My creative piece is a painting that is suppose to represent a woman being shunned by society for having a child. It's showing that no matter who may be standing beside you, the only important thing to the woman is whether or not she has the child. The two men standing beside the woman in red represent the male protagonist from the movie Juno and the book The Scarlet Letter. The sort of long hallway is to show the journey that needs to be taken by either woman. Juno didn't keep the baby but she still had to go through a lot to deliver the baby. Obviously the woman is red represents both Juno and Hester.  

The colors give more meaning to the painting because there are so little characters to tell a story. The color red played a major role in both the book and the movie (if you look hard enough) and in my piece it is used to represent sin in a way. The red lines in the black are all the people who have ever shunned Juno or Hester because of what they did. They are painted in red to show that they aren't as guilt free as they pretend to be. 

The pacifier. 

I find it to be too straightforward but I couldn't think of anything else to represent a baby.  It shines a white light on the woman. It gives her a reason to ignore the remarks that others give her. Her only focus is the baby and nothing else. Not even the two men standing beside her. 

The colors that the two men are painted in a suppose to give a hint into who the are. The man on the left has brownish-black shaggy hair and blackish-red colored clothing. This is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. The man on the right has brownish curly hair and is wearing gold and red. This is Paulie Bleeker. 

One problem I encountered was that the color red can only be used so many times and I didn't want there to be so much. So I mixed colors with the red paint to get different shades. I think this worked well because it sort of shows different levels of innocence I guess. I feel like the way I just drew squiggly lines to show the high school kids and the villagers was childish. I definitely would find another way to represent the if I could do this project again.  But I do think I did well in portraying the message I wanted to well portray, even if it isn't drawn well. 

If I could do this project again, I would want to find a more metaphoric way to represent alienation from society. The way white and black worked off of each other is okay but it’s been done before. Which is why I found it to be an appropriate way to represent alienation. Doing the project again would give another chance into finding a different way to represent this. 

My project, a collided master piece of a puzzle dealing with conflicts between relationships and responsibilities, is only as confusing as it first may appear. The final product shows a series of names from a few of the main characters, each was given a color that is connected to a line that connects to some type of relational problem, which in return gives each person a set responsibility. Even some people, who have the same relationships can intertwine and create their own relationships. For example, Paulie has a yellow line coming from his box, and this yellow line connects to different major struggles or topics within the movie Juno, and each topic gives him a responsibility. It's his personal relationship to that responsibility. BUT, Paulie's line may also intertwine with some of the character Juno's personal relationships, thus creating a relationship between the two. Which also can create similar and different responsibilities. It's a bit confusing to understand, but the main idea of my collage is to show the depth of how much their is to each and every person in any story, movie, and life. Nothing is easy. Even the simplest task can be the most stressful. It's remarkable how much people can go through and yet everyone still survives. Death is the easy part, but survival and struggle is the most complex and tiring process, ever.

At first, I didn't know how to create my point. I had the idea of lines, and how each could create specific ties, but I didn't know what should go where or how to put who, where. Understand the complication? In the end, I viewed it as one of those silly magazine quizzes that tells, What Kind of Kisser Are You?  &Each response would give off a new ending to a different answer. My idea was very similar to that. In fact, it was driven from that exact brain thought. &Ever since I created my puzzle. I feel as if I did very well at connecting the people and their relationships and responsibilities, as well as explaining why each is the most important to each other.

As furthering into my project, I made sure to include my connection to each as well, and on the index cards wrote down the responsibilities I have to face with each one. Though, nothing is perfect and I din't connect to a few of them. But that's what makes life! We all can connect to similar, but not all the same relationships and responsibilities. 

Though, while doing the project I came across not being able to fit my full explanations on the index cards, so I ended up only writing MY responsibilities. Rather than writing out everything from everyone. But to fix that problem I simply added in a longer paper version of their explanations and pasted it to the board as something to look at when curious as to how someone can relate or connect to a specific person/topic. 

 I could do the whole project over again, I would most likely use a lot more characters and a lot of relationships, thus creating something even more insane! The more complex it looks, the more depth it can really have. &It's the depth that i was going for. 

