Decisions: homes on the bottom because of grounding; horizons on top for collage to have openness; water at top because of positive associations and higher value; self photo in middle-I am the center of my own universe;

Color: I chose a lot of green because that’s not normally associated with the United States, but it is an association I wanted to make.

Light: I arranged the pictures to be closer together at the bottom of the collage versus the top; this allowed the white from the poster board to show through

Texture: I chose to do a smooth texture using only photos.

Volume: heavier/weightier on the right side because it’s representative of my future.

Line: horizons; vertical axis represents dividing line of pursuing my own interests and branching off from my familial history; implied lines between horizon pictures;

Space: homes on bottom because of grounding; skies on top because of openness and continuing space; water at top because more value/ feelings of soul; time frame left to right: small town MS, soul mate leaving, go to Nashville (formal city), follow your bliss to a new place, interconnectivity of the world, use of passages and possibilities.

Scale: God is bigger than the boogie man—he’s bigger than Godzilla and the monsters on TV; Transition area is largest scale because it’s most important;

Symbolism: water represents my soul; houses anchor the collage and represent stages of my life and future;

I wanted to represent myself through a trip I took this year to the Pacific Northwest. While I was there I felt a connection to the land and the people that I have never felt anywhere else. From left to right there is a progression in time. The middle column, which is a different color that the other pictures, represents my transition from living with my family in Mississippi to living on my own in Nashville. The picture in the middle says “Follow Your Bliss.” To ground the collage and give it weight I put all the houses on the bottom. The house on the far left is representative of living with my family, it is the cornerstone of my collage. Then the houses progress in time to the right through college with the last one being my future. The house in my future is split because I hope to be living with someone.  The next row up is an important relationship of mine. It is the person I consider to be my soul mate. Before transitioning to living for myself I saw her walking down a path alone. Afterwards I saw her turning around and telling me to join. The last picture is a bench looking out into the future. On the third row is the built environment, which represents place to me. The first picture is representative of small town life in Mississippi while the picture on the other side of the transition is Nashville. Normally when I think of the U.S. I think of Wal-Mart’s and Interstates, but for the purposes of my collage, I want to think of Olympic National Park and the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest

The last picture is boats and international ferries, which to me show the interconnectivity of the world in this day and age. As you move up the college the ideas become more abstract so the pictures are spaces further apart. I believe my soul has a unique connection to water, so all of the top pictures contain water.