Author: Emmy Reckling

1. Hearing about the senior photographer’s experiences in college was really exciting for me because I found myself relating to many of the things she spoke about. I am also a bigger fan of film photography so I was glad to hear that she is more into film too. I want to travel and study abroad too so it was great to hear about her study abroad experience and that she was able to stay for a longer period of time to travel the surrounding places and take photographs. Although I’m not as interested in graphic design, art, or game studies it was actually very interesting to hear more about each of those majors in more detail about what they are and what they do in each. When the artist was speaking I thought it was cool how she told us that even though she isn’t really a graphic designer she was still able to help the Mexican American Community Center with their graphic design needs. I also really enjoyed seeing her specific and unique style. When the graphic design major was speaking I was extremely intrigued because I’ve always loved fonts and typography since I took yearbook all throughout high school just like she did. Hearing about how she was able to create her own font was so cool to me because I’ve always wanted to do that, but it seems so difficult. Lastly, a game studies major spoke. I honestly had no idea that was even a major until we started this seminar, so hearing more about it was pretty cool. I didn’t realize that there were so many aspects to this major and that so much work went into making a game. I wasn’t aware that each student has to create every single part of the games they are making. She told us that she spent so many hours working on her final projects; she said she never took her eyes off her computer for hours at a time. I actually didn’t even think about how you have to be an artist as well as how you have to be able to program a game in this major. You have to be able to draw and create the imagery in your games as well as all of the technical things which really shows skill.
2. https://themessyheads.com I chose this website because it is one of my favorite blogs, but I also love the design and the graphic elements used in this website. I love everything from the colors, to the graphics, to the actual content of the blog posts.
3. http://www.laurentepfer.com I really like this website because of how when you first go to it it opens up with short video clips. Then from there you can click on the different projects she has done. Thinking about making a website for myself in the future I would really like to do something like this.
4. http://www.kelseyreckling.com This is my cousins website where she posts all of her photography. Although this website is quite simple, I really like it because its easy to navigate and understand. It is also visually pleasing because of the cleanliness and minimalistic characteristics.
5. http://weworewhat.com This last website is again, pretty minimalistic and very clean looking. It’s a little harder to navigate, but the visual and graphic elements are really cool.

1. The goal of this assignment was to capture gestalt in photos on South Congress.
2. In the first photo I think I captured gestalt in the continuity and movement of the woman with the dress, and also with the grouping/proximity of the woman and her dog. There is also a repetition of patterns in not only the bricks, but also her dress. In the second photo I also tried to show grouping/proximity between the man and woman. Along with that there is also some containment. The two people are contained in between the two poles. The poles show symmetry and asymmetry at the same time. They show symmetry because they are on either side of the people, however they show asymmetry because one is close to us and the other one is on the other side of the street. 
3. I think the strongest parts of these works is that they show gestalt and they also carry a theme between the two of them. They both contain yellow and show grouping between to people.
4. The weakest part of these works is that they aren’t as artistic as I would like, they are mostly just showing the technical parts of the photographs.
5. This project can be strengthened conceptually by maybe shooting photos of people from the front instead of only the back, and maybe taking pictures of other objects or architecture.
6. Technically, I could probably vary the gestalt principles in the pictures or find a way to use more of them in each photo.

One of my all time favorite artists/filmmakers is David Lynch. I consider many of Lynch’s films to be my favorites, including Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, and The Elephant Man. Although all of his films are fantastic and so intriguing my all time favorite work of his is his television series Twin Peaks. I think my infatuation with Lynch’s work comes from the fact that everything he creates is so thought provoking. You have to pay close attention when watching something of his, because if you don’t you are sure to miss something big in the plot. It’s necessary, at least for me, to watch everything more than once because it never makes sense the first time. This summer Lynch released a new season of Twin Peaks after a little over 25 years of it being off the air. It was so cool for me to be able to watch this new season and interact with other fans to discuss theories and ideas about it. It was also really exciting because when the first two seasons were on television I was obviously not alive yet, so to be able to watch this season as each episode aired was so much fun and added to the experience. One of my favorite things about this series is how big the fan base is and how many really interesting and different theories there always are about each episode. Twin Peaks is a mystery horror series that also has many supernatural and surreal elements to it. It creeps me out more than it “scares” me, which I am a big fan of since most of my favorite films are creepy horror films. Along with the horror, this show also has a lots of humor to it like much of Lynch’s work. The cinematography in this series is absolutely breathtaking, but so is all of David’s cinematography. This series is flat out confusing and mind blowing, if it makes complete sense to you then you’re lying.

