Psyche Inspired: Alexandra Szabo

Institution: College of San Mateo

Major: Psychology

Psyche Inspired Class: 2023-2024

Reflections on Psyche Inspired

Reflections on Project 1: The Scent of Psyche

The Scent of Psyche

Alexandra Szabo

November 6th, 2023

Major: Psychology

Genre/Medium: Candle wax, candle dye and scents, acrylic paint and spray, some wire, pins and washers

About the work: The Scent of Psyche was designed to bring some colors and relaxation into our everyday lives. The candle is the representation of the Mission, the spacecraft, and the asteroid. The Inside – Inside of the Candle As the Psyche Mission is a journey to a metal world, this candle is a journey for our senses. We start with calming vanilla and orange dream slice, going into the signature scent of the season, pumpkin pie. Then we mix the coziness of brownies with refreshing coffee to maximize our experience. The idea of the layers comes from the asteroid’s differentiated layers of materials in its core. While creating the wax layers, I came to the realization that the only proper representation is if the layers are uneven, representing the natural formation. Read more…

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Reflections on Project 2: PsyChristmas

PsyChristmas

Alexandra Szabo

December 22nd, 2023

Major: Psychology

Genre/Medium: Glass ornaments, acrylic paint and spray paints, paper, mini LED lights

About the work: Aside from Psyche, many other inspirations helped me bring this project to life, including my professor, who recommended the Psyche-inspired program to me. She loves Christmas ornaments, and I thought it would be nice to dedicate this project to her. I chose glass baubles to work with because of their good quality. For the acrylic paint on the outside, I used the colors of Psyche, to represent the Heavy Bombardment Era. This is one of the most important phenomena in history, filled with incredible information about the birth of our solar system and our life on Earth. I also wanted to show the metallic elements that scientists are expecting to find in Psyche, so I used glitter on the inside of the bauble for this. Psyche’s distinctive craters also caught my attention, and I used craft paper that I spraypainted prior to forming them and gluing them to the side. The small LED-lights are on the side of the craters to highlight this distinctive feature. I hope you’ll enjoy my festive piece.

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Reflections on Project 3: Secret Ingredient Resin Bowl

Secret Ingredient Resin Bowl

Alexandra Szabo

March 13th, 2024

Major: Psychology

Genre/Medium: Epoxy Resin and crushed glass

About the work: This Secret Ingredient Resin Bowl resembles the colors and shapes of life. The bright colors represent 16 Psyche and the sparkly glass edges stand for star dust. But what is the secret ingredient?

In these sections we usually talk about inspirations. This time I wanted to take time for the inspiration’s inspiration, the root of how I got here. I’d like to remind us of all about how hard it is to find time for relaxing and creative activities these days. Art sets our mind free, no boundaries; we can be whoever we want to be. In their article, Megan E. Beerse, Theresa Van Lith and Gregg Stanwood investigated the effects of something called Mindfulness-Based Art Therapy (MBAT) and concluded that this method has great stress-reduction potential.

My original project was a mod podge bowl, which completely failed. I am glad that this happened, because it made me seek other opportunities and found the brand new world of epoxy resin. You can see the fail-picture at the end of the showcase photos. It was very flimsy, it would not keep its shape, but inspired me to look for something else. This is the beauty in the world of art and sciences, when one thing fails, it doesn’t mean it’s over. It’s just a new beginning.

I’d like to grab the opportunity to say thank you to all of our guest speakers so far. Your time, effort and advice are all so meaningful and inspiring!

(The secret ingredient is YOU. You can see your reflection in the bowl.)

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Reflections on Project 4: Eternity

Eternity

Alexandra Szabo

April 15th, 2024

Major: Psychology

Genre/Medium: Coulter pinecone, Resin display, stainless steel jewelry and acrylic paint.

About the work: The Eternity project almost took me an eternity to start it. It’s something I have been eager to try for a long time, but I was hesitant because I knew it was an extremely challenging and time-consuming job that requires using machinery I haven’t used before.

The material I use comes from Coulter pines. They were one of the many surprising and beautiful species that caught my attention when visiting California for the first time. Whilst the trees are not so huge, the cones are. I instantly saw our first Christmas wreath in them. I collected a bag full of these cones and worked on a wreath for a couple of days. I noticed that the scales are so large and wide, nicely bent; looked good for jewelry making.

I tried to find ideas online, but nothing matched my imagination. I made four drawings to see what options would be best to use as earrings and chose the big loop. This shape was able to accommodate all the scales (cone leaves) just exactly the way I had them in mind. Read more…

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