This I Believe

There is one quote I like from one of my favorite actors Jim Carrey. He once said ¨ Forget the pain, Mock the pain, Reduce it. And laugh.¨. I had chronic migraines from March of 2016 to April 6th,2017 the day of my septoplasty but we will see in mid June what my neurosurgeon says if I still have them. I probably had them longer but there is no way to tell.


The 3 days I sat there trying to avoid the discomfort of the stents,stitches,blood covered gauze pad,and trying to avoid sneezing and all without blowing my nose. Yes,that all sucked but in the end I have no headaches and a facelift with a nose job as well. Not only did I get a teenage girl's dream but for 3 days I got to watch my favorite comedians to relieve my pain even though I was not supposed to laugh. So it must true that laughing is the best medicine.


I believe that causing someone it or receiving it from someone laughter is the best medicine to feel better or just at random you don't even have to be sick. For this treatment I could either 1st go and and see the doctor at his office (buying a ticket right to show or movie),or 2nd I could call him and ask him to come to my house (Searching comedian on internet or watching movie on TV or On Demand). Well personally,I have multiple doctors (Comedians) I like to watch every time they are on. Here is the list Gabriel Iglesias,Jeff Dunham,Carlos Mencia,Adam Sandler,Kevin James,David Spade,Chris Farley,Jim Carrey,Joe Gatto,James Murray,Sal Vulcano,Brian Quinn and possibly a few other just to name a few.


I think that for those who have diseases or sickness or even recovering this really helps out. But the best one of all would possibly half to be doing your own comedy for those people. So for example let's say my mom is sick from the flu and she is bored but she does not want to watch TV so I crack some jokes or just at random say funny things and she laughs. I also crack jokes even when someone has surgery so my grandpop had surgery last week so I called him and told him jokes as well.


But if my jokes do not work their is always old plain 1 and 2. Which are going to see a comedian or just my favorite comedians and watching them. But there is one more option and this is probably the best one as well which is go and crack jokes with your friends. So here is an example you are sitting and then something funny happens boom everyone laughs and then we crack jokes laughs some more and then stop and repeat.


So if you want be happy after being sick,surgery or even if not sad at all just go ahead like I do and watch,see,do it yourself or do it with friends laugh and comedy.


This I believe

This, I believe

It’s better to be ugly on the outside then it is on the inside.

You can fix looks, not who you are.

I believe, a person can change

But once a nasty person, always an evil one.


Once the darkness wrapps its hands around the heart


It stains.


I’ve  felt the nasty radiate from fallen purest


So I stepped back to keep my purness.



I was screamed at


Bruised


Loney


Laughed at


Picked at


Nicked at


Sick to where my bones sored and the dark people that surrounded me quivered my blood, and made my muscles into stones.


I was left in a pretty mess.


Survival was needed.



Remember, I am the white pure angel that needs no fixing.


I look upon the darkest hearts and pity them.


For they will never be free.

They will never know the feeling of being lifted in the arms of a loved one


Or notice how beautiful the sun shines down on the world


All over grassy hills and pink sunsets.


How bright your hand becomes as you lift it from the ground into the sky


Knowing that someone else's lonely hand was holding up to the sky too.


To know what it's like to have the corners of your mouth perk up, and let a heavy sound of laughter budge from your belly.


They don’t know the feeling of warmth filling you up all the way in.


They let darkness and hatred consume them.


The ugliness on the inside, they can never fix


Their hearts are stained like gravy on a white t-shirt.


They are broken like the glass scattered from an abandoned home at the end of the block.


They should learn from me.


To feel forgiveness and spread kindness like bees spread pollen.


I pollinate kindness through softly speaking to.


Believe in God, not in religion

I believe on God. But I don’t consider myself to any religion.

My mother was educated in a catholic home.  She never was very religious, but she felt the need to rise me and my siblings in catholic values. As many of the children's, I was baptized when I was a baby. I went to catholic schools, with nuns (the nuns only were there, and taught religion class but the rest of the teachers were normal teachers). When I was a child I believe in God, because was something they told me since I was small, and is still in my head.


