Reflections
As returning seniors our first unit back was the Reflections unit. While all of us were going through college application season we were given a chance to reflect upon ourselves and ask the question: Who am I? We were told that who we are is more than just what we do, anyone can do a lot of things, but what are you like when no ones around. What are the things that are consistently on your mind when you’re not told to think them. In english we were given the chance to ask ourselves that very question and start listing “essence objects” which were supposed to reflect something about ourselves.
This unit started out with some difficulty, I first found it difficult to think deeply about myself. I have never been one thats good about talking about myself however this project gave me a reason to dive in and try and understand. In english we got the chance to write our common app essay for our first project. It was a daunting task having to write an essay which was supposed to encapsulate who we are and our core values. However as I was writing the essay I ended up learning things about myself along the way. I ended up seeing in myself the values I value and how they come into play in real life and through navigating difficult times.
In digital media, we were tasked with learning a new application, adobe after effects and create a core values video in which we say our different core values as they appear on screen with different animations.
Mandalas
One of the first things we did in digital media was create a mandala which reflected more aspects about us. We were introduced to different artists that use illustrator as their medium to create these mandalas and we got the chance to see some of their creations to inspire ourselves. We created our own illustrator templates to make the symmetric effect that mandalas tend to have. We only ever drew on a slice of the project as we manipulated our layers and program to get our desired copies that come together to create the mandala effect.
This mandala was supposed to represent ourselves. Within my mandala, I have included a few different details that help express who I am as a person. When I started, I really struggled with creating a mandala that incorporated the aspects of myself that I wanted to include. Throughout the project, and with help from what we were doing in English class, I was able to identify a few aspects I wanted to include. Along the way, it taught me things about myself that I didn’t always recognize.
When working on this, I had a lot of struggles with setting up my mandala template and making it reflect around in a circle the way I wanted. Since other peers in my class had a similar issue, I was able to figure out mine by helping those around me. If I were to do this again, it might be interesting to start with an entirely black one and make the design out of the white space; I feel like it would be unique and an interesting way to approach this project.
I’m most proud of how I captured the importance of the relationships in my life with the figures within my mandala. It took a lot of trial and error to get that done. This project taught me self-reflection and how to include myself in my work, and how to create a piece of stylistic work that represents me. This project makes me look at new work again, but this time keeping an eye on the Easter eggs and little details that might reflect the artist. When I look at a new piece of art, I begin to ask myself: What pieces of the artist can I find in this work? What are they trying to say about themselves?
For this mandala piece, I drew inspiration from myself. We have been focusing so much on college applications and personal essays that why not take those things about myself and translate into artwork. This project taught me about myself, I had to think deeply about what matters to me and what I value and how to best include those things in a mandala.
Throughout this project I encountered many roadblocks some were due to working with technology and learning the correct way to set up my mandala in order to achieve the effect I wanted, others were artist block leaving me stumped and unsure about what to add next. I got through it however, greatly with the help of my peers and Mr. Flo who is a tech genius.
If I were to do it all over again I think I would add even more details and easter eggs. I would like to include something for the viewer that wants to look deeper into the art itself. I am however really proud of how this turned out, and especially like what I did with the two people with the heart between them. I think a lot of what I learned in this project could translate into my future work in whatever field I go into. Being able to get personal and understand yourself is a skill that could help wherever I may end up in life. This project allowed me to recognize how all art is a reflection of oneself, every stroke is unique to the person that put it on a canvas.
Behind the scenes
This is the application Adobe After Effects, we learned how to use it over the course of this semester and one of the things that we created using this new app was this project. I found that I preferred Premiere Pro for the video editing aspect because the clip manipulation had a friendlier UI.
This is the workspace on the Adobe Illustrator App. We used this app because it has smart ways to manipulate and copy and repeat any lines we drew. We used this effect of the app in order to make the mandala effect come to life. Without it we might have had to painstakingly make sure to draw in a symmetric manner.
This project opened my eyes to many new mediums and way to work with mixed digital medias and how to bring in physical mediums as well. I really like how we did the whole project with the goal of encapsulating some pieces of you in it. I how have a leather version of my mandala sitting in my house reminding myself exactly who I was at the time it was created.
Personal Essay
Since here at Freestyle we have an integrated english class we have themes that carry over between classes. For english this means writing our personal essay. We started off by reading this book which was supposed to help craft an essay of who we are or some experience which we’ve had in our life that defines us to some extent. The entire point of the essay was supposed to help us answer the question “Who am I?”
Film
As you might have assumed our Film class followed a similar pattern. We were tasked with creating a two minute video which also reveals some aspects of who you are. The goal was to have this two minute video be able to sum up what kind of person you are. Not what you do, not what you like, who you are.
As the main project that we engaged in this unit, this was the most rewarding. I really like how its almost in video essay format. It follows a three act structure in a different way which I really enjoyed learning. I think this was a sweet video that really gives the viewer some context to the type of family I come from and who that makes me as a person.
Other than the short we put together over the course of the unit we created/put together other in-class exercises. We learned how to manipulate audio and got a crash corse on narrative writing.