23-29. November

I was working hard in my sculpture lessons that week, since I learned there are two works to be presented in the upcoming exhibition/presentation on 9th of December, my last schoolday in Riga. One of them consists of making a sculpture of a shape I formed with a paper strip, which almost looks like the infinity sign, and after making the shape in clay, my task was to surround the clay with plaster mould and later pour it in plaster, resulting in a plaster sculpture. That week I finished my plaster mould and I am ready to pour it in plaster at upcoming week. Another task is to make a clay sculpture of my hand, which I also started and am about to finish in upcoming week. I find it therapeutic to work with clay, but at the same time, it is difficult, since in Tartu Art School, the sculpture classes were sparse and not the main focus of my study program. Although I feel like I have been learning quite a lot about what making sculpture is about, and I am glad that I can be productive and proactive about this.

I also want to describe my thoughts about latvians. The more time I spend in Riga, the more difficult it becomes to find differences between latvians and estonians, since it becomes much easier to find similarities. For example, latvians are dreary people, kind of introverted, find it difficult to speak with foreigners naturally and prefer to work side by side quietly before they decide to get to know you. This is all very similar to estonians. It is said to foreigners to ask directions on the street when you get lost, and I have found it to be challenging, since latvians are unassuming and do not naturally speak with foreigners that well. This is different, compared to swedes and danes, who are also kind of introverted, but speak with foreigners more at ease, according to my personal experience.

I remember from that week that I also visited a performance art at Arsenals with Tereze, a girl from JRMMV, but the performance art, supposed to be a starting ceremony for watercolour exhibition, was really weird and bewildering to me. I almost felt it was mocking me, so I didn't enjoy the experience at all.

30. November - 4. December

I started my internship week at DDB Latvia, the company that has many chains all over the world, one of them being here in Riga. My first task given by computer graphics teacher here, Matiss, was to design a postcard invitation to the company's christmas party, in more specific, about the act of making gifts to each other, where gifts are put in one giant bag and pulled out on random, so it results in a mystery about who made it, and whom it goes to. Matiss told me to explore stylistic examples at first, and then to make three concepts, from which, one will be chosen to develop further.

The company itself is very lovely, I have my own table in one of their offices, and I can drink free coffee, using the coffee maker in here, and I really enjoy the coffee in here. They also have various teas and other appliances and possibilities in here, such as being able to read magazines for graphic designers and to network and converse with other designers and art directors, learning more about the behind-the-scenes of designer company's work flow and tasks.

I will also add one of the concepts I made for the task given by matiss, which is a comics strip. Enjoy!

In the Wednesday, there was a brief scheduled with the art director, but she didn't really accept the first variant I made, saying that the story is not so clear on this one, so I spent rest of Wednesday and Thursday on taking new pictures, putting together a slightly better version. For Friday's brief, I made the one like this:

It was actually a lot inspired by popular Latvian comicbook magazine called "Kuššš!", which I referenced to the teacher as being one of my main stilistic examples for making this comics strip.

9. December

This was my last day in Latvia. It was a day I spent in sculpture lesson, and I remember that the latvian students couldn't believe that I was really going back to Estonia, and they were feeling kind of emotional, since they asked me questions, like "how did you like the time being?" and "what was your most disappointing and best moment in here?" and such. I hugged at least 10 people goodbye (girls in specific, I just shook hands with the boys) and to my surprise, that one girl who used to be mad at me ran at me when she saw me and insisted that we hug each other goobye. I promised them I will come back to Riga one day, and told me that I am always welcome to come back and check them at school, as long as I notify about it on facebook in advance.

I presented my works to Inese as well, she kept a copy of the presentation file with the works in her computer, and prepared all the paper necessary for officially ending the internship, including the Europass Mobility document and signatures for Erasmus+ contracts, on behalf of receiving organisation.

After the school I went back to my dorm and started cleaning my room for leaving tomorrow. It was kind of nostalgic to see my room in the same condition as when I first entered the dorm, as I was done cleaning it.