Author: cproctor3

Face In Five

While reading Dan Pink’s chapter about the creative and thinking process as a symphony, I could certainly relate to his ideas about how multiple parts work together to make a whole. As people, we have many different parts that work together to allow us to function the way we do. On a more complex level, the way we think is influenced by many different emotions, environments, and genetics. It is no surprise that when we are ‘creating’ we like to have different elements for certain tasks to unite and make one creative piece. For my “symphony,” I chose the self portrait with 5 lines. This was no easy task. Being the perfectionist that I am, before my pencil even touched the paper, I began to plan out what my drawing would look like. I sat in front of a mirror and looked at my face. “What elements of my face make me, ‘me’?”, I asked myself. I also wanted to balance strong features like my chin with more personal features such as the arch of my eyebrows. The strong added with the soft is what makes the face like a symphony. Although the ‘softer’ features are not as pronounced as the strong features, they are essential in identifying my face as ‘mine,’ and thus, making my symphony unique and original. The most difficult part of the process was deciding which features were most essential to my identification. The five lines I chose to draw made up my oval face, two eyebrows, hair, and lip outline. Although it doesn’t exactly ‘look’ like me, it makes up the symphony of myself. I felt the face was the strongest and most important feature to include. I also wanted to make sure to add my hair to make it obvious that I am a female. I used two lines for the eyebrows because I feel they are important for showing my emotions and expressions. Finally, I wanted to put my mouth in with a smile. I love to laugh and smile, so this part of the symphony shows my personality.

My "Face in Five"

 Photo courtesy of Christine Proctor


The Creative Process

On Friday, my group and I walked into the CULC building ready to ‘create.’ As I walked up the stairs of the modern and industrial building, I felt the ideas flowing into my brain. I was unsure as to what would come of them, but I could feel creativity buzzing through my brain. Kelsey, Devlin, Abbie, and I chose a module with high tables and chairs which promptly sat at and set up command control with our laptops. As a Tech student, I always feel ready to “GO!” with my fingers stroking the keys of my macbook pro. I was feeling a bit unsure about what I want to ‘make’ for our project, so, of course, I let my brain wander a bit to get the juices flowing. Where did I go…? Well, Facebook, of course. Facebook is a great place to refresh the mind, especially is you want to be nosey, social, or play farmville. Luckily, my Facebooking ‘sesh’ was productive and got me thinking about Tech’s diverse student life and their non-stop buzzing about campus. I felt that a project to display the students would be interesting and also fun to create. Since I was sitting in the beautiful CULC building, my mind made a connection to the other neat buildings on campus and all of a sudden…. “I’ve got it!”, I exclaimed to the group. I excitedly suggested a 24-hour documentary of Life at North Ave Dining Hall. Once the idea was on the table, the group began spitting out camera angles, background music, interview questions, and who would be assigned to the 3 AM documentation. I found that the brainstorming session was difficult at first, but once a base idea was suggested, my group and I were able to build on each other’s ideas to create the outline for our work-in-progress. The space was also inspirational for my because of its visual appeal and group-centered design.