Yadi Angeles Q2: Personalized December

    I've always loved art, and I spend a lot of my life working on drawings and paintings. But this quarter, a lot of holidays and special occasions for someone special to me were coming up. So I decided to make them a present instead of buying one, and to make something different from the field I'm most used to.     I usually pick themes of emotions that are most dominant in my life. I take my time when it comes to my work, partly because I want it to be done right, but mostly because my motivation is just the satisfaction of seeing my drawing skills become more refined as time passes. This quarter I have found that when I have a more common goal of someone else's happiness as opposed to just a "good" grade, I am better motivated to take on creative projects and to spend every free minute I have to work on it.     My first piece is a bracelet with a personalized charm. It is based on the person it was made for. He has a signature of himself as a little cartoon that he likes to sign his drawings with. So I took a copy of that signature and made it from metal from a can. I had decided on a can because I wanted it to be more permanent than paper or foam. When I first thought of a charm, my mind automatically went to metal, and the next thought was that my resources could easily get me a can and scissors that could cut through metal. I used a cloth to cover the back of it so that it won't cut through the skin, and that became a birthday present.

My second piece was for the same person who happens to love video games and specifically Mario games.  So I made a personalized question block from cardboard paper using pictures from the internet and images from playing the game myself. I also cut out items that are usually found when a question block is hit: a star, a green/red mushroom, a feather, and a fire flower. After painting all of these items, I made it a little more personal inside the box, painting it my own way and making a story and picture. After glueing everything together, and putting all of the items inside the box, I added in chocolate coins. There were mess ups, and my biggest challenge was the time limit and the time the paint wanted to dry. But everything was finished the way my mind wanted it, and bringing joy to the person all of this was meant for brought a more accomplished and happy feeling inside me than any of my other work could have ever done.