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MP1 Art Blog and Artist's Statement
Luke Watson-Sharer Capstone
Final Stamp Design
The stamp above symbolizes me in many ways. The flower above is an orange blossom. An orange blossom has a meaning that many people don’t know about. The meaning is chastity, purity and loveliness. It’s a symbol of me because my heart is big enough for love and forgiveness and my purity is where God wants it to be. In my brainstorm, i used words such as loving, forgiving, funny, outgoing, outspoken, and creative. The orange blossom is my favorite flower.
When I brainstormed my words, I looked for words that had common meanings. At first, I was going to draw a diamond but I thought that's a diamond would be basic. So instead, I looked deeper and found characteristic traits that I never knew about myself. I realized that all flowers had meanings, so I researched my favorite flower and found out its meaning and how it connected with me.
The negative space is the white. The positive space is the flower. I chose to do it this way because I feel like the flower is a powerful and positive symbol. Positive space refers to the main focus of a picture, while negative space refers to the background. In this case, the flower is the mains focus.Final Stamp Design
Obviously, my name is what I think represents me the most. I say it and hear it more than any other word. My name was one of the first words I wrote down during the brainstorming. Because of this, I decided to choose my first initial to be part of my stamp. At first, I chose a design that had a lot of lines that would be impossible to cut out because there was no negative or positive space. I had to start over. The importance of negative and positive space is so that the design can really pop out, and I think my cutout represents that well. Like I mentioned earlier, my original stamp was all lines. That was hard for me to cut out because when you draw lines, there is no negative space. Once I started to understand this, I realized it would be best if I started over and that’s how I ended up with this design.
Week 5 - Day 1 & 2 - Rubber stamp - Cut out
The task was to create an rubber stamp that described you as a person, now this might seem like an easy task but in reality it was the exact opposite. For me personally , I would consider myself a variety of things so to dim that down to little was a struggle for me. The fact that also can not draw was another struggle for me.
I started off trying to be very complex. I wanted to make it different that was when my difficulties started. I had some many things that described and could not choose one, That is when I came up with the idea of combining some of them. Which to lead to my first stamp which was an emoji. A mixture of me being funny and outgoing. After drawing my image finish it was then I knew I would have trouble with cutting out the positive and negative space so decided to go with a second approach. After going back to the drawing board a couple times I decided that I would be simple. I decided I would find a way to do my initials in a creative way. This is my final design as you can see above. The picture above symbolizes me in many ways. When to start of it is my. An I have such connection with this because it was not the name given my birth but I identify with this more than the one given to me.
Both positive and negative space was very important when designing my stamp. I wanted to make my stamp visually interesting and made sure something stood out so I cut out certain parts that connect my initials. Instead of making one of my letters positive and the other negative I thought it would be best if both were positive so it has some type of unison to it.
Final Stamp Design
Final Stamp Design
When I started brainstorming the cut out stamp I wanted it to focus on something related to the sport of track and field. I decided on a simple design of track shoes but these design did not work because I could not draw the shoes properly. After the different spikes and track shoes designs did not work, I decided to move on from the shoe idea and draw an actual track. This stamp symbolizes me because since track and field is a major part of my life I find that most people know me for running track. My current events are 100m, 200m, 400 x 100 and long jump so I spend hours every day practicing or competing.
My first design of the track field was originally an entire track field with the word "determination" in the center but due t how long the word is I also had to scrap that idea. Finally I simplified it to a singular ring with the word "track" arranged into a peak formation. The orange negative space serves as a contrast to the purple positive space. The lack of negative space in the letter "A" it what helps create the peak formation. My biggest challenge was cutting out the letters for the circular track. The razors that I used kept ripping the paper and was terrible at cutting the curves.
With a steady hand, I glued all of my pieces together. The ridges formed along the field represent my challenges and progressions in life. In summary the important aspects of my life are summed up in a simplistic stamp design.TRACK is life!
