Introduction
The Reflections unit this Semester focused around thinking more deeply about the aspects that make me who I am. In each project, I reflected back on the overarching question of “Who am I?” In English, we began the year by working on the Personal Statement for college applications as well as discussing and reflecting on race. In Digital Media, we used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create a multitude of projects based around the idea of “reflecting”. In Design, we worked on self-reflective pieces that explored both contemporary and ancient applications of Design.
This project gave me a lot of time to reflect on the person that I am. Although this introspection was initially fairly difficult, I found that through the use of artistic expression, I was more easily able to communicate such ideas. I really valued both the practical and emotional lessons that I learned from each class and project and I hope to implement much of what I learned through this unit in my future work.
Mandala
The very first project of the year was creating a personal mandala. We were given a lot of freedom with this project as it was meant to represent each artist individually. When working on mine, I often put on relaxing music and just concentrated on working in my mandala.
I used mirroring and clipping masks in Adobe Illustrator to make this twelve-slice mandala. Although the images in the mandala are repeated on each slice, I only actually worked in one slice at a time. What I drew in that slice was then reflected throughout the rest of the mandala. After finalizing my black and white mandala, I began to work on the colored version. Although it was fun to add color to the original mandala, I ended up actually liking the black and white one better.
Drag the arrow to see the black and white and colored versions of my mandala!
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Making this mandala was definitely a learning curve, but I really value how much it taught me. Initially, I really struggled in making my mandala because I was was bothered whenever something did turn out right and wanted it to be perfect on the first try. However, I found that in order to create something I was really proud of, I would have to take my time and go with the flow.
I chose to use koi fish in the center of my mandala because they reminded me of experience spent with my family. Growing up, we would travel to Maui every other year, and stay at the same hotel that had a koi pond. As a child, I was fascinated by the fish and associated them with the fun on those trip. I felt that using them as a central symbol would be fitting for the message I wanted this project to convey.
Ultimately, I’m really happy with how my project turned out. However, if I were to do it again, I would focus more on incorporating a common theme throughout the mandala rather than just having a central image and other patterns that had little to do with it. I also wish that I had given myself more time for this project. Nearing the deadline, I found myself rushing, so some parts of the mandala are less polished than I would have liked, but overall, I’m really proud of the work I did and had a lot of fun doing it!
Photoshop Art
One major concentration in this unit was using Photoshop’s brushes and effects to create a variety of types of art. I had briefly dabbled with painting and compositing in Photoshop prior to these assignments, but this allowed me to practice even more and build upon my skills. I can definitely see myself using the skills I learned through this project in the future.
Paintings
Pastel Painting
Watercolor Painting
Watercolor Effects
Using Photoshop’s watercolor effect in addition to clipping masks, I transformed original photography into watercolor art.
Photoshop Compositing
Surreal Art
After practicing with Photoshop compositing, I was ready to being the Surreal Art project. Using the world, characters, and storyline from my project in English, I made a piece that incorporates aspects from my story into a surrealist-style composition.
My worldbuilding project is centered around the idea of being out in space and slowly running out of time. I represented this through the main symbol of clock, the clearest representation of time. Clocks are present in both the moon and the eyes. Another major theme in my story is the disparity between different social classes. The main character, as represented by the woman in my piece, has been subject to the injustices of those wealthier than her. To represent this silencing, I covered her mouth with duct tape and added a gold tear.
Ultimately, I had a lot of fun with my surreal composition and am happy with how it turned out. I think that with potentially more time I could’ve added more elements that tied in to other parts of the story, but I believe that what I came up with presently still represents it well. Using Photoshop compositing to make my surreal composition was a lot of fun and I can definitely see myself using the skills I learned from this project in the future.
College Personal Essay
The college essay is extremely daunting task. Only 650 words to spell out what I wanted the world to know was most important about me. I struggled a lot throughout the process of writing this essay. I didn’t know what I wanted to write about which made it very difficult to start.
However, after multiple peer editing sessions and deeper personal contemplation about what matters most to me, an idea suddenly sparked in my mind. Magic. Something seemingly so elementary, yet incredibly important in my life. I began to develop this idea further and expanded on how I express my creativity and how it shaped who I am. This assignment was anything but easy, but I’m ultimately proud of my final product.
I still believe in magic; I always have.
From a young age, I’ve seen the world differently than anyone else I know. I can find the beauty in the ordinary, the unexpected in the mundane. But I haven’t always been able to easily articulate my views to other people; as an introvert, I often struggle with making my voice heard over the noise of my more outspoken peers. The magic I have discovered is the transformative power of art. Through artistic pursuits throughout my life, I’ve learned how to communicate when words are not enough.
For as long as I can remember, I have been more right-brained than left. In school, hands-on projects appealed to the visual learner in me. I poured so much more effort into those than more traditional assignments. At home, I could be found working on my latest creative endeavor—from sketching imaginary worlds, to directing stop-motion animations with intricate handmade clothespin dolls, to sewing a dress made entirely of plastic shopping bags, to creating elaborate friendship bracelets that replicated the works of famous artists (imagine Van Gogh’s Starry Night made entirely of knots). I had a thirst for artistry; a hunger to create.
