An Inspector Calls: Literary Element Project

In the play An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestly portrays the theme of social responsibility. I’ve created a poster focusing on the character development and the symbol to support this idea.

In the visual product, I’ve included Eric Birling holding a glass of wine inside the wine glass. This ironic idea was used to symbolize Eric’s unsolvable alcoholic problems. The money in the glass is the money he gave Eva that he stole from Mr. Birling’s office. The symbol of the broken glass portrays Eric’s unacceptable attitude and immoral acts caused by alcoholism. The money piled beneath the glass of wine identifies the theme of capitalism. The pink background shows Eric’s affection for Eva.

I’ve chose the quotes based on the development of the character. I’ve used five quotes that portrayed the theme of social responsibility. In the beginning of the play, Eric refused to admit that he caused the death of Eva Smith. He is an alcoholic “silly and wild and drinking too much.” He stole money from his father, his addiction to alcohol has caused immoral acts. The quote, “[Mrs. B] killed her… —my child—your own grandchild—you killed them both” (55) shows how Eric blamed his mother for killing Eva. However, towards the end of the play Eric says, “It’s what happened to the girl and what we all did to her that matter.” He finally understands that the family all has responsibility of Eva’s death.

To sum up, the breaking glass portrays the idea that the working class is suffering from the upper class’s immoral acts, and it is important that society is responsible for each other.

Lonesome Summer

Learning to overcome loneliness, this is a personal narrative about a teenage girl going through internal conflicts during her summer camp.

Lonesome Summer

                 I didn’t like the narrow streets, I didn’t like the subway, I didn’t like the towering buildings, I didn’t like the people. New York was a dream city I always wanted to go; however, after I attended my summer camp in the School of Visual Arts, my mind changed.

On the day I was checking in, I got nervous, I wasn’t ready to live here alone. All the other students were already making friends, and I was the only one standing next to my parents, like a loser. My Dad tried talking to one of the girls, he was trying to make friends for me, and that was embarrassing. Dad kept nagging about how I should try socializing more. My parents kept saying, “make sure you don’t get lost, and always remember to call me.” I pushed them away, waved, and called, “Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad! You guys can leave now!” My parents walked off to the side and finally left the room. Mom and Dad were being annoying. I usually don’t like to show the “emotional side” of me, but that day, they almost made me cry. I hate how they worry so much. Talking about worrying, let me tell you an embarrassing story back when I was in 5th grade. We had an end of year trip to the Great Wall, but our bus left late because of my parents. They just wouldn’t let me go for 20 minutes. Mom was tearing up and kept hugging me, while Dad kept repeating, “Call me when you arrive.” And everyone was staring, literally everyone. Since 5th grade till now, nothing changed. Mom and Dad just worried too much.

Anyways, back to my summer school. I took the interior design course, and everyone was so talented. No kidding. 19 out of 20 students went to art high schools. I was super stressed. I had to work extra hard and prepare for my presentation every other day. Presenting to the whole class made me really depressed. I wasn’t confident enough to speak up in that environment, especially in front of those that were so much better than me. Meanwhile, the professor never complimented my work either, so my self-esteem got worse every day. But gladly, I did make two friends; Krista and Camille.

It was a chill day in New York. Smelling the hot dog coming from the food truck, people walking across the road, and cars beeping in traffic. I was on my way to SoHo with my friends. As we entered, I saw both sides of the street filled with clothing stores. My indecisive mind couldn’t choose a store to shop in. In the end, I just decided to go into H&M; but, Krista and Camille didn’t like it. In front of the H&M store, they just dragged me to another store for limited edition clothes. I saw the price tag, and I thought I read $8.5, but no, it was $85. The cheapest shirt was $85, yet Krista still bought something. It wasn’t a great start in SoHo, but it didn’t get any better. Krista took us to a restaurant called Laudrée. I opened the menu, and a BLT sandwich was $45. For the past few days, I’ve only been eating Whole Foods hot meals cause I had to save money for later emergencies. Obviously, the $45 sandwich was way too expensive for me to afford.

