotten stuck. Meredith UNSTUCK me.

As time went on, we became close friends and confidents. She emailed me once and said "He is so abusive - how did you handle it?" to which I responded "Isn't it obvious? I divorced him!"

After dating him for 3 years, she finally left him and is now married again to someone else. We still keep in touch to this day.

Week 7 - Constructivism

All I can say is "Wow"! What a great job the ladies did on the Constructivism presentation.

As I watched in class Thursday night, I reflected back to an art project I designed many years ago during my senior year at Montserrat. I designed a poster featuring the leading Russian Constructivist graphic designers. I was always fond of this movement and the art they created.

From Wikipedia:

"Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, which was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th century, influencing major trends such as Bauhaus and the De Stijl movement. Its influence was pervasive, with major impacts upon architecture, graphic and industrial design, theatre, film, dance, fashion and to some extent music."

Here's my favorite one, a Russian Constructivist Poster designed by Rodchenko advertising replacement nipples for baby bottles:

The slogan is the best part of all:  "So good, you’ll want to suck ‘em until old age."

Perhaps the most famous of the Soviet Constructivist propaganda posters is this one by El Lissitzky titled "Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge":

"The artist constructs a new symbol with his brush. This symbol is not a recognizable form of anything which is already finished, already made, already existing in the world - it is a symbol of a new world, which is being built upon and which exists by way of people." - El Lissitzky