I’m pretty sure I did this assignment originally but according to my Control Panel I have 54 posts and I don’t think I have the energy to go through them all to check. So the original assignment prompted the blogger to create a collage that represents them self using words and images but when I remixed it I was prompted to incorporate the 1950’s (Happy Days specifically). When I think about the show Happy Days and the 1950’s I think of Jukeboxes so I decided to use that as the base of my image. Additionally, because I think I have done this assignment before I wanted to put a new spin on it to keep it fresh. I don’t know about y’all but I been doing a ton of those Instagram stories where you post your responses using emojis so I decided to use emoji’s to describe me.
Graduation cap = I’m a student graduating in a few weeks
Laughing face= I can’t take anything seriously and laugh nearly constantly
Tree= I love the outdoors and hiking
Heart= I am genuinely caring person. I am an empathetic soul who feels so much
Taco= Because tacos are amazing
Dog= I love all animals but I have a particular soft spot for dogs
Books= I am a vivacious reader and it is truly my favorite pass time
Flower= I love plants and flowers and like to be as surrounded as possible by their beauty
I laid the base image of the jukebox before going and finding different images of emoji’s (with transparent backgrounds!) so I could layer them on top of the jukebox

This was fun. and I may have got a little carried away with it. Being a feminist is a huge part of my social identity so I wanted to focus on highlighting that. I started by find a bunch of individual images (I didn’t use them all but I wanted to the option) before working them into one collage as they seemed fit. Admittedly, I asked my previous instructor who talk my graphic arts class for a little help with this one because my skills were really rusty on an assignment of this scale. In the end I really love the way this turned out.

You in Collage Form. Make it about the character that was created last week.

This is a preview of my character that I created in last weeks assignments.

Week 4 Visual Assignment

2 Stars Places of Piece       

Create a collage of photos with all of your favorite spots where you feel relaxed or at peace. This should include at least four photos and can be places on-campus, at home, or maybe a spot you found while traveling. Then post the college to twitter.

The beach and the mountains are my favorite places to go and unwind and recharge. Unfortunately I did not make it to the beach this summer. The mountains are peaceful and relaxing. It is usually cooler in the mountains than it is at my home.

2 Stars Your Favorite Photo   

It’s simple. Choose your favorite photo you’ve taken and tell everyone why you love it so much.

This is my cat, Smokey. I got him when he was about 3 days old. He had to be bottle fed every 2-3 hours, just like a newborn baby. In this picture he is a couple of month old. Every time I would get out of this chair, he would jump in the chair and go to sleep.

4 Stars   Create a silly Movie Poster    

Take an existing movie poster and make it look silly.

I used the Grinch Movie poster and added a hanging bat, hanging spider, an oragne balloon and soem silly squggles.

2 Stars   You in Collage Form

This comes with simple instructions. Make a collage with images and words that describe you or mean something to you. This can either be done with actual materials like paper and magazine clips or by taking images, memes, and fonts from the Internet. Be careful to focus on the design of the collage, not just putting things together in a big glob. Have fun and be creative!

I love my family! They are my biggest supporters and they give my strength when I need it and encourage me to be the best that I can be. Snowman in the Christmas scene describes me very well. I can watch Christmas movies year around and I love snowmen. Christmas is my favorite season, its magical. Snowflakes, I am like a child when the first snowflakes fall every year. I love snow!! Can Am Motorcycle- this is a hobby that my husband and I share. I have been all over the state of Virginia and West Virginia. Quilt picture- I love to quilt, unfortunately I do not have the time to quilt with my college schedule. I do quilt and sew during holiday breaks and between semesters. This is me.

Here’s a collage that describes my character, Irri. He likes ice, hates spiders, lives in a magical gnome world, and is nice. I think I summarized everything well in this picture and description.

