Over the semester, I didn’t really find that working with Freedom House, a local homeless shelter, necessarily changed the work that I made for the final project. However, I have a collection of finished images and sketches on my computer, so I searched around for what I thought would be best to give to Freedom House and modified them going forward. I wanted to address the problem of the building looking a bit sterile, cold and outdated, therefore giving away prints that are much more optimistic and uplifting.
The first two prints are of a collage I made featuring Joseph Kittinger skydiving from the stratosphere along with some illustrations I made of outer space. While the two collections of prints are visually identical, one version has a blue background and the other is orange.
While I had previously heard of Project Excelsior, the event Kittinger was apart of, it wasn’t until I watched the music video for “Dayvan Cowboy” by Boards of Canada that I actually saw footage of the jump. I vividly remember being stunned while watching the video for the first time. Not only was I inspired by the beautiful music, but also the breathtaking archived cinematography. It was with this inspiration that I created my design.
The third collection of prints is an image I made earlier in the semester of a boy trying to catch a frog. I will give these to both to the Gallery of Hope, an event that Freedom House does to engage the community, and Freedom House itself.
I feel like all of the images that I’m giving to Freedom House for this final project have a sense of optimism and curiosity. While these are usually themes that I focus on in my pieces, I wanted these images to meet the staff’s need for inspiring and welcoming art. My hope is that the residents, particularly the children, find these pieces enjoyable and heartfelt.