I started to question the existence of God when I studied other religions, jew and muslims basically. I didn’t understood the differences. What’s the difference between a Jew, christian or muslim? The first though is they believe in different gods. Muslims pray to, Jew to Jehovah, christians to God. But there is really a difference?


All the things they do, make no sense. They say that God is everywhere, but you are a bad christian if you don’t go to the church every. The difference to go the hell or heaven is if you say a bunch of worlds every day. They read a book that contradict many times, but they do every thing as real.

You can’t do anything during Sabat, and in Ramadan you can’t eat. From my point of view nothing of this have any sense.

The faith should not control for anybody. If you believe in something, you should feel free to pray and believe in whatever you want.


Now, I see the hypocrisy of much of them. Many priest talk about help the other, but they build huges houses for them. The fight for any child have rights, but when is homosexual and doesn’t deserve this right anymore. This things make me go away from the religion. Things like the richest christian never had donated a penny to charity, but others people  like Bill Gates did. For them is just a excuse for don't feel bad with himself.


People like me say that we are atheists, because is hard to explain what really we think. Sometimes, arguing with people, they don’t understand that I believe in a god, but not consider myself in any religion. Maybe you can think why I still believe in God after all of this. The answer is easy. Some values for the moral are necessary for mew.

Some Good in This World

Throughout my life, when I have studied and learned about the history of this planet, I have heard many stories of mankind’s unsettling capacity for violence, cruelty, xenophobia, hatred, and greed. Too many times, I have read or learned about a historical event where humanity took these sins to their absolute worst levels. The Civil Rights Movement. The Holocaust. The American-Indian Massacres. The Era of American Slavery. All of these events left a nauseatingly long trail of ruined lives and dead innocents in their wake. These types of tragedies have happened far too often in human history. It’s easy for many of us to lose faith in our species, but at the end of the tunnel of tragedy is a light of hope. For even in the darkest eras of human history, humans have proven that while their capacity for evil is great, their capacity for good is even greater. I have learned about many instances where a select few people have risen up above base instinct and xenophobia so as to help others. For example, Martin Luther King was not only a fierce advocate for civil rights, but he did so without resorting to violence. He preached the ideals of fighting with words rather than bullets, and his followers behaved exactly as he pleaded for them to. Even when faced with overwhelming odds and constant threats from his enemies, he never once lashed out in rage.

Throughout my life, I have always believed that despite our flaws, humans have an unbelievably huge capacity for good. Learning about people like Martin Luther King and growing up surrounded by family and friends who accepted me for who I was helped to strengthen my belief that if me and my loved ones could accept and love each other unconditionally, then humanity has that potential as well. If you wish to see more modern examples of humankind’s capacity for good, then you needn’t look very far to find them. All around the United States, and the world at large, you will come across thousands of organizations dedicated to helping others, acting on the ideals of compassion. Philadelphia is the home city of Project HOME, a homelessness rehabilitation program that takes homeless people off the streets and provides them with housing, job opportunities and training, medical care, education, and all of a citizen’s basic necessities while teaching them to fend for themselves. Philadelphia is also home to the Saved Me Animal Shelter, an anti-euthanasia shelter that actually rescues other dogs and cats from pro-euthanasia shelters and keeps them safe and warm until they get adopted. These two selfless organizations help to fully cement Philadelphia’s reputation as the city of “brotherly love,” and I have had the honor of volunteering for both of them in the past. While at the animal shelter, I helped by folding laundry, cleaning windows, playing with the animals, washing the chalkboard, and scooping the litter boxes. At Project HOME, I worked at the medical clinic shredding old documents so as to make room for new patients. Even though my work at the clinic was clerical at most, I was confident that in one way or another, I was making quite an impact on the community and helping many homeless people to avoid getting sick, or worse. During my orientation day the beginning of my two-week volunteer session, I also got to hear from a formerly homeless man who told us how Project HOME helped him to become a productive member of society. Not only was I inspired by his story, but I also learned that when you look beneath all of the stigma and stereotypes, homeless people are really no different from what society considers “normal” people.

