What gives life meaning?
One’s self. Nothing compels us to live other than a biased perception of life’s true purpose. This is not negative in any way: the fact everyone has found their own meaning is just part of the diversity that makes the human existence special. If life had one universal meaning this question would not have a philosophical answer, it would be very direct.
Answering this question prompts another: does life have universal purpose? No. The purpose of life is also decided by who is being asked. However, just because life has no true universal purpose does not mean there’s no satisfaction or enjoyment to be found. In fact, the lack of a universal purpose gives us the motivation to look for one which in turn makes life even more satisfying.
World History: Unit 6 Philosophy
For this project we had to choose a philosophical question and find an artistic way to represent it alongside a written form. I chose abstract art because it shows the beauty of nothing present in life as we experience it.
This project was a memorial akin to the holiday of the same name. Unlike Halloween, which thrives off of the fear of deadly spirits and providing satisfaction (in the form of candy) Dia de los Muertos celebrates the life of the dead and teaches you to embrace death and it's reflection on life. For my project I celebrated the life of my grandmother.
Spanish 3: Dia de los Muertos
English: iQuestions
For this project we had to use statistics and personal accounts to address a societal question. My question "What is Happiness?" was not actually along the lines of the ideal question but it was close enough that I was allowed to continue basing my project around it.
School Projects
This project was for my Media Design class. I chose the 3D modeling project and based my model off of the knight chess piece. I used combinations of various paraboloids and spheres to design the shield, helmet, mane and plume which are all a shade of blue.
Media Design: 3D Model
Art: Value and Line Drawings
I was aiming to depict the character Adagio from Vainglory in his two states: his pre-fallen angel and what-if demonic forms. I think the final product communicates a very Yin-Yang-like message. This isn't intentional but it does signify the character pretty well as he's a mess of positive and negative thoughts. I didn't set out to achieve anything in particular. With the creation of this piece I made something I'm proud of, I feel like that's an achievement. I usually go along the abstract side but I decided to focus on recreating something else which is actually how I started drawing. When I was in middle school I would just draw characters from games, anime, etc until I came up with my first original character.
This piece is a reflection of my reality in two ways: one I love games as evident in me deciding to depict Adagio in the first place. The second is subtle, but I actually relate the character a lot. His backstory is that he was essentially an angel under the rule of a nameless deity. He then becomes bored with his life, no longer wanting to follow the path set for him, but not wanting to partake in the recreational affairs of lower beings (like humans). The end result of his indecisiveness was a depression-like phase, which eventually led to his departure from heaven. I clearly am not an angelic being working under a god but I feel the same sense of “what now?” Adagio felt this because he realized he never got appreciation for his works, his authority did but I feel this way because there are simply too many routes to choose and nothing tangible can help me decide which one is right or most beneficial.
Process
I drew the frame for the body first: extending the arms and adding specific hair to each side. Using where the hairstyle changed as a reference point for dividing the light and dark sides, I then drew a halo and started to detail the bodies on each side. I started with the wings: using hatching, cross-hatching and light pen strokes to individualize each feather then moved on to the backgrounds. I naturally thought of fire for the more demonic side because fire is a natural depiction of evil but it took forever thinking of a background for the angelic side, which I did not come up with until the very end of my project.
The two inspiration images were the original renders of Adagio’s dark and light side drawn by the Vainglory Developer Team. They can be found here, respectively http://forums.vainglorygame.com/index.php?threads/22403/ and http://www.vainglorygame.com/vainglorylive/coming-soon-seraphim-adagio-tier-iii/.