Explanation:

When our Pastor told us of the backstory of that centerpiece, I was amazed with how artistic its creation process actually was. The materials used for the formation of the background of the cross are all from the bits and pieces of wood gathered from the old church location after the place was demolished as they were moving the church to its location now. The designer thought that it would be a waste to throw all the wood so he thought of using them that way so that in a sense, a piece of the old church was still with them. It was basically some sort of remembrance from the past, added into the new church, in an aesthetically pleasing way. "A way of remembering our roots."

representation, imitation and mimesis define art?" - Concept 1.

- I think that this means that the concept of creating art can come from wanting to turn something moving into something still, meaning that there are times wherein artists get inspiration from what's going on around them in real life and they turn it into an art piece of any form. They use something that they've come across in real life as an inspiration of sorts, making a representation of it in their art, imitating or mimicking it in their art.

"How does ‘expression’ relate to the artistic process, in general, or the

artist, in particular? How does this compare with art as representation?" - Concept 3.

- As it is more rooted with someone's identity or personality, 'expression' becomes something more personal in the sense that it focuses on who the artist is and not what the art is inspired by. In a way, it's something more original in comparison to representation, which takes ideas from something else and represents it through their art. With expression, the artistic process may consist of the artist trying to understand themself first in order to know what they want to express in their art that is related to their character as an artist. For instance, someone wanting to express their love towards another through poetry does so by making the poem consist of personal ideas and feelings, which is done to properly convey what they want to express.

I think that the aspect of the painting that would give the artist the idea of "lightening" is the transition of colors from dark to light. If considering the possibility that it represents an emotion, it can mean a sense of hope after a tough experience-- explaining that from darkness, follows the light.

I would say that among all episodes, the one that really intrigued me was episode 5, entitled 'Reader Beware.' This is because in the episode, one of the main characters, Margot, was given a scrapbook that contained all the stuff that happened way back with her mom and her friends, showing a backstory and a little more context as to what happened before the tragedy of Biddle's death. What really interested me in that episode is the creative aspect to it because as Margot went through the pages of the scrapbook, she was able to somehow get into the scrapbook and be in that moment from years ago. I was amazed by it because to the people in the real world, it looked like she was in a trance, and in order for others to enter that state just like her, they had to be in possession of the scrapbook too. One last thing that got me from that episode is how because it's a scrapbook, you can draw on it to add elements. When the main characters started to get trapped in the scrapbook, their figures were drawn on the page of whichever room they were in, and in order for them to find a way out, the person with the scrapbook who isn't inside the scrapbook had to draw a door to help them, brilliant! I somehow really liked that bit because it wasn't exactly something unexpected but at the same time, as a viewer, I didn't expect the solution to actually be that simple, yet it was.

Rewatching the episode with more attention to the details and ideologies present, I was able to understand its message in sort of a deeper level. I became more attentive in a sense that I was not merely watching to enjoy but also to understand. With this, I was able to get a possible dominant ideology that circulated all throughout the episode. It appears to be that a dominant ideology there is the powerful and potentially dangerous influence of stories, imagination, and fear towards someone's thinking and perception of reality. Moreover, the necessity of critical thinking and inner strength to navigate through such influences is also evident in the episode. One has to have such a strong hold on to reality so that whatever tries to influence them into something that isn't reality will not succeed to do so. In the scrapbook, the 5 friends were able to find out what happened to Biddle and how Slappy basically influenced his thinking for a while now, which is what caused bad things to happen. It suggests that the real monsters might not just be on the pages but can also reside within our own minds, as we allow such entities to influence our thinking-- due to our desires of something more from this world, straying us away from reality.

For this activity, I used collage art to make my self-portrait, combining images that represent me, including an actual image of myself. In the collage, you will find quotes or phrases which I often tell myself and have embedded in my mind. As for the individual words such as "happiness," "focus," "success," and "travel," these are words I often repeat to myself as a symbolism of both short and long-term goals. Lastly, photos such as of family, friends, flowers, travelling, the bible, and lastly, the butterfly, which all resemble what I find important in my life.

On another note, I think that although the art piece has lost its uniqueness because it has been applied as clothing design, which means its originality is also long gone, there are still people who would gladly purchase for the idea that they are in possession of something that has been marked by a famous art piece. Looking at this in a more positive outlook, the art piece being attached to a shirt, although may be an act of piracy, would still help promote the art work providing knowledge about it to the people around who will both look and buy. All I'm saying is, I think that in this context of repurposing the art the way I did it, people may not see such act in a negative way but instead think of it as like "oh, this is a nice piece of art that has been put on a shirt, I should search more about this and look at other art works," giving it a positive outcome.