The Beginning

Black Hair Project I am very pleased with the outcome, especially it being my first photography based project, my professor gave an A. I learnt a lot about creating the right environment, editing style, the importance of lighting and detail. I wanted to have a voice over to make it more relatable as well as to feel the emotion within my voice, I wanted the audience whether they are black or not, to understand the struggle of having to conform to standards of European beauty of you are not European. I wanted black women to relate to my experiences and experiences of others that I mentioned for instance black hair styles such as dreadlocks are being banned in schools. However dreadlocks holds spiritual and cultural connection within African culture, yet they perceived to have a connection with gang culture. This mentality perpetuates the idea that black hairstyles are criminal hence black women trying to change their natural hair to look professional because our natural hair is n...

I had to create a vector self portrait for my Graphic Design class, which was challenging because I'm used to drawing silhouettes or objects with a solid colour or gradient. I had to use a combination of Photoshop and Illustrator, Photoshop to edit the picture so that I have more defiant colours. My professor stated that it's not supposed to be realistic however the edges should be smooth. I am happy I was given this assignment because now I have more options when creating work, I am not limited to pictures and silhouettes. It is also an venue that I see people get commission, so I can make money from it as well as get my work out there.

I love their style of teaching at CSUSM, in my  visual  arts class my teacher doesn't limit the artist and art work to white Americans or Europeans but looks at Africans, African Americans, East Asians, South Asians, Mexicans, Middle Easterns and so on. I really appreciated this because I have never experienced this in the UK, which making you feel that your culture has not contributed to art while in fact a lot art was inspired by your culture. I loved how she didn't ignore other cultures and us feel included and not invisible.  An interesting section was art on race and oppression. James Luna a Native American artist did a piece where he had a sign titled "Take a picture with a Real Indian". When he dressed in his normal clothes nobody did anything however when in his Native clothes people took pictures with him, shedding light on the issue that people don't respect the Native American culture but see it as a picture taking opportunity. ...