Road To Ryerson Gallery

This is a gallery that captures the experiences of first-year students at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. All featured pieces are by students and tell a part of their story. - If you're joining us in the fall, submit your work and you can be featured in this gallery! .

[roadtoryerson]

Sitting Inside

By Kirsten Rowe

Media Production

Medium: Video

"Sitting Inside" is meant for anyone who's been missing someone. I know this feeling is felt by many, and I wanted to sympathize and create a song for everyone. When things get scary, you often want the people closest to you to be there and comfort you. Unfortunately, that's often not possible during these times. This was written so others may feel less alone with their own feelings, and know that there will be a time where we can all be together again. After finishing my first year in Media Production, I was able to use my skills to express my feeling about the pandemic in a creative format. I wrote the song for all of my closest friends and family who I was missing while being stuck in my house alone. This prompted me to get out all the feelings of stress, anxiety, and uncertainty through a song.

[roadtoryerson]

The Beginning

By Rasika

Business Management

Medium: Written

This poem is the first poem in the first-ever book I wrote. It was inspired by the notion that new beginnings significantly impact our lives. How we put so much importance on a new year, a new job starting day, even the day you meet a new person. That's not wrong, beginnings can be exciting. The thing is, we put that importance only on certain days. Meanwhile, every single day is a new beginning with that same magic of the hope to create something beautiful. It's freeing to think about every day as a new beginning because you don't pressure yourself to meet those resolutions or expectations because you give yourself a chance to do it every day. To be a bit better with each passing day. No harsh deadlines or unreasonable expectations. Just taking life day by day, because that's all it really is, a bunch of days. Might as well enjoy all of them instead of a select few.   It helped me through my first year in Ryerson. Going to Ryerson was a really big culture shock for me, and I felt really alone. I felt intimidated by all the wonderful achievement students and felt as though I didn't belong. I kept thinking, I just need to wait for my time, the right time, the stars aligned time. I think it was with my first failed quiz when I realized I just need to choose to make it my time. To take all of these new changes day by day, encouraging myself to take risks even if they are as small as talking to someone new. I chose to see every day as an exciting beginning filled with unlimited potential. Now I'm an achieving student too. My path may be different from a lot of my peers, but I wouldn't have it any other way, because it's my own, and no one else's. After all, your experiences don't define who you are but determine who you choose to become , and I chose to become someone I am proud of being.

[roadtoryerson]

Reflection: Summer 2020

By Samantha Jackson

Image Arts: Photography Studies

Medium: Photography

I took this photo while walking along the southern walkway on the Toronto Islands, between Centre Island and Ward's Island. The late evening sun gently lighting the grass in the foreground with the vast expanse of a Lake Ontario in the background made for a beautiful composition. It's one of the many serendipitous photographs made during quarantine where I decided to take a photo just to remember a good moment rather than for sharing with others (though I did post it on Instagram later).

Going into my fourth year of the Photography program at Ryerson, I've been thinking a lot about my style of photography and where I want to head in the future, so I've been doing a lot of contemplation and reflection that is demonstrated by this photograph. Additionally, I came to Toronto from the ocean-side city of Vancouver, BC and this photograph reminds me of always keeping my roots close to me as I pursue my goals here in Toronto.

[roadtoryerson]

Home?

By Anonymous 

Civil Engineering 

Medium: Photo

Skyline in the night shows what is deep in my heart

[roadtoryerson]

Time in Tunnels

By Julia Lawrence

Journalism

Medium: Written

As Ryerson is known as a commuter school I thought it would be interesting to bring that idea into writing with a haiku poem. Commuting can take up quite a bit of your time and most commuters will sleep to make time move by quicker.

[roadtoryerson]

Growth

By Tarangini Nair

Image Arts Photography

Medium: Photo

I've always been fearful of change and growth, so, drawing this was an attempt at accepting and embracing them.

I've always been really drawn to creating new things or recreating them , while adding my own nuances but when it comes to painting or sketching, I always find a reason not to. Digital art has always been something I've wanted to try and the lockdown gave me all the more reason to do so. The ease of working and the diversity of options made me finally turn to the (digital) easel.