The explanations for each part:

Proving Someone Wrong/Right:

Myself: In my current life I'm struggling almost every day to prove my parents and all the people around me that I can make it. I've heard so much about failure, drugs, homelessness, and suicide… people don't believe in me, especially my parents, but it's my responsibility to prove them wrong. &Prove their hearts right about the success they know they want me to have. 

Dealing With Strange Love:

Myself: I've been with the same guy since freshman year. On and off, on and off. We stopped being "official" in junior year. But he won't leave my life. His family thinks we're still dating. We talk to other people, but in the end of the day… I'm the one he will spend all Saturday and Sunday with. We're so close and so in love, but we're not public. &That is my fault. It's my responsibility to make his happiness everything. So one day, we can be public. 

Juno: She is faced with her growing independence and thrive to do things on her own, but her deep affection for Paulie keeps her pulled away from both. It's her responsibility to try and accept her affection for him, as well as maintain a baby with a man who wasn't and technically isn't her boyfriend, just a baby daddy. 

Hester: Her relationship is the most conflicting of all. She has a child with a man who can't have her children. Hester is married and her strange love for Reverend Dims only causes trouble. They both share the responsibility of keeping the community peace, but caring for a daughter who only wants them to be free of those restrictions. 

Stranding For Beliefs:

Myself: As restricting it can be to be a teenager, I have beliefs and things I won't take lightly. I an intertwined with what I will always strand for, such as freedom, liberty, and love. Expression of opinion, and equality. Nothing is equal, but with peace comes equality and tranquility. I am responsible for making my future, and the world around me as tranquil and happy as possible. It's my career, and it's my future. 

Pearl: She believes in the unrestricted love of her parents. Her relationship with her mother and father are bonded by her inability to affectionate them if they can't affectionate her together in public. &She won't stand to allow it. Her responsibility is to not conform them of the nonsense they deal with, but try and set them free. 

Mark: He is tied to a woman who won't allow him to be himself, its his responsibility to break free of those chains by either setting his wife straight with, "If you love me, this is how I am. &This is how we need to be," or by leaving her and expressing himself in his own life.. away from a woman who chains him down with her adult like, life. 

Child Care & Management:

Juno: She is pregnant. She is having a child. She is a teenager. The baby is hers. The baby forever will have her DNA and blood, but the responsibility is cut short. She is to only deal with the management of being in school, passing, stress, and giving birth to a baby that she will only give away. She is all for it, but the inner stress could potentially lead to fatal trauma. 

Hester: Hester was faced with having a child that was not her husbands, and dealing with the stress and humiliation from the community of adultery. It's painful, and can cause loads of judgement. But her child grew beautifully, and it's only the struggle now of being a single mother as well as a leader for her life and an inspiration of the community around her.  

Vanessa: For Vanessa, the baby is only a mir relation to what she can't have. A way for her to be a complete person and a mother without enduring the pain. but it's her job to make sure the pregnant Juno is happy and healthy, as well as take good care of the child after it's born.. knowing it will not fully be hers. Especially being a single mother.

Secret Fond of Love Triangles: 

Juno: Juno is not actually in love, nor is there an actual "love" triangle, but there is a triangle of conflict ion with interest. For example the relationship leads around, Vanessa being married to Mark, but mark finding interest of entertainment and young life with Juno. Not affection, but interest. This could, and would have caused an uneasy feeling with Juno and Vanessa. But it was more of Mark finding his inner freedom and leaving the baby behind. It's the responsibility of acceptance. Vanessa accepting being alone. Juno accepting the child only having one parent. &Mark accepting that he has to either be a man with his life, or go on as a man. 

Hester: Hester had a real love triangle. Being married to Chillingworth, yet had an affair with a Reverend. Then Chillingworth being the doctor for the Reverend. They are intertwined with relationships, but their responsibilities in these relationships differ with independence. Hester has to deal with pearl, and doesn't may much mind to love. But Reverend has to deal with the communities pain, as well as his own. &Chillingworth is the only one bothering the both of them with their responsibilities making his own to ruin or open their secret. 

Maning Up to The Table:

Myself: I'm afraid. Beyond afraid of life changing failure. Afriad of asking of for help, for receiving help, for going after improbable situations, and it's fear that restricts us all. I have a relationship with fear. Not fear of the unknown, for I know my future will turn out great. it's just getting there. It's my responsibility to man up, and take charge at the fear. End our relationship before it ends me.  

