Artist Statement

If you don’t know anything about me by looking through my portfolio you will learn allot. You will see all of my projects and the time and thought I put into them. Some are more than others. There are lots of different ideas expressed and colors used.
My feeling towards my portfolio is negative. I wish that I would have taken this opportunity that was given to me to learn, more seriously and worked hared towards it. I enjoy photography and photoshop greatly but also when I’m trying to get things done I rush and not spend the time needed for perfection. In this course I have overall learned that everything starts with an idea. After an idea you can break it down to make it stronger and after it is made as strong as you think of many different way you can show your idea through a picture. I believe I was most successful in my ideas and in my composition in all of my photographs. Although my ideas were good they did not play out well in most of my last results but I know that my ideas were strong which is the first and important part I can easily learn to improve the rest. The composition for all my photo I think was good because I worked very hard on setting up where object in my photo were placed which made some of my photos incising and interesting to look at. This class is the first time I have personally come in contact with photoshop. I found phtoshop very challenging and the most difficult activity I had to cope with throughout this course. In the near future I would hope and think to improve my ability to use photoshop productively because I do enjoy the activity and the results of this product. I do believe that I have improved in my ability to use photoshop although I’m not as good I would have expected myself to be. Some of the improvements that I have made so far is my creativeness in using photoshop. When I started using it I thought I was limited in the things I could accomplish through it. Now I know that there truly are no limitations. I never thought of taking a photo then placing a part of the photo onto a different background. Now I learned that moving photos to different backgrounds is a simple photoshop concept that is used often.
The experiences that I enjoyed the most in this class are when we all completed a project and Miss Cook would show the work on the big screen to everyone. I enjoyed this the most because I was able to visualize other classmates feelings towards subjects and ideas that they have individually created in there minds and hearts. Through this course I learned that art is perspective and secrets, and when is personal is when it becomes irresistibly beautiful.

Lyric

The lyrics I choose for this project are Tomorrow by Valencia.
"Today I’m Valencia but not the name... Today I’m weary but not from the lack of sleep… Today I’m lonely but not of lives… Today I’m sad but not the feeling … Today I’m mad but not at you, anymore… Today I’m dead but not physically… Today I’m dim inside but beaming outside… Today I’m in great but anguish but you wouldn’t know… Today I’m greatly petrified but only of myself, now… Today I’m little but not anyway you can imagine… Today I’m a loser although I conquered you now… Today I want to die but I’m already dead, remember… Today I want to love you but hate is over taken… Today is a beautiful but this is what makes it bad... Today I’m Valencia but tomorrow I must be someone else…"
I choose these lyrics because I could relate to them. I wrote them when I was 12yrs old when I was sadden because my aunt committed suicide. I was closest to her than I was anyone else in my life up to that point. When I missed her a lot I used to write poetry to help me get my emotions out because I hate talking about it. This last week we had a reuniting time with her old friends and family which caused me to remember some of those emotions I use to strongly possess. The lyrics mean to me my feeling and thoughts towards myself and her and other people that made things harder than they had to be.

Social Issue

My social issue is letting go of non beneficial past and present situations, people, objects, ideas to improve your own personally growth as a person, whether that be physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and so on. Moving from any negative situation is never easy but is always best. Most people do not move on because although where they are is not where they want to be it is where they are most comfortable. I chose this picture of a little girl about to release her herself from the comfort of the bar to slide down on the slide to portray her current mental and physical state at the moment which is still where she is most comfortable(on the bar). Although everyone, even her, knows that as soon as she slides down she will be satisfied within herself but because letting go is daring and sliding down is exciting she still is there siting waiting for herself to be okay with moving on. Now notice that what this picture could be called is a "before picture" it does not have any "after picture". I didn't make a after picture for this before picture for a specific reason. Which is to convey that usually when waiting around to get comfortable enough to let go and have the best for your situation it doesn't happen. I choose the statement, "Now is time to let go" because waiting around is not going to get you anywhere but right at the same place. If you don't let go now it is likely that you never will. relating my picture and statement to a child's point of view where every person has had before it should be simple to get the concept that I'm trying to give.

Parkehrrison's "Guardian"

The moral pure light is slowly running away from the upset, black, burned, branches, controlled by a lively and bold elderly man. He slightly bends his knees forward with his body getting ready to soar aggressively, as birds do. At the bottom of his shoes are two grumpy, gigantic, dark, stiff, braches which lead vertically to the base of a lifeless tree which lies in the middle upon uneven ground which the uneven is created by many blackened crumbled sticks and filth. The white frosty freighting fog in the background contrasts and highlights the centered man, in his non-fade-able black suit. This photograph is absolutely handsome. It captures the emotions of a bird, curiosity, desire, and braveness that most men and women desire to possess. Honestly I think that the idea the artist is trying to make his audience realize is shown well throughout his photograph.

Haunted Chavez

This Haunted Chavez project is the usage of photoshop and photography put together to create a scary feeling for Cesar Chavez. We had to use all the photoshop tools that we knew to create a story line that can easily be shown through a picture. My storyline is that I was murdered and my little sisters were there reflecting on my existence while I watched over them. This was my original idea from the Begining. The only thing that I changed form when I first started the project is how I portrayed my death. originally I had a wheelbarrel which I laied in dead as a ghost figure. The most difficult dessins i had to make throughout this project was where in the picture did I want to place my little sisters. One of my problems was I didn't know how to create an drop shadow and my problem was fixed by Miss Cook teaching me how to go about creating one. Over all I think that I did good on the compostion of my project although if I would have made it more creative than it would have been more intresting to look at.

