Aristotle once said, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Throughout my journey of being an artist, I have come to internalize this idea the further I get into my art education. Art has always been important to me, and once I started seriously studying it in college, I came to learn the true beauty of this form of self-expression. I have had the opportunity to take a variety of art classes ranging from drawing to digital 3D modeling as I pursue my graphic design degree and one of my biggest takeaways is that art does not discriminate when it comes to expression. There are people in the world who are quite good at expressing themselves through words or actions, but I have never felt that I have been able to fully express myself without art. The COVID-19 pandemic was incredibly hard for everybody to live through. It was especially challenging for me as I was out volunteering on a mission for my church when the pandemic started. I was far away from my family and only lived with one other person, and because of the strict regulations, we were unable to leave our apartment to do anything except grocery shopping. My companion and I also had limited media use on our devices, so to say it was anything less than incredibly mentally challenging would be an understatement. I also understood that during this time, I was not the only person feeling this way. I wanted to do something that would not only help me during this time but would also help the increasing number of people turning to social media to connect with others. I created a variety of content during the six months of strict quarantine, including uplifting videos, music, and art to help myself and others get through this challenging time. I learned that even though I was separated from these people by hundreds of miles, I was still able to find a way to connect with others through my artistic talents and the benefit of technology and social media. While many people may have viewed what I did as all for an outward appearance, I knew that I put a lot of inward expression into my works to find a way to connect with these people. I have continued to keep this positive impact with me as I continue pursuing my art education. I want to keep creating an expression of the inward significance of events in my life and emotions I may not otherwise be able to express without art. Art has a way to connect one human soul to another with the expression of shared experiences or other emotions that may be hard to express face to face. Because of art, I can fuel my passion for creation and work hard to inspire others to one day pursue their form of self-expression through the arts. I want to achieve this goal as a strong female creator in the art field to further prove that females are just as capable as males of creating influential work that will inspire generations to not lose their faith in the power of art.

I have been going to Disneyland since I was in the womb- literally. My first time going once I was born was at six weeks old. I’d like to say that I even have some of that famous Disneyland ride water pumping through my veins since Disney has always been a part of my life. Just imagine: the excitement of walking down Main Street early in the morning and lining up with hundreds of other people in anticipation of the rope drop, the quick pace to get through all the rides we want before the end of the day, the sweet smell of the churros mixed with the salty popcorn and savory turkey legs are just some of the many scents that waft through the magical air of Disneyland. Throw in the thrills from rides, the sweet relief from the beating sun inside the Tiki Room, and sore feet from trekking across different lands, and you have an almost perfect day at Disneyland. The only thing missing is the chill in the night air, slowly walking down the dimly lit Main Street, with Sleeping Beauty’s castle glowing at the end of the street as the hum and buzz of guests slowly die down with gentle music playing to close out the day. I’ve lived this experience dozens of times, and do not believe I will ever get sick of it. One of my favorite things about Disney is the music. I am a huge music soundtrack nerd and love listening to movie soundtracks, and not just the sing-along ones. There are so many masterful scores done by amazing composers such as Alan Menken and Michael Giacchino that create whimsical themes that carry throughout the movies written for them. I love that many of these soundtracks can be heard at Disneyland playing on the Esplanade. The catchy toons and creative reimaginations of some of the songs can fill a person with so much joy and set the mood for the entire day. Even when I’m not at Disneyland, I’ll pull up the Esplanade music soundtrack loops and listen to them while I’m at work or running errands. The best album to exist from Disneyland is The Legacy Collection: Disneyland, which includes tracks from many of the rides and attractions around the park. Most importantly, it includes the track for one of my all-time favorite shows at Disneyland: Fantasmic. The Fantasmic show follows Mickey Mouse through his dreams and imagination as he encounters various Disney heroes and princesses, as well as their villain counterparts. The story told through the show is compelling and the pacing of the music as it swells and subdues with different character appearances is nothing short of perfection. I can remember one instance at Disneyland when I was about twelve or thirteen years old and my family and I were walking through New Orleans Square searching for a good spot to watch the show. We had stopped for a short time to look over the crowd of people to see if there was an opening for our family to squeeze in and watch. While we were looking, an older gentleman approached my dad and asked if we wanted to come to sit where he was. He led us right up to the fence of The Rivers of America, which is the equivalent of front-row seats for the show. It was one of the most magical experiences I’ve had, getting to watch my favorite show up close because of the kindness of a stranger. Disneyland is all about making magical memories, and these are memories I will never forget.

