What if...

I have always liked the idea of asking "what if" questions because they always bring about really interesting answers. So for this assignment I just started writing down a bunch of questions, just stream of consciousness. It definitely sparked more creativity than I thought it would and actually caused me to do a little daydreaming right in the middle of the day. In a way it acted as not only a creative activity but also a break from any other normal day. Here are some of the questions I asked myself:

- What if college was just a test before the real one?

       Then we would all be in school for a really long time, but also we would probably be really smart by the time we reached "real" college. We might also die a lot younger as a result of added stress, which could make for some population problems. 

-What if sleeping was actually reality instead of our awake time?

    Then the world would be a lot more interesting, because so much more can happen in dreams, essentially anything is possible. 

-What if homework was fun?

  Then there would be no procrastinators and we would all get pretty good grades. However than the problem arises of there being no slackers to balance the super studious students. But is that really a problem? 

-What if pictures really did take away a piece of our soul?

 Then everyone with a Facebook would be soulless, so I guess than we would pretty much all be zombies or serial killers...though I'm not sure which is worse.

-What if our siblings were actually our parents?

 Then who are our parents really? I guess it would make sense why my older sister was always bossing me around then.

Below is the image of my thoughts as I wrote them. They are arranged in different shapes, some just made up, in hopes to show that ideas don't always connect but they are still worth writing down as they can spark unexpected creativity.

Dry Spots after the Storm

I've always been fascinated by water and how it is such a force to change things. Water is everywhere and everything depends on it. When it rains I almost always run out in it to just feel water pouring down me. After work one day it had just stopped raining and the car next to me had just driven off, leaving these beautiful dry spots in the soaked pavement. I thought they looked kinda cool and decided to take a picture of it for this creative assignment. Nature always has a way of making things look amazing

Accidental Art: Potato Chips

For some reason, my creativity seems to revolve around food. Although I was keeping my eye out for accidental art whenever I was walking outside, I found my accidental art in an unexpected place: a bag of potato chips! This was a good reminder for me that creativity and art do not have to be manifested in the stereotyped forms like painting, drawing, sculpting, or even making music. Art is so much about our individual perception. An object meant to be consumed for energy and nutrition (or maybe not so nutritious in this case... ;)) can be a work of art that also serves as a reminder for us to love one another.

Accidental Art

I realize that this is a picture of a trash can... BUT there are a few aspects of this picture that I loved, and honestly I would have never noticed were it not for our project.  First and foremost, I want to draw your attention to the designs in the mud that were created by the rain.  Second of all, I loved all of the different shades of brown here.  You have the dark brown mud, the light brown trash can, the rusty light post, and also the light brown reflections in the water.  I also appreciated the angles in this picture.  I like the angles of the mud, and the triangular shaped reflections of the water.  I am always in a hurry and am quickly trying to get from one part of my busy day, to the next.  But during this walk, I realized several beautiful things that I know I would have missed out on if I would have been in my typical hurry.  Hurray for accidental art projects!

Wandering Around Salt Lake City in the Middle of the Night

I had been wanting to explore Salt Lake city a little bit more in depth since I moved here years ago, and last night I did.

                                                                                                                      I left my phone at home so I couldn't keep track of the time or be yoinked back into the "real" world. I brought a male friend with me as a safety precaution and he had his phone, but just to take pictures. Neither of us really knew anything about Salt Lake, so we took the downtown exit, drove into the taller buildings and parked in front of a gorgeous piece of street art, got out and looked at it for a while then turned and just started walking.  

Soon after we started I made it a rule that we could not retrace our steps at any point, so we ended up wandering around a few city blocks and saw tons of cool shops and a beautiful urban-style park. After getting up on an open balcony I noticed this run down, old-school restaurant in the middle of several large, industrious buildings and we paused there to look at if for a while. 

                                                                                             Walking passed a building under construction we looked in the windows and saw these scriptures sitting open and waiting and thought, "only in Utah". It was amusing and intriguing.

                                                                                                   I loved the lighting and painting in this alley way that we almost passed because it was tucked away between two huge buildings. I'm glad we noticed it though because it had such an awesome atmosphere and was a great natural setting for a photo shoot or music video, both of which I love to make so I will probably be revisiting this place. If I can remember where it was...

There is something magical about being out in a big city at night, I have always loved it. It makes me feel like the world is brimming with possibilities and like all I have to do is reach out and grab them. To wander around Salt Lake in the middle of the night without any ties or obligations, it was truly liberating.

Time Observation: Light

I decided to do an observation of time.  When I started to think about the project, I first thought  that I have to find an object that went through a whole transformation due to time. But then, I look through my window and something really caught my attention. Everyday the light tells us that time is passing. We know that when it gets dark is time to bed when there is light is time to wake up. This is one of the mechanism we use to know that time is really going by. Even old civilization used sundial, this device is used even nowadays and tells us the time of the day by the position of the sun. 

For this experiment I just look through my widow for half hour and change of light was impressive. I was amazed by how the light change the environment and how different the same place look. 

Accidental Art

On my walk to Macey's on Tuesday I looked around for things that were accidentally artistic.

 There was an area purposefully filled with rocks but there was one single plant growing out of the rocks. The plant/weed was not supposed to be there and all by itself it drew attention and felt artistic.

 I guess it's possible that someone purposefully crossed these pink plastic spoons when they littered them on the side of the street but most likely, it was accidental.

At a construction site, I noticed that the cracks in the dried mud made an interesting pattern or design.

I noticed a straight line of dead leaves on the edge of a grassy area that stood out and felt like it could be art.

There was a spill stain on the pavement that I photographed. After I photographed it, I found that both the purposeful and accidental cracks in the pavement along with the stain and other markings created a very interesting composition together.