The Reflections Project challenged me to answer the question “Who am I?” While seemingly simple, this question is actually complex. To address it, I used a combination of personal and lyrical essays, photographs, and illustrations. For the first time, I thoroughly examined myself and defined my values. Through the various projects and media forms for my three classes, I was able to explore different aspects of myself. For design, I created a PSA poster (public service announcement) pertaining to the core message of my essay. There also was some photography and editing involved. For digital media, I illustrated a mandala that represented my personality. In English, I wrote a personal essay about an experience that shaped me, and a lyrical essay casting me into the shoes of another person. What I knew and thought of myself was highlighted by the contrast between my personal piece and the piece on another person. Below is my Essence Objects List, a list I created in English with items that I believe have shaped my life so far. Casting “Who am I?” in the form of physical objects helped me to think more concretely about my experiences.

  • My matte and unsanded piano
  • Old beat-up Volvo
  • Clompy Doc Martens
  • Silky blue ao dai shared with Mom
  • The single 3-looped gold earring
  • Well-worn and frayed pointe shoes
  • The jar of amber nuoc mam I made
  • The red adult-sized bike
  • The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
  • The large vat of mismatched pens
  • Wickedly sharp and cold triangular ruler
  • Blue Beats headphones
  • Red envelopes
  • “Sonatina for Cello and Piano” by Kodály
  • The two rolling backpacks I own
  • Brion Cemetery (Carlo Scarpa)
  • The unplayed jazz pieces sitting next to my piano
  • The red gridded paper used for Chinese character practice
  • My weirdly organized phone apps folders

 

Personal Museum Curation:

On a visit to the SF MoMA, I took photographs of art installations that were representative of aspects of my character. Others were of pieces that are not part of my character, and I photographed a few of those as well. This exercise helped me to view art in a more personal light.

I try to make my work with purpose and to find the positive of bitter or negative situations. I strive to consider different perspectives. The pieces in my personal museum offer people a chance to think about their meanings and aren’t made out of traditional material; rather, they are things that are used in the process of making other pieces and usually are taken for granted.

Exploration of the Self:

Carol Bove — Luxembourg: The amalgamation of shapes and textures and colors intrigues me. I feel like this piece represents me in that I am multi-faceted. I have different personality traits that perhaps are in a strange combination, but they ultimately come together to form who I am. To some, the piece may look too discordant, but to me, I find the structure beautiful.

 

Yves Klein — Éponge (SE 180 & 251): These sponges mean absorbing information from and the beauty of experiences. They reflect my desire to do things with a sense of purpose, to not be drained due to too many meaningless actions.

 

 

 

Rigo 23 — Found “Lost Bird” Poster: I feel for the birds from these posters that are supposedly “lost.” I can understand wanting freedom from an environment, even if you’re living in a relatively comfortable and somewhat extravagant one. Maybe these birds felt that they were limited by their owners, and wanted to experience something different even if they were unsure of what was out there.

 

Things not representative of me:

Bruce Nauman — Life Death/Knows Doesn’t Know: This piece represents a constant drive for a definitive answer and fluctuates between its many states without pause. The constant fluctuation seems to be without regard for the people that pause to mull over ideas. In the current world, people seek snappy answers to problems from others but don’t seem to fully absorb the answers’ meanings. I disagree with the pressure to have answers for everything, especially with passing snap judgment.

Cy Twombly — Untitled (Bacchus 1st Version IV): This painting represents chaos and instability, both of which do not sit well with me. While I can understand that experiencing a wide range of emotions is healthy, letting violent and passionate feelings fester is something I try not to do.

 

 

Design Elective:

In Design, I experimented with different lens (macro, telephoto, kit) to capture the world from different perspectives. The lens type affects the angle and distance at which you view the subject. Using the main message from a personal essay that I wrote in English, I created a public service announcement (PSA) using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. To further explore the idea of seeing things from different perspectives, I translated one of the photos I took into a pastel drawing. I am thankful for this unit because it allowed me to think outside of my usual perspective.

 

macro photo

Macro Photo

 

psa poster

PSA Poster

 

pastel drawing

Pastel Drawing

 

screenshot of photoshop workspace

A Screenshot of My Macro Photo in Adobe Photoshop

 

screenshot of psa in illustrator

A ScreenShot of My PSA in Adobe Illustrator

 

Mandala:

Creating my mandala was my first time drawing freehand in a digital application. I came to enjoy the process of experimenting with line weights and types of lines, whether explicit or implied. The clipping mask that made the repeating pattern possible was interesting because it allowed for circular symmetry in a highly efficient way. I had been exploring more with asymmetry recently, so I’m glad that I had this opportunity to look at symmetry again. The sharp angles and many straight lines in the mandala reflect my love for structure. However, I did include curved lines and more organic shapes to offset sharpness to convey my appreciation for softer ornamentation. I used Adobe Illustrator to create a repeating pattern to draw the mandala. The file was sent to the laser printer, which lasered out my mandala on acrylic.

Here is a video on how I created my mandala (Scroll down to see finished products):

Black and White Mandala

 

Mandala Engraved on Black Acrylic

 

Colored Mandala

 

Here is a video on my reflection on creating my mandala:




 

Perspective Piece:

We were challenged to create a 1-2 minute video on something we wanted to say about the world. I chose to speak about teenagers needing naps, which seems like a silly concept but actually ties into the stress culture that I live in. Once I wrote a script, I recorded my piece using the program ProTools and then edited audio and images together in Adobe After Effects. I grew as a digital artist during this project because I learned to effectively use video editing techniques to send a message. I am glad that I got to partake in this project because it got me to think further about something that seems so simple.

Here is My Perspective Piece Video:




screenshot of adobe after effects workspace

A Screenshot of My Perspective Video Production