Reflections

Introduction

The Reflections unit taught the importance of being able to create and represent oneself through art. In English, we wrote personal and lyrical essays. We started off each project by making essence lists. Some of my essence objects include:

• Hershey’s kisses
• Meatball (my dog)
• White butterflies
• Floating on a River
• The smell of bay leaves
• Autumn nights
• Rick Steves’ Europe
• Paraphernalia 
• 2008/9
• Overalls

In Film, we created reflection films depicting our internal monologues. In Digital Media, we made personal mandalas and created watercolor and pastel paintings from original photographs. 

Through this unit, I learned that I am a nature lover, my passion for storytelling connects to my personal roots, and that I value the time I spend reflecting on myself. Through my nature-based paintings and writing about my personal growth surrounding art, I demonstrate these ‘essence’ pieces of my being. 

Mandalas

Using Adobe Illustrator to create symmetrical slices, I created two kinds of mandalas. I enjoy drawing natural things such as flowers and streams of water, so I incorporated that into both of my mandalas. In the first, I created a nature scene from the roots to the top of a tree. In the second, I created a spring bouquet. Overall, what I valued the most about making Mandalas was how peaceful and relaxing it was! I enjoyed making such detailed art in a way that felt minimal pressure.

 

If I could do one thing differently for the Mandala Productions, I would have made slightly less complicated designs. Mine were very dense, so it took a lot of time to complete. I spent a ton of time on these mandalas, and while it was very worth it- it was also very difficult to keep all my layers on adobe illustrator organized.

 I really valued learning about this kind of art form- it is very unique and almost meditative to draw mandalas. I honestly really love the art part of the media class here at Freestyle, and I really love how we can learn about different forms of art through this class. I think it is great that we got to learn about Mandalas, considering that there probably isn't another class in this school district where we could.

 I think that while learning about Mandalas, I reestablished how much I love drawing nature. Almost every idea I had for my mandala involved some form of nature, whether it be flowers or running water or butterflies. I really hope that I continue to get out and enjoy nature over this school year, because it seems to be quite therapeutic for me. No matter how hectic senior year may get, I do aim to do some hiking and have a few beach days.

Photoshop Art

Using Photoshop, we were able to transform personal images into paintings! We used multiple brushes and practiced multiple different types of art using photos of our own choice. I valued this skill a lot because it was probably the first time I have ever felt like a real artist. Ha ha, I wish I was kidding!

 I really enjoyed this process, it was very relaxing. I had a fun time recreating a painting for me to work on, especially because it was a picture I had taken. I thought trying to recreate the lighting, shading, and colors was super interesting! I valued learning how to recreate photos through Photoshop! It was really cool how you can make it look as unrealistic or realistic as you want. Now I know how to create a painting of literally anything, so this could be useful in the future for gifts or projects I want to create.

I learned that I certainly have a unique style of drawing that I should continue to practice! I really enjoyed this assignment, and I think I will be doing this as a hobby. Maybe in college I will participate in a painting class, because this was really fun.

The story of Gone Swimming relates back to the story I made in Junior year about a girl who nearly drowns in the river on a warm summer day. She washes up on the beach miles away, stranded and trying to find a way home. This image captures her in the river, swimming before her accident.

I liked that the colors of the watercolor all blended together, it really helped when I was trying to replicate water in different lights. I also appreciated the warmth and intimacy of watercolor. It feels less bold, defined, and abstract as the pastel brush- and because of that, I feel it conveys different emotions in art. Finally, I liked how there was a lot of room for me to grow in this! I felt much more comfortable in pastel, but I think I can really work other artistic muscles with the watercolor brush that I have not used before. I preferred pastel to watercolor, because I appreciated the boldness and the definition of the brush more, and it was easier to use. I preferred digital painting to analog painting, because there isn't a mess of paint and tools to clean up afterward. Plus, you can just erase your mistakes afterwards!

I decided to make a political cartoon for this project. Mr. Florendo said this could be funny, so I got the idea to photoshop Borat and the current president in a scene together with Rudy Giuliani. The message of this is that America is not actually a great success right now, politicians and leadership is kind of a wreck. But Borat enjoys it.  I used clipping mask and blending techniques. I used clipping masks to make my layers work, I blended with the brush tool, and used different color filters with different opacities to make the rainbow look semi realistic. I honestly thought this was fun! You don't have to take this assignment too seriously if you don't want to, which I enjoyed. I feel like this is a lot more creative and liberating than natural composition, which seems to require more skill.

College Personal Essay

I initially started drafting and brainstorming for my main college essay in the late summer. I was unsure of what to write about myself or how to best describe myself in a way that would work. After reading College Essay Essentials in Freestyle English, I felt much more confident in my understanding of all the ways I could possibly write a college essay (and how). Regardless of whether or not we used the essay for college applications, the ability to create a solid personal essay seems really important. After a solid month of working on my essay, I finally got it to where I wanted it to be, and I was extremely proud of my hard work.

Reflections through Film Production

In this unit of Freestyle, Film Production 2 students create a personal, under-two minutes video reflection essay. This could be used for college portfolios, but it was also a way to put together a reflection of our own internal monologue. It was a really interesting prompt, because each person's reflection shares unique ideas and interpretations of the assignment.

I wrote a script of my general idea for the film in a document, and practiced saying it until I was more or less memorized. I recorded it at this stage, because I wanted it to sound both natural and like I knew what I was saying. I then filmed b-roll footage to visually demonstrate my message. This was interesting because I felt inclined to use footage that was more abstract than necessarily directly correlated to my film, but I think this direction was ultimately the right choice for my film. I then edited my work together, trying to match the b-roll and footages to fit the changing moods of my piece.

I have never created a video that was so... personal before. When I make videos, I'm usually playing characters or creating stories or making documentaries that focus on other people- not myself. It was interesting to try and represent my opinions in a film, as I have never done that before. I am pretty satisfied with my final product, but I am also extremely proud of myself for opening up and being able to create an honest video of my own views.