Niah Lombo Capstone
Ameena Atif Capstone
I am extremely passionate about children's education. It is my ‘life mission’ to ensure that every child I meet has access to books and quality education. In addition to my passion for literature, SLA has taught me the importance of community and gratitude. I asked myself, "How you can combine your literary passion and your love for the community?" From there, "Annabelle and The Garden" was born.
I created a website to serve as a home for "Annabelle and The Garden" and my senior capstone. This website is not just a home for my senior capstone. It's main function is to engage little readers with our beautiful planet Earth and the worlds in books all around them. On the “Lesson Plans’ parents/guardians and educators can perform experiments and activities with little readers.
My SLA admission interview ended with the question, "How can you make SLA a better place?". As my graduation ceremony approaches and my capstone process ends, I leave a similar question for you. "How can you make the world a better place?"
"Annabelle and The Garden" is available for purchase on Barnes & Noble. You can also read an excerpt of the book on Barnes & Noble's website. All of the proceeds are being donated to KidsGardening.org. For 35 years KidsGardening has been a leader in the school gardening movement. They encourage garden based learning.
Final Stamp ~Art
Zgomez Art project
Strength Through Pain
When a person is growing, there are numerous events that they will go through. Some will bring happy memories that they will love, whilst some will bring sad, terrible, painful memories. Even though these painful memories will be hated because of the pain that is associated with them, they are truly needed. A life lived with only happiness will not reap the same result as that lived with constant pain. This is because, one cannot successfully become stronger without experiencing some form of pain.
There are numerous sayings, such as; “No pain, no gain”, “We only learn things the hard way”, and “From adversary comes strength”, that support this ideology. These sayings tie to a phenomenon known as post traumatic growth. Post traumatic growth was originally coined by psychologists Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun. Calhoun and Tedeschi interviewed numerous people that had gone through life changing events such as bereavement, housefires, serious illness, and becoming refugees. The interviews showed that by experiencing these horrific events, people gained what Tedeschi and Calhoun called “Positive life changes”. The people who were surveyed discovered skills they never knew they possessed, gained a new inner strength, and among other things became appreciative of life.
Another psychologist named Judith Neal, did a study with 40 people who went through post traumatic growth. Most of them stated that they initially had experienced “a dark night of the soul” where their values were questioned and life seemed to have no meaning. This caused them to go through a phase of spiritual searching where they tried to understand what they went through and find new values. Then they went through a stage that Neal called spiritual integration. In this stage they applied the new principles to their life and found a gratitude for being alive and for experiencing such an event. For the people that Neal surveyed it can be concluded that suffering had brought them to a new and stronger place in life. The surveyed people may have lost everything physically and internally (based on the questioning of the principles), but among their newly gained principles, they had also gained a new mental strength to face such traumatic events and persevere through them.
From a physical perspective, pain also makes a person stronger. This is most evident in cases such as that of the Shaolin monks. These monks are notorious for their practices that involve striking others with steel poles, receiving numerous kick to the groin, and essentially inflicting pain upon oneself. The monks conduct these activities because they believe that it strengthens the body part that is being hit, and scientifically they are right. Gradually the pain that is being inflicted gets stronger and stronger. Once a person’s body gets used to one level of pain the next level is brought. This process takes numerous years to occur and has resulted in monks being able to do things such as bending steel with their necks and being able to withstand a hit to the groin as if nothing has happened. This just goes to show of how pain can strengthen people.
Normally when someone hears the word pain, negative thoughts are the only ones that seem to arise. People fail to note that pain, and negativity in general, can bring strength. Traumatic events can cause one to reach new levels that they have never presumed possible. The process may not seem easy and may not be fun, but the rewards that will be reaped will be great.
Leknes, Siri, and Brock Bastian. "The Benefits of Pain." SpringerLink. Springer Netherlands, 01 Feb. 2014. Web. 13 May 2017.
Taylor, Steve. "Can Suffering Make Us Stronger?" Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, 04 Nov. 2011. Web. 13 May 2017.
