9/10 Creative Quotes

"The hardest thing to see is what is in front of you."

This quote reminds me of our Cheerios exercise. Two weeks ago, a pile of cheerios were placed on my group's table in GPHD 125. We were instructed not to only draw the cheerios, but to define what we see. What did I see? I saw a cheerio. The cheerio was in the shape of a circle. My mind stopped there. Little did I know that there was so much to see within that tiny little shape. Sure I saw that the cheerio was in the shape of a circle, but did I see the tiny little holes that were scattered all around it? Did I note the texture of the cheerio and the tone of its color? Did I think about cutting it in half or crushing it up to see what it looked like afterwards? We tend to see one thing as a whole, but our mind overlooks the important aspects that make up that whole. After spending so much time working on my cheerios assignment, I actually began seeing cheerios all over the place. On the sidewalk, down the street, on buildings and before I would go to sleep at night. It's interesting to note that by breaking down an object's complexity into simplicity,you become more aware of your surroundings and the aspects that make up that object as a whole.

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."

I like to compare this quote to looking at a finished jigsaw puzzle. When a jigsaw puzzle is complete, most appreciate the illustration is depicts. The little tiny lines that make up each puzzle piece seem to vanish and all they see is the big picture. But it's not about the big picture. It's about those tiny little lines, and cracks your mind is trying to blur out that make up the big picture, because without them, you wouldn't see the object as a whole. By studying each jigsaw puzzle's shape, we can piece them together and create a masterpiece. This is how I see our leaf/linear shadow photo assignment. The photos we take are our puzzle pieces and we have to learn how to craft two photos together to create contrast with similarities. A photo can just be a photo but once you define it, you discover its meaning, value and depth and suddenly it's not just an ordinary photo; it's a photo with meaning. When I started out with this assignment, I was "looking". I snapped a couple of leaves, then went to look for shadows and snapped a couple of them. But now I'm learning not how to look, but how to "see". I've reshot over 200 photos and I still plan to shoot more because I am still training my eyes to "see" and not "look". When I look at my recent photos that I reshot, the photos itself emphasize that I am "seeing". Then when I upload the images onto my computer, I analyze my shots. What do I see? If I can answer that question, then I have just defined the components of that composition and that's what establishes its meaning. It's not about the big picture. It's about the lines, circles, contrast, closure and the process of defining, that gives the big picture its meaning and beauty.