Not only have I had the honor of working for Project HOME and Saved Me Animal Shelter, but I have also helped make commitments to science and the understanding of Autism. You see, since Autism is such a mysterious and strange condition (which many people have even arrogantly labeled a mental disorder), people tend to be afraid of what it is and if it will harm people. Others even taunt and tease people with Autism because they believe that their victims are not as intelligent as people without Autism. Some parents actually refuse to give their children vaccinations because they see some non-existent connection between vaccinations and Autism. My volunteering to have X-Ray images taken of my brain and to do computer games for Autism research have helped to improve the scientific community’s knowledge of it and I am confident it will help to allay people’s fears of the harm Autism has the potential to cause. I foresee that in time, people will come to see people with Autism not as mentally defective or insane, but simply as regular people whose minds just work a little differently than others.

This I Believe

As a child, I relied on other people’s opinions. I let them control what I said, what I did, what I wore and what I didn’t wear, my hijab being one of them.

It was my eighth grade year of middle school, also time for me to start wearing my hijab. All my other Sudanese-Muslim friends had starting wearing their hijab, some without a doubt, some with some hesitation. And then there was me, with fear, and reluctance, and a million other emotions my 13 year old self couldn’t conjure into one single word for.

At the start of an adolescent Muslim girl’s life, she must start wearing her headscarf and dressing modestly. One question that is always at the tip of another person's tongue when looking at my hijab is,

“Where you forced?” they would ask with arched brows.

When it was anything but the opposite. My mother and father never forced me to wear the hijab. I always knew growing up that I would wear it, eventually. When I did start wearing it was my choice, and as I explained this to confused face in front of me, they started to be more puzzled that I would put it on voluntarily. My parents, never asked me to wear it, I wore it on my own, it was the love for my religion and support from my family that drove me here. However, it took me awhile to get to this place of confidence and acceptance of my hijab.

Middle school was a tough time for a kid who struggle with an identity crisis, who was trying to make a drastic change in her life, but too afraid of the response from her peers. Islamophobic remarks was common for me during that time. Although I didn’t wear my hijab at the time, people still knew I was muslim by very obvious last name, Mohammed. Thinking back to a time when our 6th grade class was discussing Islam, and someone talked about how their family members were Muslim.

“My aunt and her three daughters are Muslim, they all wear the headscarf thingy.” The boy said, and without any consideration to my vulnerability asked,

“Israh, how come you don’t wear it?”

All of their tormenting eyes turned to me, my hands started to shake a little, so I sat on them to hid it, I wish I could hide the fearful look on my face. I looked down at my grey and dark blue plaid skirt that was part of our uniform. To keep us from making fun of each other if one person’s clothes weren’t as nice as their peers. In those moments I imagined a bold Israh who was quick with her tongue that could make 12 year old boy's silence their mouths forever, but I was a scared girl with shaking hands that she hid underneath her gray and dark blue plaid skirt, getting asked a question she had no idea how to answer.

“I’m too young to wear it.” was all I could manage.

He replied with a dazed and confused look on his face, mouth halfway open in confusion as the room seemed to be getting smaller and smaller.

“Well, my cousin is three years old, and she wears it.”

The entire class stared at me some with quizzical looks, others with a sort of ‘this isn’t my business but I’m gonna make it mine’ look and one kid in the back of the room with a pen doodling on the desk, he was my favorite classmate from then on.

I wasn’t afraid to wear hijab, just how my friends would treat me differently. My most known feature in middle school was my hair. Girls would always undo my braid and redo it for sport. Other girls would always joke as we stood in the lunch line,

“Girl, if you ever cut your hair off please give it to me!”

“Are you even black?”

“I’m sure that’s not your REAL hair.”

“Can I braid it for you?”

I should have been flattered all this positive attention should have made me some overconfident egotistical girl who could rule the halls of middle school. But I thought that wearing hijab would mean covering up the girl that was favored and liked, that the moment I put it on I would be a target for more humiliation. I was scared. I didn’t want to hide myself because of the opinions of others. But words hurt, and I chose rather than be myself, to succumb to their torment and be hijabless.

