The first house that I lived in I will never forget, It wasn't the actual house that is memorable, but the back yard. In all honesty there wasn't much to our back yard, just the typical swing set and slides, but what lie behind the back yard was a magical place, well to my sister and I. behind the tall hedge that spread across the back of the yard, there was a hill full of trees and moss, and there wasn't much to it. My sister and I were able to turn it into our playground, we spent years and years playing back there and not 1 other soul ever saw it. When we played there we were the kings, and we saw it as our kingdom. My sister and I believed it was our land, we made huts, and pull systems all across the land. It was one of my favourite things about my childhood because it was all too good to be true. When my Parents announced that we would be moving me and my sister were heart broken, but upon finding out that there were new kids moving in we drew up a map of our kingdom to give to them. To anyone else this place would have never earned a second glance, but to my sister and eye, it was a kingdom where our imaginations ran freely!
Throughout my life I haven't been put in a situation where I had to make a serious decision, nor have I ever had to really choose a road. I have chosen to elaborate on a opportunity that I took that ended up having a very positive impact on my life. Collingwood had the option for students to go away for a month in the summer and take a course in France. For me taking this opportunity would be like nothing I had ever done. I decided that I could make the most out of this incredible opportunity and go be independent for a month half way across the world. I learned so many lessons from being away from my family, and I have been able to reflect what i've learnt into my everyday live. I can in a way consider this trip a road that I decided to take that had a very positive effect on my life.
In my life, there has been one person who has influenced many of my decisions and actions, this person was my Father. Ever since I was young my Father and I had a great connection, we were able to get along well and always have fun. Unfortunately my Mom passed away when I was 9 years old from a long battle with cancer, and seeing as I was still so young there was many emotional problems I would have to deal with. My Dad was able to help and guide me through the darkest part of my life, I had many questions about what had happened and he always did his best to answer them. Since then my dad has always been my go to person, whenever I am faced with a big decision, am having a problem with something, or even just am feeling down, he has always been there for me. More currently I have been faced with the stress that I have to start to decide what I want to do for university, and what I want to do in the future. My dad has been so supportive of all my decisions, he told me “It doesn't matter what you do in life, as long as you're good at it”. This piece of advice has helped me decide what I want to do, and I always keep it with me to stay calm. To me my father is someone who i've always looked up to, and has always been there for me, because of this I would say that he is the single most influential person in my life.
I have been fortunate enough to have traveled with Collingwood on Encounter retreat XXIX this past weekend. I was able to take this time to reflect about who I really am, and I was able to come up with a good response to “Who Am I”. I believe that I am someone who is approachable and is positive. I have strong family ties and going back east to where I'm from is very important to me. I am a person who values friendship and family above many things. I suffered from a very difficult situation many years ago, but since I have been able to use my experience to help others though difficult times. I am a person who likes to put others before myself and always be there for them. I am a person who believes that when doing a good deed “just because” is a good enough reason. All of these values truly are able to show who I am.
Focus on impact and meaning:
I started of this portrait by using charcoal to blind contour some features of the people around me. I found this task difficult but with time I was able to illustrate the features and emphasize certain highlights and shadows. When creating this piece I worked on exaggerating the eyes and the lips, to me the focal point of this piece is the lips. Highlighting and shadowing on this piece was a very challenging part of this assignment, but I found that using warm toned purples vs. cool toned purple helped push and pull certain parts of the face structure. Starting this piece I really was not impressed with myself and thought that it was starting to look kind of "bug-ish" with the massive eyes. I decided to embrace the weirdness of this and I really like the turn out of it now. The distorted face structure and the massive features help shape this portrait into a piece that is like no other. I defiantly went outside of my usual comfort zone, but I am proud and happy with my results.
|
|