Abstract

Concrete

Collage Pt. Two

After completing the assignment and giving it a full week to come back and view my post from a different standpoint, it became clear that my impressions that I has written on the back resembled very closely what other students in the class seemed to think about my collage.

When I look at my collage I see a bunch of empowering strong women that are full of strength, passion, and confidence. Not just in one area, but in all areas of their life including athletic, health, social, and appearance aspects. They are not embarrassed to be a woman, and quotes like “Play like a girl” that I have on my collage reflect this.

The students that had to comment on my blog thought of the following words came to their mind when reading my blog: athletic, creative, influencing, feminine, empowering, influential, open minded, Beauty, Variety, Deep. One student said, “In my opinion, the overall theme of this collage athlete.” I thought this comment was extremely interesting because I take a lot of pride in being an athlete and athletics has been a huge part of my life since I was a child. I was surprise that my interests were able to pick that information out about me without me even trying to do so when ripping the papers out of the magazines. I also extremely enjoyed to see that people thought the collage was influential and creative because one of my hobbies is doing things that encourage creativity and pushing myself to think outside the box.

One thing that my classmates didn’t know when they commented on this picture was that cancer has been something that we have unfortunately had to deal with in my family, as my mother, aunt, and grandmother, all had different forms of cancer. Luckily, I am blessed to say that they are all in remission and in wonderful health and happiness at the moment. These women are my idols, they are strong, confident, and are absolute fighters. That is why one of my categories to explain my overall theme showed a bald woman with big, pink, bolded words underneath explaining, “CAN DO.” It is a big reminder everyday to keep pushing, fighting, maintaining faith, and no matter what happens, never give up.

What were you trying to achieve? I was trying to achieve a motivational and empowering visual for woman, I believe it did the trick because these were some of the key words that my classmates used to describe the collage created.

REFLECTION: What problems did you encounter and how did you solved them? The problems that I encountered were trying to figure a way to piece everything together in a strategic way, in the limited time allotted. Luckily once I started, it just pieced together wonderfully on its own without me putting too much thought in it due to my common interests.

REFLECTION: What was your AHA! moment?

My AHA! Moment was the second time that I went back and looked at my collage and realized that the combination of different woman used on it were truly inspirational to me, and made me want to resemble them in my day to day life.

REFLECTION: What connections did you make to what you have learned in the readings and in class?

The connection I have made to class involved shape. We had only a limited time to rip out our pieces of paper but when we combined all the pictures on the poster board it created a type of Gestalt visual, which tied in a universal theme of female strength and motivation.

REFLECTION: What would you do differently had you more time or resources?

If I had more time I would have a brought in a few different types of magazines. I only had gossip girl magazines, so it would have been nice to have a variety.

 

Collage

5 Photos

Sensory principle: Color

This photograph was taken in Portsmouth over the weekend at the Topiary gardens. I was infatuated by the contrast of bright colors of flowers in the garden among the vibrant green bushes all around the garden. It was extremely appealing to my senses and from this angle of the picture it becomes quite clear that when you first look at it your eyes are attracted to the beautiful red flowers in the background. After the red flowers are noticed, I then noticed the yellow and orange flowers even farther back. I was surprised about this because we talked about in class how yellow is usually the first color a viewer becomes aware of so I concluded that maybe I noticed the red flowers first because there were more of them and they were closer to the lens of my camera.

Sensory principle: Size

My roommate took this photograph of my friend and I while she was sitting on the fire escape in my bedroom. I asked her to take this because we live on the third floor of our apartment and always joke around about how people look like ants from below when we sit up there. (Yes, we sit up there often; we like to think of it as our “princess balcony.”) This type of photograph is a similar version of a “Birds-eye view” and by the looks of this photograph, and distance we are apart, you could never tell this boy and that myself are around 6 feet tall.

I also added the second picture because I was really happy with how it came out while I was on a run on the Bristol bike path. It considers the sensory principle of size because it shows the weeds and grass as all different sizes, some even looking bigger than the sunset in the background.

Sensory principle: Shape
This photograph was also taken at the Green Animals Topiary Garden in Portsmouth, RI. Seeing bushes cut into animal shapes is not ordinary in any place I have ever been besides this garden. There were so many unusual shapes and although they were just unusual looking bushes, I was able tell what every single animal carving was without even looking at the pamphlet. The curvature, width, size, and shape was all carefully carved to help decipher the creation’s identity and provide an enjoyable visual to the viewer.

Sensory principle: Gestalt
This photograph was taken of the quilt that I have on my bed in my apartment. It illustrates the Gestalt phenomena because it is a pattern of beautiful flowers arranged in a circle to make up an even larger flower. The photo represents an arrangement of bricks to form a specific pattern to create the wall. The pattern was arranged in this specific form so when a person looked at the quilt from a bigger picture they would notice the big flower, but laying on my bed, I see it in a macro lens that shows me five different rows of flowers in circles that get smaller and smaller from the outside in.

