A Weaving of Cultures

Vincent's collage

When I envisioned the two words “Cultural Encounters,” what came to mind was the metaphor
often used to describe America – the melting pot of all cultures. What better way to represent a
country than its flag? I took a more direct method in going about replicating this melting pot; I
wove together the American flag using tidbits of other cultures throughout the world, resulting in
a flag, while unique in its design, is very much the flag that I grew up to love, that is, the United
States of America. [Read more →]

December 18, 2008 Comments Offon A Weaving of Cultures

Limerick

by msgardow

I like to make pretty things

Involving sharp teeth and butterfly wings

There is a scene of a lovely girl

Blowing balloons around the world

From the picture fantasy sings

I titled my collage “The Cage” because I feel that there are two different parts to me. This duality is
demonstrated by my mixed use of media and dimensions. I choose first off to put a set of red lips
the same proportions as mine. I feel that they are literally the feature that stands out the most in
mean and I betray most of my emotions by twisting and scrunching them up by turns. I choose a
woodcarving I made to symbolize my ability to create something beautiful out of a simple block of
wood using my hands and a chisel. It serves as a pedestal of sorts for my lips as my creativity holds
up my sensitivity.

A supposedly wise man had once said, “What makes any endeavor worthy of pursuit is not that it
will uphold our original prejudices but that it will enlighten us.” I often limited that ideology to
science, which I considered to be the only field where such drastically different results could be
yielded. After having done this project, however, I believe that one’s worldly prejudices can be
just as easily changed with genuinely insightful thinking.

In a place like New York City, cultural diversity flourishes. With the theme of cultural encounters in
mind, I decided to make my collage revolve around my personal cultural encounter between
American and Chinese culture. I am known as an ABC, an American-born-Chinese. For a time in my
life, I actually thought of myself as two parts participating in a competition. Both ethnicities, it
seemed, were trying to win me over to their side. I felt like I was often stuck in between, much like
the hyphen in the word “Chinese-American”. In this collage, I explored the different cultures and
values that I grew up with. [Read more →]

Roger Federer: Path of a Champion

by Christian Iezzi

My collage shows some of the defining moments of Roger Federer’s career. Roger has already
established himself as one of the best tennis players to ever live. While his career is far from over,
there have already been defining moments along his champion’s path. In my collage I have chosen
four specific moments to chronicle his career. [Read more →]

Pieces of Me
This collage really represents me. It contains things that symbolizes my ideals and things that I feel
are important. Some of the things that I decided to include were family, food and fashion.
Although I do not consider my family to be “stereotypical” or “traditional” we do hold traditional
values in very high regard. In addition to this we are very tight knit and we would sacrifice anything
for family. Next is food. Food is something that links all of us. It is an important part of my family
and I feel that the best way to connect to another culture is through their food. Other things that
were important for me to include were a representation of travel, my interest in equestrian sports,
and New York. Lastly I would like to mention the words that I included on my collage. “Bold” is
meant to represent me. I like to think that I make bold decisions and I try to steer away from being
a conformist. I like to be bold with my assertions and with my choices. “Empowered” represents
many things for me. First, Baruch is empowering me to a better future. Next, it also represents my
family’s attitude towards me. They never pressure me to do anything or be anything that I don’t
want to be. I know many stereotypes about Asian parents pressuring their children to be doctors
and lawyers, but I never received such pressure which I am grateful for. I think that this has
empowered me to make my own decisions. Lastly, “Lady” is a word that represents manners and
rules that I think all people, not just ladies, should follow. To be courteous to others. To be
respectful of other people’s thoughts and opinions. To be humble and to realize that not everyone
will think that you are the most amazing person to grace the earth (no matter what your mother
tells you). FInally, always be yourself no matter what people think of you; it is impossible to please
everyone and some people are just born miserable so don’t take it personal if they don’t like you.

Division of Values

Best on earth

My collage project is entitled Best on Earth and it focuses on the life advice I go by, and just the
philosophies I would say everyone should go by. I took magazines like “National Geographic,”
“National Adventure,” “Cosmopolitan”and looked through the pages. I cut out the
phrases/pictures I really liked and put them on an oak tag to create my collage.

I believe that a person has to be the best he can be, and do the best he can do. A person should
strive to achieve the highest, and “dream out loud.” I think we should all aspire to our dreams and
never let anything bring us down. As one of my pictures says, “the world can’t weigh you down
when you’re standing on top of it.