After lunch, I gave my debit card to the waiter. She swiped my card into the machine, but I was low on money. Then there was an awkward silence. I could feel my face getting pinker every second. So, Krista handed her card over my shoulders and towards the waiter, with sass, she said, “I’ll pay for her dish too.” I wanted to hide under the table. I was embarrassed. I thought I saved enough, but I was wrong. I was so mad I couldn’t pay for my sandwich, I was so mad because I felt like I was being looked down on my “friends.” And that’s how my day ended. A day filled with embarrassment.

In this chaotic city was packed with chaotic problems. A month in New York was a dreadful experience. The professor hated me, the students stressed me, and friends disrespected me. As days passed my parents stopped calling, and I didn’t have anyone to rely on. I was beating myself up by doing endless works of art, that made me feel less lonely. Just like that, a month flew by, just like that, my lonesome summer ended.

Rationale

              Lonesome Summer is the title of my personal narrative. This story focuses on the conflicts I faced while I was attending a summer camp this year in the School of Visual Arts.

I begin my writing with the use of repetition because it gave a unique hook that drew the readers to the different conflicts in my story, (“I didn’t like the narrow streets, I didn’t like the subway, I didn’t like the towering buildings, I didn’t like the people”). Throughout the narrative, I went through three different conflicts; leaving my parents, class stress, and friendship problems. This focused on my theme of overcoming loneliness.

I included a flashback in the exposition of my story, “Talking about worrying, let me tell you an embarrassing story back when I was in 5th grade.” It was used to show the conflicts the protagonist was going through.  To add on, words like, “chill,” “like,” and “literally” is evidence of colloquial language. I used a colloquial style language to make my writing informal and more personal. To help the reader feel my internal conflict, I used literary techniques like simile (“like a loser”), parallelism (“In this chaotic city was packed with chaotic problems”), and hyperbole (“I was beating myself up by doing endless works of art”). Also using strong words like, “hate,” “stress,” and “depressed” shows the characteristics of the protagonist; judgmental and negative.

Furthermore, pathos was expressed throughout the entire narrative by utilizing parallelism (“Just like that, a month flew by, just like that, my lonesome summer ended”), repetitively using the structure of parallelism brought out the tone of sorrow. The use of these literary devices helped describe the conflict of my narrative and brought together the theme of loneliness.

The Bloody Night in Verona

The little droplets of water beats louder every minute, the streets flooded, the hair drenched, the city was in a catastrophe. A pair of star-crossed lovers were found newly dead in the mornings of Verona.

Last night, Romeo and Juliet both drank the infusing liquor that run their veins cold, they couldn’t feel any warmth or breath in their body. They were experiencing death for twenty-four hours. Juliet’s marriage with Paris was originally planned today, but to avoid this, Friar gave them a liquor that was used to fake their death. Their fake funeral was held in Friar’s church today afternoon. After friends and families left with flowers to strew the two lover’s grave, the two lovers awoke from their deep sleep. But this midnight, Paris came to their tomb and saw them awaken.

“Oh Juliet! Thou were alive!” said Paris

“Oh Paris, it’s not…”

“What’s Romeo doing here? Was this criminal alive all this time?”

Romeo and Juliet couldn’t let anybody except Friar know that they were alive. Romeo decided the best decision was to kill Paris.

“Oh let’s fight!” yelled Romeo.

The two dragged their swords out, slashing it to the air and to each other. Romeo’s blade was sharp, and it sank right into Paris’s stomach, and blood poured out. While the knife was sinking deeper and deeper, Paris’s coat was stained with red. After a few minutes, Friar came to their tomb and saw this disastrous scene. The traumatic incident freaked Juliet out. Tears burst in fear, like a water leaking from a broken glass. The salty drops fell from her chin, Romeo’s hands shaking in shock.  Friar told them that the only way out was to run far away from Verona.

As the lovers rushed out of the church, Friar heard knocking outside the door. It was the prince and his two watchmen’s.

“What seems to be the trouble?” said Friar shaking nervously.

“We just heard some strange noises here, so we came to check in, do thee mind if we search the church?” said Prince.

“Go ahead,” said Friar.

The guards started to search all around, and they saw Paris dead on the floor in front of the lover’s tomb.

“Prince! Prince! Come look over here!” yelled one of the guards.

Prince used two fingers and placed it on Paris’s pulse, and his pulse was not beating. Then, Prince checked the tomb, and Romeo and Juliet was not there.

“Romeo and Juliet, they are not here! Go find Romeo, go find Juliet!” ordered Prince.

The news of Romeo and Juliet’s disappearance was not announced to their parents and the public yet. However, this wasn’t the end of this disastrous day, there was another shocking news that was brought to Verona. Lady Montague stabbed herself with a knife and was found dead in her bedroom on the day of Romeo’s funeral. This night, Verona over flooded with blood.

The following morning, Romeo and Juliet was found in a small village near Verona.

“Ye has committed such severe crime in Verona! Thy ignorant act has led to infamous deaths in our city, when will this mutiny ever stop! Romeo! Thou will be punished by a fatal death penalty, and Juliet! Thou will be banished from our city!” Prince yelled with anger.

Romeo committed four severe crimes in Verona. He killed Tybalt, Paris, and his fake death was a serious crime that led his own mother to commit suicide. The only way prince thought of a punishment to Romeo was giving him a death penalty, and as Juliet faked her death, she was banished from Verona.

The love story of Romeo and Juliet ended with a tragic scene of death and banishment. Their love didn’t come true but mutiny in Verona has finally ended.

Portrait Reflection- “The Blues”

In this studio project, we were asked to paint a portrait that gave us a strong theme. I was working with acrylic and oil painting. In my art piece, it was created through a long process. First I used the projector and a pencil to trace the image onto my canvas. Then, I used oil painting to paint the face and hair, then I used acrylic and layered the hair. I used acrylic most of the time, because oil took too long to dry.

The title of my painting is called, “The Blues.” The color that stands out the most is blue. Blue represents a feeling of melancholy. I tried using that color to express the mood of sadness to the audience. I chose a portrait of myself to show how society is affecting me.

The guiding question I am addressing mostly in my artwork is, “how can portraits convey authority?” I am addressing this in my work through the relationship between the raven, anemone flower, the background, and myself. As shown in above, the background of my painting is very dark which is symbolizing the stressful things that are going on with my life. But my facial expression still remains straight, and the flower stands out with its vibrant colors. Which is showing a sense of authority because I’m trying to convey the idea of how I still have power and my own decision to make even when the society is pressuring me with a different opinion from my thoughts. There are two very important visuals that needs to be represented. It is the symbolism of the anemone flower and the raven. The anemone flower represents luck and protecting against the evil. The raven is a symbol of bad luck and evil. So together it is giving a contrasting meaning in my art work.

The overall mood I tried to convey is “darkness”. Like I’ve mentioned before, the background is rather dark than my body and the flower. Which is showing how I’m going through internal conflicts in my life. I used dark colors such as the different shades of blue in my background to show melancholy. Whereas, the flower and my face had bright colors. The use of blue and violet are analogous colors. And the colors on my face and the flowers were complementary colors.

In this project, I was inspired by a famous artist called Kehinde Wiley. His paintings focus mainly on the people, and he uses a lot of flowers. Where you can see in my painting, my face is the focal point and I have also included flowers like most of his works.

My studio piece ended up looking very similar to what I have envisioned in my final plan. The idea of a flower on my head with the raven stayed the same. Some challenges I had was the background. When I started painting, I didn’t begin with the background layer so there are some white spaces in my background. But I address this challenge by layering a lot of layers. Not only that but I was struggling with blending in my body and the background. So I added a layer of shirt on my body, but it didn’t turn out well so I ended up trying to blend in the skin color to the dark blue background.

I tried out a new idea by using flowers. I’ve never used flowers in my art pieces before, and I thought that was a new experience. Not only that, but I’ve used oil several times before this project, but this time I mainly used acrylic. I think I have developed as an artist because my values were getting better than our first charcoal unit. I applied best work into this project because I took advantage of class time, stayed after school, and worked on it during my study hall blocks.

3 Artists Habits of Mind

Develop and craft was an important aspect in this unit. Throughout this project we used a variety of different materials. We did media testing oil and acrylic painting to make sure we know how to use them in our final art piece. I liked both styles of paint so I utilized both. However, during the process I found acrylic more helpful.

Reflect is the second artist’s habits of mind I chose. In this project, we gave each other peer feedback to find areas of where we can improve and which areas we should keep. My peers suggested I should add tint in the background and to add high saturation on the flowers. I took this feedback and utilized it in my final piece. Moreover, I also received a lot of areas of improvements and compliments from Stephanie. She helped me with the use of colors and how I should work on my background.

