Anthony C. Mayfield

For our mural, my group and I wanted to do something that would inspire the freshman class. The idea came from when I drew a picture of people just walking across a bridge and getting taller the farther they were, and from there the idea escalated into silhouettes of people walking across the bay bridge in a sunset setting. The farther they went across the bridge, the more they began to develop into graduating seniors. The purpose of this mural is to inspire freshman to keep going on their high school path until they graduate. After the final concept of our mural was decided on, it was also decided that we should add an inspirational quote about leadership to further emphasize the point that the farther students go on their high school journey, the more they develop into leaders. This mural is located by the front gate where students enter after shaking hands. The purpose of this location is to have entering freshmen look upon it, and be inspired to progress on their highschool journey until they graduate.

   My still life has a floral arrangement in an opaque vase on a table overlooking the ocean. I did not use any wash strokes for this painting as I was aiming for a non-realistic surreal piece. Primarily, I used warm colors in order to emphasize more seasonal feelings like a crisp autumn sunset. The concept of autumn is also seen in the pear, which I used to represent bounty. The coloring is not as strong around the birds in the background as well as some of the flowers in order to create a sense as though they could be glowing. The water was not completely painted, as there are visible white spots. This is to provide a realistic sense of frothy waves. The water gradually blends from light to dark the farther away it gets from the sun, providing a shadow from the table. For the sky and ocean, I used complementary colors, as well as adjacent colors to make up the sunset sky. As for the leaves throughout the vase, I mostly used light values of green and burgundy for the front edges in order to contrast against the darker leaves further in the vase against the background. Also, the use of a dry brush on the leaves provides them with a texture as though they may be crunched within your hand if you were to touch them. Everything on the side facing the sun is made from a lighter value than those farther than the sun, in order to create a sense that the sun is shining on that side. Even though the flowers are on the side, there is a sense of movement as the direction of the rose and leaves on the right side are followed out into the ocean and then into the sky.

          Serenity: one of the most under-appreciated emotions. Serenity is the equivalent of calmness and tranquility. At times, I may come off as eccentric. However, no matter how out-there I may be, I understand the importance of serenity and tend to seek it out in various formats. To me, wolves are the most serene creatures to walk the earth as the personification of “live and let live.” They are sleek and slender, and I have learned to admire them for their grace. Also, another serene body is the moon as it calmly ignites the darkness of night with its silver glow. While working with soapstone, I intended to emphasize the value of serenity via relief.

         As the trademark of a wolf is howling at the moon, on one side of my soapstone I carved a relief of a wolf in a howling position. In order to make the wolf stand out against the background, I sanded the background around the wolf, thus strengthening the contrast as the wolf pops out. The opposite was done for the moon on the opposite side. I sanded the moon in order to bring out the glow that the real moon has. Also, I carved out the area around the moon more in order to make the moon stand out more-so than the wolf, utilizing form and space to make the moon more prominent than the wolf. My reasoning for doing so was to bring out how the moon is mightier than the wolf, creating a strong emphasis on the moon. As the wolf is howling at the moon, I carved in the howl and traced a path for it to follow. By using deep lines, I was able to trace the pathway of the howl as it tries to reach the moon. It looks as though parts of the pathway are dropping, as though they are getting lost in the wind as well as creating a rhythm. As the path is followed, it is seen that the howl barely reaches the moon, which remains nonchalant in the sky as it remains to be a celestial figure, untouched by the stresses of the world. Finally, by utilizing a grayish neutral color for my soapstone, I was able to utilize how gray is a cool and neutral color, which invokes a feeling of calmness.

     We are all well aware of budget cuts and their affect on our society, and that a strong impact is felt on our schools. The worst part is that it’s not getting any better; in the next year, tuition for the UC system is expected to increase by about 20%. Even the community colleges are starting to feel the strain of the budget cuts as hundreds of thousands of students are expected to be turned down from community colleges to save money. For those of us who want technical training, where will we go? For those of us who are struggling to make ends meet and have strong aspirations for ourselves, what will we do? What CAN we do? Our options are running out as our nation gradually goes broke. Eventually, there will be nothing left of any high significance for us as everything else will be sub-par.

As our government experiments with various budget cuts, as we are the ones who pay the ultimate price financially. This is seen in the caption on my shirt “in PAYn,” which is a play on words for “in pain.” This causes us to become rag dolls to the economy, as an evil dollar sign is seen stabbing the man in the center of the shirt, and the man is positioned loosely as a rag doll would be. This reveals that we are all puppets to the economy as our money bleeds out while budget cuts continue to determine what we can or cannot do. In order to reveal that budget cuts don’t discriminate, I purposely made the man all black to reveal that he has no identity. The dollar sign is green as representative to money, which is also why the PAY of “in PAYn” shall also be green. The dollar signs being bled from the man as well as the “in” and “n” of “in PAYn” shall be red to signify the financial pain that is felt from the budget cuts. Finally, the combination of green and red in the caption represents Christmas colors, which is a time of giving.   Due to this paradox, the budget cuts take away from our dreams, gradually leaving us with nothing as our aspirations are stripped away.

