Introduction
Through developing my skills using professional applications and equipment such as DSLR Cameras, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Premier Pro, Audition, WordPress, and more, I am able to create and learn new ways to express myself in unconventional ways in this project.
In my new experiences in Freestyle English and Digital Media, I have been shown lots of new applications, hardwares, softwares, and new ways of thinking. I really appreciate this, because I feel like I am in a place where people actually want to learn and are actively trying to get better. There are so many opportunities to create, and I am very lucky to be here.
Digital Media & English
Art Reflection MoMA
In this project, Freestyle Academy went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the students were instructed to find an art piece that spoke to them and then write up a personal reflection to record. This was a joint project of English and Digital Media, and I personally learned a lot about how to write something more personal to me, as almost everything I have done up until now had been informational and I was very detached. I had been more of a practical writer and, as is the way of Freestyle, this changed or at least reminded me that writing can be more fun and true to myself. In Digital Media, I really enjoyed learning how to use Adobe Premier Pro as I had only dabbled in it and never really knew what I was doing, but after clear instruction, I feel more confident about it and value this project as a door opener to my personal and technical self.
Parody Introduction
For the process of making our Parody songs, we first found a song that we liked. Then taking that song, we found the instrumental version and downloaded it. We also found the lyrics for verses and chorus where we then took those and rewrote them with our parody lines with the same syllable counts. After that, we took it to the recording booth where we recorded the audio in Adobe Audition, and then edited it to our liking.
My parody is taken from Rupert Holmes’ “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)”. I chose this song because it is a pretty funny song with a story that is easily followed and I thought I could emulate the fun and light feeling. I accomplished this by singing about my satire distaste for cross country, as I am still confused as to why people decide to do that sport. I greatly grew my technical skills using Adobe Audition when I was recording this parody by learning how to change pitch shifters to make my voice sound weird. Creating this project was definitely difficult personally because I was a little self conscious when it came to recording, but when I came up with this idea, I really liked it and went with it. That made me pretty proud of myself as singing is for sure not a strength of mine, and doing it in this fun way about a topic I enjoyed made me feel more confident and care less about my insecurities.
I never liked going to run
I always hated sprinting
Not as much as distance jogs
I wanted to stop existingI can’t believe this is a sport
They can’t be doing this for fun
When I watched cross country
The whole point was to runThey were all nothing but sticks
The skinniest people ever seen
I dont know why their brain ticks
They probably forfeited their spleen
If they need help they should blink twice
On the rubber where they are fry
If they like say that they like it,
We know all know that’s a lie
Design
In Design class, we have been tasked with using Adobe softwares, cameras, and hands on materials to create illustrations and graphics. As a student, I greatly value the lessons being taught about the fundamentals of color theory, Principles of Design, and Elements of Art. This is very helpful in my approaches to creating new artworks in all of my Freestyle classes as they sharpen my artistic eye.
Alpha Name
In this black and white project, we were tasked with creating our names out of letters that we see. What that means is shapes of buildings, plants, or other structures that look like letters of our names. Then we put them into Adobe Photoshop and turned them black and white and put them together.
Conceptual
Artist Statement
My conceptual prompt for my Design 1 class was, “I am Exploring the Feeling of Disgust Through Preserving a Negative Situation.” where we were supposed to create an abstract image around this prompt using indirect symbols.
My project symbolizes the dread and disgust I feel when cutting weight. The garbage and trash bag represent my feelings of disgust, both in terms of my reluctance and my physical sensations during the process. The scale, of course, signifies the constant monitoring of my weight. The trash bag and garbage also have dual meanings: they represent the items required for weight cutting, such as wearing a trash bag and eating as little as possible. I put my items under a lower and dimmer light to convey a sense of the terrible conditions that losing weight puts you in. I shot the photo straight on to show that there are no cutting corners, no better angles to hide the struggle of weight loss. The angle I put it in was to show weight cutting in all its “glory”.
After completing the shoot, I used Photoshop to crop and add adjustment layers to lighten the image and neutralize the coloring. I applied techniques I learned, such as color correction, exposure, contrast, and brightness adjustments. I am proud of the set up and work I put into this piece as I have never done a conceptual artwork before and it was a new experience, but I think I came out pretty good. If I had to do it again I would change how bright my initial light was as I was really going for a dim look which I forgot that I could create in Photoshop. I originally took the pictures too dark and when I went to brighten them up, the photo was grainy and there was lots of noise in the photo. However I am still proud of the picture because I thought it really got across the message I was trying to convey, as I hate weight cutting and wanted some other people to know about it too.