In addition to being a creator, I have also been raised as an art lover. Theatre and music are important parts of my family’s history: my great-grandmother was an actress and professional singer, and my aunt, a theatre journalist in New York, introduced me to the bright lights and grandeur of Broadway at a young age. When my parents suggested I attend a musical theatre program the summer before fifth grade, I, an introverted, awkward 9-year-old, resisted the idea of performing in front of an audience of countless people.
As I struggled with my trepidation, I remembered the magic. If I could channel my creativity and freedom of expression into theatre as I’d previously done with my visual art, could I potentially share myself with the world, free of fear? I agreed to try.
Stepping out onto a brightly-lit stage under the watchful eyes of an eager audience felt like I was flinging myself onto a moving train: a rush through my body, my heart pounding in my chest. Standing alone, I took a deep breath and belted my solo – an unfathomable feat a few weeks ago. Yet once I found my balance and took a deep breath, I came alive.
I had opened a new door in the world of possibility. A new creative outlet. A new form of artistic expression.
From there, my love of performing grew through my involvement with a variety of productions and clubs. My junior year school play, Radium Girls, a period piece set in the 1920s, dealt with dark themes including abuse, death, and the subjugation of women. Onstage, I was able to immerse myself in the world of the story and express my own feminism while embodying these characters.
In addition to acting in Radium Girls, I returned to my love of visual arts to design the production’s logo. The task was daunting: I knew the design needed to reflect the show’s stark power; however, budget limitations required me to only work with a single color. Despite the added difficulty, I saw this constraint as a welcome challenge. Using negative space and subtle detailing, I created a nuanced, haunting image.
As I’ve grown up, I’ve developed a more technical understanding of my work, and devoted hours to graphic art, digital media, and dramatic studies. But I have never let go of the magic behind what I’m doing. Art allows me to escape in a way that words can’t, and to cope and communicate with a world that often feels overwhelming. It is my preferred means of self-expression; it helps me find myself again. I know that the magic will always be there to guide me as long as I continue to follow it.
Design Projects
This Semester’s projects in Design class focused around using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create self-reflective pieces and explore both past and present uses of Design.
Public Service Announcement
For this project in Design, we were tasked with creating a public service announcement about an issue or belief for which we are passionate. PSAs are meant to be eye-catching and illustrative enough to tell a story without including too much text. With a simple tagline and illustrated elements, I chose to focus on art’s transformative power and its absence in many people’s lives. I believe that artistic expression and finding the beauty in even the darkest of places is crucial throughout life.
To get inspiration for this project and build on my ideas, I explored a variety of other PSAs and found images that I wanted to include in my project.
When writing my personal statement in English, I discussed how seeing the world from the perspective of an artist has changed how I’ve gone about my life. Creativity is very important to me, and I try to use it in most things I do, and I wanted to incorporate this in my PSA. My tagline, “See the world in Technicolor”, is demonstrating this idea of looking beyond the ordinary and finding the magical within the mundane. Except for the colors on the TV and the word “Technicolor”, everything in my PSA is grayscale. I wanted the colorful parts to be able to easily pop off of the page and draw the viewer’s attention immediately. The colors I chose to use were all from the hues of color bars from an old TV. I felt that using these would work well because not only were they bright colors that would stand out from the monotone background but would also nicely tie in the Technicolor idea.
When I first started this project, I felt stuck and didn’t know even remotely what I wanted to make. However, as I began to look at professional examples and the work of past Freestyle students, I started to develop an idea. I wanted my PSA to visually pop off of the page, so I experimented with a lot of 3D typography and shadows as I worked on my project. What I struggled with most was figuring out how I wanted to display the word “Technicolor”. I tried a lot of different fonts, colors, effects, and shapes before I landed on my final design. Ultimately, I really enjoyed the freedom that this project allowed me to have as well as the challenges it allowed me to work through. I hope that viewers of this piece will be able to enjoy it as much as I do.
Aboriginal Art
In this project, made our own art based on a traditional indigenous Australian practice. Aboriginal Art uses earth tones and symbols to tell a story. In the case of this project, it told the story of who I was. My project had to include multiple personal elements including my zodiac sign and its constellation and a symbol to go with it, my spirit animal, and various Aboriginal symbols.
My symbols:
For this project, I chose to use the tiger as my spirit animal. I’ve always loved big cats, specifically tigers, and I felt that the colors of a tiger would work well with typical Aboriginal color palettes. My birthday is in June, so my star sign is Gemini, which is an air sign. In order to depict this, I used the Aboriginal symbol for smoke. The other Aboriginal symbol that I used in my piece was the moon. I added some mountain-like spikes along the top and bottom that act similar to a border, as they frame the piece. I believe that my project is fairly balanced both in color and shape weight, and I’m happy with how the symbols I chose turned out in my final version.
I started this project by color blocking out all of the shapes that I wanted to fill in so that I had an idea of where I wanted to start from. From there, I began outlining each element in more detail and filling them in with dots. To add depth, I tried to use a variety of widths for the layers of dots. When working on my piece, I struggled with the background and figuring out how to keep the colors and shapes I was using from clashing with each other. Overall, I’m happy with how my project came out, but I think if I were to change anything, I would want to make some of the colors more vibrant and use white for emphasis. I used a monochromatic color scheme in the majority of my project, so I think it could have benefited from some more pops of colors throughout it. This was a very fun and unique project and I think I got a lot out of the experience.
