Metacognition- Get organized

I decided that for my organizing project I was going to clean my room. I have had piles of clothes lying all around my room and everything has been in a complete jumble. I had been having problems finding things for the past week as well so it seems like the right thing to organize.

Before I started I definitely was not excited. Having to get up and actually do something seems so annoying and tiresome. Once I finally got up and got into cleaning everything seemed to come much faster. After a while it actually became kind of fun. I shut myself in my room and cleaned everything. Sometimes i even found interesting things, like an old collection of clay dolls I made when I was little.
Once I had finished I felt very accomplished. I mean, cleaning a room is a pretty big deal!

My head felt much better, as if I had organized it instead of my room. Everything now had a place and I knew where that place was, felt good.

Cleaning my room is always the last thing on my list but now I know that as much of a hassle as it is- it does help. It cleans up your head and makes it easier to think. The amount of clutter in my room had affects how my head was, now that everything was organized in my room- everything seemed organized in my head as well. It also lets you think during the process of cleaning. I came up with lots of good ideas while cleaning- sadly I no longer remember them but at the time, they were very good.
Definitely will make cleaning my room a weekly event.

Change of mind: Living forever

Never ending life always seems to be desirable, something that we want but can never reach.. Now people are saying that it possibly is not impossible.. maybe we can live forever.. so now we think. Would it work? Would we want to?
I always thought I would want my family and I to live forever. Never having to face the sad reality of losing those you love but now I keep thinking about it and it does not seem as appealing anymore.
I think that there is only so much that can be done in your life and that there is a point where you complete everything you wanted to and then pass. Having no choice to die, having to stay alive forever even after you completed what you wanted will get old. I would not want that to happen so therefore I would rather set the age I live to. Not eternal life, just as long as I need to complete what I wanted.

Another problem I thought about when thinking about eternal life was- where would we find all the space to sustain everyone? The population would only grow therefore meaning that we would need more supplies and more area to sustain everybody.
Eternal life seems as a good idea when just thinking about a couple of people; once you start looking at everybody who will want to live- you only see that soon enough there wont be much room for anyone, causing us to have to move to other planets.
I don't know the answer to the question "do you want to live forever" because there are reasons I want to and others that make me think I don't. Before life is eternal there need to be ground rules set up.

Captured Thought: Change is not possible

Recently I have been having trouble with my boyfriend... actually we broke up. So this made me think about men and if they are even capable of change. Through long processing and hours of thought I have decided that they are, but trying to change someone in high school, especially a boy, is crazy talk. It is impossible.
This is one of those "Now I get it!" moments. I spent hours sitting and wondering why things couldn't be perfect and now I realize why.
Even though they were tiny changes, I tried to change him in high school and when you think about that from the other person's point of view, it makes sense why they would get angered. Some random person comes into your life and thinks that they know how to run your life better than you do, obviously you are going to get angered because you think that you know yourself better than anyone.
My intentions were good, I only wanted things for the better but he was happy with his life even though he wasn't going anywhere with it.
Changes need to be subconscious. Like with a child. Children learn through watching their parent's behaviours; if their parents say please and thank you, then the child will put that into their subconscious and say those things as well, without even noticing.
You can't tell a person, do this or don't do this- you need to show them through action that doing this, pays off in the end. I showed him that doing your work and striving to do well does pay off in the end and he took that in and now does it for himself. Yet whenever I tried to tell him something, a wall was put up as if I was a parent trying to control him.
I've seen people change. My dad for example. Through years of being with my mom, he changed from being very impatient and bad tempered to having a very good temper and being very charitable. This happens through lots of time and effort and can not be done in one day.
In high school we try to do things as fast as possible, get things done so we can go out and play. Not all things in this world are like that and relationships are one of those things you can't fly through. A relationship needs time and energy but also needs space. Through the "I miss you" process, people start to listen to each other more and get closer to each other on a deeper level.

That right there was my "Now I get it!" moment, well, at least that was about 2% of it. :]

Connection: Sophie and kids today

In the novel Sophie's world, the author has two stories going on at the same time. One is the philosophy and just how philosophers developed, whereas the other story is of Sophie, a fourteen year old girl who is just learning about this all.
Sophie connects to us, she shows how blind we turn and how we reach a point in our lives where we can either lose all interest in the world, or go farther into trying to figure out what everything is about.
By having the second story of Sophie weave into the philosophy the author shows the relevance of philosophy to normal kids.
Most people think that philosophy is pointless and should just be left alone, "life is the way it is because it is this way" and that is how people like it. They do not want to spend their time trying to figure out why everything is the way it is.
By showing that even someone like us, Sophie, can have such a connected to something so "forgotten," shows us that maybe it is not as forgotten  as we thought.
By looking at teenagers today the author probably found out how he should make Sophie.
First she was very curious yet resilient as to why philosophy? And why all these stupid questions? But as she started to look into what the author kept sending her, she started to apply it to her life. Soon, philosophy was the first thing on her mind. This is how we work, show us something new, make us interested and it will be the main thing we think about!
Overall, Sophie makes the novel much more relatable to kids like us. She makes something we think is so far away from us, philosophy, seem relevant and relatable.

