Breaking Barriers: A Junior Experimental Project by Marissa Jakubowski (2013)

My picture is a silhouette of a girl jumping up in the air and a wall of glass breaking around her, and a picture of the galaxy in the background. When creating this, I was thinking about fears that me, and majority of teenagers, face when wanting to be themselves and express themselves, but deciding not to because they are afraid of what other people will think and if it will damage them in any way. The fear creates a glass wall that is preventing us from truly be ourselves. However when you are able to make the decision to break through that wall, it is like releasing the ''galaxy'' inside of you, releasing all the beauty and unknown and unique-ness that’s in each individual.

I decided to keep the colors really bright and vibrant because it is a very happy and positive picture and meaning. I then used the paint tool to paint the image of the girl jumping up in the air. I chose to make her jumping because it’s more powerful than if she was just be standing there. Then I took a picture of broken glass and put it over the entire picture and lowered the opacity to make it seem more like glass and see-through.