"Look at myself in the mirror"

For this week's assignment, we were to walk around IUPUI's campus and see something that we think that no one else saw. We then told Beth, she wrote everything that we saw onto a list, and then we had to pick something from the list that was not our own and recreate it.

For this assignment I chose "Look at myself in the mirror." There are many reasons why I chose this. For technical reasons, I'm borrowing my boyfriend's tripod and have been wanting to try it out. Also, I just finished a photography class and have had some ideas I've been wanting to try out. This picture wasn't really one of them, but when I saw this on the list and I thought of this pretty quickly.

Looking in the mirror isn't one of my favorite things to do. In fact, taking pictures of myself is something I really hate doing. I wouldn't say that I hate how I look, I just find it uncomfortable to look at myself in the mirror. I can look in the mirror to do my make-up or to fix my hair. But I can't just stand there and look at myself. Sometimes, I wish I could make my vision go out of focus, to hide all the details, when I find it difficult to avoid a mirror. That is where this image comes from.



Looking into mirror and having my picture taken is something I'm trying to work on. Maybe I just need to learn to love what I see.

Class Day 2

Today in class we talked about rules. I have to admit, I really didn't get into this discussion. The idea of no rules seems kind of silly to me. Just because there are rules doesn't mean you have to follow them. Most rules exist for a reason and I suppose you'll just deal with the consequences of not following them. But to have no rules in place just seems ridiculous to me -- in the real world or in some creative space. Personally, I hate having some creative freedom where I could do anything I wanted. I have no direction or purpose to what I'm creating. I think that having rules, or at least guidelines, might help in the creative process -- creating something within limitations that is so close to breaking the rules. Maybe rules can lead to being more creative. But that's just my opinion.

The Egg and Eye

For this assignment, I had a hard time coming up with something creative and original. I didn't really want to color my egg or treat it like a person for the day or anything. I was looking at my bookshelf last week and saw my "Hello, Cupcake!" book and I realized I had not made cupcakes in a while. And with the egg Beth gave me, I had just enough to make a batch.

But to make these cupcakes go with the theme of this week's assignment, I decided to make my cupcakes little mini chickens. There wasn't a design in my "Hello, Cupcake!" book, so this one was completely on my own. After running to the store to get me a frosting bag and some piping materials, I was back at home making some very yummy cupcakes.

Class Day 1

I really had no idea what to really expect going into this class today. I had a friend take this course over the summer and she said it was definitely different compared to any other class she's taken at IUPUI. So with that I went in with an open mind. I was more of an observer today, as I usually am in new situations around new people.

I like that the discussions we had in class today kept going and didn't really stall after one or two comments. This is probably the second class I've been in where we had the discussion of what is art. Because of the nature of this class, being that we are starting to look at things from a different perspective, it was refreshing to hear a different take on what is art. By the end of this class, I came to the conclusion that art isn't something that has to be "thought provoking" or visually appealing which was my basic understanding of the idea of art. Art is a way of communicating one's idea to an audience and it can be communicated in any form.

By the end of class, we got our first assignment: to take an egg and do whatever we want with it. Which I suppose may sound relatively easy, but for me this is one of the more difficult assignments I've been given. I've always liked getting assignments with boundaries and knowing what I can and can't do for a project. Open-ended assignments is definitely something I have struggled with because I never know which direction I should go in and I always hate the idea that I might do something "wrong." Although, in this class there is no "right" or "wrong," so I shouldn't worry and I just need to open my mind and accept this creative challenge. I can't wait to see what I come up with!  

Class Expectations

 Like many other students in the class, I'm a New Media major with an interest in web design and graphic design. When I signed up for this class, I was told that it would help with the creative thinking process. I find it hard to be creative all the time seeing as I approach each project the same way. From this class, I'm hoping to learn how to approach projects from a different creative point of view and to learn how to get out of a creative funk.