Week 2/ Dear Daughter/ Lisa Allin

 Week 2/ Dear Daughter/ Lisa Allin

When the night settles in, remember your wisdom ball. May it serve to remind you of what your body knows: owl, spirit animal, creature power, disco magic, and Harry Potter. Even in darkness, enlightenment shines bright (night vision).

Look deeply, my dear, what do you see? What swirls? What did he know? What do you know? What are you discovering? Past, present, and future reflect curiously.

Go to sleep, my child--sweet dreams. Take comfort in the ancient roots of this land; Loving Spirit knows no borders nor tones. Visualize and manifest!

Fantastic choice! Now, rest well. Tomorrow you will need your energy to ride that dragon, feel the wind on your face, challenge the injustices in the world, and be Isabel the magnificent.

Week 2 - JB - [Inspiration] - oMG I love your room!!!

 Week 2 - oMG I love your room!!!

I took this week's topic of "Inspiration" very literally - this set up looked like it came straight out of a "CUTE COLLEGE DORM DECOR INSPO" Pinterest Board. I loved the way each bulb of the string lights bounced off the wall in its own unique pattern. Almost like snowflakes, no two lights were quite the same. As well, I thought it was interesting that the overall energy I felt from the room was warm and cozy, despite the fact that the string lights themselves were rather cool, leaning almost toward a blue.

-Jeevika

Week Two - Frankie Henderson - Inspiration

     This is a picture taken from laying in my bed right around sunset on a week day. I mention that it was a week day because it was the first time since starting school that I had made it home before the sun had gone down. I took a second to just sit with myself in silence, enjoying the air turn crisp and the sky changing hues. It was an inspiring moment watching the clouds shift leisurely, without urgency, reminding me its ok to slow down. 

    I was also captured by the way the tree separated the colors in the sky very distinctly.  

Week 1 _ Angularity Vs. Flow _ Tamer Abdo

 

Circularity is a major element of movement I am mostly attracted to. Yet, in this picture I replaced circular with angular. I thought the shadow and organization of what was being projected was interesting due to the shapes within the larger shape. Triangles, rectangles, diagonals, rhombus are all repeating shapes within one another. It also seemed like a planned stage with the organization of dancers and the light focus.

As for the color it self, it is subtle yet dark. Shadows are something I have always been interested in for staging. I believe it is important to show the dancers. Yet, there is a beauty and ambiguity to the idea of shadows. For example, there is more of a question to what the plant is, color wise than it being black, yet all we can notice is a black plant due to the way it is positioned in relation to the light. 

Tamer

 

WEEK 1-Rubí Danielle-Off To Neverland And Never Grow Up

This is a photograph I took, as the sun was setting. I absolutely love the colors that are produced in the sky when the sun turns in. The sky looks like a background of pink cotton candy, draped over a land for unicorns. There is a mix of purples, blues, and pinks, three colors that go so incredibly well together; sisters on the color wheel. I really cannot help but think of unicorns, cotton candy, My Little Pony, Lisa Frank, Care Bears, and all things like so, when I look at this beautiful sky. If I could paint the sky, I would paint it just like this. There is a swirl of color that is so irresistible, it reminds me of rainbow sherbet ice cream, which is my favorite flavor of ice cream. How can you not feel wonder and fantasy when looking at this God-given creation up above. Clouds, colors, and skies so perfect, it makes my heart feel like there is hope for a better tomorrow. I want to swirl up into this beautiful sky, and fly around like Tink, Peter Pan, Wendy, John, and Michael; off to Neverland and never grow up.

Week 1 - Amber Morales - Surviving Silhouette

 

I love the evening hours during the hot summer season. 

As the sun sets during a mid July evening, I can feel the hot air nestle against my skin. The warm breeze brush against my cheeks. As I look beyond myself, I see a dark, surviving image that reaches high into the warm night sky. A survivor longing to stay present in our world. A survivor that provides oxygen for our lungs. Shelter for the wild. And food for our natural being. A silhouette that is living, but not fully alive. Struggling to survive in a world that is already dying. 