Paulie: He has a baby coming. He has a girl who he's not with. &he's A okay with her saying don't worry. He needs to man up, take charge, and say no… It's in my life. Regardless of Juno's independent strive. It's hard..especially when you're so young.

Mark: He has a baby coming that's not even his, nor does he probably want it. His relation goes to his wife who wants the baby. &The freedom he cries for. It's hard, but he took responsibility for loving right or leaving right.

Strive Independence:

Myself: I was always chained to the form that my parents wanted me to be. I was always chained to what school, peers, and what my community wanted me to be. &I'm not anything that anyone wants me to be. My relation is to breaking those chains free and becoming myself. I'm getting there, slowly, but productively. As myself I'm already making a difference in the world around me. 

Vanessa: She has to be a single mother, that's independence enough! Having love, then accepting that it's that time to strive for passion within this innocent child.

Juno: Denying Paulie's help even show's her independence. It's not needing independence, but her responsibility is seeing that sometimes people need help. Maybe even emotional support, but it's always hard to notice that. 

Hester: She was teased, and "tortured" with humiliation. Living a lone with her daughter, and love stricken, she has found her way in life with being on her own. Living peaceful and against the world, she has to survive in the a community where men normally rule as independent and woman are house toys. This gave her a lesson of survival and being to herself. That's how a strong woman does it. 

Trying To Maintain The Rage Of Purpose:

Myself: I have purpose. it's within nature, it's within the core of this Earth. My purpose is great and it's a long hard road to it.. it's a tiring one too. I'm not where heard even the half way point. Maybe a diploma could mark that, but it's still an extreme struggle for depth and meaning. 

Chillingworth: Oh he has purpose beyond belief! His purpose is raged with ex love, and back stabbing, and disbelief. The betrayal done to him drives him in a raging sexual way to condone the Reverend & Hester for the dirty they have done to him. But for anyone who only has ONE purpose… what happens when it's complete? Life means nothing. 

Survival:

This goes towards everyone… The main point in life is to survive. It's to put worth an effort that will last the many years you live, in order to not die. It's so easy to die, but it's not so easy to survive. I strive to survive living on my own. It's not easy going to an insanely hard school, paying multiple annoying bills, working 3 crazy jobs, and living the social life I live. It's not easy for anyone in Juno to deal with  a pregnant teenager, the depth of love and acceptance, as well as marriages falling apart due to the call of freedom. As well as in The Scarlett Letter, Hester is strong for even being able to be on her own in a community where no female is taught independence but to depend on the big strong men of the community. As well as Dimmesdale and Chillingworth striving to find their purpose, or complete their inner mission for whatever reasons as to being as good as possible for God, or surviving the embarrassment of betrayal and so forth. 

Inner Stubbornness & Acceptance: 

Myself: I am not as much stubborn as I am accepting, but there are some things such as conforming to what this society wants me to be that I wont' accept. Or that I won't talk to my parents first, or that I wont' allow someone to boss me around, regardless of authority. I take orders from people who are kind, and out of curtsey ask rather than demand. It's my responsibility, to learn to accept the way this life is and that as I get older only one person cannot change that demand. It's not that it's something bad to accept either, I just have to learn to let go, rather than hold on to the stubborn feeling that is only a waste of an emotion.

Pearl: She is the definition of stubborn. Though, I believe her stubbornness turned out to work greatly in the end, it also caused a lot of pain. It's not her stubbornness that is wrong, but it's her unwillingness to accept that not everything can go her way or the high way. Though, she is young, if not taught young..she will stay that way forever. 

 

The themes I emphasized in my project were societal judgment and public vs private. I basically created a blanket, one side represents the negative thoughts of society about Juno and Hester and the other side represents each characters positive qualities. My idea for this piece was to show how society can sometimes cover up a persons inner good with their harsh words and actions. I tried to make the design speak for itself and not have to write anything more than adjectives. On the societal judgment side, I made the background black and I put a large scarlet letter in the middle. The adjectives are written in black and red sharpie and in capital letters. The reason for the black background and the black and red sharpie is that this side is the darker side of society, the more harsh and cruel side.  I wanted to write the words in capital letters because I feel like society is yelling it at these two girls or making it so obvious about the two characters decision that it is like yelling. Lastly I created the scarlet letter to represent that side because society judged the physical aspects of each character (Hester the Scarlet Letter and Juno the baby bump). Some of the words used on the blanket were “ Hussy, Harlot, Immature, whore and irresponsible.”  because people in both the book and movie associated the characters and real people in their situations with these words.

