Freestyle Academy proudly presents

Reflection: A Junior Design Student Conceptual Project by Nina Clauer (2017)

I am exploring the feeling of gratitude through the search for companionship.

I chose a teddy bear for the focus of my photo. I put the teddy bear on the ground. The bear is shown twice because he is reflected by a mirror that is standing on the left side. On the right to the teddy bear, there is a flower that is not getting reflected in the mirror.

I chose to use a teddy bear as my main object to represent my artist statement through his feelings. A teddy bear is for most people a companion through their childhood and we feel gratitude for the friendship we build with them, what I am exploring is that not just a companion but also yourself and self-realization can make you feel gratitude. The mirror is representing the self-realization and self-acceptance by the bear seeing that he can be his own companion. The flower is representing happiness and warmth and cold. It is only showing in the reality part and not the reflection to represent that gratitude the bear is getting from the mirror into his reality. I chose a black and white background because it is supposed to represent the sadness the character (teddy bear) is feeling and then there is himself appreciating himself in the mirror and this gratitude gives him hope as you can see the flower that is the representation of the gratitude that puts color into his world.

To enhance my image I used Adobe Photoshop Raw Editing and made the world outside the mirror into a black and white world with a blue undertone to make it look cold. I enhanced the saturation and warmth in the inside of the mirror brighter. Using the pen tool in Adobe Photoshop I enhanced the colors of the flower to make it brighter. I made these changes to represent the upset and sadness that the teddy has in this world and how his self-realization brings light and happiness through the flower into his reality.
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