Sensory principle: Lines
This photograph was taken by the docks in Bristol. It portrays the sensory principle of lines and shows how the lines create a division of space to make it more appealing, and it almost even creates different frames between the lines to observe as well. I tried to make the biggest line in the middle of the page the focal point and let the smaller ones surrounding it create a background effect.

What were you trying to achieve? 

In completing this assignment, I was trying to experiment different ways I could take photos to enunciate the five different sensory principles, which include, color, size, shape, Gestalt, and lines. I used pictures I took in my travels around the Rhode Island are to try and capture these principles in an appealing way to the viewers senses.

What problems did you encountered and how did you solve them?
The problem I encountered was trying to find a good picture for my Gestalt Phenomenon photograph. I looked too much into it and was trying to find a complicated version. It wasn’t until I was lying on my bed creating this assignment that I realized they are actually all around my room.

What was your AHA! Moment?
My AHA! moment was when I noticed the Gestalt principle right on my own bed quilt. I don’t think I will ever look at my quilt the same again, and now I have a deeper appreciation for it as well. It made me realize that if I took a more simplistic approach to this assignment, I would realize these sensory principles are present all around me.

What connections did you make to what you have learned in the readings and in class?
The best connection I made with class had to do with the concept of perception. “The beauty is all in the eye of the beholder” and it is incredible that the person behind the lens has the power to capture the photograph in the exact light that you want to see it. For instance, spacing and size played great detail in my weeds and grass picture. I wanted the viewer to see the weeds closer so they could see it in a macro approach like they were standing right there next to me.

What would you do differently had you more time or resources?
If I had more time and resources I would try and take a better picture of my quilt in a better lighting. The overhead light just didn’t capture it in the way I wanted to and it would be a lot more appealing if I was able to bring it outside to natural light. Also, I have a great picture of my friend standing far away with the bridge in the background and it looks like they are both the same size. It would have been a good picture to use for the size principle as a supplement. 

Mind Map

A Mind map is a method used for taking notes in a creative way. It uses key words and visuals to help solve problems by encouraging the creator to make connections and apply radiant thinking. For our first assignment I focused on a major problem that I have been worried about in my life since I started college in 2012. This problem was graduating on time and being able to walk the stage with everyone else in my class in 2016. I have already partially failed to meet this goal due to the fact that I transferred from Merrimack after my freshman year, leaving all my first year friends behind. Instead, I am seeking the same goal to graduate in 2016, but with my new set of friends in my class at Roger Williams University.

Creating a mind map was definitely beneficial because there are so many different things that cloud my mind when working toward the goal of walking the stage in May 2016, but using the branches on my mind map I could have a visual of all the positives and negatives that affect this date and try to focus most on the beneficial key words the most. There were many things going through my head when making this map: Different requirements, incentives, feelings and activities that I participate in. I broke these all up into different branches and it helped me realize that I have a major case of “Senioritis” where I am getting lazy and enjoying the social life, and celebration of our last year in college, more than the actual studying. It is hard because I am only taking three classes this semester, but the mind map also helped me realize that I have a lot of incentives and support that keep me involved, determined, and working toward my goal.

A problem that I had encountered when making my mind map was trying to figure out how to condense my issues into one word instead of phrases. I am a person that likes to elaborate when I write and so it was hard to keep it simple. This was a good exercise to help me practice simplicity but to solve my problems I resulted to drawing little pictures to help describe the term, as well as looking up synonyms online for a phrase I wanted to add to the map.

My AHA! moment was when I realized a mind map was used for problem solving. When I first read the directions I thought you just take your first problem and then take a macro focus on any other part of the branches for a second mind map. It didn’t really make sense to me but I did it anyway for my rough draft and went about with having “Graduation” be my first cloud, while “Senioritis” was my second. This didn’t make as much sense because they were both problems of mine and there really was no solution offered, leaving me bummed out and clueless. When I re-read the directions and started my second rough draft, I quickly realized I should focus on the other branch entitled, “Incentives” and it would have a much more positive outcome.

If I had more time and resources I would definitely try and organize my mind-map in a more creative way. I would draw a big picture of a graduation cap in the middle and off of the tassels I would branch off my different buzz words, creating a more interesting and appealing visual in all.

Mind-mapping is a great way to explore yourself and your thoughts in a different and fun way. It is also extremely relaxing for a person like myself who loves to zone out to some music and doodle anything on my mind.

Rough drafts: 

Graduation Map: 

Incentives Map: