A Meaningful Dream

Behold, my final project for my Photoshop class. Is it the coolest thing I've done? No, I don't think so. I like my self portraits much better. For our final we're supposed to create an extended image. I didn't want to do another self portrait because I wanted to do something different. I did take the concept from my Luna self portrait and used it with this work. I used the idea of using more than one vibrant color and making it one photo. I won't lie, the color sequence I picked throw me off a bit...but that's why I like it. Thoughts?  

Something amazing happened to me in my Philosophy of Art class. I felt it necessary to share.

. . .

I arrived to class late because I was too focused on my photo assignment from my previous class (oops...). I wasn't that late though, just by a minute or two. Anyway, I stumbled into the class with all my supplies: backpack, purse and twelve 1/4" dowels. A classmate of mine and former resident of mine (I was an Resident Advisor last year) turned to me and quietly asked me "What are those for?" referring to the dowels. I replied: "They're for my final in my Space Studio class, we're building kites!" I pulled out the template for my chosen kite and showed her. After her nod of approval, she whispered "I stumbled across your blog through a friend of mine. I was quite inspired by it". "Oh really? Wow, thank you!" was all I could really get out. I was in somewhat shock because I really never spoke to her much. Even when she was my resident. She wasn't on my floor but we still waved and said hello whenever we did see each other. Where I was sitting in class today wasn't my usual spot either, normally I sit in the back corner. I like feeling like I can see everything going on. Since I was late, I lost that "spot". Which ended up being a good thing! 

After class I turned and told her how much I appreciated her sharing how she has seen my blog and has even been inspired by it, because it seriously made my day. The little girl inside of me was dancing. It's really exciting to hear that people are finding my blog, reading it and are inspired by it. I'm happy to know that people I don't really know, are finding my blog. I think that's the beauty of her brief comment. It's just nice to physically hear that my audience has expanded. Of course I'm so thankful for EVERYONE who has been following me since day one. If it weren't for my first readers, I may have not kept up with my posts! 

Remember the good ole' days when Myspace was the thing? Gosh I do. I spent HOURS customizing my page, adding all the cool effects and trying not to piss off my friends when making my "top 8". Such troubling times...lol. Anyway, of course I had to top it off with a cool profile picture. I can't remember exactly where I got the idea to start photographing myself in different scenario's. I believe I saw someone have a really "awesome" profile picture and thought to myself "I can totally do that". So I did. What was weird was how much I enjoyed it. It no longer became about having the best profile picture, it was because I enjoyed it and knew I was decent at it. Plus come on now, who can't love my pretty face? Kidding...maybe. Here are some past self portraits, all of which I took with my handy dandy point and shoot camera I had at the time. My timer only allowed 10 seconds for me to run into position...I ran a lot trying to get the "perfect" photo. I can't help but laugh at some of them though. It's okay if you laugh too, I won't be offended. 

Reason why I wanted to post these was to show the progression of my "self-portraits". I've come a long way...

There is something about the out-come of this photo that I cannot take my eyes off of. I can't put a finger on why I admire it so much. It's not even the fact that it's my own figure I used, it's the photo itself. Thoughts? 

For my photoshop class we were assigned "self-portraits". At first I was like "ugh", I have to make sure that I actually look good to take a picture of myself. I was completely clueless of what I wanted to do too. I had this idea of making myself half of a skull, but it didn't work out the way I wanted it to. I figured I'd try using a skull made out of flowers instead of an actual skull. This is what I came up with. 

After doing that, I felt like doing more. I had this concept of putting my face in the moon sort-of-thing. I searched for the perfect photo for what seemed like hours. I played around with different photo's of myself to find "the best one". I was going to make this idea come to life, I was determined. Which I find rather funny that I discovered the final "faces" by accident. I was playing around with saturation, vibrance, hue and lightness. I dragged the lightness a little more than I intentionally wanted to and bam! My face was no longer a sphere, but rather the texture of the moon. Originally, I wanted one whole " moon face" to show and not eight. I can finally relate to finding what works the best on accident. I'm so proud of these works...I never really like the final production of my art. This work makes me happy. 

I'm calling these my "Drive-By Photo Series". David and I like to take the "back way" to avoid rush hour traffic from Downtown and campus. All these photos were taken while we were driving by them (of course I was in the passenger seat). Therefore, none of them are perfect, some of them are a bit cut off. But for going 40 mph, I believe they turned out pretty well. I did a little tweaking to them, but very very little. Thoughts?

One of my last names happens to be Reyes (:

This last one has to be one of my favorites from this series. 

I love the amount of negative space in this photo. I feel like it really adds to the "bareness" of the trunks. Even though the trees have few branches with no leaves, I still find it to be beautiful. 

I was experimenting in my photoshop class today and created this image. It's has an Andy Warhol feel, which was not intentional. I didn't even realize it until after I completed the photo. I thought the repetition of the butterfly would be intriguing. I enjoy that they are perfectly aligned but aren't at the same time. Make sense? What do you think?

Here are a few of my favorite fall photos I've taken over the years. 

I made this today in my photoshop class (: