The explorations project encouraged us to strength our 21st century skills through exploring a new skill or passion. I chose to improve upon my balloon making skills as after a long year I wanted to choose a craft that reminded me of childhood. I was excited to learn how to make different balloon animals, a skill I hope to utilize at birthday parties and other events this summer. I am improving upon the 21st century skill of creativity and risk taking as this was a unique and very different media than I was used to.
Process:
First I began with watching YouTube videos to learn basic techniques.
I then implemented these techniques on a few smaller projects that helped me learn how to become comfortable with the balloons.
After getting comfortable with the balloons I then decided to complete a larger project. After seeing inspiration of individuals making wearable balloon art I decided I wanted to try to make a top out of balloons.
I began with blowing up a LOT of balloons.
I then created the first rim of pink balloons, and tied on vertical balloons going downwards. After that we weave the rows of balloons down to create a woven fabric look.
Final Production
I am extremely proud of this final product. I really valued the freedom to explore a media I was curious about, and while there are major areas for improvement, I am proud of how it turned out for my first time. This benefits me as a digital artist as it helped me expand my creativity.
Poetry
For the last unit of the year for English, we learned about poetry. We started this unit with 3 workshops by Ms. Moore, who taught us about how poetry is another way of communication and to view it as a form of communication and art. After learning about how poetry could truly be about anything, I decided to write a poem about childhood. I wanted my poem to reflect longing for the whimsical attitude and childhood curiosity, and spoke against what the standard norm of ‘growing up’ should be defined as.
Throughout this year, I’ve been learning how to let go, be more creative and have more of my own personality in my writing. Yet, honestly, I was still the most scared going into our last unit: poetry. Poetry has always seemed so far out of reach, a subjective art without clear parameters that I’m a step behind to learning the rules of. Yet, after seeing the passion Ms. Moore spoke about poetry with, and seeing Mr. G’s young kid excitedly reciting a poem, I began to shift my view of poetry. I realized that it is just another creative language. After shifting my frame of view, it was exciting to dive right into developing my own poem, and now, many, many drafts later, I can say I went from being fully intimidated to fully obsessed. Each detail of the poetry process, from deciding where my break should be to the exact shade of my text had me fully enraptured. Overall, this process of poetry helped me let loose when in writing, and broke many previously held ideas about poetry.
I am really proud of how my production conveyed the meaning and spirit of my poem. One of the most important choices I made was the transition from sad, still, and more “grown-up” images to videos my childhood filled with energy and color. This shift visually mirrors the poem’s movement and helps communicate its emotional journey. The contrast between the quiet, reflective beginning and the lively ending captures the sense of longing for childlike wonder at the heart of the poem. While if given more time I wish to make the picture of rain into a video of raindrops racing, I believe the production strengthened the poem’s message and allowed viewers to feel the emotions more deeply.
I valued the creative freedom to bring my own vision to the poem and translate its emotions into visual storytelling. For the first portion, I created several calm and quiet scenes that felt almost boring in a purposeful way, while still remaining visually appealing through subtle movement and transitions. However, after the break in the middle I shifted to fast-paced clips filled with excitement, movement, and energy to reflect the poem’s changing tone from wistful longing to a more confident, passionate, energetic yet wistful tone for the memories and times shown in the video. I made these artistic and technical choices because I wanted the visuals to match the journey of energy of the writing and emphasize the raw and passionate emotions expressed in the poem, while allowing the viewer to further connect by seeing the scenes I was imagining while writing about the past. Having the freedom to shape the pacing, imagery, and mood allowed me to create a production that felt authentic to the poem’s message.