Explorations
For the Explorations unit, we were each given the choice of picking a topic that we wanted to further explore. “How can you find, explore, and/or expand your passion?”
For my project, I decided to explore mask making, something that I haven’t done before and something I’ve been wanting to try. I don’t do much 3d art, typically sticking to 2d or digital art, so this was something I didn’t have much experience doing.To start, I created a sketch for what I wanted my mask to look like. My idea was inspired by angel statues, something I feel inexplicably drawn to. During this time, I also put together a list of supplies that I was going to need to create the mask. This included paint, paper mache, tape, mask base, and a couple other smaller supplies.
The next thing was starting to sculpt the actual mask itself. I did this by starting with using a base for a mask and building the paper mache on top of it before adding detailing. I made a few practice masks to see how the paper mache dried and how I wanted the base of the mask to look. I took around three tries to finally get the mask to look how I wanted it to. I faced a little issue with cracking – especially with the nose part of the mask specifically.
After waiting 48 hours for it to dry, I moved onto the painting, where I painted white paint and gold for accents. I also added detailing with pearls and crystals to add more interest to the mask.
After this, I decided I wanted to coat the mask in resin to add a clear finish. Using epoxy resin, I did two layers of resin, which took a total of 4 days to dry.
After this, I decided to take photos using the mask to show off the mask in a photoshoot.
From this project, I feel like I learned a new skill, and I ended up really liking the final result of my work. This project really taught me to trust the process because there were points in the project where I felt like giving up and restarting. Timing for me was also a big issue because every step of this project required letting it sit to dry for long periods of time. I valued the freedom that I got from this project because it really allowed me to just try something I wouldn’t have normally done. Overall, I’m really proud of myself and the work that I was able to accomplish during this project.
Music Recording
For the Music Recording Project, I decided to work together with Athena to record Love Me Not by Ravyn Lenae. We chose this song because it was in both of our ranges and it was a song that we both liked. We decided to split up the song into Maile singing the first verse and Athena singing the second verse, only singing together during the end of the song. After picking a date to record the song it was pretty straightforward from there. While recording this song, it was both of our first times recording in the studio and with the help of Mr. Flo we were able to get through it pretty smoothly. We had some trouble with timing on certain phrases, and stylization of the words, but eventually we figured it out. Recording in the studio is different than recording in the booths because there’s a person in the booth doing all of the controls for us instead of having to do it ourselves. It feels a lot more professional and overall the product was something that we were both proud of.
After the recording, we had to edit the song together in Pro Tools. We decided which recordings sounded the best and made sure that we normalized the sound so that the volume was equal throughout the song. The other issue we ran into was figuring out exactly what the right balance was for the backing music and our vocals. Athena also wanted to include the distortion that was in the original song, but we couldn’t find a way to make our voices sound like that without it taking too much time, so we didn’t use it. The part that we’re proud of the most is being able to record the song and hitting all of the notes properly. The final product was definitely better than we could have imagined and it’s cool to see all the work behind making music, even if we didn’t record any instruments and only vocals.
Poem
In English, we were tasked with creating a poem after having a week-long session with a Poet-in-Residence. During the week, we learned various styles of poems that we could later use for our final poems. We also learned different skills used in poetry like enjambment and metaphors.
For my poem, I chose to write about my relationship with my dad and the word sorry. I wanted to pick a topic that was emotional, yet something that I felt other people could relate to. The poem follows the structure of a letter while using the comparison of love to fruits. I wanted to highlight the importance of love through actions, instead of through words.
