Welcome to Natalie Rockhold's conceptual website! This is the first of many websites I will be making during my time at Freestyle, so bear with me if parts of it don't work. The conceptual unit was from August to October of junior year (2016). The conceptual unit was meant to help us discover ourselves as artists and learn basic maneuvering of professional applications. Each one of my classes here at Freestyle worked together for every project you can see on this website.

Throughout this site, you will see the names and screenshots of many programs that I learned to use and make my projects with during this unit. These programs are:

This website was made in my digital media class using Dreamweaver. Here's a behind the scenes screenshot of what it looks like to code the website:

I also wrote an Expository Essay about a passion of mine in English class at the end of this unit and recorded myself reading it. I chose to write about humor and the importance that it has in leading a happy life. Here it is:

These poems were a collaboration between all 3 of my classes here at Freestyle. I wrote the poems in English class, in Design class I edited and produced some of the images using Photoshop, and finally in Digital Media class I uploaded them onto this website using Dreamweaver. I recorded myself reading the poems and made music to go along with it in Pro Tools. Here is how a song in progress looks:

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Each of these poems had a different prompt. The first is a free verse poem, which was our choice in structure and subject. I chose to write about my relationship with my sister, who is 6 years older than I am and who I love very much, but annoys me sometimes. Sorry Nikki, if you're reading this.

The second is a spoken word poem about being a former child prodigy. It discusses the way that school systems build up kids' confidence in elementary school and then stop supporting them when they get older. This is reflective of my feelings towards my experience in the school system, not everyone's.

I also performed it in this video:

The third is an "ekphrastic" poem, which means "a poem responding to a piece of art". I was drawn to this sculpture by Frank Stella during our field trip to the MOMA and wrote a poem about it.

Writing these poems was really fun because I don’t usually get to write poetry but Freestyle English for this unit let us be creative and explore our emotions.

And here are the final productions:

This assignment was the Photo Haiku. In English class, we drew a concept statement from a bag, following the structure of “I am exploring the feeling of ____ through the experience of _____.” Mine was: I am exploring the feeling of gratitude through the experience of compromise. The poem had to follow haiku structure of 3 lines, the first with 5 syllables, then 7, then 5.

I wrote the haiku in English class, recorded myself reading it and made music for the beginning and end in Digital Media class using Pro Tools, made the pictures in Photoshop, and put it all together using Adobe Animate.

I am exploring the feeling of mediocrity through the experience of remembering childhood achievements.

This design assignment was to make a piece of conceptual art in response to my spoken word poem. We were required to use our new knowledge of the elements of design to make a visually striking composition. I used a Canon DSLR camera to take this photo and Photoshop to edit it. Click on the icon to the left to see it.

My artist's statement for this piece is as follows:

Although I wasn’t really a certified prodigy as a child, I was often so complimented or praised in school that I began to think I was. “Aced ballet, and mommy and me” was a more sarcastic line about the way parents exaggerate their children’s achievements, like Susie’s the first child ever to play soccer or the piano. But in reality the problem that I have stems more from the constant competition and harsh environment that I am surrounded with in high school. “Apparently colleges don’t like former child prodigies,/They don’t like people whose interests are hobbies.” Well-meaning relatives and teachers discussing my future career led to these lines: “Relatives would say, ‘Natalie Rockhold, PhD!/Maybe when you’re older you’ll get a law degree,/You know, we need another doctor in the family.’” Coming from an Asian American family definitely carries with it a stress on the value of education and “traditional” careers that my older cousins have pursued. Expressing my interest in liberal arts sometimes results in a concerned look followed by a discussion of how a starving artist can’t support the lifestyle that I have become comfortable with, and maybe I should keep art a hobby and choose a more practical career path. The ending of this poem touches on how, through it all, fighting for what I love has made me discover what really matters to me rather than focusing on my status as a prodigy. “But I have a better idea of what it means to be Me/ And that matters a whole lot more than ‘prodigy.’”

The photo that I took to go along with this poem touches on how sometimes reaching for the achievements in school makes me feel like I’m drowning. Taking this photo was a challenge for me because I wanted my hands to be the ones reaching up from the water. I had to set up the camera and lighting and have my mom press the button to take the photo. I edited it in Photoshop to look darker and to have a cooler color scheme.

This assignment was to make an original piece of music. This music was to be made in Pro Tools, the same program I used for the poems. I recorded myself playing the piano for the melody, and took sounds from the class file of sound effects. I was inspired by “indietronic” music and ambience sounds, and I made this piece of music, incorporating machine sounds into the song. I wanted to make it light and cheerful, reminiscent of a happy little robot.

Here is a Spotify playlist full of my favorite music so you can see where I draw inspiration from.