Reflections: Who Am I?

The Reflections Unit at Freestyle Academy challenges students to think outside the box and answer the question “Who am I?” As we got deeper into this unit we explored different methods to answer this difficult question. In our English class we took on a personal writing challenge making us the topic at hand. The assignment was used to look back on our lives and pick out key moments that have shaped the well rounded citizens we are today.  In Digital Media, we shared our unique opinions and outlooks on life with the perspective project. We were given the creative freedom to discuss a topic of choice and place some of our unique views into reality. Lastly in Design, we were able to take the collage project to see what elements of design really stood out to us individually. We took magazine clips and added our own creative twist as we pieced together our multistep media collages. Overall, this unit has given me the chance to stop and look back on my life and depict some key attributes that put me together as a person.

Personal Essay:

My personal essay takes a deeper look into my creative process. I was able to reflect upon how my imagination has shaped who I am and how this has changes as my creative ideas evolved.  Freestyle has played a large part in this role and is the reason I hope to go into Business Marketing in the future.

Personal Essay:

My first set of legos were not used to build a house or a car. They were used as the main characters in my first stop motion film. I sat in my living room with my flip cam, ready to take on Hollywood. Peering down at the blocks, and click. Move a piece. Click. Repeat. It was safe to say this is where I learned the most about patience. It was so easy to just take photos, move items, and watch the magic. “Mom, what are you doing,” I cried out! She was disassembling my legos, cleaning up my beautiful project that I was working on so patiently for hours. I only stepped out of the room for some water, and I had to restart everything all over again. Having to remake my project made me appreciate my work even more. The finished product mesmerized me and filled me with a sense of pride. I was only 10 years old, so this made a huge impact on my life, and was just the beginning… As my imagination blossomed so did my niche for creating. Drawing with chalk on my driveway, doodling in class, and painting any canvas I could get my hands on became a common practice. I have been lucky to have the resources and a supportive family to let my ideas fly out of my head, and into reality. As my projects and ideas evolved I came to the realization that crafting was a very important detail of who I was as a person. It didn’t matter how large the finished product was, it was the fact that I alone was creating it. Giving my old dresser a new life with a fresh coat of paint, or using a piece of fabric to stitch a dress for my dolls, I had learned how to foster my creativity. This allowed me to grow and make use of my imagination, logic, and developing technical skills at a young age. As I began to excel and think out of the box, I began to notice that I wasn’t just crafting for the sake of it. Everything I made had its own meaning. Any time I used rich red or blue fabric it connected me back to my Armenian roots and the traditional garments they would wear. Any time I used rope, it would bring me back to memories as a young scout practicing my knots on our front porch with my father, trying to get a head start before our next camping trip. I felt fulfillment when I up-cycled and used the natural resources around me. I felt this gratification as I handmade picture frames out of tree branches showcasing memories with my friends and teaching my younger scout troops on how to utilize resources available to embrace their creativity. As they progressed, so did my managing and leadership skills. My creativity flowed a little differently as I got older. In high school I took my first Graphic Design course and fell in love. Just imagine the amount of possibilities at my figure tips as I branched into the digital world. Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign became second nature. I was able to utilize my ongoing imagination with my new technical skills as a paid intern running marketing and sales for a small business. This real life experience gave me a first hand look into the business world and taught me the importance of collaboration and communication in order to fulfill tasks and reach a final goal. Creating evolved from a hobby to something that I know I can utilize in my career. As I continue to learn and grow through my education, I will always keep close to my heart the little girl sitting in her living room patiently moving legos with her creativity, resourcefulness, and perseverance to reach her goals.

Perspective Piece:

The Process:

After recording our perspective piece in the ISO booths at Freestyle, we began to use After Effects to add pictures of visuals to go with our voiceovers. I decided to add more comic looking images since part of my story tells a moment from my childhood. We learned how to overlay images as well as the basics in After Affects.

 

My perspective piece tackles some of the ideas and stereotypes about culture and how we view the world. Coming from an Armenian American background this was a large piece of who I am and how I was raised.

Design Projects:

Aboriginal:

The aboriginal project helped improve our consistency and artistic skill. Our assignment was to pick an animal and use its simple shape to illustrate the image with only solid colors and dots. This project consisted of a lot of repetitive motion and patience in order to gain an interesting end result.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Collage Project:

The collage project challenged students to find magazine clips that stood out to them and construct a creative piece that brings all of the clips together. After multiple drafts and themes my final product illustrates the calm in a busy and diverse world. After the magazine edit was complete. We retraced our collage and began shaping our monochromatic colors. The second piece represents inclusiveness by showing contrasting of different tints and shades. The last piece of our project was to create a digital collage as well as use a simple phrase or sentence to emphasis the meaning.