Conceptual

Intro

As Juniors at Freestyle, we have now gone through the Conceptual Unit which has allowed us to engage in immersive projects that have further engaged our minds into thinking abstractly and advancing our communications skills.

In English, I was sparked into beginning to create, instead of continuing to daydream. What I initially longed for I realized was not always the easiest to accomplish but was able to enjoy every moment as I was continuously challenged as a reader and creator to extend my imagination and the mediums I could use. In Digital Media, I was challenged by the Adobe applications and producing audio but along the way, I realized I needed to stop self-limiting myself and hurry to accept the challenge because these applications open new sources of inspiration and creativity. Lastly, Design has allowed me to shine through and have fun simply creating much more than I thought possible.

Poetry

In English we wrote various poems, the most notable poems and styles included the Haiku, Ekphrastic, and Free Verse. Through this process we practiced perfecting our communication skills by inviting ourselves to practice “showing” instead of “telling.” we further deepened our understanding by analyzing and researching to find our sources of inspiration that are reflected in our own.

Haiku

We were prompted with writing our own Haiku based on an individual assigned prompt as well as taking a photograph to reflect our written piece. The prompt I was given was “experiencing trust through earning money.”

While working on this piece, I was inspired by the idea of a lover betraying another and leaving them in ruin. Only for the other lover to do the same as was done to them. My classmates especially liked this image where the hand grasped out to the world. Only then did I realize the story I wanted to tell was sweet and fierce and with that in mind I changed the font to showcase this. 

I didn’t want to transform my haiku too much because I liked it, so I kept on brainstorming how to effectively edit. In the end phrasing changed and I even added punctuation, the “…” at the end, because I wanted to imply the continuation of the story even after ending as it implied there was no closure, a further need for revenge, a sense of lostness.

Continuing the same project in Digital Media, we used our image and writing English in order to create a video in Pro Tools where we added animation words and added audio. Although it was an initial minor piece, it reflected the meticulousness and dedication small works like these and future ones would need.

Free Verse

In Hold My Hands, I write a free verse poem about my interpretation of life. I purposely personify life to be simultaneously kind and cold in its characteristics in order to attribute a highly changing relationship Done in order to illustrate the good and bad aspects of life. To accomplish this, as many a time, it may seem as if the world is falling down on us or there are forces that work against us, I intended to illustrate the difficulty to differentiate friend from foe through the personification of Life. Having Life as an able actor, in contrast to being a consequence in time, allows the reader to categorize a new enemy.  Opportunity granting “cheering whispers” to turn “to taunts” and the ability to “push me off” and “smile with delight,” add unexpected weariness that calls for cautiousness. In this way, the reader has a grasp at how unnerving and scarring it is to bear the unexpected. In parts, I too use metaphors to emphasize this trait. Phrases as ´playing with bones’ and ‘breaking toes’ mean to ascertain times when life plagues us with uncertainty,  only to resolutely crush that hope. In terms of using repetition like, “life eternally..” and “and then- life will: …,” were implemented to unify the differing actions;  motioning the beginning and end of a cycle, only to be surprised by its unending ways. Additionally, I employ a combination of enjambment and end-stops to further evoke distress. While most end-stops serve to create the illusion of fearful haste, the enjambment serves to illustrate safety which alters to portray weary defeat, which is the same purpose as the broken lineation of the last line. In this case, the feeling of enjoyment creates the expectancy of finally finding peace; however, there is always a twist as I have stressed the profound influence events play in our life to shape us. The tone of defeat goes on to juxtapose emotions of vulnerability and helplessness in order to stimulate feelings of mocking-ness and trickery.  Provided through imagery, Life is played as kind and gentle only to respond with gruesome actions, relating it to a heartfelt betrayal.  In the process of editing, my peers concluded I was able to successfully create impactful imagery. For editing, they suggested incorporating extra lines to give a fulfilled closure. Once this was brought up, I realized the truth in their words, allowing me the chance to change the ending from Life crying, to the narrator crying. This seemed fitter as it seemed I had initially been hinting towards this type of end. Lastly, my greatest influence became Mary Angelou’s poem,  “The Lesson.” She employed the use of dramatic imagery, a combination of end-stops and enjambment, and metaphors which I aspired to replicate in my own poem.

I believe what I most valued in this project was being able to inter connect various artistic mediums in order to highlight the others simultaneously. I was pleased to find the chance to share my work with my own voice because I believe it communicates a whole new level of emotion that might otherwise be interpreted differently.

Elements & Principles of Design

In both Design and Digital Media we were explained the importance that the Elements and Principles of Design hold over our eyes. For Digital Media we specifically created a slideshow to better understand and visualize what our teachers hope to teach.

Design

At Freestyle, we get to choose between Animation, Film, and Design. I ultimately decided on Design because although I was fascinated by the other options, Design aligns more with my artistic goals and is super exciting to learn about.

Macro Photo

The Macro Photo Project was a way how we were exposed to different types of lenses. This project challenged me to find the depth of beauty details hold. All the better to bring them to light. r to bring them to light.

Additionally, it granted me the opportunity to practice a more diverse range of angles allowing me to explore a new area of skills. I especially appreciated that although the day the image was shot, was when most of California was burning, nature continued to flourish.

Conceptual Photo

For Design, we were to use our prompt from English in order to brainstorm objects that reflected its meaning. To do so we sketched out angles and a variety of possible materials to be used.

 I am exploring the feeling of trust through earning money.

For my piece, I chose to capture an upturned down crown,  surrounded by party scraps meant to represent the end of a party.  A cool looking light is filtered through a single window with the crown positioned towards the front. These two aspects serve to emphasize rationality versus clouded judgement,  as not everything holds the same value for all people. The party scraps in the middle ground emphasize belief in: what appeals to some may be in reality insignificant long term.

Trust is very tricky. It goes two ways which is why it is being represented by the party scaps. In the same way trust is built, it can be torn, hence the pieces. Trust between people can become a broken road, hard to repair when one side lets go. In this case, when money becomes involved, important relationships can become neglected and further destroyed. That is where the crown comes in. It symbolizes the glorified moment that takes up time. In the metaphor of a party, the illusion of fun or glory of the moment is meant to be the impediment to repairing those ties. Nonetheless, when that same glory ends, there is nothing viable to return to. The different scraps are colors serve to remind the viewer of the different memories that are no more, imitating a sense of hopelessness and despair at their loss.

Before Freestyle, I had never been exposed to Photoshop. So, with this project I developed a greater understanding of its uses. For my image I understood that smaller changes were best. I increased the saturation of the magentas to not let them be washed out. I also slightly brightened the overall image. Lastly, I darkened the edges with a vignette that our teacher taught us how too.

Negative Positive Space Halloween Project

In late October, we were assigned a fun Halloween-spirited project! This gave us a chance to disassociate ourselves from screen time and have some fun.

Using 2 contrasting colored papers I first lightly traced my image on one piece which I cut with the X Acto knife. I then carefully transferred the pieces onto the other side to imitate a reversed reflection which I then glued on. Although it was my first time and I almost cut myself many times, it was really fun!

Interior Linear Perspective of Bedroom

Heading into more depth, we began to experiment with one-point and two-point perspectives. In the end, I designed my bedroom with a one-point perspective. I added a little blue table I’ve had since childhood depicting some cute sea creatures, my parents’ old TV, and my birthday balloon. This served to encourage progress with the use of shadows and furniture. In turn, I explored new properties which I look forward to improving in the future.