Week #1-Kelly McGill: Setting in the West

 

Walking my dog in the evening is one of my favorite times to observe the sky. I will often be unaware of what is happening above me, lost in thought or looking at the surrounding houses, until suddenly we stop moving for a moment and my gaze lifts above the rooftops.

Growing up in upstate New York of course we had sunsets, but there is something different about the way the sun sets in California; the way the color of the sky shifts from blue to periwinkle, and pink and orange in one smooth gradient, the wide expansiveness of the sky and the intense glow of a hot, burning sun.  I am particularly drawn to the image created when the sun moves behind the leaves of the trees, as seen in the picture above. I love the way the sun is shown so spherical and bright, yet you can look at it without hurting your eyes. The intense glow of the setting sun illuminates the spaces between the leaves, revealing intricate patterns and shapes. 

The light of the sun and the color of the sky in this photo give me a sense of calm, warmth, and contentedness. The kind of happiness you can only feel when you know the day is almost done, and soon you can rest. 

week 1- whitney- play

How can we reveal different forms with light? I see: a mellowing gradient, movement in contrary direction, silhouettes, a sense of moving through the lingering sunlight that will soon be "gone". 

How do different materials receive and reflect light differently? I see: a layering fall sun, much like a blanket.

How does light shape and frame our perceptions of events/memories? In designing, how does placing objects/ forms in different areas of the stage/environment change the meaning? I see: Contrasting shape and framing, warmth, juxtaposition of lines, sense of being behind something. 

How does light contribute to our feeling of depth and temperature of a place and time? I see: depth of field, moodiness that is inherent in fog. Because I can't see the background "clearly" I am more curious about it. 

Can light be focused in ways to reveal different aspects between foreground and background? I see: color, movement of light, repeating patterns of light and shape. There is something specific about how the sunlight interacts with the color of the flowers that feels pure and true to me. 

Light music through the window

Light offers endless possibilities. It reflects our surroundings through shapes and shadows and it highlights whatever it reaches, leaving behind those that hide from its touch. 

In this image natural light is the paintbrush and the hardwood floor is its canvas. The exact pattern of the door and outline of the chair is replicated on the floor. The piano, despite its placement in the corner of the image, is the protagonist. It's as if a spotlight was shining upon it while everything next to the window disappears from the frame. The setting beyond the crystal doors is warm and inviting, covered with light and full of possibilities. 

-Anna

 

Week 1 - Joey N-M - The Red eyes in my room

This ray of light enters my bedroom in the evenings, and I usually look forward to the moment it comes in. On this day, however, the light reminded me of dread, its heat-tined color—memories of the tight confines of my time in the Valley.

My time in quarantine in the Valley was both a time of simplicity and terror.  

These red shudders became a lens that sent me into the heated past. 

I believe it's crucial to blaze on and look forward and even in the moments of quiet, moments when everything feels calm and cool, we acknowledge the past and all that comes from enduring its discomfort. Because in the end, there is always growth, small or large, or minimal or maximal.

In this way, the salmon-colored shutters shining into my room now become rose-tinted glasses.

Week 1 - JB - Of Smokescreens and Sunsets

Week 1 - Of Smokescreens and Sunsets

Sunsets trigger a Pavlovian response for me. I am overcome with bittersweet nostalgia for warm San Diego evenings, moisture hanging in the air and paragliders silhouetted against the horizon. I used to watch the sunset every day, and I developed a keen sense of how "good" the sunset was going to be depending on the density and quality of the clouds earlier that day. No clouds and full clouds both made for rather boring sunsets, but those few skies with streaky wisps of cirrus lent themselves to miracles. Explosions of rose and scarlet and lavender and indigo, dancing through the skies like sinuous watercolor. 

I used to think I could judge the clouds so well - until I discovered smoke. Like a literal smokescreen, the California wildfires have completely changed my perception of sunlight. This photograph was taken at around 5pm last week, well before dusk, yet the low air quality leads to shockingly beautiful, sunset-like light quality. The rays of golden hour (or golden three hours) permeated my window, and I enjoyed it the same way I enjoy sunsets. It was meditative, yet terrifying, yet beautiful.

-Jeevika