            For the other side of the blanket, I took a completely different approach. I decided that I wanted this side to show the great quality that each character has on the inside. I made the background bright yellow and the words are written in different colors because I wanted the audience to see the positives and know that this side represent the good. I created a heart and sewed that in the center of the project because the heart represents something that is covered, but still the most important part of you. Those aspects of the characters are covered or ignored by society because of their situation, but they are still important. Some the words I decided to use were “caring, passionate, wise and forgiving” because I thought these words were applicable to Juno and Hester.

            The first step was o go to the thrift store and by all the components: blanket, yellow sheet, white sheet, red fabric, shapies etc. Then I came up with the words I wanted to use by looking at my notes from the Scarlet Letter and Juno.  After that I cut out pieces like the heart and “A”. Lastly I sewed everything myself on the blanket. The project took about 7 hours in total to complete because it did take a while to sew on the A and the heart. The only issue that I had was sewing because I hadn’t sewed something so large since I was 10 years old. My fingers were also soar after hold the needle for such a long period of time.

            The part of the project I feel that I did well on was the idea behind the project. I thought that it was different from the projects that we did in class and the ones that my peers were creating. I wanted to make my project different, which I did. The only aspect I want to improve on it the aesthetic part. I imaged it would look ten times better in my head, I felt like if I had another week I could have spent more time perfecting the minor errors. I am not saying I hate my blanket, but there are some parts that I wish I could have fixed.

            If I had to do this exact project again I would have changed a few parts of the original design. First off I would have made the blanket longer so that I would fit more words on it. I would have also added some pictures from the movie and some cartoons of the book because I feel like it would have added something different to my project. Lastly I would have added more detail, like have a colored border around the words because that would have made it more visually appealing. To conclude I enjoyed working with both Juno and the Scarlet Letter, they are both timeless pieces that I teach our generation a lot.

My creative piece focuses on the theme of society interfering with relationships by keeping the individuals apart. To portray this theme I first wanted to make a photomontage of me doing a puzzle, but that idea was scrapped as I realized it would take too long. I ended up making a collage that featured mostly people found in magazines or newspapers. The pictures from the collage were split into two categories, people that represented a relationship or togetherness and people that represented society. The people in the society pictures were almost always in a crowd or angry. I put the pictures representing society in the middle of the collage, and then cut the other pictures up and put one half on each side of the collage. This was to represent couples being split up, or kept apart because society was between them. I also included two quotes from The Scarlet Letter that I thought showed a part of how society would view Hester and Dimmesdale’s relationship. The quotes were “Upon his congregation” and “Beloved minister”. When making the collage I bolded “his” in the first quote because it shows how possessive they are of their minister and the things that he stood for. I think that this emphasis on the quote brings more meaning to how people look at Dimmesdale and how much would have gone wrong if the secret was let out. I chose the second quote because it shows how big a part of the community he is, meaning a scandal of that magnitude could really mess up the community.

As mentioned before I was going to do a photomontage based around me making a puzzle. The puzzle itself would have had a meaning towards the theme, but there would have also been creative ways of putting together, like making pieces almost connect but then being torn apart because of society or something blocking the path. I started to do the puzzle over a weekend, but I realized that it would be very hard just to complete the puzzle by itself in that time, and almost impossible to do the creative aspects of putting the pieces together. I brainstormed other ways that I could represent this theme, and came to the conclusion that a collage could represent it well.

 It took me a few days to get started on the collage because of surgery, but I started cutting out pictures of people whenever I could. I spent a lot of time cutting most of these images to make sure that there wasn’t much outside of the lines. The cutting of the pictures took the most amount of time for everything. I wish that I had spent a little extra time getting more pictures to cover every part of the background, but I think the amount that I had was pretty good. I think that my way of representing the theme with the collage was unique, having the people in relationships physically separated by society was interesting. I do wish that I had gotten more clever pictures to represent society, but I think some of the ones that I do have are good at what they’re there fore. I feel like I could have planned out exactly what pictures were going where better, because there were some that I would have liked to be seen but are instead mostly covered by others.