Stretch and explore is the third artist’s habits of mind I think was important. Painting is very difficult, so I made a lot of mistakes, such as; when I was painting the face, I couldn’t make the right color that matched my reference photo and the background so I struggled a lot. I also didn’t like the color of my background, the way my body was shaped, the color of the flowers, so I kept changing everything. But as I kept working on my mistakes, I reached beyond the limit and loved the result of my final art piece.

Acrylic Painting Media Testing Reflection

In this media testing we tested out how to use acrylic painting. During the process, we took a photo of our face and photoshopped it by bringing out more contrast and saturation in the photo. Next, we printed two copies of the photo, one was glued on to the cardboard, and the other was used as our reference photo. Then, we covered the canvas with gesso so it was suitable for painting. After that, we started choosing colors and mixing them on our palette.

While using acrylic paint I learned a new skill called layering. Acrylic painting is a type of paint where it dries very quickly. So blending is very difficult. If you want to give a smooth effect on the value scale, you will have to use a lot of water. Not only that, but since it dries so fast you always need to keep your brush in the water, or else the bristles will turn very hard and you won’t be able to use them anymore.

What I enjoyed the most in acrylic painting is the use of layering. Since acrylic painting dries very fast, I used dark to light color layering’s to bring out the values on my face. This was very different from oil painting, and I didn’t have to struggle blending so I thought it was very fun.

Something I found very frustrating about acrylic painting is the use of colors. Like what I mentioned before, acrylic painting dries very fast, so I layer the paint. And that’s why choosing the right color is very important. Using black will create too much of a strong impact to the painting so the artwork often gets messy, so I tried using brown or purple but it was hard to create a good shadow color for my face. To avoid this problem in the future, I think I should use the color wheel more to understand the mixture of colors for the values.

Vincent van Gogh was a poor artist, so he didn’t have the ability to afford good paint. But his art work still had such appealing colors. I really question how artists mix colors and how they bring out the details in their paintings.

Oil Painting Media Testing Reflection

In this media testing, we were testing out how to use oil painting. In the process of oil painting, we first took a selfie of our own face, and printed it out black and white. Next, we created a grid on our photo and in scale to the cardboard. Then on the cardboard using the grid, I did a rough sketch of my face. Lastly, I started using black and white oil paint and turpentine to start painting.

Oil painting is a type of paint where it smoothens out very quickly, also dries very slowly. Throughout this media testing I learned that when I first start painting I should use a lot of oil and start with a thin layer, so it dries faster. Then I should start adding more and more to start showing the values. Not only that, but since it dries very slowly and it’s hard to make changes, I started with white and gradually added more shades into it. A very important thing I learned is to not throw turpentine in the sink, because of its strong smell. Nevertheless, I learned how to clean the brushes. You first need to wash it in turpentine, then wash it with soap and water.

What I really enjoyed about oil painting is how easy it is to blend. If I made a mistake it was easy to cover it up through blending. And it was easy to blend the colors even on the cardboard. Also, oil painting is very smooth it makes the painting seem more realistic. It gave a very smooth transition of the different values on my face, starting from shadows to highlights.

Moreover, the frustrating thing about oil painting is also the blending. Since, I was able to blend colors on the painting, sometimes my shadows and highlight will blend, which made the different values fade away. Not only that, but the paint dries so slowly so the more I work on it, the more blending occurs. To avoid this in the future, I would use more turpentine, then it will dry faster and less blending will occur.

During the painting process, I struggled to work on the details because of the smooth oil painting. Especially when I’m working on the lips, and the hair, the very detailed areas I struggled to paint because it will always blend in. I also struggled trying to emphasize the shadow and highlights clearly. I wonder how successful oil painters managed to do such detail and shading in their artwork. An example of an artist that was very successful in this technique is Vincent van Gogh. In one of his painting called, “Van Gogh self-portrait” painted in 1889, he managed to work so well in the details of the hair and every part of the face.

Converging Cultures – So Close Yet So Far

In this project we were supposed to converge two cultures together, using Photoshop. I converged the Korean and Chinese culture together. The title of my converging culture piece is called, “So Close Yet So Far.”

