For the digital collage, I altered the pictures with the use of windows and enclosed locations like the pool and a billboard to add some extra activity behind the main picture. The photo of the red building is displayed like a canvas or a billboard portraying other pictures from behind with the use of its windows.

1.For this assignment, I’m doing Harmony through analog collages both physically and digitally. The concept of this assignment is to make an abstract image with many other images than somehow fit together whether be by shape, color, or pattern.

2. The project has to revolve around South Congress so I used scanned images of items that I have found in South Congress and used some pictures from my Gestalt project, cut out pieces from both of the images, and plaster them in one paper to see if I can make a new image.

Self-Critique:

1. My strongest aspect in my work was the overall theme than I intended to use in my assignment which was the heavy presence of construction going on throughout Austin.
2. The weakest aspect was the use of negative space in both of my collages. They seem a bit unbalance.
3. Careful planning in the future would help improve its quality.
4. Instead of using my obsolete equipment back home, I’d use the campus’ equipment later in the future instead.
5. Normally I’d put this project aside and do other assignments, but I’d like this to be my first priority to do because it’s actually more fun to do than the other assignments that I am assigned.

What I’ve noticed on my findings in South Congress is that all theses items somehow made an image to what Austin is like today. Comparing Austin today from at least 4 years ago, I’ve noticed that it got a lot busier than before. Traffic became a thing, there is always construction to be found near the highway, and a lot more apartments are being built. From just a Gatorade cap created an image of a construction worker’s hard hat in my head. And from a wheel from what I think was from an office chair, made me realize that Austin got a lot busier than usual. The first analog collage represents the annoying and frustrating experience I have when driving around wherein every major road, there’s always constrution going on. The second collage represents the dawn of a new Austin being built out of the old. More renovations, more people, and definitely more traffic problems mean that Austin is becoming bigger.

Stanley Kubrick is one of the most influential directors in cinematic history. From his crazed habits of perfecting his takes to his ingenious layout when he films, he is my inspiration when it comes to the fine arts. From “A Clockwork Orange” to “The Shining”, he never fails to deliver top quality cinemas. But the best thing about Stanely Kubrick is his methods of filming. He is a persistent, cunning, and sometimes rather insane when it comes to developing a film. He harasses his actors quite often only to have them fit their mood into the characters they play. One of the most notable actors, Shelley Duvall, was harassed and bullied occasionally by Stanley Kubrick in order for her mood to fit with the character she was assigned which was Wendy from “The Shining”. Stanley Kubrick, even being known as one the greatest directors in cinema history, wasn’t perceived to be as great as a friend. He was disliked by other directors, writes, and actors due to his strange and unusual nature. But his actions and his methods, the way I see it, is definitely a work of art. Through his sheer persistence in taking charge with most of the development of his film, to doing a huge number of retakes for one scene in some of his movies, this insane genius never falters into making his work of art perfect in his image.

This video summarized Stanley Kubrick and his work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsPL_ByPXpM

Reflection: While going down South Congress, I noticed a lot of buildings and sceneries that I think was laid out really well. The most satisfying picture I took was a pool from a hotel that had a great sense of symmetry of the layout of the pool, repetition from its organized chairs and blankets, and closure from its fountain spraying water into the pool, making a shape.

 Time Tracker-1dk3z8n

For my pictures, I chose the concept of shapes, patterns, and repetition. It’s actually satisfying to observe an object, picture, or even a company’s logo because of its intriguing way of displaying its use of shapes and patterns. It begins to dawn on me that our basic constructs of civilization heavily relied on the use of shapes and patterns from simple yet complex structures like the Roman Aqueducts to the use of patterns and repetition with irrigation canals back in the old days.

Favorite Pictures:

1. The main points in each article indicate that entrepreneurs and artists have something in common. It’s their dedication to their work and ideas.
2. There are always limitations and sacrifices to be made in life. They learn to balance what they want to do and what they can do in the meantime.
3. Yes. Artists and entrepreneurs always try to persevere when they take a fall or two. It’s not a matter of avoiding failure because failure is inevitable for everyone. What really matters is accept failure, learn from it, and keep going.
4. Artists take great passion in their work. If artists don’t take great pride and love what they do, then why bother being an artist
5. I couldn’t think of anything to add to the list

Grit test:

1. My grit is 3.75. It said that I’m grittier than 70% of the US population
2. Do personally assigned projects that correlate to my interests.

I try to take photos people normally wouldn’t have taken and try to visualize them in my own way to see if I could fit or at least create a sense of meaning with the photos. A good example for one of my photos is a shot of a fence in a parking lot of a local church. The fence doesn’t seem to be very effective as it doesn’t completely close the perimeter of the parking lot. As silly as it looks, I view it as a moral test. The fence serves as a sign saying that the parking lot clearly not meant to trespass but it also has a large opening for people to walk through freely. It offers anyone a choice whether they should enter the parking lot or don’t.

Another example is the Chase Bank sign. I noticed that the sign only had one letter set alight but the rest were not. It would seem pointless to have all those letters up and only lighting up one of them. But then I thought about life itself and how hardships is a common thing. The Chase bank has probably been going through tough times and business isn’t going their way or their light bulbs went out and simply don’t have the resources to fix them. But they still lit up what light bulbs could work and resume business hours like it seems that they were not willing to give up so easily.