Everyday we get up to brush our teeth with toothpaste, wash our bodies with soap, shampoo and condition our hair, moisture our bodies with lotion, and for women use the necessary feminine hygiene items. We are fortunate to have these small, but dire necessities daily. Unfortunately, 400,000 of 1.6 million Philadelphians are not as lucky. My mission is to create 50 personal care packages for homeless men and women in Philadelphia complete with necessary toiletries including toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, soap, socks, a bottle of water, and pads/tampon for women. My motivation for helping the homeless came after watching a YouTube video I came across randomly, it was about homeless women who struggled monthly to get the necessary feminine care products like pads and tampons. I was immediately moved by the video and decided to apply my efforts to respond to the issue via my senior capstone project. I set out to raise $300 to purchase the necessary supplies for 50 care packages through donations in-person and online. I was able to raise $165.70, this will be enough for 30 care packages. It is 20 less packages than my goal, however I am happy to be able to make any contribution, no matter how small to helping those less fortunate than most with the most basic of necessities. I am also glad for the lesson I have learned in taking on this project and the support I received from my family, friends, teachers, and people that believe in the project.

My artwork is a replication of one of Piet Mondrian’s painting, the Composition II in Red, Blue and Yellow. Piet Mondrian was a dutch painter and theoretician. I chose to study Piet Mondrian because I’m fond of simplistic paintings and his idea behind his artwork. Mondrian’s style was a use of basic and abstract lines and shapes to reflect on the “underlying spiritually of nature”. He saw the world as clear and visible. He portrayed this in his art by simplifying the objects to basic elements and shapes. Mondrian wanted to create an equilibrium of nature and the universe.

The painting is split into seven small and large boxes divided by thick and bold black lines. The most eye-catching color of this painting is the bold fiery-red color in the largest box. Followed by two squares of bright yellow, one box painted a bold royal blue, and three white boxes. To accomplish this painting I used acrylic paint, thin and medium acrylic brushes, and paint block tape to achieve the straight bold black lines.

A new technique I used was the paint block tape. I placed the tape on the canvas before painting and removed after. However, it wasn’t as straight as Mondrian’s lines. Some of the lines were crooked. I had to go over several times with the tape to achieve the best lines I could. If I could do this project again I would I try to have straighter lines and a better painting technique.

Overall, I proud of my artwork. It looks like a good replication of his Mondrian’s painting. I’m glad I learned about his art and ideas.

My self-portrait communicates my identities. One side of my self-portrait communicates the American side of me. America is where I was born and raised. The other side of my self-portrait communicates my African side. I am a proud full Fulani and Sierra Leonean. The theme of the portrait was cultural identity. To portray my cultural identity I drew myself in the center of the page with certain items that identity with me.

The drawing of my portrait consists of an outline of my upper body, my face and hijab. The materials I used to outline my body is a pencil. I used the pencil to draw lines in my hijab to give it a realistic look, representing the folds in it. After that, I went over the outline with a fine point black pen to give it boldness. Next, I went on to the color the inside of my hijab. I colored the top of  my hijab with the colors of the Sierra Leone flag, green,white, and blue. The sides of my hijab has the American flag colors (red and white stripes with the blue part with the stars) from the top to the bottom of the hijab. The materials I  used for color, are colored pencils. When using the color pencils, a technique I learned is using the lightness of pencil to create shading. I also learned how to use the pen to make lines in my hijab to show flowness in it. The thing I’m most proud of is the process I went through.

Through this process of learning the shading technique a failure I encountered was using the shading and coloring inside the hijab, the wrapping part of on my face. I wanted the shading and coloring on the hijab to look my flowy, realistic appeal when I colored the Sierra Leone flag on top of my head and the American flag around sides of the hijab. The lines I drew came out too strong. However, learning from that mistake the bottom end of my hijab had the flowy,realistic look to it.

When you look at my picture you will see that I chose not to draw features on my face. Instead, I drew what identifies me on the sides of . One side I drew all of the Africans things I like. I drew my favorite  traditional African pot where they make an African dish called fufu. Using a brown coloring pencil and drew the little tribal prints that are usually engraved into them. Next I drew an African woman with a pot on her head. I drew this, because when I visited Africa during the summer that's what the norm of traveling their goods to sell to then come home to feed their family. I also, drew things like a beach and palm trees. When I first landed in Sierra Leone the first thing I noticed were the swaying ;palm trees exiting out the airport. Later, driving around I saw the big beautiful beaches there. On the right side of my picture I drew all the things I love in America. I drew a chipotle burrito because I love chipotle, a photo frame to represent my family, a pizza box to represent a food I  eat here in America, my house to represent where I grew up atand school to represent my education and learning. All the materials I used for that was coloring pencils and a black fine point pen to bold it around the outlines of each mini drawing.

If I could, somethings I would change are, to balance out the colors of the Sierra Leone and American flag on my hijab. I would change this because the American flag takes up more of my hijab, I wanted a balance of it. I would change the blank white background of my portrait, I could have colored it to make everything on page more bold. Overall, my portrait represented my culture, my nationality, and religion. To get to what I wanted to portray I asked myself, “Who am I? It portrayed throw my picture.