I am a third culture kid, I’ve lived in Beijing for 14 years; however, I am a Korean citizen. I’ve never lived in Korea before so the message I’m conveying is that I want to live in my home country. There are five important things that needs to be observed in my final art piece. First of all, the hand represents my present life, in Beijing, which is the Great Wall in the art work. The art piece is “night time” because that is when everyone seeks for hope. The lanterns on the sky represents my desires. This is because in the Korean culture, there is a festival called The Lantern Festival, where everyone writes their hopes on the lantern and wishes it to come true. Not only that, but the moon also has a very deep meaning. The development of moon is also well known as the analogy of human development. So the crescent moon symbolizes youth. To sum up, the hands and the Great Wall is showing that I’m living in the “hands” of Beijing; however, I’m looking away to the crescent moon, which is Seoul. To me, Seoul seems so far away, just like the moon. However, there are lanterns (that look like stars) flowing down towards me, from the crescent, showing the path I want to go through right now. The surreal devices I used was scale, and levitation. The photo of me standing in the hand is showing scale. Because it’s truly impossible to have a person standing in a hand. Levitation was used because of the place where the moon is located. The moon is shown as Seoul. So it gives the audience a bit of fantastical mood of a floating city. My work was inspired by an artist name Herri Susanto. I found him through an Instagram post by Photoshop. I was inspired by the idea of a crescent moon, and him standing on a rock. I got a mood of hope in this art. So I wanted to create something similar to this. So I “borrowed” the idea of a crescent moon, and the person standing on a rock, to me standing on a hand, and the crescent moon of Seoul.

To begin with, we learned about the surreal devices such as; transparency, scale, juxtaposition, levitation, dislocation, transformation, and elongation. Then we learned about four different artists; Maggie Taylor, Jerry Uelsmann, Erik Johansson, and Kristy Mitchell. We also did a total of 5 media testing’s. The first one was the basic, Fruit Face, the second was Kaleidoscope, the third one was Geometric Reflections, then Double Exposure, and finally and Inception Effect. We watched Youtube tutorials and Ms. Z’s example in class, to test these new tools out on Photoshop.

I had many different ideas for my Photoshop.  And my final plan ended up looking completely different as my drafts. My first idea was to combine the modern and ancient culture in Korea. So I was planning to use a photo of my grandpa and I holding hands, and walking down the two very different streets of Korea. However, it wasn’t possible to take a photo with him. The next idea I thought of was a photo of me, having two hands opened, one hand with Seoul, the other with Beijing. And combining the two with a bridge, showing how they are both important in my life. However, I struggled to find the right photos for these pieces. So in the end I came out with what I have right now. I remember watching a video about Geometric Reflections. So I incorporated that idea into my project. This is how I formed the crescent moon of Seoul. I also learned how to create the crescent moon more “three-dimensional.” I first layered it with a photo of the moon, and added shadows onto the moon. This way my moon didn’t look so flat. I also used the lasso and the quick solution tool on Photoshop to crop all my layers. Another challenging thing was blending all my layers together to make it more natural. I used many of the brush and eraser tool to blend in the layers. This project was especially challenging for me, because I am not use to Photoshop. I enjoy doing hands on art project, rather than computer-based. This was very hard for me because I didn’t know all the “short cuts” and tools on Photoshop. However, after watching many videos I was able to end up with my final piece.

    

 

3 Artists habits of mind

Engage and persist is the first artist’s habits of mind I chose. It is my first time actually trying to create a finalized product on Photoshop. I’m more use to painting or drawing. But in this unit, I had to learn in a different way of thinking in order show what I want in my art piece. I’ve thought deeply about how each object in my piece will show and symbolize to the audience. Specifically, the lanterns, moon and the hand. Nevertheless, the art piece I tried to show my personal story about being a third culture kid.

  

Observe is the second artist’s habits of mind I chose. My art work has very little things that needs to be noticed. The stars in the sky are actually combined with lanterns. Symbolizing hope and wish of wanting to be living in my home country.

Express is the third artist’s habits of mind I chose. This project was a very personal project. I was told to express the cultures in my life. Like I mentioned before, I conveyed an idea of a third culture kid. I am standing in the hands of China, but looking at the moon, Seoul that is so far away. This is an international school, and I believe, many students can relate to this topic.