Final Stamp Design

I began this process by listing things that described me. I wrote a lot about sports and my home island Puerto Rico. I went through many designs of soccer balls but I decided to change it up. Once I started thinking about it more I decided to use the Puerto Rican flag as part of my design. I also added my Three initials. My intentions in putting the three initials in the flag was to point out that I am from there and I am proud. At first it was difficult because I had to make the design of the flag separate from the letters so they wouldn't intersect. I had to do that because if it intersected you wouldn't be able to see the image I was trying to portray. My next step after this was to shade and outline what I wanted to be negative and positive space. Picking the parts that were going to be negative and positive were hard because I wasn't sure which part i wanted to be light and which ones I wanted to be dark. For the major part I decided to use the dark letters as the positive space so the image could be seen better and clearer. The dark space makes from the letter D and M create the image of the letter A without the letter A having to be a dark letter like the D. The star is in negative space because the star is one of the most important components of the Puerto Rican flag. By making it into negative space it stand out in middle of the positive space. To finish, this image has both negative and positive space creating my image of the Puerto Rican flag and My initials.
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Ben Fink Capstone

For two weeks during the summer of 2016, I volunteered at Project HOME, a Philadelphia-based homeless advocacy organization that provides homeless people with food, housing, job training, medical care, and education. While my work was largely shredding old documents in the medical clinic, my experience working with Project HOME inspired me to do more to help combat homelessness in Philadelphia. Thus, I took it upon myself to dedicate my CAPSTONE project to supporting the organization. For two weeks in a row, on Wednesday after school hours, I had set up a clothing drive, wherein I had my fellow students bring in any new or gently used clothing for me to donate to the Project HOME boutique. I managed to get them to know about my clothing drive both by pasting flyers throughout the school and writing about it on facebook. In the end, I ended up donating more than a dozen bags of clothing to the boutique, both from my fellow students and from friends outside of school. While I worked on my clothing drive and frequently checked in with my CAPSTONE mentor, Margie Winters (who was the director of the two-week program I was working for last summer), I also did some research and learned many interesting (and very disturbing) facts about homelessness. For instance, I learned that in Philadelphia, an average middle-class worker has to work 81 hours a week at a minimum wage of $7.25 just to pay the rent for a single-bedroom apartment. I also learned that at a national level, 800,000 more children were in poverty in 2004 than in 2003, with 1.2 million more living without health insurance. This research helped me to realize just how horrible a problem homelessness is, and strengthened my conviction to lend the homeless a helping hand in any way I could. I realize that my clothing drive may be very small (and only works at a municipal level), but I am confident that every little act of kindness can help to end the problem of poverty once and for all.


Sources Cited


"About Us." National Coalition for the Homeless. National Coalition for the Homeless, 2014. Web. 28 Dec. 2016. <http://nationalhomeless.org/about-us/>.

The National Coalition for the Homeless is another organization that advocates for the rights of homeless people. This one is composed of currently or formerly homeless people, activists, and community service providers dedicated to ending the problem of homelessness. The "about us" section of their website will help me to demonstrate how people are working the solve the problem of homelessness at a national level, rather than simply in Philadelphia. It will also encourage them to donate to or support more than one organization that helps the homeless.


"Criminalization of Homelessness Increases in U.S. Cities." National Low Income Housing Coalition. November 21, 2016. Accessed February 01, 2017. http://nlihc.org/article/criminalization-homelessness-increases-us-cities.

This resource will help me to show my viewers just how horribly homeless people are stigmatized in the United States. It demonstrates how people in certain cities can be arrested for no reason other than that they are homeless and can't find food, clothes, or shelter. As a matter of fact, over 187 United States cities criminalize homelessness and the prevalence of laws that disenfranchise and criminalize the homeless have been increasing since 2006.


"Facts on Homelessness." Project HOME. Project HOME, 2016. Web. 31 Dec. 2016. <https://projecthome.org/about/facts-homelessness>.

This source will further help me to get some concrete, numerical information on homelessness in Philadelphia. It lists annual rates of homelessness in the city, the age groups of the homeless, and the primary causes of homelessness. My audience might not be able to grasp a complete national scope of homelessness, so this source will help them to get a good idea on how much Philadelphia is affected.


Gambrione, Andrew. "A New Space for Homeless Youth Quietly Opened in a Church Downtown." Washington City Paper. Washington City Paper, 8 Sept. 2016. Web. 31 Dec. 2016. <http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/housing-complex/article/20833081/a-new-space-for-homeless-youth-quietly-opened-in-a-church-downtown>.