If I could do this project again I would try to find some way to do my first idea. I would look for puzzles that represented my theme, but were less pieces or easier to put together. I think that this idea is much more creative than a collage, and I would have enjoyed doing it more. If time was still a big issue, I would do a collage again but try to organize it in a more creative or interesting way. With more planning on the layout I could make a more though evoking piece for whoever is looking at the collage. 

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B3ato_jBBihiQkxPSkVIcExvajQ

REFLECTION: A STORY ABOUT EVERYONE

The short movie A Story About Everyone was designed to invoke ideas beyond those that are literally shown. The main character, Everyone, breaks out of her paper world, and though she is at first frightened by the great things that can be, she is soon inspired. Back in the paper world though, the stick figures are not happy. They interrupt her fun and drag her back inside the lines. There she struggles to show her newly discovered and colorful personality in a place where there is only black and white. Eventually she tires of their confinement and returns to the land of colors and three dimensions to become a real girl.

This movie posed an interesting dilemma. How to show emotions and deeper discoveries with a poorly drawn figure? How to show the difference between two worlds? I decided to use lined paper for the stick figure world to literally represent the metaphor of living within the lines of society. The characters within this world are all drawn with a charcoal pencil which often smudged. The individual characters living within such strict lines have little definition. In the scene where she sticks her hand and the tip of her skirt into the other world, you will notice that they became colored, providing a direct comparison of the two lands.

I decided to use the metaphor of light for illumination. Everyone is no longer frightened once she has the light. She dances for joy in fact. The following montage of happiness with an overtone of giggles show her learning about music and activity, and making friends with my happy dog, whom she had previously been afraid of.

Finally there was the issue of how to differentiate Everyone from Everyone Else once she had returned to the lines. They strip her of her flower and color leaving her as blank as Everyone Else. I decided to use eyebrows as a tell. In the scene of a hundred faces, she is the only one with eyebrows, and they speak of her sorrow.

There were a couple more obvious metaphors, The title scene with the text A Story About Me, A Girl, Everyone is telling of the fact that this story of self discovery and struggle against society is something Everyone can relate to. 

It was difficult to insure that the watcher would understand all these points. For one, the video camera I have is not of the highest quality and would not focus at times. Another major issue I had is that once transferring the videos into quicktime, the top and bottom were cut off, leaving some of my thought bubble clues difficult to decider. The most effected scene being when she decides to use a cog as a flower. 

When I first sat down and began drawing I did not know the complete story, but as I drew it became clear. I had already picked my two themes self discovery and the individual struggle against society, so after having the complete story in my head, I went back to the beginning and added more drawings to show those themes a little bit better. I finished all the drawing and cutting before filming anything. 

The hardest part of that was getting my dog to do what I wanted. I ended up spoiling him with tiny pieces of steak to get him to be my actor. He did run away with my little character sitting on him a couple times, and I would have to run after him and find where she had flown off. 

After I finished the filming I had quite a few issues first removing the videos from my camera and then, getting their thumbnails to show up on imovie. I cut the videos together, and then added the song. I made some minor adjustments so the music and video fit better, added some sound effects (giggles and jail door slamming sounds) and finalized the project.

If I had more time, I would like to add more scenes between the ones already existing to help the watcher follow the plot line and catch the clues. I might put the project to music that fit a little bit better and use a higher quality camera to catch the already limited details of my drawings. 

The concept of this project is what I am most proud of. My drawings are poor and my video editing is passable, but the ideas and the metaphors that I tried to incorporate are something for me to be proud of.  I think that in terms of concept, this project is a star, I have rarely liked an idea so much. It is a bit frustrating to know I did not do it justice. 