iMedia: Photo realistic Portraits, Alyssa Monks

Throughout my whole painting and art career photo realism has been my goal. These paintings absolute amaze me. The ability to recreate a photo from scratch in such detail that people question which is the actual photo, fascinates me. Before writing this blog I went searching for photo realistic art and found this artist. Alyssa Monks. In about five seconds, I fell in love. Her art is so realistic, every single highlight is correcting placed. Every pore on a persons skin. These are only three of her works, but they continue. 

http://www.amusingplanet.com/2010/03/incredibly-photorealistic-paintings-by.html

Look at them, they're pretty remarkable. 

Being able to make such work takes lots of practice and years of failure. I am still an am-mature, yet I hope to one day be able to create huge pieces that people question. I want to hear people walk by and say, "Is that a photograph?!" and then be astounded when they walk up close and see the brush strokes. 

Oil realism is only one type of art that is able to be recreated like a photo. There are many others, you just have to sit down and search. 

Bic Ball-point pen

Scratch board and ink

Colored Pencil

P.s. After writing this I went and searched more to find photos of other types of realistic art and found that Alyssa Monks was the artist that shocked me so much at Art Chicago. Last year on a field trip we went to art Chicago and there was a painting, huge, took up the whole wall and I stood, mouth wide open and couldn't believe my eyes that it was really oil paint. This was it.

Carry it forward: Shadow Catcher

The novel, Shadow Catcher, carried the belief of Complexity throughout the novel. This made me think about the complexity in our 21st century lives which also connected to our sculpture project. We never really realize how complex our lives really are, and why they are so. The book made me think about why our lives are so complex. I came up with a list

• School, which includes class work, homework, and supplementary projects
• Work, takes time away from school work making that take much longer
• Art, also part of school but is always put into last place, taking the only free time I have left
• Parents, they need attention too and when we are parents we will crave that attention as well
• Boyfriend, and friends all crave attention. Yet, going out with them is partially for us as well because we we were not able to do so we would go crazy.

These are the major things that fill my life and i often get caught up in all these things. After reading Shadow Catcher and understanding that I am not the only super complex being out there, I've got a plan. 

I'm, going to try and plan my day a little better. Setting time aside so that I will able to give time to my parents, boy friend and friends, and still have some time for myself.

My trusty assignment notebook will finally be used!

Overall, realizing why our lives are as complex as they are and seeing that we are not the only crazy ones in this world; definitely eases the soul. I will carry this new found idea into the future by planning more and trying to rid myself of at least a little complexity. Slow my hectic life down a little, oh! and, SLEEP! 

Metacognition: QE Essay

Throughout the time I spent writing this essay, I noticed my usual thinking process come into my head. I started to use my usual metaphors and type all at one time. This time, it didn't fail me. My metaphors kept flowing in and they created a much more interesting read.
Even though the metaphors helped, I think the thing that was best about my essay was the paragraph about my painting. It definitely related only to me and set a voice of individuality to the essay. I struggled throughout the whole essay to try to make my "from my voice" and in that paragraph I felt that I succeeded the most. Not even was I able to illustrate the situation from a linguistic point of view, but I was also able to visually show what I was talking about by adding a picture.
Overall I think the essay turned out as a success, only thing I struggled most with was transitions. For some reason my brain likes to come up with metaphors yet when it comes to transitioning from one paragraph to the other- it reaches a blank. Poor brain, hitting its head against the wall. I think even looking through transitions that people use will help, yet sitting down and looking at those is going to be hard. Procrastination! Gets us teenagers every time. I will try to sit down and search the internet for some good transitions to wow you in my new essay.

Blogging Around

Garret B- Metacognition-Blog

I find it really interesting the way you wrote this blog. You definitely didn't stick to the generic student, you can hear your voice in all this and we can see your view on the subject of blogs. I agree with you that this is just a blog and you can take it any way you want, definitely a lot of what we do is like that and so therefore its hard to grade. Dude, keep it up, you write really well. Stick is to the man! haha

Desiree G- Change in mind- Keith Haring

Being into art myself I think its awesome how different people look at the same thing. You see so much movement in his work when I see just colors and patterns. Both of us look at art in appreciation but we appreciate different things. It's awesome to read about your view and contrast it to mine.

