Joana Coelho - 10C - Final Collage, Personal Philosophy, and Artistic Statement

My Personal Philosophy:

I believe that in life, every experience is a learning experience. Every day we are faced with decisions that need to be made, chances that we take, and mistakes that we will ultimately commit. But all of this, every wrong decision, every mistake made, every chance we are given, is all a part of the learning experience that is life. We fall, we get back up, and we try again, that’s what I feel life is all about. Humans are, in one word, imperfect. We are the perfect imperfections. We are all different from each other; true we all have a head, two arms, two legs, vital organs, and so on, but the faults and differences that all of us have are what makes us unique in our own way. And all through life, we grow, facing problems, revelations, and events that will forever leave their mark on us. As Dan Eldon said, "the journey is the destination." I value the process more than the result, because it's where I learn more about my true self and who I want to be.

We are ever changing creatures that will one day die, which is why we have to make the most of every moment. Every second that passes we get closer to death: people could look at this as negative, but I don’t. The realization that we will one day die is what helps us enjoy this life that we have, create the memories that we will be remembered by, and learn that first impressions are not always right. Why waste this life being anything but happy? Every second could be the second, make it a second worth remembering, not just for yourself, but for everyone around you too.

Artistic Statement

My collage is based on the idea that every experience is a learning experience. The collage begins on the top right corner with family, sanctuary, and the idea of beginnings in general. Each animal represents an idea of family, that is, protection, warmth, love, shelter, and so on. The collage than moves downward first with a group of trees during autumn, which is all the way to the right and then to the left of them, is a tree trunk with a bird with the word growing pasted on. Together these represent the changes we encounter in life while we grow, which brings us to the owl and the word learn attached to each of his tails, which was originally supposed to be placed on the spine as a representation that learning is the “backbone” of living. The owl is holding an autumn leaf in his mouth, again representing change, before he takes flight and continues the process of living and growing. Underneath is the phrase aging is a process, which compiles all the ideas of the collage including my own personal philosophy, because in this process we learn from the decisions we make, the mistakes we commit, and the memories we remember. The dog standing on this phrase is reaching upwards towards a cloud with dreams on it, showing that when a person ages, they work harder and harder to get to their dreams and achieve them.

Moving on, to the left of aging is again another set of leaves representing change and the words in this ever-changing world, showing to the viewer that circumstances change everyday that we are living, so this process has no definite course or path. From the fall leaves, we see ice slowly spread across the bottom from right to left all the way into a large snow covered mountain, this is also showing change through a change in the season. The boats represent the person living, going along with these changing, learning and evolving from them, which is why the words explore one’s surroundings are written around this idea. The penguin standing on the snow-covered cliff is imagined to be a person, just like you and me, but behind him is a parachute. This is shown to represent that the mind is like a parachute, which cannot function unless it is open and then can it fully experience and understand ideas and topics such as imagination, creativity, and adventure. These are symbolized, respectively, by the Ferris wheel in the desert, which I find imaginative and productive, the rocket ship launch, which a century ago would have thought to have been ludicrous, and the picture of the mountain reflected off water covered in lily pads, which represents hidden mysteries and adventures lying in our every day lives.

The rocket ship is pointing upwards to our next group of images, to the word opportunities, which within it as no limits written. This is to say that in life we are given various opportunities to take chances, make mistakes, and learn from every experience we go through, and that if we set our mind to it, there are no limits to what we make of these opportunities. Above these words, are several different kinds of mountains, meant to represent the various obstacles we face in our lives and the man to the right of these mountains, climbing a section of mountains is meant to represent how with hard work and determination, one can overcome these obstacles. This goes back to the opportunities we are given, in this case, to show how determined and willing to fight for what we want. Continuing to move upward we see a picture of a woman arranging a very complicated rug, which shows how through life, we grow more complex in our personalities, our decisions, our mistakes, and just about everything, which makes us all the more individual as a person, represented by the one red marble in the middle of all the blue marbles. The words a truly impressive work of art as individual as you are shows us how this rug is our lives and that the memories we leave behind will be what we are remembered by and that will hopefully leave a mark on people and make us just a bit different from everyone else. All the way on the top left corner is the sentence remember when life was so simple, which serves as a reminder to us that as we grow, we cannot forget where we started from, where we came from, who we were at the beginning of our lives, and how we changed since then.

This is the reason why the woman with the rug is followed by a family of whales, a group of birds, and a running woman all going back in the direction of family, sanctuary, and beginnings. On a side note, in the picture with the group of birds we also see the word perfect crossed out by a sentence that reads perfection is a fickle mistress. In an ever-changing world, there is no one to judge what is and isn’t perfect when a year, a month, or a day later it might be different. And, going back to the return to family, sanctuary, and beginnings, in this ever-changing world, it is impossible to tell where one ends, because every ending is just a new beginning, which is why my whole collage goes in a circle. It is an unfixed process on how each of us humans spends the time of our lives. The image in the middle with this shows a pair of legs, running or, in this case, living, which are also leaving a set of imprints in the sand to show the memories or the remembrances that one has made, and the body as a big blob of strange and bright colors to show that we are all unique, colorful, different, and special creatures. It cancels out the large check behind it, because there is no right way to live, only through learning from the experiences in which we live through and we see others live through, can we learn truly who we are, who we want to be, and learn from every moment in this ever-changing world full of knowledge.