We are all well aware of budget cuts and their affect on our society, and that a strong impact is felt on our schools. The worst part is that it’s not getting any better; in the next year, tuition for the UC system is expected to increase by about 20%. Even the community colleges are starting to feel the strain of the budget cuts as hundreds of thousands of students are expected to be turned down from community colleges to save money. For those of us who want technical training, where will we go? For those of us who are struggling to make ends meet and have strong aspirations for ourselves, what will we do? What CAN we do? Our options are running out as our nation gradually goes broke. Eventually, there will be nothing left of any high significance for us as everything else will be sub-par.

As our government experiments with various budget cuts, as we are the ones who pay the ultimate price financially. This situation is seen in the caption on my shirt “in PAYn,” which is a play on words for “in pain.” The constant budget cuts causes us to become rag dolls to the economy, as an evil dollar sign is seen stabbing the man in the center of the shirt, and the man is positioned loosely as a rag doll would be. The revelation in this is that we are all puppets to the economy as our money bleeds out while budget cuts continue to determine what we can or cannot do. In order to reveal that budget cuts don’t discriminate, I purposely made the man all black to reveal that he has no identity. The dollar sign is green as representative to money, which is also why the PAY of “in PAYn” shall also be green. The dollar signs being bled from the man as well as the “in” and “n” of “in PAYn” shall be red to signify the financial pain that is felt from the budget cuts. Finally, the combination of green and red in the caption represents Christmas colors, which is a time of giving.   Due to this paradox, the budget cuts take away from our dreams, gradually leaving us with nothing as our aspirations are stripped away.

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Applesauce, photosynthesis, awkward flying cows and mooses, and pudding. Nothing is the same! And yet here we are: a species of mindless robots with nothing to contribute to the growth of our imaginations. When was the last time we just took some time away from reality to ramble about a bunch of creative nonsense? We’re victims of what I call the Shut-Up syndrome; we don’t adequately express ourselves because all of the world’s critics. There’s nothing wrong with being far-fetched; Wanna hear a secret? I’m just as far-fetched and out there with the belief that the world is going to be invaded by blue dill pickles. My surrealism piece emphasizes my passion of just being out there without worrying about what the critics may say. I think that imagination is so strong, that it can create worlds, even if they are merely personal worlds that only exist inside of the galaxy within your head.

This ideology is seen in the red spheres against the black night sky. As red is typically associated with evil, critics to non-realistic ideas will naturally associate my far-fetched mind with bad thoughts, preventing them from spreading into the universe of my head which is encased behind the wall drawn in two-point perspective that they try to put up to stop me from utilizing my totally wonderful mind. The face leads to gateways, as the eyes are the windows to the soul, that lead to a series of line-dancers that represent celebrating the freedom of having a strong imagination, as well as my dream as I have had dreams of line dancing with a bunch of random cartoons. The foxes are all about being sneaky; no matter how hard you may try to contain my mind, it will always find its way out. The lion and waterfall reveals my inner strength to not accept being held back. The winged moose and cow heads come from my mind, as they are characters that I just randomly created during APUSH, because my mind just wonders without any rhyme or reason. The critics are seen all on top of the picture, where it is also seen that a fox and some line-dancers have escaped from the barricade, along with me sitting triumphantly on top of the wall. Basically, I’m proud of my imagination because I never let the critics bring me down, and I think that we as people forget that our imaginations, or lack thereof, shape us as individuals almost more than anything else. Now get out there and be spontaneous!

Deciding the person you want to become is only black and white. There is no grey area or rainbow of emotions in between; there is only black and white, dark and light, bad and good. My intention is to illustrate how two completely different mindsets battle for control, with the more exciting storm on one side, and the peaceful environment on the other. The strong dark shadows on the majority of my face reveal how the darker and less desirable side is easier to succumb to than the light. This is also evident through the stormy side being more dominant than the calm side, revealing the asymmetrical balance within my mind. To further symbolize this battle for mental balance, I purposely made less stars on the right side than lightning on the left. The brightest star is seen to be shining its aura around me; however it eventually clashes with the lightning aura on the other side. This battle for control leaves a deep imprint within me, as seen on the melancholic expression on my face which stands out through the strong emphasis via the arrangement of the dark and light shadows. If the eyes are followed, then it can be seen that I am looking at a mysterious sphere. This sphere represents the unknown; I am unaware as to where my future will lead me based on the current clash of calm versus storm.