This article is meant to show the light at the end of the tunnel of homelessness. In it, we are given information about a new space for homeless youth that has been opened in an old church in Washington D.C. This center for homeless people of all ages offers free meals, HIV testing, counseling referrals, recreational activities, and movies.


Groves, Martha. "VA Unveils Housing for 65 Homeless Veterans." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2015. Web. 31 Dec. 2016. <http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-veteran-housing-20150609-story.html>.

This semi-recent current events article will be meant to add a silver lining to the dark cloud of homelessness in America. While I'm trying to stress how big a problem poverty is in the United States, I don't want my project to be entirely doom-and-gloom. What better way to keep people's hopes alive than to inform them about an ingenious way of keeping homeless veterans happy, healthy, and comfortable?


Kneebone, Elizabeth, and Alan Berube. Confronting Suburban Poverty in America. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 2013. Print.

This is one of two books I ordered off of Amazon for my bibliography. In this book, we explore the conditions of suburban poverty, as well as diving into some statistics on American Poverty, the causes of poverty, and what solutions the American People have come up with to solve this problem.


LaMarche, Pat. Left out in America: The State of Homelessness in the United States. Portland, Me.: UpalaPress, 2006. Print.

While the other book I ordered from Amazon explores statistics and causes of poverty, this book will serve as a way to connect me to those suffering the effects of homelessness. The author, Pat LaMarche, spent fourteen days exploring the United States and living in homeless shelters in order to connect with the homeless. This way, he was able to know exactly what types of problems homeless people face in different states.


Lombardo, Paul. "Social Origins of Eugenics." Social Origins of Eugenics. University of Virginia, 2014. Web. 29 Dec. 2016. <http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/essay8text.html>.

In the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, many regions of the United States began an unethical population control method through the use of eugenics. This was the theory that certain personality traits or physical taboos could be genetically passed down through the blood. 1914 was the year wherein geneticist Harry Laughlin proposed a law that forcibily sterilized the "socially inadequate." This basically meant that all of those who lived "outside" of the social order or on the fringes of society would be forced to have their ability to reproduce removed. The umbrella term "socially inadequate," included the homeless, orphans, mentally challenged people, insane people, physically handicapped people, and alcoholics. This article will come in handy because it will show readers just how much homeless people have been stigmatized and persecuted throughout history.


"Our History." Project HOME. National Healthcare for the Homeless Council, 2016. Web. 28 Dec. 2016. <https://projecthome.org/about/our-history>.

This article is located on the website for Project HOME. In it, users can take a look at some of Project HOME's premier accomplishments from 1989 all to the way up until 2016. This source will come in handy because it will help me to demonstrate to my audience how old Project HOME is and how it has been helping to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty.


Scullion, Mary. "Commentary: In Philly, Memorial Pays Tribute to the Homeless." Philly.com. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 21 Dec. 2016. Web. 27 Dec. 2016. <http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20161221_Commentary__In_Philly__memorial_pays_tribute_to_the_homeless.html>.

My project is centered around Project HOME. Sister Mary Scullion was one of the principal founders of this non-profit homeless aid organization. I'm gathering research on homelessness and what we can do to help solve the problem, so who better to ask than the founder of Project HOME herself? As an added bonus, the first three paragraphs are about three formerly homeless people who Project HOME presumably helped get back on their feet. They would continue to help advocating for the homeless to the end of their days.


Scullion, Mary. "Commentary: Philly Nurtures Pope's Seeds of Justice and Mercy." Philly.com. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 27 Sept. 2016. Web. 29 Dec. 2016. <http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20160927_Commentary__Philly_nurtures_pope_s_seeds_of_justice_and_mercy.html>.

In this article by Sister Mary Scullion, readers are given information about how Pope Francis' visit to Philadelphia caused advances in homeless advocacy. The Holy Father is a well-known advocate for social justice and a firm believer in God's mercy. In honor of this visit, Project HOME helped raise more than $1.4 million to address the needs of the homeless. The U.S. Senate also introduced some new proposals to assist homeless or at-risk teenagers. This article is useful to me because it will help reassure my audience that despite all the problems homelessness entails, there is still hope for humanity.


