This pandemic affected me for the worse.

I got laid off from my job.

It was difficult keeping up with online school.

There wasn’t anything to do.

The holidays weren’t the same.

I stopped hanging out with friends.

I struggled with my mental health.

 

03/14/2020

08/01/2020

09/21/2020

11/19/2020

 

This pandemic affected me for the better.

I got a break from my stressful job.

My grades improved.

I learned how to cook.

I had the best birthday I ever had.

I got to spend more time with my pets, boyfriend and dad.

I learned more about myself.

For this project I kept a sketchpad next to my bed and drew different elements from multiple dreams. It was dark in the room and I was also not fully awake when drawing, so it turned out different than it normally would have. I used charcoal since I am pretty sure that my dreams are in black and white, and it also smudges, creating a blurred dream-like effect. The wave is from a dream I had where there were extremely high waves when I was swimming, there are 22 stars from a dream where I kept seeing the number 22, and the girl and the fireworks are from a dream where I was celebrating New Year’s Eve and wore a dress that I used to have all the way from back in middle school. I don’t really know what any of these dreams mean but drawing them right away definitely helped me remember them better. I found that it was pretty difficult to translate how I see my dreams onto paper.

Trio of Dreams

Dissociation

I have not experienced dissociation, so I could only imagine what it feels like. I watched many videos and read about people’s experiences and many describe it as “living in third person” or “watching a movie of yourself”. They are still aware of surroundings, but are sort of detached from their own body. This series of photos is meant to be taken from a person’s point of view that is experiencing dissociation.

Detached

Reflection

Outlook on the World

Snapshots of Memory

Memories are known to fade. However, flashbulb memories remain. They are vivid and detailed, just like a snapshot. I visited locations that were meaningful to me and took snapshots to depict the way that I remember some of my own flashbulb memories. The photos are warm and bright, but there is a slight somber feel to the series.

These memories are fond to me because it represents some of the special moments shared during the start of my relationship. Yet, they are also sorrowful because I was moving away and our future was uncertain.

When these memories were created we had no idea that we would be at this point in our lives. Being able to go out and recreate these memories with the person that I made them with made this project even more meaningful.

Aimless Driving

Easter Sunday

Goodbye and Hello

Uncertainty

There have been numerous brain imaging studies about love, specifically romantic love. Researchers explore the various brain regions that are associated with this particular emotion. In this presentation, each study focuses on a different aspect of love on the brain. I included a study of the unique network of areas that activate only when shown pictures of a partner versus pictures of friends, a study of the overlaps and differences between maternal love and romantic love, a study of the brain regions supporting unconditional love, a study of the intensity of neural activity associated with the length of time in love and a study of people during rest that includes those who have never been in love, those who have just come out of a relationship, and those who are in love. It is interesting to see how specific regions correlate with this feeling and how love has its own place in the brain. These studies show that it is possible to tell if someone is in love just by viewing images of their brain.

Following these fMRI photos are photographs and artistic representations of what romantic love can feel and look like. Most were clearly created with the intention of showing off love, while other works, like VJ Day in Times Square and The Lovers II, are more questionable. The forms of media used include photographs and paintings. The photographs in specific are very different from one another; the first is candid and nonconsensual while the second and third are staged. In terms of the paintings, some of the works depict a bright, happy image while others are more somber and sad. Pablo Picasso, Edvard Munch and Vincent van Gogh are some of the most notable artists mentioned but there are a few that are less well-known. I really enjoyed the different styles of each piece. When put altogether, the images show how everyone has the capability to love but everyone feels and sees it differently.

 

The neural basis of romantic love : NeuroReport

The neurobiology of love – Zeki – 2007 – FEBS Letters – Wiley Online Library

The neural basis of unconditional love

https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jn.00838.2004?rfr_dat=cr_pub%3Dpubmed&url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00071/full#B86

VJ Day in Times Square | 100 Photographs

The Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville by Robert Doisneau — about photography blog

Monday’s Photography Inspiration – Robert Doisneau

LOVE

The Beast by Jim Dine

The Lovers | Utopia/Dystopia

The Kiss, 1897 by Edvard Munch

10 Facts You Don’t Know About Van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhone

https://www.google.com/search?q=a+stroll+on+the+canal+at+quimperle&oq=a+stroll+on+the+cana&aqs=chrome.0.0j69i57j0i22i30j69i64l2.4524j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Skin, Or Surface: Njideka Akunyili Crosby

The Story of Springtime

Suzuki Harunobu | Lovers Walking in the Snow (Crow and Heron) | Japan | Edo period (1615–1868) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Lovers II, 1928 by Rene Magritte

Puuung – Official Website

Lee Hadwin only creates art when unconscious and sleepwalking since the age of four. He has never had training and does not remember creating the art. Hadwin is the only person known to do this and while it may sound skeptical, he has been recorded creating art in his sleep and has had sleep studies done. Whether true or not, his artwork is certainly interesting and even contains numbers sometimes.