My journey in the arts started when I was very young. I loved drawing as a child and went through countless reams of paper spilling my creativity and imagination onto the pages. I was also heavily involved in music programs, including years of piano and violin lessons, and dabbling in percussion, choir, and ukulele. I loved having multiple outlets to express myself, and I knew I wanted to continue pursuing some form of art when I got to college. Because I was focused on polishing my music skills through junior high and high school, I did not have time in my class schedule and free time to practice my art. I did some small projects on the side, but I learned I wanted to focus on expressing my creativity beyond my audible skills. Alongside art, I have always had a passion for technology and the digital world. Combining these two passions, I decided to follow the path of graphic design. I love this medium of art and technology, combined with organizational skills and a desire for design. Through lots of hard work and feedback from professors, I have been accepted into the Associate’s Degree program and am working towards getting into the Bachelor’s Degree program. Pursuing an art degree requires a large sacrifice of time, and it also requires a sacrifice of money. Supplies for artists are not cheap, especially for digital designers. Many of the industry standard programs cost a lot of money to own, even on a monthly fee basis, and for a college student who can only afford to work part-time due to the nature of their degree, owning these programs is far out of reach. I want to be able to save all the money I can now so I can invest in my future once I graduate from college. One of my goals, after I graduate from college, is to start my own freelance business. I have loved learning about the different branches of graphic design and I want to help small businesses in need of a brand identity or other types of advertising so they can continue to be successful in their fields of work. I have been able to start this process with both of my parents and their businesses, designing both a business card and a logo for them. Doing this has helped me realize that one, I love helping others through my creativity, and two, I can make a positive impact on the world because of my art. With the world of technology and AI growing at an increasing rate, there is a very real chance that people will try to force AI to take over the art world. AI can produce many great things, but without the refinement of the human hand and a trained eye, I do not believe that artists or designers will have their futures taken away from them. I want to be a part of the artists who research and help find a way to create a bridge between artificial intelligence and other artists. This technology can be incredibly helpful and I do believe that it can be used in the art world, but it should in no way be a means to replace the talent of artists or their portrayal of human emotion and experience. Through my efforts, I hope to be a substantial influence on young artists growing in this digital age, and one day, start my scholarship fund for the new generation of creators to make an impact in the world.

I plan to positively impact the world by finding a bridge between the AI world and the world of art. I am a graphic design major, and in the past year, the controversy of whether AI should be used in projects has caused an increasing divide among artists. Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool that can save a lot of time for artists and designers wanting to produce a large quantity of work. Recently, I have been testing the limits of these different programs, and the things they can generate are truly incredible. There are an infinite amount of things a person can command AI to generate, but AI is not all-knowing. Many of my tests often resulted in the clunky placement of objects or people and animals missing limbs. Some people may not notice these oddities from technology, but a trained artist and designer can pick up quickly if something was done intentionally. I fear that the idea of graphic design and digital art will be tarnished because of hastily created designs that are not fixed with a trained eye. The creation of art and design stems from the expression of human emotions from past experiences and the desire to connect with others. This idea is hard to emphasize in today’s digital age because many people claim to be artists and designers who do not understand this concept. I do believe that anybody can be an artist, but I don’t believe that everybody understands what it means to be an artist. AI art gets posted and claimed as original work all the time, and this is where the divide between artists stems from. AI learns from the prompts it's given and previously existing knowledge online, and this includes other people’s art styles. Some people claim and profit off this fake artwork, which is stealing and not morally correct. One of my goals as an artist is to help find a way to encourage people to use AI in a way to enhance their art, and not create it for them. There are many benefits to using AI, and I want to research and find ways for everybody to enjoy these benefits without feeling like AI will take over their jobs and replace their careers. AI is a powerful tool and when used properly, can be used to create amazing things.

I was never interested in arts education until I started taking classes in college. At my high school, the art classes that were offered focused on the physical mediums of art, like drawing and painting. While these aspects of the art world are still interesting to me and something I would like to get better at, I didn’t have the time to take these classes in my schedule as I was already involved in orchestra and other extracurricular activities. I really wanted to explore my creativity and my passion for the arts and technology. I have always loved designing and organizing different projects like handouts or typography, especially calligraphy and hand lettering. I took a couple of art classes during my first three semesters at college and I have never wanted to study anything else. Being able to create things as homework is almost therapeutic for me and my hyperactive brain. Bringing my ideas to life through different mediums, both physical and digital, has helped me realize the endless possibilities of human imagination and creativity. This past semester I took one of the most exciting classes during my time in the graphic design program. My professor made everything so entertaining and exciting to learn, but even more important than that, he inspired everybody to push their creativity to maximum capacity. This class was a motion graphics class, which involves the creation of short videos to convey information, whether it’s an advertisement, PSA, or any other type of visual communication. My professor was so encouraging of my ideas for projects and gave me many helpful suggestions and comments to help me improve. He saw my potential and did everything he could to make sure I didn’t sell myself short in my creative endeavors. His encouragement and help have inspired me to work my hardest and to one day inspire other up-and-coming artists to not give up on their fullest potential. Of course, my parents have been some of my biggest supporters in this whole process. My mother was the one who realized my talent for organization and design and suggested that I look into studying graphic design. I didn’t know much about it at the time, but after many semesters of hard work and study about the pre, intra, and post-production of posters, logos, and company identity, I can say that I truly found my passion. One of my goals as a graphic designer is to become a well-known freelancer. My parents have been some of my first clients, with both of them starting their own businesses. I designed business cards for my mom and a logo for my dad. Knowing that they have been with me since the beginning of my design career inspires me to work even harder because I know they will always be there to support me.

Artificial Intelligencegence- a computer science that has been around since the 1940s and has been a constant topic in films and books. We often see AI portrayed in cinema and other media as beings or entities with goals to take over the human race and destroy the natural world to rebuild their own. While AI today has not reached this point of world domination, they are currently taking over many different industries with its capabilities- one of these being the art industry. In the past couple of years, the advancement of AI software and technology has been sweeping the world. Much of it has been seen as a blessing, as different AI tools offer many time-saving solutions to many everyday problems. However, the generation of art through the means of Artificial Intelligencegence programs such as DALLE or Midjourney is a sensitive and controversial topic in the art community. AI learns from the different prompts it’s given and pulls from the database that it’s programmed with. This means that there usually isn’t any original content in the database, to begin with- AI is pulling from knowledge and information already known and accessible to the public, compiling it in one location, thus making it easier for people to find things in relation to the subject they research. This concept gets tricky when it comes to generating images, as these programs pull from other people’s art that has already been published. The programs then create a less refined, but very quickly produced version of the style or piece that has been tirelessly worked on by another artist. In this regard, AI can be seen as quite problematic to any person wanting to be successful in the art world in today’s time without the use of this advancing science. As a female pursuing an art education and a career in graphic design, AI can seem very threatening to my position. AI can create anything that the user wants and it would seem that with AI being so prevalent in today’s world that artists and designers will be out of a job. However, I don’t think that AI will ever be able to replace a real artist’s job and value in the world. Many art and design pieces stem from human emotion and the desire to connect with others through this masterful expression of the human soul. Artificial Intelligence will never be able to replicate that emotion or connection because this technology has not been through the experiences and challenges that motivate and inspire artists to create. One of my goals as a graphic designer in today’s society is to help people bring their creativity to life through my skills and abilities. I also want to find a way to bridge the gap between AI and human artists and find a comfortable middle ground that allows artists to feel comfortable using AI to assist them in their work without feeling overwhelmed by the pressure of it potentially taking over their job. I am currently trying to learn what I can about the different artistic AI programs available to me and other artists so I can learn how I can better use them to my creative advantage. Artificial Intelligence is a powerful tool that can be used for so many good things if used in the right way. I hope that in the future I will be able to find viable solutions to continue to be successful as a designer in this technologically driven world with the help of different tools and software, including artificial intelligence.

Science was a fascinating topic to learn about as I was going through junior high and high school. There is something so incredible about understanding the different things that make up the world around us. But science encompasses so much more than just the makeup of the world we live in. Computer science is something that is directly involved in graphic design, and the development of AI is something that has become a controversial topic in the art world, especially with the advancement of different AI software in the past couple of years. AI can be an incredible tool that a designer can use for their projects, but it absolutely should not be the sole thing used in creating art. Art stems from the expression of the soul, and that’s something that AI does not have. Art generated by AI does look fantastic if you think about the science behind how it is generated and created, but it is not perfect. There is always something missing from AI-generated art and design, and it’s that touch of human emotion that real artists can convey. The recent growth and controversy of whether or not AI is morally the right thing to use. AI learns through the different prompts it’s given and programmed, and often AI is used to copy other artists’ styles. People who have generated art through AI and sold it have already gotten in trouble for stealing other people’s art styles. In this sense, AI should not be used to market “original art” as that is not what this computer science is good at. AI is an incredibly powerful tool and in no way do I think that it should not exist, but I do believe that it needs to be used in the right ways- hand in hand with artists and designers to enhance their work, not replace it. It can be used to generate original images for designers or to inspire artists with ideas for different projects. Things like background images for mockups or other ways to present logos or designs can certainly be a good way to use AI to an artist’s advantage. The development of this field of science is something that inspires me to work hard as a graphic designer. I love creating things on my own and testing the limits of my creativity. Artists and designers work tirelessly to perfect their craft, just like other professions, and to see it so easily claimed by others who created their work through a couple of keyphrases in a program only drives my motivation and conviction to become an even better artist so my work stands out against others. I want people to see my creations as something that inspires their own creative work. I want to make a difference in their lives by helping them bring their creative imaginations to amazing realities.

