Health + Wellness

Every GCE student is required to complete one hundred hours of health and wellness. In order to complete my hours and earn my credit I practiced yoga. I knew from the get go that if I was going to be spending a significant portion of time earning my credit I might as well do something I enjoy. Yoga was an activity that I had tried a few times in my younger years. Life creates a lot of internal chaos and yoga acts as a release. I began practicing yoga with a personal instructor in my home at the end of the summer. It was a nice way to regain a sense of being before heading into senior year. I began to really benefit from my sessions so I attempted to do two, one and a half hour sessions, a week. My mind was flowing freely and life was becoming much more enjoyable. The mat would unroll across the wooden floor and I would get into child's pose. This starting point became familiar and comfortable for me. Each session allowed me to move in new ways. I worked hard on continuously stretching myself out in order to be as fluid as possible. I wanted to reduce both the mental and physical rigidity in my life. A major difficulty would often come in the middle of sessions. A wave a sleepiness or a feeling of disengagement would come over me and impact my will to continue. I had to actively work with my mind and body to push through those moments and finish off the sessions. I began my yoga in August and continued in some manner until the end of may. It was one of the most impactful aids for my senior year. Yoga taught me how to be more patient and calm. It allowed me to gain new perspectives on myself as well as the world around me. This health and wellness journey was intense but very worth while.

MS, Home Workout Room, 2017

Gerhard Richter Painting Review

This is the action project for the elective course titled Ollywood. Ollywood is the suffix for Hollywood, Bollywood, and Nollywood. The course investigated various movies and analyzed how stories are told through film. We discussed several films and gave them our thumbs up or down. Amazing discussions were had during and after each movie we watched. Getting to hear all my classmates perspectives was very eye opening and added to my overall positive experience in the class. We examined the three stages of movie creation, pre production, production, and post production. Students learned about what takes place before the camera start rolling and all the work that must take place to create a movie. During our study of production we took on the role of director and focused on framing and lighting. The last stage of movie creation, post production, is where all the final edits and changes are made. We went on a wonderful FE to Morningstar where we met with their in house video team. Getting to see professionals do their work and hear them speak was a pleasure and added to my overall understanding of many of the concepts. The course had one culminating action project that asked students to utilize skills from all three units. Students were asked to select a movie and conduct a review of it. I selected one of my all time favorite films titled, Gerhard Richter Painting. Below you can find my review of the documentary: Gerhard Richter Painting Review from Max Sheridan on Vimeo.

Influential Voice

This is the unit two action project for my journalism course. Unit two was titled sound and investigated how radio has spread news and worked to connect us and bring us all together. I enjoyed getting to play the role of a radio journalist and learn the techniques used to spread news and stories. Our class went on a wonderful field experience to the journalism department at Columbia College. We met with a professor and got an inside view of their tv studios, sounds studios and news paper room. It was incredible getting to see college students working hard on various journalism projects that were relevant to our studies in class. We listened to a variety of podcasts and analyzed various stories and the power they posses. I enjoyed learning about Journalist Ira Glass and his ideas about how to tell a good story. He was interesting to study because he constantly touched on the need to take risks and fail in order to grow and succeed in life. The unit culminated with a very relevant action project where students were asked to profile an influential voice from the 20th century. I loved this action project because I was able to explore the life and mind of an artist I've adored for a long time. I thought the project required a tremendous amount of effort and dedication. Although it was hard, I felt I worked through my challenges and produced a very nice final piece. Overall this was a fantastic action project that I am very satisfied with.

What's The Meaning Of Life ?

This is the Unit 1 action project for my Journalism course. In Unit 1, we dived deep into what a photo journalist does on the job. We looked at famous images from different historical periods and analyzed their power, meaning, and relevance. We learned about bias and the truth not always coming out. We learned essential photography skills and the critical thinking behind the images that shape the way we view our world. We evaluated a photo journalist's suicide and asked ourselves the question is journalism the most dangerous profession? The class explored the murder crisis in our hometown of Chicago and looked at the role journalism played. We went on a wonderful and relevant FE to a galley where we viewed photojournalism work as well as other art work surrounding violence in Chicago. For the unit's action project, we had select someone to interview and photograph. The overarching topic for conversation was the meaning of life. I loved this AP because it was an exploration into a question that can never be answered. This is definitely one of my all time favorite AP's!

