Some of the elements of art and principles of design I used to channel and portray my identify are color (and the lack there of), texture, shape, contrast, and emphasis.

For my identity project, I wanted to focus on the recreational portion of my identity wheel. Running is a very big part of who I am, so I wanted to highlight that. After realizing that I couldn’t simply place an outline of a female runner into photoshop, I tried to think about what running means to me. It is an outlet for every aspect of my life- physically, mentally, and emotionally. So, I thought it would be interesting to do a compare/contrast of myself before and after running. In trying to role with the theme of this project and be abstract- I decided to use the left half of my canvas as my “before” state and found a picture of the screen that used to show up on old tvs on channels that we didn’t have access to (I used to call it the bug channel). I thought this was symbolic for several reasons; the childhood connection, the annoying feeling you get when that channel didn’t air the show you wanted, the white noise. I wanted to emphasize more aspects of my life that stress me out- and procrastination is a big one. So, I placed a clock with the hands ticking quickly on the left(before) side of my canvas as well. Lastly, being from a big family and in large crowds in general overwhelm me, so I placed a picture of a crowd of people on the left side of my canvas. By keeping everything on the left side, colorless, this emphasizes the difference between my two physical states and makes the overall image all that more impactful.

In order to try and create some unity between the two halves of the project, I placed an open doorway connecting the two sides and unifying them to one. On the right, I found an outline of a person meditating and then I filled the body in with an image of a forest. The right side represents me after a run, running is a giant stress reliever for me, and gives me the same peaceful state that mediating achieves, especially when I’m in the woods and away from people, technology, etc. Additionally, I placed a rainbow of various fruits and vegetables acting almost as a halo around my head. This was symbolic because I am a nutrition major, so a lot of my time and brain is used studying nutrition. I emphasized the fruit rainbow to show the large impact that nutrition has on my life, Also, I have been vegetarian for three years, and feel my best when I am consuming a clean, plant-based diet. Furthermore, I added a vertical landscape of one of the most popular and touristy spots in Albania. This is also symbolic because my culture and being Albanian is a large part of who I am today, however I didn’t just want to place an Albanian flag as the background, so I thought foliage from it would give a similar idea. Nature is also a large part of who I am and how I spend a lot of my time, so I thought it was a good visual representation. In contrast to the left/before side of my portrait, the right/after side of it is much more vibrant and colorful which represents how I become when I am doing the things I love.

Dear Stephanie,

My name is Besa Maliqi and I am a senior here at Ohio State(go bucks!) studying Medical Dietetics. Nutrition is something deeply important to me and I truthfully believe that food is medicine- and I aspire to inform and help change the lives of others with this knowledge.

I took this course for several reasons. Digital art is such an integral part of today’s society- especially with social media- and I believe it will only continue to prevail in years to come, so I wanted to learn more about it myself. Also, this course fulfilled my last required GE, so it was a pretty easy decision to make. My artistic background is extremely limited; the last art class I took was in the eighth grade and I remember feeling very overwhelmed because the perfectionist part of me is my biggest critic. I find myself wanting to create art, however I feel like I can never express that on paper. I took this course to challenge myself because I believe that you grow the most as a person when you step out of your comfort zone. However, that is simultaneously my greatest concern- that my perfectionist habits will inhibit me from enjoying this course.

Art is important to me because it is a form of expressing yourself and everything is art- paintings, poems, books, food, people. I think one of my favorite things about art is that everyone can be looking at the same piece and interpret it in different ways- in ways that relate to them. I think it crucial to incorporate art in our schools because it shapes individuals for the rest of their lives. As technology is rapidly integrating itself in our daily lives, art is taking a different shape. There is a cultural shift happening in art mediums- from pen and paper to digital art in the form of graphic designs, videos, photoshop, etc. As this societal change is happening, I think it’s important to expose individuals to it because knowledge is power.

I’m excited to work with school aged children because they are so impressionable. Everything and everyone that they come in contact with influences them and helps to shape them. Helping implement core values into them, such as empathy is vital because being able to put yourself in the shoes of another is what makes us human. I think this course will prove to be worthwhile and I can’t wait to see what’s in store.