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Final Stamp Design

When I'm asked to draw something that symbolizes me I always think of the letter K. First of all, my name starts with a K. Usually people mix it up with a C but it's important for me to correct them. The K isn't just representing me but my brother as well. Kenneth is a very important person because we were born on the same day. Not month or year but the same day. That's why in my stamp I decided to include two K's. One of them is flipped just to create intersecting lines. 
My initial idea was to draw the number twenty-seven in roman numerals. I couldn't do that because it was just lines. Since there was only lines, there wasn't any positive/negative space. I tried to outline the numbers but it defeated my purpose. After looking at my paper for a long time I just started drawing. I wasn't thinking and the end result was a K. To add more I just drawed a flipped K. My process was nothing specific. Usually when I think too much it takes longer than needed. 
The hardest part about finding positive/negative space is making sure that the image you were trying to portray is the same.That's what happened to me with the roman numerals. Once I cut the dark lines(positive space) there was nothing to glue on. So I had to go back and change my image. Once I was able to figure what piece I wanted to be on the paper that is my positive space. In this case the two K's are my positive space. The space around it is negative because it's not the center of attention. 
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FullSizeRender (3)

Negative Space

My stamp is showing an H weaving into an A. It stands for my initials, A.H. The negative space in my stamp is all the black. Figuring out how to make the illusion that the H was weaving into the A was very complicated and confusing. It took many tries. But in the end I decided to make each line wider which achived the weave deisgn. 
It is important that I have negative and positive space becasue otherwise The whole deisgin would just look like one shape. This is where I got stuck. But after may trials and errors I got it. I almost gave up with this design and was about to do something very simple, but i did not and it was worth it. 
After this activity I have a better understandig of negative and poitive space. When I look at a picture now I see where the positive and negative space is.  
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IMG_8020

Final Stamp Design

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Stamp
This is a stamp using negative and positive space. Where the negative is the white space and the positive is the pink because it's the "main attraction." It's an E, M, and a B. Representing my middle, first, and last name. The reason the "E" looks almost like arrows is because I love music. It reminds me of the play buttons on an mp3 player. The "M" is in the middle because I like being the center of attention. The middle is where you focus most on. The "B" is at the end because I was trying to make two arrows. It represented the fast forward button because I always think ahead of everyone. 
The assignment was basically asking us to show a stamp that represented us best. I started off with a drawing of an actual stamp with pretty designs, but I realized it'd be hard because of the positive and negative space. I would've had to cut out most of the stamp in order to have "empty" space, (a.k.a. negative space.) But then I figured sticking to something simple. I looked at a list of words that represented me and this came to mind.
It's important to show what's negative and what's positive so the audience can understand what's going on. Naturally, your eyes are drawn to the positive space, which is were the pink is. But, the white space is needed in order for that pink to pop, which is why that's the negative.
Overall, I learned how something as simple as negative and positive space can change the meaning of an overall photo. If I had used my other one your eyes would be drawn to many different things, causing confusion. Whereas, this is less complex, but says a lot.

Softball Makes Playoffs

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Congratulations to the softball team for making the first round of playoffs. The girls take on Roxborough this Monday, May 15th at 3pm at McDevitt Recreation Center (3531 Scotts Lane.) Come support our Rockets!

DIVERGENT (Final Stamp Drawling)

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My stamp stands for "Divergent" because I see my self as a different human being. The word Divergent represents me perfectly because I express, learn, and is a different person in general whether its academically or not. Some words that I brainstormed was Straight forward, Outspoken, and Thoughtful but Divergent stood out the most. To create my image it took two periods because I either got frustrated or couldn't cut my stamp out. But I think my work paid. off because I love my stamp, and got a comment by Ms.Hull that my stamp describes me very well. As you see on my stamp the positive parts are my arrows because, it shows to me that I am able to become successful and many different ways and my personality can be either down a positive route or a negative route. The hardest part for me was to chose my positive and negative space because I didn't know which part will look better cut out, so I gave it a try and went to cut out my arrows and it worked!

