Reflection

Freestyle Academy is where you can use and develop your creativity. In English class, I have read and written essays about self-identity. In digital media class, I have learned basic skills about how to use digital media, such as Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effect. Then, I create art with a computer in design class. These three classes are not isolated to each other, instead, they are connected and inalienable. In design class, I use the knowledge I have learned in the digital media class to create a poster that presents my personal essay I wrote in English class.

Macro Photo Project

PSA Poster

Personal Essay

When I was a little girl, I would sit routinely in front of the television and tune to CCTV-9, eager for the show to begin.  My mother was proud that her little daughter loved scientific documentaries while the other kids devoured cartoons. My curiosity for biology, in particular, also made be brave enough to watch my mother and my grandma kill chickens.  My mother would hold a sharp knife to slice the chicken’s throat, while my grandma, a tiny yet strong old lady, held the chicken wings tightly. She knew exactly where to slice so the chicken would die fast. I would sometimes help to pluck feathers, but I usually stood by and observed closely the process.  I watched this spectacle without any fear, feeling like it was just a 3D documentary. Even as my mother would pull out all the internal organs and wash them one by one, I analyzed the various organs forensically. For instance, the partially-digested food in the gizzard and crop would provide clues about what the chicken ate: yellow for corn, green for vegetables.  I was enjoying my first anatomy lesson even before I knew what anatomy was.  

During middle school, my teacher asked me,   “What do you want to be?” Up until that point, I would tell my teachers I wanted to be a doctor because they had high salaries. Now, however, I knew the real reason: I was fascinated by the way bodies work.

My middle school studies of  biology, chemistry, physics, and geography brought me into a new world.  In biology, I learned everything from human anatomy down to the structure of plant cells.  In chemistry, I zoomed in even closer to examine the molecules and atoms that make up everything in the world.  Like a surgeon, I had to slice through layer after layer to reach the deepest truths about organic life.  

While my level of interest was at an all-time high, science was not easy.  At first, I could hardly catch up, but it had become my best subject after my hard work.  For instance, the complex biological terms were my biggest stumbling block; the gain was little even though I spent most of my time to memorize them.  It was a blow to get a B on my first biology test. However, I didn’t give up. I asked my classmates about their studying methods and asked my teacher questions after class.  I created an effective way to memorize and understand the terms by combining them with diagrams. Finally, my grades improved in the next test. Although it was a tough process to figure out  the hidden meaning underneath the surface, I still achieved it.

I insisted science not only because of my interest but also because of the motivation of helping the people I love. Unhealthy was never an adjective to describe my grandma.  However, I woke up one night and found out that my mom and my grandma disappeared.  My grandma was in the hospital that night because of a stone in her kidney. I was too young to help and to understand what happened.  When I was a high school student, my grandma returned to the hospital. Her bones are empty inside, so they cannot support her normal movement.  While I still cannot improve her condition, I could at least try to understand what my mother’s red eyes meant.  

At first, I felt useless – what would this knowledge do to help her? Yet, through my studies, I realized that I could empower myself to help others like my grandma and their families. I realized that I wanted to become a doctor.   

Personal Museum Curation

It shows an immense, boundless landscape in this painting.  A woman stands alone in the middle bottom of the painting. She is back to the viewer, facing the mountain far away at the center of this picture.  It seems to be light coming from behind the mountain. The name of this artwork is Self-Portrait, so I think the woman in the painting is the artist herself.  However, I think it is the self-portrait of everyone as well. The vast landscape represents the future unable to predict but full of thousands of possibilities.  The mountain and vague light represent the dream we chase and indicate that there will be a bigger world behind the mountains. Of course, the road to achievement is not as flat as a pancake: there are difficulties on the way.  This artwork represents my core value of chasing dreams and the bigger world beyond the mountains.

 The background of this painting is blue and red.  These two colors occupy half of the painting while they also contain each other.   The foreground is a wide range of white that covers the whole painting. This white obscures the area where the blue and red merge.  This art piece reflects my personal value of harmony. The blue and red parts imply my Chinese culture and American culture. As I live in America longer and longer, the boundary between them becomes vaguer.  These two cultures will find their balance and harmony, then form a new me. 

“I am my jail” represents that it is always people themselves who set them in a cage.  Our self-recognition often results from the comments of others, therefore, we lack a chance to judge ourselves objectively.  This sentence shows my personal value of unconfident. I always care about other people’s comments to me which results that I become so insecure about myself and try to fit in public.  If “I am my jail” is the problem, then “I am my bail” is the solution. I will strengthen myself and become a confident person one day.

The sculpture is the shape of collar and tie.  These two things are usually a symbol of achievement.  What calls for special attention is that the artistes twisted the tie like a standing snake.  In this respect, we may say that this work wants to tell that there are negative effects on the way to achievement.  These effects are like a snake, waiting for a moment to kill you if you do not hold your original. On the other side, this artwork also implies that the strong desire for achievement can poison a person’s heart.  I am not a person who has a strong desire for accomplishment, thus, I exclude this artwork.

If you view this sculpture from left to right, you can see some abstract fish.  The red sheet metals are their bodies and the colorful sheet metal with holes are their heads.  The small fish make up the body part of the bigger fish. I think this implies the world rule of the big fish swallows small fish.  I exclude this artwork because I am not a competitive person.

Mandala

Mandala Reveal Build video

Mandala Reflection Video