The Soul Within: October 2011

   

      

The Soul Within

            This piece, “The Soul Within” is about how people often times hide their true feelings.  They don’t outwardly show their pain, suffering, depression, or loneliness.  They simply put on a happy face, an ‘everything’s good’ expression, and a well put together appearance, despite their true feelings within.  They put on a show for others, to hide their imperfections.  Our society tells us that we need to be perfect in intelligence, relationships, everyday decisions, appearance, and so much more.  As a result, many often don’t correctly deal with their pain and depression in a healthy way, or may let it bottle us until it festers, and they become bitter.  They tend to see themselves in a different way, and when alone is when they focus on it.  Alone, in a private place is where they let their true emotions show, but because they are facing it alone, they don’t push themselves to really resolve it, but simply push it deep within.  As a result, they constantly struggle with it, and unless they open up to someone else, or ask for help, they will be constantly burdened with the pain, suffering, and depression.  Due to this constant struggle, they tend to pull away from loved ones, society, and life itself.  This pain, suffering, and depression then cultivates loneliness.  I know I’ve dealt with this in the past, and have to fight with myself to not fall back into this self-destructive pattern.        

As a result of my own feelings, I decided to create a piece to release those feelings, and open that door into the intimate space where the feelings are revealed.  I decided to focus on depression because I believe that is something every person deals with at some point in their life.  It can be a result of loneliness, failure, grief, lack of self-esteem, stress, and so many more feelings and situations.  I also wanted to make the people a variety of age and gender to make it more relatable.  I chose specific cool or flat colors to help create a specific mood, and I also chose to have the reflection be desaturated to symbolize the pull away from reality.

Shadow Project: Foster Gallery October 2011

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      When faced with this project, initially I was quite nervous.  I had never done something like this and as a result I was quite nervous.  To my surprise, it was really fun.  We were able to really experiment with light and how to create something out of objects that don't resemble the object it creates. It took a great deal of trial and error to create this lamp, but I was part of a great team that worked well together.  

     As soon as we decided to create a lamp, we knew we wanted a light source from above, like the light a lamp gives off.  We then thought we would make a frame out of wire, but once we tried it, we realized that it wouldn't work very well.  We then though about using a sheet of glass, and put object on it to create a shadow.  We were able to use different objects to create the texture and shape of the project, and I am very excited about our results.