Final Stamp Design

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The assignment was to cut out a design for a stamp in negative space. We had to pick a symbol or a design that reflected our personality. I have always identified with my astronomical sign, Aries. I knew that I wanted to add it into my stamp because it is a big part of my identity. I also wanted the piece to be simple and striking. I decided of coloring half of the S because it is defined and sleek. I wasn’t sure how I would put these two symbols into one stamp, but I didn’t want them to be separate. I decided on an overlapping design and I’m glad that it turned out the way I envisioned it. Explain the importance of negative and positive space and how you used it in your design. Negative space allows the view to see your piece exactly the way you want them to. It makes your piece stand out with bold color. I used negative space by cutting away the parts that I didn’t want the viewer to see. I kept the dark, solid outlines and the middle of the S to help convey the message of my personality. One thing that I learned was that colored paper is very helpful. I drew and pasted my stamp on white paper, when I should have cut it out on black paper. This would have allowed the black parts to stand out even more. Ms. Hull also said that I would have trouble cutting out thin lines, so I made them thicker. This not only made it easier to cut out, I also helps the stamp with its striking image.

Creative Print

          ​This stamp symbolizes me because I love making things and being very creative. The letters are weird and you wouldn't really see anyone write like that, that's why I like this. In my brainstorming I wrote weird, funny, self conscious, social, but my favorite was creative. I knew what I was going to do with that right away. I looked up different ways to look up some of the letter and the silliest ones I found I put on my print. 
          The negative space in my picture are the letters and its important so that the positive space, the background, won't clash and you can't tell the difference between the two. To truly understand the process of negative and positive space is just to practice. Making sure what you want to see is seen.I got stuck on the connected letter E. It still came out how I wanted it but I had to do about three tries. I was rushing so then I knew I had to slow down to get the perfect E. I learned that your picture can go in and out of negative and positive space as long as you can still see your picture.
Printmaking
Printmaking

Final Rubber Stamp

The writing process for this was very long and intricate. First, I brainstormed things that I believed described myself. These words were Outspoken, Short, Creative, Nature, Artistic, Supportive, Extroverted, Talkative, Pessimistic, and Makeup. I eventually tried to narrow these words down to three words which I thought described me the best. These words were nature, artistic, and creative. To sketch my design, I had to talk positive and negative space into account. I decided to use different symbols to represent each aspect of my personality, but make them outlines so the detailing does not get lost in the negative space. I ended picking up 5 symbols to represent my three words. I put my eyes to show me looking up at the things that I love. I put a book and a music note both to represent my creativity. I enjoy reading, writing, singing, and playing piano and I believed these two symbols represented my different forms of creativity. I put a paintbrush to show my artistic abilities and my appreciation of art as well. Finally, I put a flower to show my love of nature and being outside. I made all of them silhouettes so the positive space would be easy and cut out my stamp. I had to take out some of my detail when I realized it would be difficult to replicate when put into positive/negative space. Overall, the project was not difficult but required a lot of thought and time.

Artrubberstamp

Final Stamp Design

​Mystery and loss and no strangers in my life. I have gone through a lot of dark times where I've lost what I loved. My words were as mentioned, mystery and loss, but also sustenance. I've developed a durability over time that I now use to protect me from the effects of loss. "Take no more" conveys my strength to go on through times of discord. The scythe represents death of course, and all that He has taken from me. That adds to the constant that I can withstand what He may give me. 
I knew that I wanted to do something relating to that theme. With my first sketches, I kept negative space in mind but didn't draw my image around it. In one of the previous assignments where we had to practice cutting out negative and positive space, I had some trouble figuring out what parts should be positive or negative. My other sketches were complicated and intricate, and knowing that I had so much trouble with the practice version, I wanted to have as few pieces as possible. The ribbon, scythe, and quote remained throughout all of the versions, with varying amounts of detail and added elements. I found that have the three pieces, without anything else, would be the most powerful because there aren't any distractions. 
Figuring out which parts of my drawing would be negative or positive space was a struggle. As I went through, in all honesty, close to seven sketches of the final, I found that I could use negative space to my advantage. Small details such as the changing direction in the ribbon became enhanced by cut outs. I also knew beforehand that making the lettering negative and not positive space would come out cleaner, as to not crumple each separate piece of paper. That caused the ribbon to be positive space. The scythe itself was always positive space, just because I thought that such a dark symbol should contrast with the rest of it in the darkest fashion possible. 
Throughout my life, I have been surrounded by tattoo artists. When I was homeschooled, I would go to work with my mom where I would color in copies of tattoo sketches. When I got a little older, I started drawing my own, fascinated by the clashing of the ribbon or scroll and lettering. The kinds of tattoos I was exposed to were diverse, but the ones that I remember depended heavily on negative and positive space. When I draw now, I think I too depend on it, as I like line drawings that form single shapes. I didn't have too much trouble with the concept of the negative and positive space in my own design, just the given template earlier on. The biggest issue throughout all of the assignments was cutting them out with a blade. I don't think that my poor motor and anger management skills had much to do with the concept though. If I took away two things through all of this, it's that a drawing is never final and working with layers enhances contrast. I plan to take these skills into my own sketchbook as well as the rest of this course. 