Sitting alongside my dad I asked him a question that’s faced humanity for all of existence: What is the meaning of life? Being the inquisitive person he is, he jumped right into questions. “What are the most important things,why are we here?” I explained to him that there are infinite perspectives that one can take when attempting to answer the question and that whatever route one chooses to follow will shed light on what is most important to them. I wanted to reassure him that it was a very deep and personal question with no right or wrong answer.

My dad is a fifty three year old Chicagoan, entrepreneur, and family man. Born in 1963 in Chicago, my dad was the youngest of three. He grew up in Winnetka and Evanston and attended Miami Of Ohio for college. He worked at the CBOE a short while before starting his own company called Thinkorswim. He worked very hard for over ten years, sold his company, and then took a few year break from work. During this time we bonded a lot and traveled to some wonderful locations. My dad is one of my favorite people in the world and someone I’ve looked up to forever. When thinking of the meaning of life myself, I felt obligated to ask my dad and hear what he had to say.

“We are all here for a reason. I think we all have turns at being here and once our turn is over we are leaving it to the next group of people. I think the meaning of life is making the most of the time you have here on earth because it is finite and at the same time I think we have a responsibility to leave future generations in a better place than where we started.” His response provided me with insight into his risk taking and open mindedness. His understanding that we are here for a period of time and then gone forever fuels his desire to not let opportunities pass by. The idea of having a reason and a finite time to fulfill it is something he has embraced. I thought it was interesting how he believes we have a duty to leave earth in a better place then where we started because he is someone who is always conscientious of his actions and their aftermath.

I proceeded to asking him if the meaning of life has always remained the same for him or if it’s ever changed. “My meaning in life became greatly different after becoming a parent in the sense that my main concern became my three children. My meaning for my existence changed dramatically once I married mom and significantly more so once we had children.” My dad is the most selfless person I know and hearing this from him just confirmed that he consciously strives to always be there for us. He puts us before himself because his heart is filled with awareness and kindness.

I was curious about the major changes that had occurred in his life, and when I asked if there were other points where his meaning had changed, he said “My meaning of life hasn’t changed but my appreciation for life changed dramatically two and a half years ago when I got pneumonia not once, not twice, but three times. As far as I know it was the closest I’d ever come to death and it was scary but I really appreciate all the support that I had from the family.” Seeing my dad so sick produced tremendous anxiety for me and caused a variety of issues in the family dynamic. I remember thinking to myself for a few brief and dark moments that  he might not make it. I wanted to know if his illness raised awareness to the fact that his time is finite. “It made me look at my life and the family differently. I was 50 years old and it made me start to look at time differently.”

Time is an important theme for my father. He believes we are all here for a certain reason and a short time. He thinks it's your duty to be the best you during your time here. He has always done the best and regardless of that he still suffered from a terrible illness. It was the unfortunate reality of his illness that woke up him and made him fully realize his time is here and now and once it’s gone it's gone forever. His wisdom has enlightened me and helped me to become aware of the now and my duty to be me.

MS, Scott Portrait, 2016

The portrait I photographed is a close up of my dad. I shot the portrait outdoors using a Nikon D90 and 60mm lens. The photo had no planning or coordinating. I allowed my subject to act freely and I shot away. I ended up spending a few minutes with my dad just casually chatting and shooting. The cropping of his head and hand are intentional artistic decisions. I was using a lens that had no zoom so I stood very close to his face in order to capture the portrait. The closeness of the photo is symbolic of the closeness of his answer and story. He was getting close to the core his internal world and I wanted to mimic that by getting up close to his thinking face. The aperture I shot the picture in is 5.6 with a shutter of 1/250 second and a 450 ISO. With a few minor Lightroom adjustments, I altered the brightness and contrast in order to produce a slight blue hue. I think the blue along with his mysterious look tells a very deep and meaningful story. Objectively, I think the image is powerful due to it breaking the rule of thirds and utilizing interesting lighting and shadows. Subjectively, I love it because of the subject. My dad is a fun person to photograph and this is one of my all time favorite shots of him. Overall I am very happy with the image's ability to capture the subject and their story. 