Scary Expressions

When I look at this photo of me my mind starts to think of water deep in the sea. I began to realize that 16years and 2days ago I could have been born a sea creature without a conscience. This reminds me of how thankful I should be everyday to my God for making me human. And not just human but making me a woman. And not just a woman but also the daughter and sister I am in my family. And also not only that but for creating me into who I am. So I like this photo because it reminds me of who I am.

When I look at this photo I start to get mad. It reminds me of when I was a little girl when I got spanked or in trouble and was mad at my parents for not making me a twin. I wanted a twin so I that if I got in trouble and I wanted to watch TV and wasn't allowed we could could switch for an half an hour. So as I look at this picture it reminds me of that feeling of a dream that won't ever come true. So you just got to stop dreaming about it and move on.

This photo makes me think of scary thoughts. Thoughts that I would rather not have had been put in my mind because I know they won't ever be deleted. Specifically my wondering thought go towards a book that I was not aloud to read but read anyways when I was a little girl. The name is called "Where The Scary Things Are". It is about this little boy who did not want to eat his soup so he laid n his bed while his imagination took over him. he was in a jungle ware he ruled of all the scary things. At the end of the book he came back to reality and understood what his mother wanted was best. He ate his cold soup and went to bed. (They had scary picture in the book.)

The Scream- My Interpertation

He is screaming for many reasons but his greatest fear is being alone. He is not scared of being alone because someone else might hurt him but simply he is scared of himself. Behind him a little ways there is his conscience. It is hunting him. Himself. Is hurting him. He can’t control his emotions. Everything that in him has combined and come out. Very scared he opens his mouth again to scream. He hears nothing.

Creative Me

This project was an opportunity for us to put the tools we have learned to use. We were to take one of our portraits, and change it creatively using the following: selection tools, layers, adjustment layers, layer styles, blending options, paint brushes and opacity. I love the colors I used on this image. The best tool I liked was painting. I am not as confident as I feel I should be on the program.

Selections

In this exercise we learned about Adjustment layers. Adjustment layers allow you to add adjustments to your image on separate layers instead of directly to the image itself. This comes in handy during long complicated projects. In Photoshop every tool is specifically designed to help improve your photo. However, here we took some artistic liberties and explored adjustments creatively.

Adjustments

Cropping is a trick that photographers do all the time, even if they don't realize it. Every time a photographer chooses to cut something out of his/her frame, before they snap the photo, that is in essence cropping. We also have learned tools on Photoshop that allow us to crop an image after we have taken it. When cropping in Photoshop it is possible to improve our composition or change it completely.

self portraits

For our Self-Portrait project we were to take three self-portraits. They were all to be in black and white, and they were all to capture a mood of some sort. We were also challenged to be as artistic as possible, and stay as far away from normal, cliche portraits that we see on personal pages etc. as possible.One had to use the rule of thirds as the base for the composition; One had to incorporate leading lines, and one had to be taken from a more extreme angle.

The process of taking these photos was first to have an idea. The second is try the idea. Third discern whether it was good or bad. Then try to improve it as much as possible. The most difficult part of the process for me was figuring out ideas. So what I did was walk around the campus and have my partner take random take pictures of me. The ones that ended up looking interesting I would go back and retake the picture in a more creative way. I think that my extreme angles was the most successful out of all of them. Why? because everything hit, I had an extreme angle, it was on the rule of thirds, and I also had leading lines it it . The could have improved on my facial expressions. Over all I think I did a fair job.

Contact Sheet

Overall I think that my contact sheet turned out beautiful. I did good on arranging where and the sizing on the contact sheet. Ithink I could highly improve my font and colors. They did not pop out of the picture like I wanted them to. Out of all the compositional tricks the best was macro depth and Field. The one I enjoyed the most was the macro depth of field. it was fun to take because i used my mirror which I thought made it look way pretty.

Compositional trick # 5 Cropping

Cropping is a trick that photographers do all the time, even if they don't realize it. Every time a photographer chooses to cut something out of his/her frame, before they snap the photo, that is in essence cropping. We also have learned tools on Photoshop that allow us to crop an image after we have taken it. When cropping in Photoshop it is possible to improve our composition or change it completely.
I croped this one so that it would cut out this big chain thing that was really ugly. The two ways i used the croping tool was by shaping the photo into how i wanted it to obe n shape and in size.

Compositional Trick # 4 Extream Angles

I was ably to capture this extreme angle on my subject by standing this wooden crate on my toes. I like in this picture that is is so busy with its surrounding bout some how my subject was ably to standout. To make this photo better I could have gotten higher so that the angle would have been a little bit more extreme. Using extreme angles effects my photograph in a way of giving the viewer a different perspective on my subject. I would use it when showing something you might see everyday but is needed by others to be seen in a different perspective.

Compositional trick# 3: Marco

The Marco trick in the camera is a wonderful tool. the Marco function on cameras makes things extremely close so you can see colors and textures that you usually would not see. depth of Field is when you get really close to a subject and it blurs out everything in photo. the deeper depth the more blurred the back ground is and the shallower is not so blurred. Out of theses two photos I personally like the one of my hand and my bracelet. I used the Marco tool to enhance the texture of my skin and so you can focus on the clasp of my bracelet I love the color.

Compositional trick# 2: Leading Lines

Leading lines are lines that draw your eyes to the main subject, in and throughout the picture. In this picture the designated leading line is the mop stick which leads up to the mop head and deeper throughout this picture. The purpose of the leading line is to show the viewers all the extraordinary lines of the tree. Like the tree branches.

Compositional trick# 1: rules of thirds

The rule of thirds is a compositional trick that helps are pictures look professional. It is a tic-tac-toe graph that will show up on your camera. You pick a subject a put it on one of the four corners of the middle square in the tic-tac-toe graph. I used it in in my picture with the tree. The tree is my subject and it lays on the vertical line of the right side of the tic-tac-toe graph.