As I began my second year in Freestyle, we were immediately asked to answer the following question in all 3 of our classes: “Who am I?”, with each class integrating a different assignment to help us answer that question. From creating a mandala to represent ourselves, our culture, and our personality, to writing a college-style personal essay about our past, present, and future, to making a short film that highlights one of our most essential memories and characteristics.
Art Curation for Personal Museum
The Art Curation assignment took us back to the SFMOMA, where we were asked to find pieces of art that helped us answer “Who am I?”. A more specific question we were asked was this: Which works of art are worthy of my attention? Below are 5 pieces of art that stood out to me, and helped me answer our main question. We call these photos our “Personal Museum”.
3 Art Pieces i would add to my personal museum
2 Art pieces i would not add to my personal museum
My own work as an artist and how I critique my artwork influenced which pieces I chose for my Personal Museum. When I looked at my art, I thought about which pieces best represent who I am, my interests, and my growth as a person and artist. I included pieces that I felt a strong connection to or that showed effort, meaning, or improvement. Some pieces didn’t make the cut because they didn’t feel personal enough or didn’t reflect my values or identity. By being honest with myself, I was able to choose artwork that truly represents me rather than just picking pieces that looked nice.
My personal mandalas
In this project, we were challenged to create our own personal mandalas in Adobe Illustrator using features that would repeat what I would draw in slices, ultimately making a cool, circular design, kind of like a snowflake. After creating my mandala by drawing objects that reminded me of one of my favorite scriptures and songs, “Fisher of Men”, by N!x, I got my design laser engraved on a sliced piece of a log.
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Seeing my laser-engraved mandala on wood was honestly pretty cool and rewarding. It felt real in a new way, like the design had finally taken on a permanent form, and I was done. I chose wood as the material because it feels natural, grounded, and timeless, which connects well to the Christian themes of faith, foundation, and tradition in Fisher of Men. The slice of the wood added its own character, making the mandala feel warmer and more organic than a flat digital or paper version.
I created a colored mandala titled Fisher of Men, inspired by my faith and the idea of being called to faith. Unlike my black-and-white mandala, this piece uses color to add emotion, movement, and meaning. The boat at the top represents the fisherman, connecting to Jesus’ call to be “fishers of men,” while the jellyfish and flowing ocean forms create a sense of depth and over-achieving. The Bible placed in the ocean at a higher level represents how we overlook the simplicity of the gospel, and look for other things that might fulfill us instead. This mandala feels more symbolic and expressive than my BW mandala because the imagery and color work together to tell a clearer story. Check out the making of my Illustrated mandala below.
This took a long time – from creating templates, experimenting with pressure-sensitive brushes in the black-and-white mandala, adding color, making the build reveal video, and finally seeing the laser-engraved result. But each version pushed me to think differently about the same design, whether it was control, patience, color balance, or material choice. This project taught me to trust the process and to have even more patience. I’ll use these ideas in future projects by planning more intentionally and thinking about how form, material, and meaning work together. It also changed how I view other people’s art. I now appreciate the time, problem-solving, and decisions behind each piece, not just the final result.
Reflections through film
Now time for my favorite part of the Reflections unit – bringing it to life through video. I was really looking forward to starting my narrative, as I had a lot of fun ideas on the board. But before I could get too ahead of myself, Mr. T told us to explore who we are and our motives before other characters. His main question for us was this: What makes you unique? Who are you, and what makes you, you?
Personal video essay
We were assigned a Personal Video Essay in Film around the same time as we were asked to write about our journeys up to the beginning of senior year in English. I’ve always had high energy, and wanted to do things quickly. I love an adrenaline rush, but then I crash. And that is exactly what led me to create my Personal Video Essay in roughly 2 minutes.
surround sound
We had the chance to experiment with Surround Sound at the beginning of the unit. I know Mr. T is proud of his Surround Sound setup, and I was pretty proud to blast this through his speakers…
Collaborative Films – triple header
One group creates the story. One group films the story. One group puts it together.
Welcome back – 1 period movie
Once we were more familiar with our classmates and fellow filmmakers, we split into groups to make some simple, weird, unique films. Here’s what my group came up with:
That just about does it for the Reflections Unit. It was a lot of hard, but fun work, as always. As we continue into the Narrative Unit, I have a feeling it’ll be the hardest working, but most fun and rewarding unit yet!