Art School Or Art World

This is the unit 1 action project for my Economics:Risking Value course. Unit 1 was titled Utility and Value and focussed on learning economics basics. We learned about supply and demand and how to create and read graphs. We practiced various ways of calculating interest. One of my favorite parts of the unit was learning about incentives. We had several experiments we used to test incentive in class such as a fake subway survey. I loved seeing the connections between economics and everyday life. Economics became less of an overwhelming subject for me and more of a lens which I can use to view the world. We took a wonderful FE to the Federal Reserve Bank and talked with an economist. It was thrilling to see so much money in so many varying denominations. My personal favorite was the ten thousand dollar bill. The unit culminated with an action project that asked students to evaluate the cost of college. I loved this action project because It did a good job of bringing the whole unit together. I think the real life connections and relevance this project had really did a good job of keeping me engaged and working hard. Overall I loved this first unit and thought this was a great action project to finish it off.

A Painting Life

This is the culminating blog post for my external credit. When I arrived at GCE for the second term of junior year I was fully operating a menswear brand called MAX-SHERIDAN. To provide a bit of background, I began my clothing career in 8th grade when I created a brand named Melange. I released a total of 4 collections as well as a few individual pieces and had a presentation at street wear fashion week in NYC. I was a little over two years into my first brand when I came to the determination that I wanted to rebrand. I felt that my overall vision and direction had changed and I wanted a new brand that fully represented that change. I transitioned from my roots in streetwear to a higher end market in ready to wear menswear. My new brand MAX-SHERIDAN created a collection full of hand made garments ranging from minimal hoodies and sweaters to leather and suede jackets. The collection was presented in LA and had a phenomenal response. I continued the process of designing and sourcing throughout my junior year at GCE. I had created a wonderful menswear collection which I was very proud of. I had sourced all the materials, found manufacturing, and was working towards my first collection in over a year. It was during the summer between my junior and senior year when a major change occurred. I had faced a lot of difficulties with manufactures for my new collection. These speed bumps made me slow down and reevaluate. I decided to terminate the clothing for the time being and transition my energies and focus to a more personal and refined craft. I had made this decision after a long period of thought and conversation. Running a clothing brand required me to make too many decisions with the consumer in mind. I needed an outlet to express my emotions and internal world with no restrictions or boundaries. Since I was young I had always enjoyed the arts and producing various works. It was this transition where I made the conscious decision to devote all my time and energy into my craft. I have created a variety of artworks ranging from furniture, drawings, photographs, digital work, collages, and installations. This particular post is focused on the 4 month period beginning from the end of may until nearly the end of September. Among other works, I produced 74 painting ranging in size, theme, and medium. I used my passion and skills in photography to capture every one of them and arrange them in an easy to view slideshow. The transition I made from clothing to fine arts was one that reflects my experience at GCE. My work now is limitless and has the ability to let me say and and ask anything. I am so grateful of the wonderful opportunity I've had to be myself and grow into who I want to be at GCE. I hope that the 74 paintings presented here are only the very beginning of my painting life !

United States VS Jones

This is my unit 3 AP for my Policy class. Unit 3 was titled "Judge" and investigated the purpose and powers of the judicial branch. The class learned how the judicial branch functions and how that effects society. Additionally, we examined policy on a global scale and viewed what policies should govern all nations. The unit's AP asked students to select a Supreme Court case and analyze it. Students were asked to research both sides of the case as well as agree or disagree with the ruling based on the US constitution. I loved this AP and thought it did a phenomenal job of wrapping up the unit and the course. I really enjoyed selecting a case and seeing how its impacted society. Overall, this was an outstanding AP that was both interesting and fun!