[roadtoryerson]

Collage of Creative Confidence 

By Muhammad Bin Usman 

Interior Design

Medium: Photo

My inspiration to make this piece was something I call “creative confidence.” This term to me is defined as having the ability to always be confident enough to show your creative side and be expressive with yourself. 

This piece is an abstract composition of my creative confidence and it involves four of my creative capabilities at work. My four creative capabilities are sketching, painting, photography, and interior decorating. I'd like to say that doing any of these gives me a boost in my creative confidence and enables me to be more aesthetically expressive with myself. Since this piece involves all four of my creative capabilities, looking at it makes me feel inventively empowered which is one of the reasons why I love it so much. I hope that this piece can inspire others to have that creative confidence so that they are not afraid to hold themselves back creatively!

[roadtoryerson]

My Fall Semester Vision Board

By Isela Gomez

Graphic Communications Management

Medium: Photo

A visual list of my goals, dos and don’ts for the Fall Semester.

[roadtoryerson]

Two/Faced

By Lina Elsaadi & Katie McGill (Model) RTA: Media Production Medium: Photo

I live in Brantford, beside the largest reserve in Canada; the Six Nations Reserve. Indigenous culture is something very prominent in our education and lives here. We have a land acknowledgement played after O' Canada every morning, and learning about indigenous peoples is engrained in our curriculum. This piece meant a variety of things; it was inspired for anyone with a conflict within. I was fascinated while learning about Two Spirit people. This was my visualization of the Two Spirits. There were also people in my school who were questioning their sexualities, personalities, and faiths. Teenage years is where we pull away from the influence of the life we were given as we grow into ourselves, but there is always a conflict within to grow into our true self. For me, it was being a first generation child; my parents immigrated a year before I was born. Learning new languages and cultures and looking different from my peers, eating different food and celebrating different faiths; knowing where I lay was difficult. I had internal conflict, as I do believe we all do in one shape or another. When creating this piece, timing was difficult. I wanted to have contrasting colours for the two "souls", and orange and blue lie opposite on the colour spectrum. This is to represent total difference, hot and cold, contrast, softness and roughness, and masculinity and femininity. I used long exposure on my camera, but had to have Katie (the model) move at a specific second, slowly, closing her eyes and just turning her  head. Having the camera capture that was extremely difficult. I also needed to change the colour of my LED's at just the right moment so the colours didn't blur oddly. Katie was also holding the LED's so they also have to be visible while she was moving. It took several hours to get this shot just right. But once it did, it was incredible. This vision in my head came to life in material form in front of me. I am so proud of this shot. I put it through some post production in Photoshop to make the colours more vibrant and to deepen the black, which was a blanket draped over my closet doors. It was hard to not have grain in the photo for the lack of light, as all the lights were off so only the LED's would pop through. Overall, my vision came to life. The faces were different colours but the hair was blended evenly, and it represents my thoughts perfectly in a perfect harmony. 

[roadtoryerson]

Absolute-ly

By Kelvin Hoang Architectural Science Medium: Photo

I was inspired by a friend's long-exposure photographs and naturally, I figured it'd be exciting to try a new technique that I could add to my arsenal. This is one of my best works and is an amalgamation of a few factors consisting of timing, lighting, and composition.

[roadtoryerson]

Closing Time in Belfast

By Kristen Rowe Media Production Medium: Photo

I've always felt so enamored by lonely areas. Streets shut down for the day, abandoned buildings, empty houses. The contrast between the bountiful life that once existed and the stark silence that has now taken its place always fills me with some type of peace, and I like to take photos of these places so that others can experience this feeling as well.

[roadtoryerson]

Self-Portrait

By Kelvin Hoang Architectural Science Medium: Illustration

This is a self-portrait created with the intention of producing a piece that brings out my individuality. It strays from the traditional 'glamour shot' and highlights the contortions of the human face.

[roadtoryerson]

makeup is art, beauty is spirit.

By Jubel Media Production  Medium: Photo

i held up a makeup brush in front of the mirror for the first time. i transformed. i developed a passion for the arts. i learned to love my inner & outer beauty.

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i captured my everyday essentials to reflect my creativity.