Rubber Stamp Cutout

I made this to represent me because I needed to make something that describes me. I made a video game controller because I really like video games and that Pacman symbol is only there because I like Pacman and the C and the L in Pacman are my first initials which is Charles and Langley. I also drew the chord to show that I’m connected to a few people meaning that I got a good amount of friends. Also I use the negative space for the buttons and the logo so they can stand out the most to whoever is looking at this. Negative space is basically the space that is in the white, and I used negative space to my advantage so they can be empty in the buttons. I first drew this game controller, and then I cut out the game controller it self and then the buttons and the logo because when I glued it on my sketch book it allowed me to make a good piece of art and appealing to look at. This has to be by far the best piece I made this year with construction paper. As I was making this piece I learned how important negative space and positive space really is because the it’s like a style. If you use positive space and negative space for another, you might display a different mood. It all depends on how much of negative space or positive space you use. I was really trying to catch a more cheerful mood, but the colors I chose kind of brings out a more negative vibe, and that is not what I want. When I was brainstorming what words described me I was thinking more of the lines like, nice, kind of cool, smart,ect. I had a lot of other designs before this like a tiger or a wolf but, it didn’t really feel like me. When I drew the video game controller however it felt like it described me the most.

New Doc 2017-05-11_1
New Doc 2017-05-11_1

Rubber Stamp Cutout

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I think my logo/stamp perfectly symbolizes me and who I am. The words I chose to inspire my piece were gay, kermit, lizard, drawing, long, creative, passionate, dramatic, opinionated, angry. Through each assignment, I refined my design till I finally decided for the focus of my stamp to be Kermit the Frog. I chose Kermit because he is a character I strongly relate to. The parallels between us are uncanny. My friends actually call me Kermit because they think I bear such a striking resemblance to him. He is constantly stressed like me, and he pursued a career in the arts. He specializes in yelling at people and having existential crises, and is featured in many spectacular memes. I originally wanted to include a pencil and paintbrush to represent my creative ability and artistic spirit felt the logo was too busy with them.

Understanding negative and positive is important for artists. The positive space is my drawing is the lines made with the cutout of Kermit. I think that only using negative space in my piece and not adding much detail really makes Kermit pop. I did a pretty awful job of cutting out my stamp, and I probably should’ve cut it out one paper at a time instead of one paper over the other because it was really hard to cut out. It ended up looking pretty rough, but the rough-hewn look was kind of what I was going for. I learned that sometimes for negative space to work effectively, a simple design is needed.

Final Stamp Editor

Goofy. The word I picked to describe me and as my stamp is goofy. The reason I picked this word is because it is an unique word that can be illustrated in many different ways. The image and drawing I chose for the word goofy was a jester hat. The reason I put a jester hat and the word goofy together is because during medieval times, jesters were the clowns of the village. They would make fun of themselves and wear silly clothes with random colors to make the village and especially the king laugh. The whole reason for the jester is to please the king. Make him happy and laugh. I honestly enjoy making everyone laugh. It's an great sight seeing people laugh because it makes you feel like they're happy now because of you. The reason I chose to do the hat of an jester instead of an outfit or his scepter is because the hat has an easy design and shape. The scepter is an very thin staff that would take to much to look at or enlarge. The outfit is too much and would look like a normal outfit with the negative and positive areas. It just wouldn't look right. I think that me choosing to do the jester hat isn't really original but it is very unique and creative.