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My character, Callen Zelrich as told through a collage #ds106 #VisualAssignments #VisualAssignments1890 #vampire #mythology #surgeon #character

A post shared by Jessica (@jessicads106) on Sep 20, 2018 at 6:39pm PDT

This week, I’m representing the character I created in my previous post, Callen Zelrich, in collage form! While this assignment doesn’t count for stars, it is in the assignment bank here, with a description to describe yourself, or in this case, your character using a collage of pictures and/or words that are meaningful to you!

If you’re not familiar with Cal, you can check out my introduction post on him, otherwise, I hope this collage can tell you the story just as well, if not better than words. Cal is, in summary, a vampire with a dark past trying to better himself, now a surgeon. With this collage, I wanted to capture both what is meaningful to him, and what plagues him, to give meaning with contrasting pictures, since he is a character filled with contrast.

Links are provided to each picture! Starting from the top upper left, I have a picture of a casually dressed man to show the general aesthetic of the character without giving a portrait. Then, I have a picture of a doctor shaking hands with a patient, showing the good Cal is working to do in his life now; he always feels best about himself when he’s able to help someone in any way. The next are vampire teeth, which represent, besides the obvious, the darker part of his nature that Cal is trying to hide and move away from. The quote that follows is one I thought encapsulated Cal’s feelings on life, as he, ultimately, is just trying to be a better person, even with the odds stacked against him. The next is a close up of a doctor’s coat, again showing what he values in his life and career. The image of the bloody scalpel has a sort of contrast in itself in that blood is integral to many parts of Cal’s life, since it’s something he needs to survive and it’s something he touches everyday to save people’s lives. Additionally, I found the meme of the ‘Vampurr’ cat amusing and I thought Cal might find it that way as well, giving some sense of humor to his personality too. Finally, the image of books represents both Cal’s hard work in his studies to become a surgeon, and one of his favorite hobbies; as someone who’s old fashioned, he thinks there’s nothing better to do than curl up with a good book and relax.

I had a lot of fun making this assignment! In order to create it, I used Pixlr, a free app that allows you to create collages. The most difficult part of this task was really searching online for the right pictures to fit the mood I wanted to convey of the character. Sometimes, you go through so many only to never find any of the object/scene you have in mind and other times the right picture is waiting at the top of the search results. It just takes time to carefully chose each image, as well as the collage layout. I also did a bit of filtering on some of the pictures, to make some of them darker since many of the photos were obnoxiously bright, especially in the images I wanted to use to create a darker mood. This was easily done with the filter editing that can be done in Pixlr. Then, I uploaded my collage to Instagram, and it was all good to go!

Last week, I introduced La Señora Luz in this post. I highly recommend checking out her biography in last week’s post to understand my collage better.

I chose this assignment over the “What’s in your Bag?” assignment because this one seemed like a good way to create a visual representation of my character. To create my collage, I used an app that I already had on my phone, known as Line Camera. Line Camera allows you to create collages with preset models or create one on your own. For the images, I searched for images from Coco, The Jungle Book, and Peru’s flag. All of these images represent La Señora Luz in one way or another. Again, I highly recommend reading her biography that was posted last week to better understand my collage.

This is what I was able to create.

For my final remix assignment of week 12, I decided to make me in collage form. The twist is, I had to make it emo-esque, using monotone colors. This assignment was pretty easy for me, despite converting everything to be monotone, because, during Orientation training, we all make collages so we can get to know each other. To complete this assignment, I found photos that represented everything I like using google, and I used personal photos from my life from my Facebook. Then, I converted everything into monotone and added my photos into google slides to create the collage. Once I finished the collage, I screenshotted it and saved it to my desktop and embedded it below.

For this assignment, I decided to do a collage of Safety Stan instead of myself. Mainly because we had to incorporate our created character into one of our assignments this week, but also I thought it would be fun to do.

So, I made a small collage of Safety Stan and his favorite things. I used all the things that I described in my post from last week in my collage, so Safety Stan’s favorite food, drink, and possession; how he got his powers; and a picture of a guy that I imagine tries to do something like Safety Stan.

I think that I accomplished portraying Safety Stan through this assignment and I’m proud of the work I did.