“Wow, you’re so good at art! All I can draw is a stick figure!” If I had a dollar for every time I have heard that phrase said to any person who can draw anything more than a stick figure, I don’t think I would need to apply for this scholarship! Art has been very personal to me since an early age in life. I loved to draw and create the wondrous scenes that came into my imagination and I always felt so accomplished when I could create something. I loved sharing what I had created with others and often resorted to creating anything when it came to gift-giving, from hand-drawn construction paper cards to carefully crafted bracelets. I found that the more I created, the happier I was, and I couldn’t wait for free time to let my creativity loose. I found that my artistic passions veered towards the digital side as I grew older alongside technology. I am still amazed at all of the things technology can do and I love learning about all of the tools available to me. The arts have always been a way for me to fully express who I am and the passions I have in life. Since I never considered myself to be the best at the illustration route of the arts umbrella, and since I love technology, I combined my passion for creativity and technology to pursue a Graphic Design degree. During the many different art classes I’ve taken in college, I’ve learned that the arts encompass several different paths, and within those paths are even more branches of creativity and self-expression. I have especially enjoyed learning the different features of different Adobe programs, Adobe Illustrator being my favorite- a bit ironic since I don’t find illustration to be my strong suit. I find that I have the most freedom with my creativity in this program, and combined with the other Adobe programs, I feel unstoppable in my ability to create art. Within the umbrella of graphic design, I have come to love two specific areas of this wonderful art: motion graphics and branding. Motion graphics involves the creation of short videos, whether they are two-dimensional or three-dimensional. There is always new content being produced in the world, especially in our digitally centered world, and motion graphics videos prove to be incredibly relevant in sharing information with others. Other artists are constantly producing new imagery and sound that can be combined to create amazing videos, and I would love to become one of the many video creators that contributes my stream of creativity to relay information to viewers in a fun and exciting way. Branding is the creation of a company’s identity, including its logo, advertising, voice, product design, and so much more. I have loved being able to help other people’s ideas become a reality through my skills and talents. The first people that I have been able to help with some aspect of branding are my parents, who have both started their businesses. They have supported me so much in my passion for the arts and I am grateful that I have been able to help them. I want to continue to help people like my parents explore the possibilities of their creativity and make their desires a reality.

I realized my desire to become an artist when I started helping my mom create decorations for our family's birthday parties. I often assisted with the creation of hand-lettered posters and signage, and something inside me clicked like I had found a lost puzzle piece. I couldn’t contain my wonder and amazement at the creative works of my imagination and wanted to share everything that I came up with. It sounds a bit prideful, but I enjoyed listening to the compliments and praise for what I created- I felt I finally had a purpose in life- to create for others. I always had a sense of design and organization growing up, and with the development of technology becoming more and more advanced, it was only natural that these two interests collided. I stumbled into the world of graphic design- a wonderful combination of arts and technology married together to create an amazing education route that I am still following today. My inspiration often comes from the things that I watch and listen to. I consume a vast amount of media during my creative process as it helps me focus on what I’m doing. Disney, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings have been huge inspirations for me during my endeavors, along with various YouTube content creators and a variety of other television shows. However, Studio Ghibli films would have to be my biggest source of inspiration. Each film is created with masterful music and incredible animation, and the storylines are so inspiring. I have created a couple of projects based on the wonder I feel watching these films even though I may never be able to do them justice with my current skill set. There is something so calming, warm, and nostalgic about them, and striving to replicate this feeling in my art is one of my biggest goals. One thing that has come up a lot recently in the graphic design field that has raised some concern for me is the advancement of AI technology. Many people have asked how I feel about the rise of people using and developing AI that could “take over” my job, but in my honest opinion, I don’t think AI will ever be able to take over my future career. AI can indeed create amazing things, and I think that as a graphic designer, I can use these tools to help in my creative process. But there is something that AI cannot ever replicate, and that is the emotion of the human soul. My creativity stems from my experiences in life, and I use my emotions and memories to drive my creativity. There is a breath of life that drives the creation of an artistic piece, and it is incredibly apparent when an artist bears their soul in their work. While a lot of the AI art created is incredible, there is an emptiness to it, and it’s really hard to describe other than the fact that there is no soul in the creation. While there may be lots of vibrant colors or characters, the image feels lifeless, and it’s because there isn’t any reasoning or passion behind it. I want to make sure that the art I create and put out into the world has that same passion and drive behind it that I had when I was young. I want to make sure that I still feel accomplished in my work and all that I do, and I want to help people in the creative ventures of their minds to the best of my abilities. My drive to help others is my WHY, why I keep learning, why I keep creating, and why I keep doing what I love.