[roadtoryerson]

Mars, Venus and Earth

By Arundhati Kaul Program: Journalism Medium: Written

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Nobody told me that this is how it would be That I’d live each minute comparing you to me.

You’re stronger, they say. You make a mistake, they look away. “Boys will be boys” is an excuse that is considered good - Yet why does no one understand that it denies girls of their girlhood?

Nobody told me that this is how it’s done That I’m supposed to be number 2, while you’re number 1.

Men are rational, you say. Men are more intelligent, you say. Portraying men as emotionless robots can sway - Up until they argue “What was she wearing anyway?”

Nobody told me that this is how it works That you are the shovel, and I am the dirt.

You mock me because you believe I am trash you can throw But what you don’t realize is that seeds need dirt, not shovels, to grow.

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I am very passionate about women's rights. As a feminist, I am determined to do everything possible to arrive at full equality for all genders. This is precisely what inspired me to write this poem. I am the type of person who stops at nothing to achieve their goals and ambitions. I am determined to shed light on the misogynistic way of thinking that has unfortunately spread to become universal. An example of how the world thinks in this manner is most clear with the issue of rape culture. Unfortunately, too many incidents have occured that reveal how rather than punishing rapists; society prefers to blame women. This is an issue that should be spoken of more, and yet, it is not. Through my poem, I intended to shed light on this issue and other problems as well. It is very easy to take a problem like rape at face value. However, this problem goes so much deeper than just physical scars. The mental damage is beyond repair. I also wanted to focus on how women are often socialized since childhood to behave in a certain manner. This often includes being subservient to men. However, at the end of my poem I wanted to remind the reader of the ultimate truth. This is where the reader will see exactly why this line of thinking is wrong and how hypocritical it is to give women the low status that society does. To sum up; this six stanza poem succinctly tells the story of building a culture around rape and normalizing it through the teachings of society, be it knowingly or unknowingly. As for the title, I wanted to explain the prescribed societal differences between men and women all while demonstrating a unique word play. It is often said men are from Mars and women are from Venus. This is said to demonstrate how different they are from each other. However, putting the differences aside, we are all human and we all deserve to be treated as such. This shows the significance of the word ""Earth"". We are all from Earth which unites us.

[roadtoryerson]

Progress

By Geneva  RTA Media Production Medium: Suburbia - Music Video - Pet Shop Boys

I was fully inspired by 80's music videos, and film in the 80's. The piece for me represented a homage to the Pet Shop boys while also giving me the chance to practice my premier pro skills. The video was make with my Nikon camera, however there was a lot of post production editing. For example I had to add noice and colour emboss to the video to make it look pixelated. I also changed the video frame size, added effects from story blocks and edit all the clips together in order to create a story.

[roadtoryerson]

09-03-29

By Angelina Da Silva Biomedical Science Medium: Visual Arts - Scratchboard 

This piece was created using the etching process on black scratchboard paper. Hatching, shading, and close attention to shadows and depth were all used in the making of this black and white Padlock design. Heavy inspiration for the theme and the overall look came from Salvador Dali, a Spanish painter in which captured the construct of time and relativity in a very interesting way with the melting clocks on his art. I wished to show the wear and tear of the padlock with the strong shading in the areas in which are mostly used throughout my 4 years in High School. This piece conveys the idea that, such a simple component of ones life can hold much significance and symbolism when paid close attention. This padlock may seem small and menial, but the message behind it is grand. It represents my journey through High School, my daily use, how important it was in the process of my daily routine, and how quickly it seemed to have warn down though it had been 4 years. This Padlock demonstrates the construct of time and how something in detail can speak volumes for how time flies when close attention is forgotten about. "it'll all go by so fast" people often told me, my inspiration for this piece came from the simple testament to this one statement presented.

[roadtoryerson]

Guide

By Michelle Pena Graphic Communications Management Medium: Photo

This piece is a photograph of a subway station in Manhattan. I loved the intricacy and industrialism of the tubing on the top, compared with the yellow tile on the bottom of the stairway.  It also reminds me of the trip, as it was my first international trip with only my friends. Greenwich ave and Christopher street.