Reflections

The reflections unit at Freestyle Academy bestowed upon us a seemingly simple question to ponder: Who am I? Though it may seem to be simple, in reality, the dynamics of your personality are extremely complicated. This project allowed us to truly explore our core values and our thought process; our likeness to art and our character-defining experiences.

This brings me to an exemplary project we completed during the reflections unit: My core values video:

Mandala Project

The mandala project was an introduction to Adobe Illustrator for me and several of my classmates. We learned to capture brushstrokes, reflect them, and rotate them to create wonderfully symmetric pieces of art. Being the first piece of digital media I created, this project challenged me to dig deep in order to be as creative as possible while still keeping in mind the overarching question: Who am I?

This project prompted me to dig deeper into my childhood memories to find moments which resonated with me as a kid. I recalled my likeness towards medieval times as a kid, I remembered shows which depicted medieval characters such as King Arthur and Merlin the Wizard. This enjoyment of older times influenced a lot of my choices in fashion, games and food. Restaurants such as jack in the box, as well as burger king and white castle peaked my interest due to their medieval mascots. This influenced my choice to put a jack springing out of a box on my mandala.

 Not only did I center my food choices around this time period, however I also took a liking to the games which were played in older times such as chess. It wasn’t solely chess which I enjoyed, but I also found myself in several exhibition matches of old russian card games against my grandparents. The face cards as well as the symbols on the cards were objects which I greatly associated with this time period, this influenced me to include all four cards symbols in my mandala. I struggled to find a subject for my outer ring, however through thinking back to scenes I remember from those medieval-depicting shows, one object that truly stood out and resonated with me was Excalibur. A legendary sword stuck within a rock, impossible to remove. I feel that this sword pictures my likeness towards medieval times. Like a sword standing in a stone this time of my life will always stand out to me, it is impossible to remove that part of me.

 I chose to engrave my mandala on bamboo as it really highlighted the small details of the work. I felt that bamboo really matched the aesthetic I was going for, overall I felt it turned out great, super fun project.

Behind the Scenes:

Overall the mandala project provided me with all the basic and some advanced skills I could utilize in multiple different adobe programs. I feel much more confident editing drawings, videos, and even photos as a result.

Personal Essay

Throughout the personal essay unit in English class, we were told to read through a guidebook on how to write the perfect college essay. We were then instructed to write an essay sort of following the different guidelines the book would highlight depending on your personal situation.

Production Class

My personal production class is film, for the reflections unit we were assigned a short video essay to describe something important to you. Whether it be your thought process, your family, a belonging of some sort, etc.

My Film class teaches me everything I’d need to know about making movies, from lighting to camera aperture, to what’s necessary in a story. It is definitely the class I look forward to the most everyday.