Claire Elliot

Reflection: 

For this creative English project, Sam and I decided to create a playbill, along with an accompanying scene from the “play” to demonstrate our theme of “Freedom at the cost of true self”. To start off, our play is set in an alternate dystopian universe within a society where all of its members are given role that to fulfill from birth. They abides by this standard so much that, its citizens aren’t even given birth names. Citizens are solely referred to by their occupation. Our main character, follow this with the name “Accountant #56780” who represents individualism and opposition to conformity. In our “play” he decides that he’s had enough with blindly fulfilling his occupation, and not getting anything out of life. This parallels the character of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne. Hester herself was an outcast within the Puritan Boston community doing something that she felt was the right thing. Within the book, her reason for being out casted was because of her having an illegitimate children and not revealing the father. This is similar to our character “Accountant #56780”, because he also took a stand, went against societal norms and did what he wanted, not letting the society’s judgment effect him. The dialogue represents the scene where “Accountant #56780” is finally standing up to his society, represented by another character: “The Machine” We used the playbill to give detailed information on our play, as well as including ads which also tied to our theme of “Freedom at the cost of true self”.

            My responsibility in the project lied within creating the dialogue, as well as the cover photo of our playbill. The dialogue was the first thing I created for our project. Using Sam’s idea for a play set in a dystopian society, I wanted to create a scene where our character could demonstrate his emotions and the audience gets to see his passion for individualism. The actual process of writing the dialogue was pretty exciting. While writing, I had already planned out what the scene would look/sound like. It was really amazing to just get my ideas down, and be able to turn them into an interesting performance. One problem I did come across was creating an ending to our scene. I had this great dialogue but didn’t want the ending to be weak. Thankfully having my partner, we were able to easily come up with a strong ending. Next, the cover photo was kind of an opposite experience. While I still had a good idea of what I wanted the photo to look like, actually drawing it was an ordeal. Since I hadn’t actively drawn anything for the past 3 years, I was really rusty on my skills. All in all, the process took a good 4 ½ hours, but I do feel really good about my final product.

            I feel that Sam and I could have done a lot better on the final performance. I definitely wanted to incorporate costumes for us, because I feel like it would just look a lot more professional. I also felt that we could have utilized or time for things like making a more flushed out dialogue and developing costumes. Certainly if we had more time, my partner and myself would expand on our final project.

            

After reading The Scarlet Letter and watching Juno the theme that stuck out to me the most was the theme of private vs. public self. I wanted to illustrate this theme in a way where it applied not only to both stories, but also applied to society today. I decided to make a book using poster board and construction paper. I chose to make the border of the book red because it stands out just as the characters did. In both The Scarlet Letter and Juno both of the main characters stood out from the crowd in a significant way, which drew a lot of attention. On the outside of the book I used magazine cutouts to illustrate misconceptions of the 2 characters. I used a lot of judgmental words and words that essentially would make you want to look at the book but not actually open it. Then, when you open the book you see the quote "Never judge a book by it's ..." and several magazine covers. 

In The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character, Hester Prynne, was highly criticized by the people who lived in her town. Their judgment was based solely on the “A” that she sported on her chest. Not many took the time to actually get to know Hester, which ended up to taking a toll on her. For a while she lived a lonely life because not many people wanted to get involved with her and what they believed she stood before. This relates to the book because everyone was so focused on her outer appearance that no one wanted to take the time to see what was inside.

Juno also shares a similar storyline. One thing that’s different in this story is that the main character, Juno, had a hard external appearance. She acted as if she didn’t want anyone to know the real her which is why no one actually did. Throughout most of the movie, the one person that wanted to know the real Juno, she drove off until the end. This also relates to the book because I chose to make parts of the book to look forbidden so that people don’t actually open it.

Although I am very proud of how my final product came out, there were a few things that stood in the way of me having a complete project. One problem I encountered while doing this project was determining the size of the actual book. At first I wanted to create a book that was essentially the size of a poster board, but that proved to be unrealistic. If I were to do a book this size, I would have needed a greater amount of magazine cutouts than I had. I chose these cutouts very selectively, so if I were to add more just to fill space I feel that the meaning would no longer be clear. However, I do feel that the quality of the project is being jeopardized because of the size but this was the best way to accurately get my point across. Other than that I really had no other complications. Normally my final product comes out nowhere near the way I envisioned it because of time. However, I did a good job with time management for this project so my final product was not far off from how I saw it to be.

            Even with my project fitting my expectations, if I could do it over I would do some things differently. For instance, instead of using magazine cutouts I would have found another method. I say this because for the most part all the magazines I got cutouts from had common themes. This made it hard for me to add a sense of diversity to my project or a variety of images. Maybe I could have done a drawing or something, which would have required me to generate my own themes, images, and ideas. 

