Students in Professor John Nordell’s Cultivating Creativity class took a recent field trip just down the road from AIC. The two-hour voyage was a lesson in creative learning at the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum of Art.

During the trip, Professor Nordell informed us of all the inventions created right here in our city, Springfield. A few inventions we learned about were Smith and Wesson, the first Rolls Royce, and before the trip he assigned us to research some inventions as well and we found we had a lot of similar findings. Adding on to the inventions we found, children’s book author and artist Dr. Seuss was a big part of them.

When we arrived Professor Nordell gave us the chance to get an overview of the Dr. Seuss Sculpture and read about some of its history. He also gave us some free time to explore the museum and get a firsthand experience about the art we got to see.

We got the opportunity take photographs of the art and Professor Nordell handed us an exploration sheet with a list of photos we could take that related to the class. The list states the following: color, texture, light, form, point of view, pattern, and angle.

Of course we did not get the opportunity to acquire all the photos on the list but it was great to view all the art,  which was a hit with students such as Jonathan R. Jubilee.

“We got the chance to take a firsthand look at the art we study like the Zentagles,” Jubilee said.

After our ‘personal exploration tour’ Professor Nordell had us create a blind contour drawing of Greek sculptures. Blind contour drawing refers to drawing what you see without looking at the paper you are drawing on.

It was interesting seeing what everyone had. The professor spoke about the gods and then told us to do timed gesture drawings on two specific sculptures.

Gesture drawing is like looking at an object or person and getting the basic shape of the object or person. It is the basic outline of what we are looking at.

The last section of the museum we quickly visited was ‘American Paintings Salon,’ on the pamphlet it is said that this gallery “reflects the interests and tastes of two remarkable Victorians: George Walter Vincent Smith and his wife, Belle Townsley Smith.”

While we were in this section, Professor Nordell showed us a painting done by an artist we learned about in class named Albert Bierstadt.

The painting was called ‘Sunrise Glow,’ painted in Hetch Hetchy Valley, California, in 1873-75.

He had us do another gesture drawing of our own reflection of the painting.

Afterwards, the professor interacted with us and had some of us pose as the characters in the painting and explain how we felt about it. That painting was called ‘The Village Thinker,’ done in 1881, by Henry Mosler.

To end our little trip here, some of the students took ‘selfies’ and when we got in the shuttle we spoke about our experience on the trip.

One student commented, “It was interesting to have a relook at the Greek Sculptures and get to see the art all over again but with a different perspective.”

This trip was a great experience and gives anyone the chance to enhance their art knowledge and I recommend students to take Professor Nordell’s Cultivating Creativity course.

It was a pretty great experience.

Jorangeliz Bermudez-Martinez is a Visual and Digital Arts Major, Class of 2018