I’ve always been a fan of vision boards. Make them. Hang them.

Mediate in their general direction. Usually this is a solo activity – partially because most people don’t seem into the vision board idea, and partially because I never asked.

So when I stumbled upon a vision board workshop at a local arts collective with the promise of meeting like-minded people AND mimosas and cookies  – I was ready to level up. I was ready to create a new square in my patchwork cape.

If I lost you there at the end, let me explain:

My cape isn’t visible. It doesn’t hang around my neck or flow behind me when I walk. It’s the daily ritual I do every morning preparing myself for battle with the inner demons ready to fly out at me throughout the day. So, now when I make my way to the closet and open the door – I see this…

And I remind myself of the world of possibilities that await me.

For one of my weekly assignments I created a collage about myself. The collage includes pictures of myself, my family, things that help describe who I am and what I enjoy doing.

One of the first things that come to mind when I think of myself as a person is a multitasker. I have multiple roles in my life including mom, girlfriend, sister, daughter, student and employee, just to name a few. The role of “mom” has several more roles within itself including care taker, maid, cook, taxi driver, teacher, and so much more. I’m constantly juggling and balancing all of these roles and prioritizing and re-prioritizing as the day goes on. The role of mom is also my favorite title in life! I have never been more full of pride and love than when I stared at my newborn babies in my arms for the first time. They are and continue to be my greatest accomplishment.

While my children are my greatest accomplishment, I don’t want raising them to be my only accomplishment. That is why I have dedicated years of my life to earning a bachelor’s degree. I am hopeful that I will be able to begin a fulfilling career after graduating from University of Mary Washington.

Since I am a mom of three and full time student, my budget is tight. Very tight. This is the primary reason why I love to shop great sales, clip coupons and seek out the lowest priced quality items that I need. I use store apps, literally cut coupons from the paper, check weekly sales flyers, belong to several store rewards programs and do my due diligence in research before large purchases. I’m always on the hunt for a good deal and love that I can find ways to afford the things my kids want and not just what they need.

Target is one of our favorite places to go because of the variety of ways I can save (5% off with my Target Red debit card, Cartwheel app coupons, paper coupons, sales and 70% off clearance!) Plus, they have these huge carts that I can buckle both my little ones into and let all three of my kids quietly share popcorn while I browse aisle after aisle without any nagging about being bored/tired/wanting a snack. I’ll admit, we use Target as an afternoon escape and not just a shopping trip.

Even before I had kids I had a passion for interior design, interior decorating, and home styling. I would watch TV shows like TLC’s “Trading Spaces” instead of cartoons and I would drag my Mom into Home Depot and Lowe’s so that I could choose paint swatches and price out materials like crown molding for my latest design ideas. I even presented a design idea to her once, convincing her I should paint my ceiling red! That probably wasn’t my best idea, but at 14 years old I thought it was so cool! After having my oldest son at such a young age I put dreams of going to school for interior design out of my head thinking I wouldn’t be able to make a successful career out of it. However, lately I’ve become re-inspired since watching HGTV’s “Fixer Upper” as I folded laundry/cooked meals/played legos. The fresh design ideas, the architectural concepts and the return on investment was addicting. I’ve begun reading “The Magnolia Story” which is written by the stars of the show about how they got started building their multi-million dollar home decorating empire and now Joanna Gaines is my new hero. This past Summer my mom and two younger sisters drove through Waco, TX (where their Magnolia stores are located) and brought me home a shirt and hat! I was so jealous and so excited!

Then, there’s the man that stands beside me through it all. My boyfriend of eleven years and father to our three children. We met at just 16 years old as the football player and cheerleader. We became best friends, we grew up together, and became parents together. He supports me juggling everything I do and is always there to catch whatever I may drop in my efforts to “do it all.” He makes me laugh harder than anyone else and knows when I need to be called out and when I need a listening ear. He helps coach our son’s football team, turns bedtime into a dance party and is willingly wrapped around our daughter’s little finger.

That’s me in a collage.