In every day life, everyone is exposed to these labels; labels that define them and give them a place in the world. These labels can be placed on someone by the way they look, act, dress, their job, etc. This is exactly the point that I tried to make in my presentation. I tried taking something that is real, like a radio show and having real people talk on it. Maybe these people aren’t really alive, but that doesn’t mean that the labels that the people talking on the radio show display aren’t real. Everyone has a label, and the way that they act is reflected from this label. I really wanted to take to very common labels in high school, the jock and the popular girl. Both having this label and expectation that they need to live up to what they are.

The reason I ended up choosing these two specific roles in high school is because I feel they are the two roles that people can relate to the most. Whether they the jock or the popular girl, or someone who was affected by them, it is still represented throughout the typical high school scene. I really wanted the people talking to not only have the background of the label, but I wanted the way they talked to reflect it too. For instance, as I acted out the jock, I talked with a deep voice because when you think of a football player you think of a big muscular guy with a deep voice, and perhaps not the best talker. As I moved onto the popular girl I wanted her to talk really badly. Having her sentences messed up and for her to still be consumed in the label that she once had.

I really think I was able to capture the roles of the two labels in the two people that I represented in the radio show. I also think I was able to capture a typical radio host’s enthusiastic tone. I tried making it as smooth and as natural as possible and that is something that I think that I was able to capture really well. I really wanted the background music to flow with the conversations.

Equally I think something that could have been a little better is exactly what I did well with. I could have maybe elaborated the back-story of the two characters I created. With my first character, the jock, I think I made it clear that he realized he had this label on him, but with my second character I may not have made it clear that the popular girl still felt like she had this need to fill the label she was given. I also feel as though I could have perhaps looked into how other radio shows host their shows. It may have helped me in my creation since I don’t know much on how radio shows are run.

If think if I were to do this project over again, that I would work more on my second character. I also had thought about putting in more characters. My idea to stick with just two characters I believe is enough so that the person listening can sit and analyze the points I tried making, I would still stick with the labels that I chose, however if I were to add another person, I would want to take a completely different direction. Take it from the role of someone that may not seem to make a huge impact on the high school scene. Perhaps that person who isn’t the most well known person, but isn’t the one being teased; the middleman. It may have given the final product a bit of a twist with having such a big difference in characters and maybe kept the listener more interested. 

​Click HERE for the link to the poems!


Reflection:

 Maggie Long

B Band

Self Reflection

For my creative piece I chose to do a series of poems. I found that writing out some emotions is a great way to get a point across. I also thought that it would be good for me to work on my writing more instead of drawing pictures or doing a painting. My poems are each about something different. They each express a way someone in society is feeling. Each person in my poems has something about them that really stands out to them and to others. For example, in the poem, “Road bumps”, one girl is feeling very insecure about herself because she is pregnant. She also is the only one in the school that is pregnant. Which makes it harder for her because she is then labeled as a whore. This relates back to The Scarlet Letter and Juno because when both of the main characters in those movies were pregnant, they were both labeled as whores or sluts by the people around them.

I tried to make the poems overall problem a bit harder to figure out, but it was really hard to do. If I would start beating around the bush, then the poem started to loose some meaning and it was harder for me to get the point across. I ended up making the poems last however long I felt would be good for that poem in particular. I found it to be hard to write about topics I'm not all that familiar with. I don't have a kid, I'm not pregnant, and I'm not anorexic, but to create these poems I had to be for a short while. I had to research some illnesses and how they effect people and the results of having that illness. That was one of the biggest challenges for me in this project. If I go through a problem, then I feel more comfortable talking about it because I have a pretty good knowledge on that topic. But when I'm talking about things like pregnancy and schizophrenia, I just don't know enough about the topic from experience, so I have to research it.

Some aspects of this project I think I did very well in. I got it done on time and the process was normal, also I think that the creative side to this project was also very well done. It could use more in depth analysis for each poem. I think I did a great job showing the overall problem and the emotions the character was feeling, but need to go more in depth on why and what is to come next. The way I wrote the poems went well with what the poem is trying to say. Although, some of the poems could be longer. I did 5 poems overall to make a series of short poems. Writing a long poem is hard for me because I tend to go off task and forget my topic. Another thing I could have done well in is the process and time management. I did most of this project over the last week that you gave us because I procrastinate a lot. So, I used the time we had in class to work on it over the week and then put it all together over the weekend. That's when I figured out the structure of each poem and the topic for each. Other than those small problems, I thought this was a good project to work on for the Scarlet Letter and Juno. There were a lot of things to write about for each of the movies/books.