"The iron crotch exercise (铁裆功)." Braineggs. N.p., 10 Apr. 2016. Web. 13 May 2017.
Week 5 - Day 1 & 2 - Rubber stamp - Cut out
This assignment/project corresponds to the negative and positive space discussion we have had in class. This project itself was done over the course of about 2 weeks. During the first day, we had to brainstorm ten words that we thought resembled ourselves. Next step was to pick three out of the ten words you felt best described you, and find images that represent those three words. Then after finding those images, sketching each one of those images out. After drawing those images out we had to combine all of the drawings together in a way that showed both positive and negative space. Once we did that we had to cut out the positive space and glue the negative space onto a piece of construction paper. The three words I picked were compassion, August, active, and creative. The pencil is used to represent my creativeness in many different ways. In terms of writing, drawing, and designing. The Leo sign is representing my birth month, the hands in the shape of a heart symbolize the great amount of compassion I have within me, and the track lines represent my activeness. This project was quite interesting because it not only got to increase my understanding of what negative and positive space is and how to show it. but also getting to show others, such as my classmates some things that represent me and to give them a chance to get to know even more about me.
Rockets Blast Masterman 9-0; Secure Top 4 Finish and Sweet Sixteen Berth
Final Stamp Design
EDUCATE YOURSELF
Final Stamp Design
Creating this stamp, I wanted to think of a symbol that, obviously, symbolizes me. I thought, what would be a better symbol than myself? So I wanted to highlight key features of myself that makes me, myself.
Previously, we were given the assignment to come up with three symbols. The symbols were supposed to match the adjective that you chose to describe yourself. I had few adjectives, but the ones that stood about to me were Affectionate, Generous, and Reliable. For affectionate, it was a figure with open arms. For generous, I drew a figure of open hands reaching out. For reliable, I simply drew a flexing arm in a fist. I didn’t feel as though any of the symbols really got out what I wanted to depict. So I decided to create myself.
In my design, the negative and positive space both are used to highlight my features. I cut out the positive space which is my hair, and other facial features. To contrast, I left negative space to highlight the features.
Understanding positive and negative space was a really slow process for me personally. I had an idea, but I would always get confused when I would try it out on my design. I used inspiration from others, realizing that they were simply cutting out the spaces that they colored in to highlight the spaces they weren’t cutting.
Final Stamp Design
Hi my name is Jayden Tull and this my stamp design. My stamp design is a dog. I made it a dog because the stamp is suppose to represent us and who we are. I picked a dog because dogs loving, playful, smart, strong, and loyal, all qualities I consider myself to have. Now I didn’t make this cut out for my amusement, it was an assignment. The assignment was to make a positive and negative space cut out of an image that represents you. What is positive and negative space you ask? Negative space is when you have a picture that has one main part shaded in or around the picture.and positive space is the fill out of the image. So when you look at my stamp the white is negative space giving it the shape and the brown is the actual image that you are seeing giving it dimension. Don’t worry if you don’t understand positive and negative space just yet, I was stuck for a second too. I could look at a picture and tell you which was which but making it for myself was a struggle. You had too see things that wasn’t even there because it wasn’t cut out yet so you have to draw and plan for that. I personally struggled with that but with help from friends and my teacher I was able to make my stamp. After doing this assignment I learned that we see positive and negative space everyday. One way we see it is shadows. All shadows are is positive and negative space. Thanks for viewing hope you enjoy.
Final Stamp Design
Stamp cut out
Final Stamp Design
Final Stamp
Final Stamp Design
My stamp is my nickname most people call me by, so I am embracing my nickname in my stamp for people to know. I wanted to do my initials for my idea but it wasn’t working because it was difficult to make my letters inside each other and having a negative space. I found my last design because I found examples to guide me in the internet. I can make letters from positive and negative but I got stuck when I had to visualize it so it can show it. It was challenging and I’m still struggling but with more practice.