Metacognition: QE Essay

Throughout all of the essays I have written I have always noticed that I write better when it's in one sitting. I get all of my thought out right away and then edit them later. Most times I don't even need to edit. The thoughts are down the way they're supposed to, only thing is that I forget spelling and grammar.

Spelling and Grammar have always been my mistakes. When writing free hand- I am very good at spelling; when it comes to computers, the keys get all jumbled up and I forget to fix typing mistakes.

Another mistake that comes with typing in one sitting is awkward grammar. When continuously typing I start to just put down my thoughts, which are often jumbled and weirdly written. That is why, I can understand them yet others can not.

I've always been amazed with being able to write well with out trying. English is not my first language yet for some strange reason, it flows well for me. I am able to write down what I am thinking in interesting ways and make them memorable. Another thing I've been gifted with is writing titles!  Titles have always been my favorite, being able to catch people by just a few words always intrigued me to write better titles. Hopefully you will see some of them throughout this year!

Best of Week: Emotion

At the end of the week this week, our class talked more about creativity and what guide lines help in creating the best thing we can. One of the biggest things that struck me was something I had already known but needed to be told. I always knew in the back of my head that Emotion was a very big factor in making people interested in your work, but being told this made things a lot clearer.

Emotion appeals to everyone. Creating something with feeling makes people look at your work closer and actually relate to it. Playing with people's emotions makes them think about your work even after they are done looking at it. When art of any kind is made just because then people don't stop and think. They pass it by just like any other thing.

In the article "The Sea of information" the author talked about  research not being enough to catch peoples attention. I always think of art as painting or drawing but in this situation, the art of writing is the best thing to compare to. We learned this week about college essays and how to write them. Research about yourself is not enough for the college admins to look at your essay and remember it. That is why we need to involve emotion in our writing. Make it memorable to only us because no one sees or feels a certain situation just like you.

Everyone is different yet everyone has emotions, no matter which emotion a person triggers with their art, it will be a lot more memorable than just a long line of information.

Connection: Farnsworth and AP Art Hearts of Glenview

This week in AP Art we were given an assignment, make a heart for Hearts of Glenview. We were all supposed to work together and make two sides of the heart. Right away there were people who took the leadership role and tried to boss others around. We saw how hard it was for a group of people to work on a single project together, all mutually adding to the final product.

There was one person from our group who tried to take the main leadership role. She came up with the idea and told us where each of us was going to draw. Even though every person contributed to the idea and the placement of the drawings- she wanted full credit.

This reminds me of Farnsworth. He was the first to make a television camera yet wanted full credit for the invention of television. He did not understand that many people were involved in this invention and that his addition to it was only the beginning. Not getting his full credit- he died down and started to destroy himself instead of finally collaborating with the rest of the inventors; thankfully, our "Farnsworth" decided to join us. She figured out that we were all working on this project and stuck to doing just her part.

We see this type of behavior very often with projects in and out of school. Most class projects involve a main leader and people who sit back and watch the project develop. The leaders tend to want most credit, if not all, because they started off the process. Things don't work this way. A group is a group and each person gets recognition, no matter how small their contribution was.

The article about Farnsworth definitely shone a different light on how I look at these leaders. I never understood how they thought and why it was that they wanted full credit for only doing a part of the work. I am a leader at times and seeing now from my Art friend and this article, how people look at the people who want full credit for a group work- I will be more careful about my reaction to the product. I'll try to give each person their recognition and not hog the credit.

Hearts of Glenview Examples

What if: Everyone was Thrilled by everything?

Mr. Allen always talks about being thrilled by things. Most people pass by paintings and literature as of having no importance- What if everyone stopped and took the time to actually appreciate the creativity people let out into this world?
If everyone took the time out to look at art, then our world would be surrounded by it, every corner would be covered in some kind of art. Mr. Allen talked about taking out the time to look at different types of art. This way even someone who isn't a creative mind can find something for them selves. Every person is able to find an art that applies to them. Some prefer abstract paintings while others prefer poems.
People who reach a mid life crisis at thirty with their house, family, and piles of money get bored and start to go insane trying to find something to fill their life with. If they turned to creativity and spent their time finding the right art for them- they could find something that thrills them and fill their life with that.

For me, I found art much earlier than 30, I focus on realistic portraiture and have been finding more and more artists that thrill me. Every artist I find brings something different to the table. The same portraits drawn by different artists are all very different and thrilling. I only wish others could find some type of art that thrills them, as I did.

I think that in a perfect society, each person would have their own preferred form of art. There would be no white walls and empty rooms. Every person would fill their place of living with what they like. Literature would be much more popular and paintings would be bought and sold all over.
I can only hope for something like this to happen soon, but the only way this can happen is if people finally open up their minds to new things. I hope that Humanities this year, will do that for the 2 or so classes of students that take part in it.