If I were to do this project again I would choose to do a whole other project. I would probably pick something more with arts and crafts. I love hands on learning and being able to have a more interactive final product then just poems. Not to down on poems though, because it was a great experience writing them for a specific theme and being able to have such diversity in the poems. I would just like to be able to look at something without it having a definite answer to it. That makes the whole project more fun and visually appealing. Thats another thing I could have changed about this project. I could have done something more to make it prettier. It seemed really simple to me and a little too plain. I didn't realize this until after the fact though. I probably could have cut out the poem and put them all on a board, then drew around them and made them look more appealing. All in all I think that the way my project came out was good. I got the point across and did it in a different way then most people that I heard from. I'm looking forward to other projects that we do that will be like this one.

There’s a vast array of interpretation that can be made about the meanings and messages behind the acclaimed novel “The Scarlet Letter” and the modern film Juno; though, as separate works. However, putting them in a side by side comparison forces one to hunt for common ground as simple, and as applicable, as the statement, “The theme of this is story is that lying is bad”. I personally chose to view both works through a certain feminist lens; a lens that looked at society as consistenly divided by gender and its accompanying stereotypes. Through hours of labor, I composed a charchoal piece symbolic of the past and current state of women, and the normalcy of its oppression.

My piece is an 18x24 inch large charcoal drawing, consisting of a nude woman with one arm in a chain, and the other hand pressed against a wall in front of her. The statement that I want to get across regards the standards to which women are held to because their womanhood, and how oppressive is has been, and will continue to be. First, the woman in my drawing is nude, yet she cannot see because her hair covers face. The nudity is symbolic of the vulnerability that women face consistently, and the impaired sight is a sort of conditional disadvantage. I deem it conditional because as the woman in the picture can choose to push the hair from her face with her free hand, women in our world today can choose to let their womanhood be a hinderance or disadvantage. A little bit more obviously, the wall and the chain are the constraints of society and gender roles in the world. Though, I chain specifically represents the seemingly unbreakable aspect of it, and the wall shows the seemingly immovable aspect of it. Both obstacles are repressive reagrdless, but I felt the need do incoperate both.

Speaking of obstacles, I honestly didn’t face too many that while creating this piece. My inial ideal had changed- after we finished Juno- but the idea was still very similar. I started by setting a mid-tone on the entire page, and began to construct a profile, or side view, face. From there, I losely worked my way down, making sure to outline the arm placement, and shape of her torso. It was here that I began to make contrast, shade and highlight. If anything, making sure that the darkest areas of my piece was dark enough, and the lightest areas of my piece were light enough, was my biggest challenge. Also, I’m very finicky when it comes to anatomy, so I tried my hardest to get my proportions correct. I spent a good hour just on my left hand alone! After I finished my hand, I touched up on my lighting, and wanted to make sure that my shadows were cast in the right places. I then transitioned into the chain and then the wall. Both objects didn’t necessarily have particular shading that added their sybolism, their actual appearance wasn’t something to focus on, but rather what they stood for.

On that note, I think that I did a great job with creating a piece that clearly displayed the message that I wanted to get across, throught my effort. Charcoal is a very messy medium, but if channeled correctly, it can produce a beautiful outcome. I believe that I worked hard and precise enough on the actual image of my drawing, but also, I believe that I composed its entirety in a way that isn’t too hard to pick up on. Furthermore, I think that I made sure to encompass both pieces of work. My theme can be applied to “The Scarlet Letter” a bit more blatantly than it can in Juno, but if you squint, you can see that Juno broke many gender stereotypes herself, though it wasn’t as focused upon. On a different note, I believe that I could have made my shading a bit more smoothed out in the drawing. I also could have put her in a different space. Ultimately, all of possible things that I could have done better, are techincal. Yet if I could do this all over, I’d try to create a piece that captures themes that are bit more critical in thinking.  Overall, I’m satisfied with my work and portrayl of my ideas.