Below are just a few of my favorite scenes from Twin Peaks:

This scene was from the new season (season 3) that aired this summer. I think it was my favorite scene from this whole season. I love everything about it: the way it was filmed, the colors, the music. It feels really nostalgic and the way the character, Becky, smiles up at the camera reminds me of the character Laura Palmer who died in the first season.

This scene came from the last episode of the second season. This is what David Lynch left the viewers with for 25 years, and I love how eerie it is.

This is the last scene in the newest season. Again this scene makes me feel on edge, and the iconic yet haunting scream is terrifying. David Lynch ended this new season on such a confusing note again which makes me think there is more to come sometime in the future.

This scene is from season 2. All of the scenes that take place in this red room are absolutely fantastic and chilling, however this one is one of the bests because of the 25 years foreshadowing and again the frightening Laura Palmer scream.

1. When keeping track of what I do everyday I realized that I have somewhat of a routine in my daily life. I do basically the same thing everyday except for when I have different classes sometimes. I feel like I should switch up my routine so that it doesn’t get too boring. basically I wake up and go to class then go eat lunch and go to class again. Afterwards I go study and do homework then go get dinner. After I go get dinner I come back and hang out with my roommates and watch TV then I shower and hang out with my friends some more then go to sleep and do the same thing the next day. I never realized how boring my weekday routine is and I feel like after seeing this I am definitely going to try and change it up in the weeks to come. However, it might be hard to get out of this routine that I have become accustomed to these past four weeks. No matter how hard it may seem I am determined to spice up my weekday routine. Im not sure how I will do it, but I will do it.
2. The image that I chose from my high school photography career is one of a skateboarder that I took one afternoon at the Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark in Houston, Texas. When I was in high school my friends and I frequently drove around downtown on the weekends to take photos because its what we enjoyed doing. This picture was the first photo I took that day and I think it was also one of the best ones I took. I chose it because its one of my favorites and I thought it was funny how the very first picture, which I thought wasn’t going to turn out well, was actually my favorite one. I think its really cool how often accidental pictures can turn out really well. I also really enjoy black and white photos, as you can see in this picture. I thought the lighting and the contrast in this picture in particular were really beautiful. The shadows and the lines were also main parts in this photograph that really caught my eye. 

1. The main points of each of these articles is comparing the role and job of entrepreneurs and artists. These articles are talking about how artists are becoming entrepreneurs and vice versa.
2. Artists can learn to follow the lead of their “entrepreneurial cousins” and use all of the many resources that they have available to them in order to remove the burdens of actually doing business as an independent artist.
3. Yes, I completely agree that artists are entrepreneurs. I never really thought about artists being entrepreneurs, but now after reading these articles I do. There are many characteristics that artists and entrepreneurs share, one of which is that they are both driven by passion.
4. I agree with many of the characteristics listed, however one that I agree with mostly is that artists are passionate about their work. I really liked the part where they said that artists face criticism and fight for their work when they’re passionate about it, and if it isn’t worth fighting for than it might have not been the best idea in the first place.
5. I would probably add that artists learn from and get inspired by people and everything around them.
6. Reading these two articles was really thought provoking for me because I never thought about the similarities between entrepreneurs and artists. Now that I am thinking about it thought they are so much more alike than I used to think. It’s really cool to have a new perspective of looking at these two occupations.
7. After taking the quiz, I have realized that I am not that gritty and I definitely need to work on becoming grittier.
8. In order to increase my level of grit I need to complete goals when I set them and I need to work on one project at a time instead of dropping a project idea that I had and starting a new one because I lost interest in the original.

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