Digital Media

Personal Museum Curation

One Small Step

When we visited the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, we were asked to choose 3 art pieces that related to a part of who we are and 2 art pieces that didn’t relate at all. The following are the pieces of art that I selected.

The following are 3 art pieces that related to a part of me.


Untitled (rooms) – Toba Khedoori – 2001 – Oil and wax with graphite on paper

When I saw the piece of art, I was reminded of the beauty in the simpler, and little things. This mindset controls a large part of my life. Life is so chaotic and ugly from time to time so it is important to me, to take time and enjoy and see the beauty in simple things that we encounter every day. The colors blend together beautifully and gave me a sense of clarity and tranquility.
Project Bluestar – Doug Michels – 1987 – Blueprint

This piece caught my eye in the Beyond Spaceship Earth exhibit because of its simplicity and complication at the same time. I have always been fascinated with interstellar space and interstellar travel alongside astronomy as a whole. Seeing this piece, I was reminded of my fascination with the unknown and the fascination of scientists and artists planning so far into the future by creating a space station that can withstand the environment in parts of space we haven’t even discovered yet. This piece reminded me of the importance and excitement of planning for the unknown and how that controls a huge part of my life.
Stadtbild Madrid – Gerhard Richter – 1968 – Oil on linen.

This piece was mesmerizing to me because from up close, the work seemed to be an unorganized mess of whites, greys and blacks but when you back up and see the whole picture, the painting almost comes to life in color as a city reveals itself. I follow by the mindset to see the larger picture because it always helps me make sense of the small messes I encounter every day.

The following are 2 art pieces that did not relate to a part of me.

Uprooted Birdhouse – Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen – 1987 – Expanded polystyrene, polyurethane, resin and latex paint.

This art piece does not represent a part of me because it is unbalanced and messy. Throughout my life, organization has always been important to me for I am a forever perfectionist. The dark colors also made me feel uneasy and gloomy which are emotions that I try to ignore at all costs.

Wald (4) – Gerhard Richter – 1990 – Oil on Linen

This art piece also made me feel uneasy because of the strange mixture of colors. I believe that blue and orange do not go together for blue is calm and orange is energetic. Also, as a perfectionist, I dislike the randomness of this painting, it comes off as an unorganized mess to me.

Throughout my time at Freestyle, I have produced many pieces of my own art, many of which I would love to improve on. All of the pieces taught me something about myself which is a very small start to answering the question, “Who am I?”. This question is almost impossible for me to answer but there is simply not one answer to describe the person that I am. But, Freestyle and the projects I have resulted with have given me a better perspective to the type of person I am through my artistic expression. I have learned that I am a perfectionist. I prefer order and organization. I prefer to follow a schedule. I prefer the simplistic look of art. In the pieces I choose to be apart of my personal museum, these preferences and desires shine through. I know that I can’t answer this question to completion, but I know that this next year at Freestyle will leave me with products that teach me more and more about who I am.

Mandala

When Mr. Flo told us that we were going to create mandalas in Digital Media class, I was so excited because I knew that even though I was not an amazing illustrator, I could still make something beautiful and unique through the amazing features of Adobe Illustrator. Not only was I excited to make digital mandalas, but I was even more excited to learn that we would be printing our mandalas onto a material of our choice. I chose thin wood. Throughout the process of creating my mandala, I really tried to get out of my head and just let my hands draw. I tried not to think about what I was doing and instead just let my personality appear on the screen. Throughout the project, I really valued the artistic freedom we were given to create the mandala that we wanted to create and I really valued the resources that were given to us because we would not have made a beautiful end product without them. Finally, I valued the way I learned to let go and get out of my head when creating something that showcased who I am as an artist and as a person.

Black and White Mandala

Printed Mandala

Mandala Reveal Video

Mandala Reflection Video

Perspective Piece

In Digital Media, we were asked to simply write about something we feel strongly about that is happening in the world right now. I chose to write about the travel bans that have been issued under the Trump Administration. The following is my perspective piece.

On January 27, 2017, President Trump signed Executive Order 13769. This order suspended the US Refugee Admissions Programme for 120 days and anyone arriving from seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days. This order caused commotion and panic for many people that were directly affected by the travel ban. More than 100 people were detained at airports, even American citizens traveling to the seven “banned” countries were possibly detained. This issue is very important to me because I have family in Indonesia that are Muslim. I fear that one day this travel ban will include Indonesia with the other seven countries and my family will not be able to come to their second home. I fear that I won’t be able to see them. My family has been lucky enough to not experience any type of travel ban but I will continue to stand for and support the hundreds of families that do feel the constant fear that they will be separated from their love ones who happen to live in the seven countries that have been directly affected by this order. I believe that no one should ever have to feel the fear that the people they love the most, can be “banned” from coming into a supposedly “free” country. I truly do appreciate the government’s determination to keep American citizens safe, but there is a line of reality that needs to be drawn. I hope that one day, politicians and members of our government will use their platform to encourage others to educate themselves on the topic of immigration and realize what can be done to keep everyone in our country safe without banning innocent families from entering our free country.